Powered by Blogger.
RSS

Focus On Digital Portrait Photography

Focus On
Focus On Digital Portrait Photography
by Jenni Bidner
Publication Date: October 4, 2011

Buy new: $17.95 $12.21

(Visit the Hot New Releases in Digital Photography & Video list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

Review & Description

People love to take photos of people--and capturing a portrait that's more than just a snapshot is a dream for many beginning- and intermediate-level photographers. The latest book in the Focus on Digital� series is designed to help them meet that challenge. With each lesson presented in a single, easy-to-grasp spread, it presents the techniques required to achieve a portrait that's beautifully composed, well lighted, and fully captures the subject's personality. Award-winning photographer Jenni Binder demonstrates how to shoot in a studio and in the field, and analyzes the many styles of portraiture, from formal sitting to spontaneous slice-of-life. Read more


See all bestsellers Click Here

Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual

Photoshop CS5
Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual
by Lesa Snider
4.5 out of 5 stars(33)

Buy new: $49.99 $30.42
68 used & new from $16.41

(Visit the Best Sellers in Digital Photography & Video list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

Review & Description

You'd be hard-pressed to find a published image that hasn't spent some quality time in Adobe Photoshop. With new features such as Content-Aware Fill and Puppet Warp, Photoshop CS5 is more amazing -- and perhaps more bewildering -- than ever. That's where this full-color Missing Manual comes in. It covers Photoshop from a practical standpoint, with tips, tricks, and practical advice you can use every day to edit photos and create beautiful documents.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced pixel pusher ready to try advanced techniques, author and graphics pro Lesa Snider offers crystal-clear, jargon-free instructions to help you take advantage of these powerful tools -- not only how they work, but when you should use them. Describing the CS4 edition, bestselling Photoshop author Scott Kelby wrote, "Lesa did a great job on the book, and in my mind, it is the new Photoshop Bible."

  • Learn your way around Photoshop's revamped workspace
  • Get up to speed on essential features such as layers and channels
  • Edit images by cropping, resizing, retouching, working with color, and more
  • Create paintings and illustrations, work with text, and explore filters
  • Prepare images for printing or the Web, and learn how to protect your images online
  • Work smarter and faster by automating tasks and installing plug-ins

Written with the clarity, humor, and objective scrutiny, Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual is the friendly, thorough resource you need.



Using Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5
By Lesa Snider

In Photoshop CS5, you have another option for filling selections called Content-Aware Fill. It works with the Fill command and the Spot Healing brush by comparing your selection or brushstroke to nearby pixels. Photoshop then fills the area so it blends seamlessly with the background. For example, you can follow these steps to break up a perfectly good boy band:

1. Open your image and duplicate the Background layer by pressing Ctrl+J. Since there�s no way to tell the Fill command to sample all layers (bummer!), it won�t work on an empty layer.

2. Use the selection tool of your choice to select the band member on the left. Because there�s a decent amount of contrast between the boy and the grassy meadow, the Magnetic Lasso tool does a great job. Grab it from the Tools panel by pressing Shift-L repeatedly until you see it appear. Mouse over to your image and click once to set a starting point, and then drag around the boy, clicking to add anchor points here and there.

3. Choose Edit > Fill and, from the Use pop-up menu, choose Content Aware. As soon as you press OK, Photoshop fills your selection with pixels from the surrounding area.

To fix the remaining outline of the deleted bandmate, just switch back to the Spot Healing Brush by pressing K (in the Options bar, make sure Content Aware is turned on). With a quick brushstroke here and there, you can clean up the final image quite nicely and it won�t take hours like it did in previous versions of the program. Until you can actually wish an object out of a photo, this new tool ought to suit you just fine.

Read more


See all bestsellers Click Here

The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great (Voices That Matter)

The Passionate Photographer
The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great (Voices That Matter)
by Steve Simon
4.9 out of 5 stars(8)

Buy new: $44.99 $29.69
51 used & new from $26.30

(Visit the Most Gifted in Digital Photography & Video list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

Product Images


Review & Description

If you've got a love and passion for photography, a feel for your camera gear and settings, yet your images still fall short--The Passionate Photographer will help you close that disappointing and frustrating gap between the images you thought you took and the images you actually got.

This book will encourage you to determine what you want to say with your photography, then translate those thoughts and feelings into strong images. It is both a source of inspiration and a practical guide, as photographer Steve Simon distills 30 years of photographic obsession into the ten crucial steps every photographer needs to become great at their passion.

Simon's practical tips and advice are immediately actionable-- designed to accelerate your progress toward becoming the photographer you know you can be. Core concepts and suggestions include:

  • The power of working on personal projects to fuel your passion and vision

  • Shooting a large and targeted volume of work, which leads to a technical competence that lets your creativity soar

  • Learning to focus your concentration as you shoot, and move outside your comfort zone, past your fears toward the next great image

  • Strategies for approaching strangers to create successful portraits

  • How to edit your own work and seek second opinions to identify strengths and weaknesses, offering opportunities for growth and improvement with a goal of sharing your work with the world.

  • The critical need to follow, see and capture the light around you

Along the way, Simon offers inspiration with "Lessons Learned" culled from his own extensive experience and archive of photojournalism and personal projects as well as images and stories from acclaimed photographers.

If you're ready to be inspired and challenge yourself to take your photography to the next level, The Passionate Photographer provides ideas and creative solutions to transform that passion into images that convey your unique personal vision. Read more


See all bestsellers Click Here

Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3

Scott Kelbys
Scott Kelby's Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3
by Scott Kelby
4.6 out of 5 stars(115)

Buy new: $69.99 $40.84
61 used & new from $38.97

(Visit the Most Gifted in Digital Photography & Video list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

Review & Description

This attractive boxed set includes:
The Digital Photography Book (ISBN 0-321-47404-X)
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 (ISBN 0-321-52476-4)
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3 (ISBN 0-321-61765-7)

Scott Kelby, the man who changed the "digital darkroom" forever with his groundbreaking, #1 bestselling, award-winning book The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, shows which button to push, which setting to use, when to use them, and hundreds of the most closely guarded photographic "tricks of the trade" to get budding photographers shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos with their digital camera every time they press the shutter button.

Scott tackles the most important side of digital photography--how to take pro-quality shots using the same tricks today's top digital pros use (and it's easier than you'd think). Each chapter is packed with plain English tips on using flash, shooting close up photography, travel photography, shooting people, and even how to build a studio from scratch, where he demystifies the process so anyone can start taking pro-quality portraits today! Plus, he's got full chapters on his most requested topics, including loads of tips for landscape photographers, wedding photographers, and there's an entire chapter devoted to sharing some of the pro's secrets for making your photos look more professional, no matter what you're shooting.
Read more


See all bestsellers Click Here

The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes

The Practice of Contemplative Photography
The Practice of Contemplative Photography: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes
by Andy Karr, Michael Wood
4.1 out of 5 stars(16)

Buy new: $26.95 $17.61
42 used & new from $16.23

(Visit the Best Sellers in Digital Photography & Video list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)

Review & Description

This book teaches us how to fully connect with the visual richness of our ordinary, daily experience. Photography is not just a mechanical process; it requires learning how to see. As you develop your ability to look and see, you will open, more and more, to the natural inspiration of your surroundings.

Filled with practical exercises, photographic assignments, and techniques for working with texture, light, and color, this book offers a system of training that draws on both Buddhist mindfulness practice and the insights of master photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Read more


See all bestsellers Click Here