Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Book!
Comment: This book is the best one I have read on the topic of shooting raw verses jpeg; why to shoot raw, and how to take advantage of the expanded potential in digital raw photography. The authors provide extensive rationale and great technical background on the topics of adjusting raw images to best effect. Although I use Photoshop Lightroom 1.3 instead of the Camera Raw within Photoshop Bridge or Photoshop CS3, the discussions and techniques are equally applicable to my workflow.
This is one of the most productive books I have read to date within my library of digital photography books!
Customer Rating:
Summary: This has all the info that Adobe didn't include and then some
Comment: I love Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3. But there were many facets and functions of ACR that I didn't understand. This is a great book, written in friendly manner and packed with illustrations and screen shots. The book answers all my questions and has me saying "Ah Ha . . ." in almost every chapter and subject.
And may I say that if your camera includes Raw mode and you don't use it you're missing a great way to improve your photos and your workflow.
Thanks, Jeff Schewe for a great book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Solid advice on using Photoshop for RAW images
Comment: A digital camera that gives you photos in the usual JPEG format is doing some photo processing for you before you see the shot. The camera applies the camera manufacturer's algorithms to the way your photos should look. But if you want to do more than take good snapshots you should consider setting the camera to give you images without the automatic processing. That kind of image uses the camera's "raw" format.
If you have a digital SLR, you have the ability to take raw files. (A few non-SLR digitals have the ability to take raw files -- the Canon G9, for example.) Each camera manufacturer has its own type of raw file -- Canon's use the extension .CR2, for example. But all raw images need to be opened by a photo editing package that can read the specific type of raw file your camera produces, like Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
The major advantage of using raw files is that you have more control over fine tuning the image, and the major disadvantage is that you will probably have to do some fine tuning.
Photoshop CS3, the current version of Adobe's industrial-strength photo editing software includes Adobe Camera Raw ("ACR"). ACR recognizes the raw formats from virtually all manufacturers. If you understand the basics of Photoshop or PS Elements, you can use ACR on your own right out of the box, because the basic screen is reasonably intuitive. But "Real World Camera Raw with...CS3" does a great job of helping you get a lot more out of ACR, and there's quite a lot to get. The book explains what raw images are in both technical and non-technical terms and then takes you through the multiple options for preparing them in ACR. The authors clearly know Photoshop from the inside, all the way down to the software code. The in-depth explanations of how Photoshop works are there is you want them. But they don't throw a blizzard of tech talk at you. The instructions are there in plain language to help you make efficient, effective step-by-step use of Adobe Camera Raw. You can stop after Chapter 5 and you'll be a solid intermediate user, or you can absorb the whole book and emerge with an even more in-depth understanding.
The book is written for photographers who have at least a basic understanding of color and of Photoshop, so it's not the first book on photo editing to read. (A good choice would be "Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One" by Deke McClelland -- excellent and less expensive than his DVD-based CS3 version.) But "Real World Camera Raw...CS3" is a great next step as you move up the Photoshop learning curve.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Initial handling of digital images
Comment: The book has excellent coverage of CS3 Camera Raw capability and how to use its features. The first step in dealing with images from your camera is to bring them into Adobe Bridge, and from there initial edits in camera raw. This is the how to do it efficiently book. Deal with many images in the shortest amount of time. Adobe does not put a paper manual in its products anymore so, if you are new to the product or need intro to new features, something like this is essential.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If you only buy one digital photography book this year...
Comment: This review will be short and to the point. I was looking for a comprehensive book on Camera Raw and wanted to avoid the superficial treatment this subject gets in most books. This book succeeds on that level and countless others better than any other book I've encountered. Bruce Fraser's torch has been passed into the extremely capable and equally accessible Mr. Schewe's and we are all the beneficiaries.
Some of the most significant points I took away from this book were 1) the inner workings of Bridge's cache and how to take advantage of the optimum settings for your digital workflow. 2) the true advantages of DNG in terms of metadata and long-term accessibility. 3) The importance of designing and following a digital workflow that helps alleviate the burdens of processing hundreds of digital negatives following a shoot. 4) Using the full range of features available with Bridge and converting it from a simple file browser to a workhorse for digital image processing, sorting, viewing, and cataloguing. This book has changed my complete outlook on Bridge and has made it a central part of my workflow.
I am recommending this book to anyone who's been on the fence about RAW, DNG format, or Bridge. It is simple a masterful product that is both incredibly practical as well as a joy to read.
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