Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Comment: Yes, Katrin and Sean review many things that are "basics" in regards to digital photography, but their review of this information is well thought out and presented logically. Then, the fun begins. I'm not yet quite through the book, but it's a wealth of information and practical use education. WELL worth the price of admission.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great book, but with one notable flaw.
Comment: With one notable exception, this book is a rock solid foundation on the digital darkroom. It's very well written and the authors explain things in a very understandable way. It's full of information that every serious digital photographer should learn and master. Lots of this information can be gleaned from other sources, but this book rounds up all the really important info into one place. I can see this book being used as a text in digital photography classes. Although there is a section on creative enhancements, this is not the book for you if you're looking to learn to remove your ex from a photo, or create photo art. But, if you're looking to make your photos look great and understand how and why, this is your book.
The one flaw is the lack of information on printing. Sure, the authors have a website where you can download the "bonus" printing chapter, but why was this chapter not included in the book? Printing is as important as any other subject in this book, so to claim the printing chapter is a "bonus" is a great disservice to buyers of this otherwise great book. I find it disturbing that the publisher is trying to pass off a flaw as a "bonus".
I would have given this book 5 stars if not for the omission of the printing chapter. Otherwise, this is a valuable resource for your digital darkroom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If it's clarity and user-friendliness you're after ...
Comment: I'm a multi-media artist and I've used Photoshop since PS 6. I consider myself an intermediate to advanced user, and my library includes "specialist" books by John Paul Caponigro, Dan Margulis, Daniel Giordan, Vincent Versace, Eddie Tapp ... I could go on. I also have Katrin Eismann's other books, and when I was first coming properly to grips with Photoshop, her earlier collaboration with Sean Duggan, on digital photography, was my bible. So I eagerly awaited publication of this one.
The strength of this book, as with the earlier volumes, is its clarity and user-friendliness. As the Amazon book description states, it is aimed at those photographers in the transition from film to digital, as well as those who want to take further steps to realise their creative vision. In my experience, it's unusual to find a book that successfully marries both objectives, as I found this one to do. There are short sections on the architecture of Photoshop and the RAW settings, the suggested workflow and the basics of file preparation. The bulk of the book is about how to come into relationship with the captured image and develop its potential to the point where it finally says what you wanted it to say. Along the way there is a lot of how-to, and a great deal of why, and a concentration on photographic concepts as opposed to plain Photoshop technique. There was little in the book that was mind-bogglingly new to me, but the layout, the lucidity of the text, and the underlying philosophy made it, for me, greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps this had something to do with the accessibility of the authors' thought processes and the way their personalities came through.
You won't find flash and dazzle in this book, just a lot of solid, workable methods for improving your workflow and fine-tuning your images. If you're hesitating about buying it, read the authors' Preface. I found that the book delivers what they promise, so for me it's 5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Creating the Vision
Comment: With the exception of photojournalists, most serious photographers do not aim at trying to create photographs that are "real". Instead they aim at creating an image that will convey the photographers' vision. Photoshop software allows the manipulation of the image to accomplish that purpose, and this book shows photographers techniques for doing that.
This book is aimed at intermediate and advanced photographers who already know the basics of Photoshop. Anyone interested in an introduction to Photoshop would do better to read a book like "Complete Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers (Graphics Series)" by Colin Smith and Tim Cooper. There is little here about downloading pictures with Photoshop tools, or placing windows on the screen, or even, except in tutorials that may require their use, about making selections in Photoshop. There is an online chapter available on printing.
Instead the authors concentrate on adjusting tonality and color to reveal the photographers vision. Some of the content discusses the role of these factors in revealing vision. There are a large number of tutorials that present the ways to adjust tonality and color, and in fact, often there are explanations of multiple ways to achieve the same result. The authors provide downloadable images on a website that can be used in conjunction with these tutorials. Many of these techniques may be familiar to advanced image processors, but I encountered many that I had never seen before.
The book deals not just with Photoshop and its included stand alone plug-in, Adobe Camera Raw, but also with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, a separate piece of software that provides a different (and in my opinion, easier to use) method of processing images that also integrates with Photoshop. Eismann and Duggan usually deal with Photoshop in a manner that will allow users of older versions than CS3 to benefit. At the same time they provide detailed instructions on the newest tools, including, I'm pleased to say, the new sharpening facility provided in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom that is so useful for input or capture sharpening.
This is not an easy read like a narrative novel. Most of the tutorials follow step by step instructions on using Photoshop tools that are not very exciting to read, and unlike some other Photoshop authors, Eismann and Duggan use little humor to ease the way. All of the tutorials seem to be written in accurate steps that easily enable the reader to understand how to use the tool. There are no sweeping tutorials that take the reader from beginning to end of the processing of an image. Many readers will not want to actually try all of the tutorials as they read them (although I found myself stopping to use many of the tutorials that deal with image problems on which I was currently working). Instead this is a book that I expect to keep next to my computer to consult as I seek to improve my images.
One of the hardest tasks photographers will face will be deciding just what adjustments will help in realizing their vision. The authors provide some excellent suggestions. Readers looking to develop this skill may also want to look at Rob Sheppard's "Adobe Camera Raw for Digital Photographers Only (For Only)".
This book will prove extremely useful to advanced photographers interested in learning techniques for communicating their vision.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What This Book Covers and Who It's For
Comment: If you've bought a Katrin Eismann book before, you're no doubt looking at this one, too, since her books are so good. And what you've come to expect from her is indeed here - clear, concise information and step by step tutorials with plenty of diagrams showing what's being done. In its layout it's very similar to her Restoration and Retouching books, but denser, with a smaller font and more information, while remaining clear and balanced with a solid presentation. There's very few pages of wasted space.
As the title implies, the theme of the book is using traditional darkroom techniques in the digital world. In fact, part of the audience it's aimed at are experienced photographers who'd like to move to digital and carry over the skills they've learned. Focusing on this theme, the authors give us tools in global and local enhancements of tone and color, as well as sharpening/blurring and removing distractions, to bring out a photo's full potential.
It's all good and thorough, but be aware that in choosing to focus on that, the authors don't touch on many of the tools that are essential parts of Photoshop, including Photomerge, Liquify, Text, and Actions. It also doesn't cover Bridge or printing in depth, but there's actually a chapter on printing available as a PDF at the book's website: creativedigitaldarkroom.com.
It does cover Levels and Curves in more depth than any other book I've seen. It also covers Layer Masks, Shadow/Highlight, Perspective, Blending Modes, Lens Correction, Camera RAW (including the new Clarity tool), Split Toning, Sepia Toning (including Greg Gorman's technique), HDR, LAB, edge effects (using the Filter Gallery), Cross-Processing, and Sharpening, as well as including sections on creating a faded b/w photo and the like.
That said, I do have a few issues with the book. While the landscapes are like those you'd take yourself, many of the photos are a bit too abstract and arty for my tastes. Duggan uses Holgas, pinhole cameras, and a Lensbaby that blurs all the edges, and if you're not into such creative uses of cameras, these can get old once you've seen a few. Also, many are of moody old storefronts and gravestones, which adds a somber tone to the book.
Also, for those interested in working on portraits, there's very few of them here, and nothing about creating dynamic b/w portraits. The five or so portraits are used simply to demonstrate vignetting, sharpening, and the use of a warming filter.
Those points aside, this book delivers. Even when introducing the fundamentals of such tools as Levels and Curves, it goes right into detailed examples of how to use each. Some books merely list what each tool does, simply from lack of room, but by focusing on the essential tools, here you get exactly what you need - a brief overview containing all the important points followed by how you can best use them in your work.
Is a lot of it review? The majority of the tools outlined - the ones you use every day - are indeed covered much as they are in Eismann's Restoration and Retouching. The main difference is that Restoration covers mostly portraits, while this one focuses on landscapes and still lifes. Also, Restoration only covers up to CS2, while this one outlines all the latest tools in CS3, including a good deal on the very useful Black and White filter, as well as the new RAW 4.1 converter. It also gives a good overview of Lightroom, which I wasn't familiar with, but now has me looking that way.
If you already have Real World CS3 or a similar book, you already know more than most about Photoshop's technical aspects, and so you surely don't need a review. Still, this book's two chapters on setting up your Preferences, the different color spaces, and batch renaming are only fifty pages, so there's really not much to skip. And if you don't have Real World CS3, this book actually does cover all the basics you need in setting up your computer and workspace.
By the way, if you don't have CS3, most of the techniques here can be used with CS2 and CS. You won't have the use of the Highlight, Recovery, Clarity, B/W, and Curves tools in Camera RAW, and you won't have the B/W Filter with built-in settings like Infrared, but the authors do tell you how you can use the Channel Mixer, and Levels and Curves work much the same.
To sum up, you'll be pleased with this book if you don't go into it with any expectations that it be anything else. When I first saw it listed, I thought it'd build on where Restoration left off, going deep into creative interpretative techniques now that you have your photos optimized. Such techniques are indeed in the later part of the book, such as in using scanned paper for adding texture, but on the whole this book shows how to use the tools you're used to to get the most out of each photo's tone, color, and dramatic impact. In short, it's for experienced darkroom photographers as well as beginner and intermediate Photoshop users, instead of those who are already advanced in using Photoshop.
If you're a total beginner taking snapshots and are looking for a good overall coverage of all Photoshop has to offer, you might try Deke McClelland's Photoshop CS3 One-On-One or Martin Evening's Photoshop CS3 for Photographers. They're not as thorough as this book in each tool, but they cover more ground, give you a good tour, and set you up fine. From there, if you find your work focusing on family snapshots, portraits, and restoring old photos, go with Eismann's Restoration and Retouching, which covers a great deal more on repairing photos, such as using the floating Healing Patch and Pattern Maker. (You can download a full chapter from her digitalretouch.org site.) And if your interests lead you to fine art or landscape photography, this would be the book to learn from next.
Finally, if you already are a fine art or landscape photographer either new to Photoshop or without a solid grounding in the best use of all the fundamentals, or simply wish to brush up on your skills, this one is made for you.
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