Douglas Ford Rea's PREVENTATIVE PHOTOSHOP pairs tips on taking digital photos with Photoshop tips on manipulating them. Photographers who think they can fix anything 'later' using the program receive an unusual set of guidelines which tells how to minimize computer time by shooting digital images correctly in the first place. From shooting camera raw to turning off sharpening and learning how to read histograms, PREVENTATIVE PHOTOSHOP goes a step beyond most Photoshop guides and tells how to prevent problems before they get to Photoshop's screen. A top pick for any digital photographer.

Preventive Photoshop is an unusual book that can be read quite differently by readers of different experience levels, both in photography and Photoshop. For the novice, Douglas Rea offers a very broad overview including photographic equipment, camera capabilities, picture taking advice, and the uses, abuses and potential of Photoshop. For the advanced amateur, Mr. Rea goes into significant detail on his own methods of image making and post-shoot Photoshop enhancement (including the use of Raw capture). And for the professional (or professional aspirant) he provides more technical information on lighting and light theory, the use of computers as adjuncts in image capture and the types of equipment suitable for studio vs. field photography. In short, Mr. Rea has written a photography guide that--since it not tied to a particular version of Photoshop--will stand the test of time as each reader advances in his or her photographic skills.

Although this is not essentially a Photoshop book--Mr. Rea does recommend how to set up Photoshop preferences, workflow, and color management. Rather, Preventive Photoshop is a guide that strongly suggests photographers learn and understand the capacity and limitations of Photoshop, so they can spend more time with their cameras and less with their computers. His topics include proper exposure, lighting, camera settings and in-camera effects. He also goes into image evaluation and the use of metadata and preparing images for output (to print or the Web).

Although this is not a light read, Mr. Rea provides clear examples and excellent images to illustrate all the concepts he presents. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to delve more deeply into using his or her camera more effectively, and into creating images that can most successfully be later enhanced in Photoshop.

James Lowell
Jacksonville, FL

As a serious Digital SLR photo-hobbyist, I often look at my abilities and try to find weaknesses so I can improve. Currently I am focusing on my Photoshop skills. When I saw this book, I thought I could focus more on the Photoshop basics and creative technique, instead of skills related to correcting my photographic mistakes.

Chapter one starts off with "How many times have you heard the phase `I'll just fix it in Photoshop,' and then discovered that `fixing' an image means hours in front of your computer? ... Wouldn't it be better - and easier - to take the time to shoot the photograph right in the first place". The questions asked right at the beginning is what this book is supposed to be about, and I want to know the answers. Unfortunately the next 151 pages (excluding the index pages) fail to provide the answers I am looking for. Chapter one for example is 6 pages long excluding the opening statement page and contains a more detailed opening statement and discusses lighting, tones and toning, special effects, and sharpening, and a closing summary. These are some pretty weighty topics to split up between six pages. Unfortunately the entire book takes this approach.

There was not enough detail in the subjects for a beginner to gain a full understanding and was too generalized for an experienced photographer to learn from. I can honestly say I didn't learn a thing from reading this book. There are some topics I am interested in exploring, however my interest was not created from reading this book. The topic list is very thorough, but discussed too briefly to be of any benefit on its own.

I would recommend finding a book with a more specific subject to learn from. Brian Peterson's Understanding Exposure for the novice or Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 by Bruce Fraser for interest in workflow and working with RAW files comes to mind as excellent books to learn from.

PROS:
Offers a thorough list of topics that may pique interest in specific areas

CONS:
Topic discussions to generalized to be helpful for beginner or knowledgeable photographers
Fails to answer the questions, posed by the author
Provides a broad overview with no useful detail

Here's an interesting concept that seems to have gone awry. The author's stated theme is that by using good technique at the time of digital capture, a photographer will have less work to do later in Photoshop. My first instinct was to think that the best way to do this would be to take the best possible digital photographs, but I hoped for something more. I was disappointed. The book followed a quite ordinary progression from capture to post-processing to printing.

Every author of a technical book has to decide who his audience is. Does he want to pitch to beginners or experts? For beginners, the author must give plenty of elementary details. For experts, the author can assume the reader knows something about the subject. Unfortunately Rea does not appear to have had that concept closely in mind. For example, an early chapter of the book offers an explanation of digital capture including the fundamentals of exposure. That made the book seem a book for beginners. The next chapter dealt with seeing your pictures in advance, which sounded like it might deal with composition, which sounded appropriate for beginners, and it even talked about using in camera tools like a histogram to evaluate a recently taken photograph, which also sounded appropriate. But that was followed by a lengthy section on using a digital camera tethered to a laptop for instant laptop review. This is a fine technique with many applications, but to suggest to a novice that he should be carrying around a laptop whenever he goes to photograph will strike terror into his heart and may even discourage him. Perhaps this discussion might have gone at the end of the book in a chapter on advanced capture techniques but Rea keeps making reference to it throughout the book. There are many other examples of this confusion of audience throughout the book.

Another problem an author has to face is the level of detail to provide. Regardless of the reader's skill level, when an author talks about a technique with which a reader may not be familiar, the author needs to be specific about the techniques to be used, and to give examples. But in this book the author dealt in broad generalities. For example, after giving a few facts about exposure, he indicates there is something called reciprocity. He doesn't tell you what the relationship is between shutter speed, aperture and ISO, other than that more of one means less of the other.

As another example, he advocates reviewing metadata to improve photography, which may be a useful concept. But he gives no examples. He might have said if the picture appears too dark, the metadata may show that the combination of shutter, aperture and ISO did not admit enough light. That might be useful (although it might seem self-evident.) If Rea had something more complex in mind, it would have been useful to have been told.

I can't say that the broad overview presented was without use. The author mentioned a capability of Photoshop of which I was unaware. He did not provide any detail on its use, but I figured that out from the program's help function.

I had other minor objections to the text. For example in his discussion of the use of flash he completely ignores the through-the-lens function of modern flash. His explanation of calibrating a monitor essentially says `follow the manufacturer's instructions". His suggestions for creating a camera profile are accurate but impractical for anyone but a person who needs the most exact possible camera profile or has money to burn.

All in all, unless a photographer is interested in reading about broad photographic concepts that he or she can change into practical techniques on his or her own, one does not need to read this book.

This is the most useless book on photography and Photoshop I have ever read. So much so, that it compelled me to write my first ever book review for Amazon.

The title implies the book will focus on camera techniques that will make image correction in Photoshop unnecessary, or at least easier. I found nothing that even came close to being helpful. This is ironic given that in the last few pages of the book he refers to a phrase he coined, "Photoshop Think", meaning to shoot with Photoshop in mind. A good concept, but there were no concrete examples of any shooting techniques and how they would relate to Photoshop in post-production.

The book in my view is nothing more than a shallow overview of digital photography and Photoshop in general. It describes general definitions and considerations in digital camera technique, and gives an overview of the capabilities available in Photoshop, but goes into no useful detail whatsoever.

This book might be of interest to someone who knows absolutely nothing about digital photography and Photoshop, to provide an overview of what they are all about. If you already own a digital camera and can use it, and if you have any experience at all with Photoshop, look elsewhere.