This tutorial takes photographers beyond the quick tips and gimmicky effects of many digital photography books. Author Katrin Eismann -- an internationally acclaimed artist, bestselling author, and gifted educator -- offers high-profile work, including her own, as examples for teaching photographers how to use the digital medium to create, edit, and output images that reflect their true vision. Co-authored by photographer and teacher Sean Duggan, The Creative Digital Darkroom translates skills, concepts, and nomenclature of the traditional darkroom into digital solutions for photographers who sense that, despite the newness of the technologies at hand, there remains a timeless method for learning and practicing photography the right way. This is not a Photoshop book per se, but it does focus on the photographic aspects of Photoshop, something other books claim to do but rarely have the discipline to accomplish. The Creative Digital Darkroom includes:

• Four sections that cover the black & white darkroom, the color darkroom, creative techniques, and production essentials

• Chapters that begin with a thorough foundation followed by numerous tutorial examples that apply the theory to real-world examples

• Examples and a layout that enables readers to find, understand, and apply the featured techniques quickly and easily

• The authors are both renowned photographers and Photoshop experts

Clearly, The Creative Digital Darkroom is not your typical digital photography "how to" book. It's ideal for intermediate and advanced photographers, artists, and educators looking for clear, concise, insightful, and inspiring information and techniques on how to make their photographs shine. The language, and techniques will immediately appeal to serious students and professionals, and the original tutorial images and high-profile work will make the book an important visual resource for educators and art appreciators.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 42 Ratings

Hone your sense of creativity, refine your artist's eye, and build a deep understanding of how the digital darkroom tools work - 2009-12-02
Reviewer Rating:
This book is written for the photographer, the visual artist, or anyone aspiring to become such. In the first paragraph of the preface the authors state "As visual artists, photographers are constantly practicing looking and seeing images. They make photographs, even when they don't have a camera with them. The eye is the lens and the mind is the camera." The digital darkroom tools that the authors reference in the book are Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. They further state that the concepts and techniques presented are really applicable for use in most image editing and RAW processing applications. The companion web site, [...], provides additional information, as well as the images for use while following along with the exercises in the book and a bonus chapter in PDFformat covering the subject of creating high quality prints.

Today many books on the subjects of image editing and RAW processing are mainly step-by-step cookbooks, with an emphasis on following a recipe to create a specific result. While this book does have plenty of exercises to step you through, the focus is really to hone your sense of creativity, refine your artist's eye, and build a deep understanding of how the digital darkroom tools work. The first of 10 chapters is brief, only 15 pages, and addresses training yourself to "see" images and learn digital darkroom basics for both detail work on individual images and batch processing for large numbers of files. From here you begin to lay the groundwork for image processing with considerations for building a digital darkroom environment and understanding color settings and management. Next, in the chapter titled Scan, Develop, and Organize, are details on various methods and considerations for acquiring and managing images. And now the magic begins, as do the in-depth explanations of the processes used to create those magical results.

Chapter 5, Tone and Contrast, caught my attention as my photo-taking abilities require a lot of darkroom work especially on those two subjects. I also like to add drama, or some would say melodrama, to areas of my image. The `deep learning' contained in these pages provided me with a lot of much needed information. Working with curves and the Photoshop curves dialog has always been a matter of applying a known formula and not knowing where to go from there, but usually another tool. The section titled Understanding Curves begins on page 140 and continues through page 145. This tool provides the greatest control over manipulating tonal values in an image. How to select a tone in an image and then locate it on the curve grid and then create a control point, enabling a tonal adjustment, is thoroughly explained. Then there are steps, explanations and examples for applying a basic S-curve and reverse S-curve for increasing or decreasing contrast. The concept of lockdown points was new to me. It is a method of placing points at grid intersections, fixing parts of the curve in place so they are not affected as you adjust other areas of the curve. After this introduction to the power of curves for use in tonal control of an image, I read on to see that the tool plays a prominent role elsewhere in the chapters when working with color. I was able to use the info gleaned from these pages for improving a portrait cropped from a family picture. Using the approach of applying a mask and subtle curves adjustments, I was able to reduce the ruddy complexion in the photo to a more natural state for this individual.

The Short Take:
The ten chapters of this book contain a lot of technical expertise, sometimes more information than I could absorb in just one sitting. The subjects discussed cover a wider range than I could detail here. I'll mention just a sampling of subjects: color management, techniques for acquiring images, improving image quality, and applying creative enhancements. I found this book to be a great resource filled with tips and cautions, suggestions for training the eye to see in terms of composition, step-by-step instructions for trying out digital darkroom techniques, and bits of personal wisdom from the authors. I'm sure it will prove a valuable resource to keep handy by my computer when transforming a digital photo or my imagination into a digital creation.

One of the best books written for understanding PS - 2009-11-24
Reviewer Rating:
I found this paperback book a good source for understanding the workflow process intailed in using Photoshop. If you are not technically incline this is the book for you. I especially like the description of how to use blending modes with adjustment layers. The only other source that I found useful is Martin Evenings CS4 book. I use both but lean on this one for inforcing what I have learned in my Photoshop class at ICP. the money spent on this book was worthwhile.

best tutorial photoshop I have read - 2010-01-08
Reviewer Rating:
I own several tutorial books on Photoshop and I found that most of them seem to have been written in a haste. Some read as a cookbook (McClelland) with no explanation at all of what is beig done or, in other instances, they summarize in three o four steps a process that take ten or more (Evening), with little thought given to the needs of the reader.

This book, however, is different. In every example you can follow easily the process and also learn why are you performing a given step. In other words, you can actually learn about Photoshop. It is very well written and illustrated

Digital Graphics - 2009-12-18
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased this book to learn more about creating digital art from my photographs. Just by paging through it I see lots of potential for this to happen. I'm pleased with the book.

A reader point of view - 2009-10-11
Reviewer Rating:
Full of tips and, most important, with a clear workflow for any amateur, this book is a must. I congratulate myself for purchasing it.

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