Photographer’s Photoshop CS4 Companion Free Excerpts
Thanks for your interest in my Photographer’s Photoshop CS4 Companion eBook.
If you’re reading this, you’re already on a path to deeply gratifying image-making. With amazing software like Photoshop CS4 in our tool kit, photographers have never been so empowered to create the images of our dreams.
I created this eBook with a simple philosophy—make learning Photoshop fun! To satisfy my goal, I communicate in plain English using detailed screen captures to support what I write. Although it’s important to understand many of the technical features of Photoshop, I always keep in mind that the reason you’re using Photoshop is to be creative. Therefore, I try to convey only enough of the technical information to build a foundation for what you’re learning. Then, I focus attention on ways to use this awesome program to create images that inspire!
If you take the time to explore these free excerpts, I’m confident that you’ll wind up downloading the complete 839-page eBook.
To purchase your copy, click here.
Improving a Landscape Photograph with Content-Aware Scaling
The new Content-Aware Scaling feature in Photoshop CS4 is awe-inspiring. It’s capable of scaling the area around a subject while simultaneously protecting the subject itself from scaling. This sort of power makes it easy to expand a sky or shrink an undesirable region. Imagine being able to fit a 5×7 inch image into a 4×6 space without cropping. In this lesson, you’ll examine a ground-breaking use for Content-Aware Scaling that will change the way you think about capturing wide-angle landscape photographs.
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Understanding Curves
A Curves adjustment layer is far and away the most powerful brightness, contrast, and color correction tool in Photoshop. In CS4, Adobe improved the way that you interface with the Curves dialog, but hid a few of the options that used to exist. In the following lesson, you’ll go on a tour of Curves—learning to navigate the new interface as well as exploring all of the fundamental Curves image correction strategies.
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Combining Two Exposures to Extend the Tonal Latitude of an Image
When a scene has too much tonal range to be captured in one exposure, it’s possible to capture two exposures and use Photoshop’s awesome tools to combine the best brightness values from each. In this lesson you’ll work with an image that has bright highlights and deep shadows scattered randomly throughout the scene. You’ll use an ingenious technique where you pull a selection from one of the color channels, then alter the selection using the Refine Mask dialog and a Levels adjustment.
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Important note:
If you are having trouble viewing these excerpts, please consider downloading the latest version of Adobe’s free PDF reader, available for both Mac and PC. I find that this resolves the vast majority of problems that my readers encounter. Download Adobe Reader – Version 9
Praise for the Photographer’s Photoshop Companion
“The book is EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!! I just sent an email to the Minnesota Valley people extolling its virtues. You really have a great way of making things like layers understandable, and your coverage of smart objects is one of the best I’ve read. I’ve got a couple people that’ll be really tickled with the infrared section. I told them its like having you handy, except better ’cause you can play with the exercises at 2 a.m.”
David Perez
Northfield, MN
“Mark is a fantastic teacher, both in video and in print. I have both CS2 and CS3 ebooks and would recommend that if you don’t have the CS3 book, you go ahead and upgrade—just the coverage of the new Bridge and Camera Raw will make it more than worthwhile. Mark may not be as well noted as some other authors out there, but I sure have learned a lot more from him than any other author.”
Ross Ramsey
Knoxville, TN
“Your CS3 ebook is tremendous. I am a relative newbie to Photoshop CS3 but am treating it like a college course—lots of studying and reading. I own 3 other books on CS3. Yours is the best of the lot, and I haven’t even scratched the surface given all that is included.”
David Hanson
St. Cloud, MN
“I first purchased Chapter 5 and was so pleased with it that I purchased the whole ebook. After 25 years of teaching, I retired. If my judgment is the least bit valid, I’d say your book would make a great home study course. I’m certainly going to recommend it to my photo friends.”
Jerry Miller
Sun City Center, FL