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With all the talk of doing most if not all of one's image editing in global adjustment software like Lightroom or Camera Raw, I'm wondering if there is a place for a book on local adjustments in a digital world to enhance images. it would be less about the tools and more about creative changes. It would be based on Photoshop but applicable to other editing programmes with the ability to make local changes.
I've been watching Micheal Reichmanns Camera to Print video series on Luminous Landscape and very much enjoying it but it struck me how little he uses Photoshop to adjust images, preferring to do all his work with across the image changes in Lightroom (exc. sharpening).
What do people think - you have seen some of the sequences I have posted in the past in which local adjustments were crucial to the result - is there a place for a book showing both why and how to do these changes?
There are books out there that show some of the commercial photography editing - thinning legs, shortening noses, removing bulges and wrinkles but I'm more concerned with the expressive print and how local changes can help that.
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8 comments:
Excellent idea for a book, I use local contrast adjustment, mainly using adjustment layers,curves and vector masks to isolate areas. Very effective, but as with all things photoshop, there is probably a different and better way to do some of my most used tweeks.
thanks for the feedback people, appreciated.
I'd love to read more books about this subject.
I am currently reading "Welcome To Oz: A Cinematic Approach To Digital Still Photography With Photoshop " by Vincent Versace and I really like it.
I can't think of any other book that shows so well how to rework the light, contrast and sharpness locally. I would really interesting to see your approach, why you do it and how, especially in Black & white.
I'm a big fan of Oz as well. I'd say that if you have enough different content, or perspective another book on local adjustments would be welcomed.
On a slightly different tact - it will be interesting to see how PS evolves. If more and more can be done in LR/ACR and there's a need for less and less in Photoshop, at what point is the critical threshold reached where it just isn't worth the PS learning curve for someone coming new to the world of processing and bypass PS all together?
The technical aspects of how to adjust images locally would make an interesting subject. But it seems to me that there is more opportunity to explain the artistic decisions that drive particular choices. In particular, how particular local changes contribute to a black and white print that "glows" or how they tweak a composition to give it power and finesse. Today it seems that every book is a variation on a mechanical theme. If you do it, give us more.
Thanks to orcasmac for the further thoughts on what is needed, all these responses have been helpful and will be considered both by myself and the publisher before and if we make any plans to do another book. Looks like I should visit the bookstore and more thoroughly check out what's already out there.
George
I'd sign up for such a book. There are quite a few books out there on the nuts & bolts of various Photoshop tools, but very little discussing the artistic goals behind darkening a particular rock or tree to improve a composition. Versace's Oz is one; George DeWolfe's book on the digital fine print also talks about it a bit. It's certainly difficult to write rationally about the aesthetics of various adjustments when "beauty" or "art" are so subjective.
A book about the why's behind changing a photo is more valuable at this point than the how, even though the creative side of image making is somewhat subjective. This could be like a print version of Radiant Vista's wonderful daily critique. Go for it :)
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