Professional Photoshop 6: The Classic Guide to Color Correction [With CDROM]

by Dan Margulis

Book Overview

An electronic prepress master reveals how to get the most out of Photoshop Renowned among graphic design professionals for his technical grounding and ability to clearly explain difficult principles and techniques, Dan Margulis has updated his bestselling book, Professional Photoshop 5, to help readers quickly master Photoshop 6 and learn how to take full advantage of its latest tools and capabilities. Rather than focusing on program features, Dan...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471403997
• ISBN13: 9780471403999
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Color correction demystified by a master

I had the Margulis' book "professional photoshop version 3" and i thought this was the best book on color correction ever written. The author is a true expert of pre-press color management and it writes in a really enjoyable way.This edition for Photoshop 6 keep the content at highest standards and it's even more detailed with color photos and schemes.This book covers every aspect of color correction, RGB, CMYK, LAB systems are fully examined and (most important) it does not behave like a second Photoshop manual, it is totally oriented to the image point of view. That's why I believe the title is reductive, this is a book on color systems not just on Photoshop itself. Every argument is discussed with incomparabled skill and professionality, nothing is underestimated. Color correction is explained "numerically", even a color blind person could make the right adjustments!.Beware of complexity! this book is for professionals, mostly involved in pre-press environments, this is not a tips & tricks book on how to remove red eyes from your photos. For the not-trained eye some of the pictures in the book showing "before" and "after treatment" will look the same!The whole book is not an easy reading, because the subject itself isn't. The force of this book is to keep discussing complex issues without giving up.The CDrom included (this is the first edition to include one) completes the masterpiece because you get the high resolution images discussed inside, ready to test your skill.This is a must-have.

Superb resource for getting proper color output

This is one of the 2 or 3 most useful Photoshop books available today. Other books just basically cover tips and techniques. This book specifically targets proper color output.Dan Margulis describes how to effectively color balance and adjust contrast without loss of detail. Chapter 4 is probably worth the price of the book alone. In it, Margulis describes a very effective sharpening technique which does not produce the usual "halo" effect if you try to oversharpen.Margulis accomplishes all sorts of wonderful image enhancements without the use of tricky selections or masking. He also covers a radically different method of moving between RGB, CMYK, and/or LAB modes to get the best possible image quality.If you already feel somewhat comfortable with some of Photoshop's capabilities, but you just aren't getting the printout "punch" you'd otherwise expect, this book is highly recommended.

I Got Over My CMYK Phobia

I have purchased several photoshop books over the past year with mixed results. Most of them were "Wow look what I can do" crap showing off silly tricks I could have grabbed off an online tutorial. Thankfully, this book is not in that category. Not only are there no "Gee whiz I can make a toilet look like polka dot glass " sections, but the author helped dip[eled some of the misinformation I got reading that other crap. I too was intimidated by other reviews at first, but I am glad I ignored them. The book also reads well, although some may find the author a little egotisitical ( I think he is kind of cool myself). If you can only own one photoshop book, this is the one to buy. You can learn parlor tricks online for free, but this information is next to impossible to come buy in book form.

Outstanding!

I own several PS instructional books, and this is the first that tackles color-correction in a serious way. Call me crazy, but I read through it like a novel, albeit with a highlighter, as suggested by Norman Sanders' review.This is not for the beginner learning PS -- Adobe's PS Classroom in a Book is good for that. Likewise, it is not for a person using PS LE or Photo Deluxe, which do not support all of the pre-press features of the full version. Instead, like Bert Monroy's "Photorealistic Techniques with PS & Illustrator," and Biedny, Moody, and Monroy's "PS Channel Chops," this is a book for someone who knows his way around PS, but realizes there is still lots to learn. This is a book that will put hair on your chest.Margulis essentially shows how to get the best possible corrected color and contrast for a published image. The first two or three chapters of the book are about tweaking the CMYK curves, reading the numbers from PS's info palette. This is the part he calls "monkey work," the correction by the numbers. Of course, it is the basis for all color correction and image improvement. Margulis then goes further, including an entire chapter on the subject of how dot gain settings affect output, for example. His explanation of sharpening -- also an entire chapter -- is excellent. He has a chapter devoted to RGB versus CMY curves, a whole chapter about the importance of the black channel, a chapter about Lab mode corrections, and a chapter or two about adding depth and detail to images by adding contrast to the "unwanted color" (i.e., the cyan plate for a red object). He explains how and when to use channel operations to give images more snap, depth, and detail. And he ties everything together as the book goes along, explaining how to correct specific problems, with before and after illustrations. The differences can be quite subtle -- but it is those subtleties that give the final image a more professional, polished look. And, as often as not, the differences can be quite dramatic.Margulis is clearly a little full of himself -- see Stephen Gracey's note about his "caustic criticism of others in his field." But he's convinced that sometimes the "flavor of the day" is wrong, mostly about ICC tagging of documents and the problems with color calibration hardware and software. He's probably right. This doesn't get in the way of the numerous useful techniques detailed in this book, and you can skip some of his tirade sections if you want.One note -- this is not a book just for pre-press professionals or people who use a CMYK workflow. But it will clearly help them most. Even so, anyone who wants to get the best quality printed or on-screen image can benefit from the techniques in this book. It will help photographers printing high-quality digital images on RGB desktop inkjet printers, or advertisers or internet professionals who must prepare images to be posted to the web. Yes, Margulis can occasionally gloss over a point he

There is no better expert to look to for practical advice

If you choose to buy "Professional Photoshop 6" I suggest that you also invest in a yellow highlighter and keep it close by as you read each chapter. Dan Margulis offers so many clear explanations and so much practical advice and direction that, unless you take a moment to re-read and mark particularly cogent passages, you may not absorb their full value. I endorse this book to my colleagues and students in the strongest possible terms.Having said that, I must add that I believe this book is not for the Photoshop beginner. There are no sections devoted to using particular tools, no hints about where Version 6 has hidden the Paint Bucket or Measure tools this time. On the other hand there is superb instruction regarding creative use of what Mr. Margulis refers to as Channel Blending (to differentiate it from the Channel Mixing function). Moreover, his detailed discussion of the purpose and application of LAB is the most lucid and useful that I have found anywhere.Although several of the illustrations and explanations in the new edition appeared in his earlier book, many now also appear on the accompanying CD along with additional ones, and provide the reader with the opportunity to apply the techniques described throughout the text. At least half of this latest edition seems like new vital information, and his summation of just one aspect, in a chart on Page 184, outlining the strengths of CMYK, LAB and RGB when retouching, ties it all into a neat, useful package of reminders.Whether your goals are to enhance good images destined for print reproduction, or to salvage poor ones, I can think of no better expert to look to for practical advice. This book, "Professional Photoshop 6", encapsulates a tremendous amount of it. Congratulations, Mr. Margulis!