Professional Photoshop : The Classic Guide to Color Correction

by Margulis, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780321440174
• ISBN10: 032144017X
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-20
• Publisher: Peachpit Press

Summary

The commonsense, by-the-numbers approach of Professional Photoshop has shaped the workflows of a generation of Photoshop experts. This new edition, the first in nearly five years, is completely updated for the age of digital photography. It continues the bookrs"s tradition of introducing astoundingly effective, previously unknown methods of image enhancement. The original photographs found in the book come from a variety of professional sources, and all correction exercises are on the included CD. Professional Photoshop has changed radically from edition to edition, and this time is no exception-with almost 90 percent new content and completely overhauled coverage of curves, channel blending, and sharpening.Professional Photoshop offers a full explanation of: How curves bring out detail in the most important areas of the imagen A comprehensive strategy for blending channels to create deeper, stronger images The strengths and weaknesses of CMYK, LAB, and RGB, and when to use each one The first detailed look at the Shadow/Highlight command-and even more sophis-ticated ways to enhance contrast in the lightest and darkest parts of the imagen Sharpening strategies, in three full chapters, including the innovative hiraloam method (High Radius, Low Amount). Plus, a fiendishly effective method of merging hiraloam and conventional unsharp masking The realities-and the politics-of preparing files for commercial offset printing and how to deal with colors that are out of the pressrs"s gamut What Camera Raw and similar acquisition modules can offer Typical problems of digital captures that were not found in the age of film- and how to correct for them

Author Biography

Dan Margulis was one of the first three individuals—and the only writer—to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. In announcing his election, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals said, “Dan’s ability to reduce complicated concepts to words that users can understand and his insistence on dealing with real-world relevance have made him today’s most influential voice in color reproduction.” Dan’s 2006 best-seller, Photoshop LAB Color, revolutionized workflows. Channels expert David Biedny called Photoshop LAB Color “probably the most important Photoshop book ever written.”

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xiii
Color, Contrast, And Channels
Introduction	p. 3
Pearls Before Swine	p. 4
The Natural Look	p. 5
Sliding Down a Slippery Slope	p. 7
The Weapons in the Arsenal	p. 8
When Do the Eyes Adjust?	p. 9
But Who Is the Reader?	p. 10
The Guide Goes Out the Window	p. 13
Why the Quiz Matters	p. 14
I'm beginning to See the Light	p. 15
Telling the Channels Apart	p. 17
When Two Are Maxed Out	p. 15
The Importance of the Green Channel	p. 20
Strange Channels, Strange Lighting	p. 20
You Be the Judge	p. 23
The Steeper the Curve, The More the Contrast
Introduction	p. 25
Left, Right, Up, and Down	p. 26
When There's a Choice of Shape	p. 27
A New Angle on Contrast	p. 28
As Long As It Catches Mice	p. 29
Maximizing Detail Is No Accident	p. 31
What's Important and What's Not	p. 32
How to Correct, Sight Unseen	p. 33
Ask a Silly Question, Get a Silly Answer	p. 36
Turning a Blind Eye to the Catchlight	p. 37
Levels and the S Curve	p. 38
High and Low Key Images	p. 39
Avoiding the Master Curve	p. 41
How Far to Go?	p. 45
The CMYK Alternative	p. 46
CMYK before RGB	p. 48
A Vote for Auto Levels	p. 50
Color by the Numbers
Introduction	p. 51
A Plan for Using This book and Its CD	p. 54
By the Numbers vs. By the Numbers	p. 55
Setting Up the System	p. 56
The Magic Numbers	p. 57
Looking for the Sure Thing	p. 59
Picking Significant Target Points	p. 63
The Lightest Significant Part	p. 66
A Modest Proposal or Two	p. 68
Of Free Speech and Figures of Speech	p. 70
Betting the Image	p. 71
Avoiding the Impossible: How the Pros Know the Numbers	p. 72
When an Emerald Isle Turns Yellow	p. 73
Otherwise Than by Comparison	p. 76
Color, Contrast, Canyons, and LAB
Introduction	p. 77
The Eyes-Glazed Over Syndrome	p. 79
The Colorspace Confrontation	p. 81
The Relationship of the A and B	p. 85
Controlling the Blunt Instrument	p. 87
Zero Plus Zero Makes Plenty	p. 89
A Jewel of a Shortcut	p. 92
The Selection Without a Selection	p. 94
The Color Recipe Book	p. 98
LAB and the Workflow	p. 99
The Key Is the K
Introduction	p. 101
A Hypothetical Colorspace	p. 102
A Message to the RGB-centric	p. 103
Black as Tangerine	p. 104
Where GCR Is Mandatory	p. 57
CMYKs Fixed and Editable	p. 105
The Need for a Lower Black Limit	p. 106
The Pure Play on Black	p. 107
Evaluating Neutrality	p. 108
When in Doubt, Do Without	p. 114
The Politics of Presswork	p. 114
Of Layouts and Densities	p. 119
Mud and Custom CMYK	p. 120
Fine Lines and Maximum GCR	p. 122
Actions and Consequences	p. 123
It All Fits Together	p. 125
Sharpening with a Stiletto
Introduction	p. 127
Who, What, and When?	p. 128
Where?	p. 129
Why?	p. 132
How?	p. 132
Tip: Blurring the Block	p. 132
USM by the Numbers	p. 134
In Which Haloing Is Taken to the Max	p. 135
Finalizing the Numbers	p. 134
How Much Is Too Much? Readers, Author Duke It Out	p. 139
Shaken, Not Blurred	p. 140
Beware of Presharpening	p. 142
So Much for Newton's Third Law	p. 142
Inkjet and Other Printers	p. 145
A Few New Wrinkles	p. 147
Other Sharpening Filters	p. 148
Location, Location, Location	p. 150
Keeping the Color In Black and White
Introduction	p. 153
Where Is the Life That Late I Led?	p. 154
But I'm Always True to You, Darling...	p. 154
...In My Fashion	p. 156
Who's Not with the Program?	p. 157
The Lion and the Fox	p. 159
The Temptation of the L	p. 159
A Prince Must Keep an Open Mind	p. 160
Two Confusing Mode Names	p. 161
For Fortune Is a Woman	p. 162
Niccolo the Magnificent	p. 164
The World's Fastest B/W Conversion	p. 169
Good Laws and Good Arms	p. 170
To Those Who Understand	p. 172
Keeping the Black and White in Color
Introduction	p. 175
The Alternate Ending	p. 176
The Alternate Beginning	p. 176
Harmonious with the Background	p. 179
The Sky's Not the Limit	p. 180
The Second Line of Defense	p. 181
Time for a Quiz	p. 184
A Theme and Variations	p. 187
Of Artifacts and Skies	p. 188
The LAS Denouement	p. 189
The CMYK Coda	p. 191
Inferences, Illusions, and When to Bet the Image
Introduction	p. 195
The Red and the Block	p. 197
The Media Can't Be Trusted	p. 199
The Lesson of the Stain	p. 199
LAB and the Info Palette	p. 200
Guessing the Distribution	p. 200
Counting Up the Points	p. 204
Knowing How the Cards Lie	p. 205
That Old Savoir Faire-and How to Get It	p. 293
A Card Laid Is a Card Played	p. 212
How Many Tricks Can We Count?	p. 213
Cards on the Table	p. 218
Getting Ready for the Next Hand	p. 220
Every File Has Ten Channels
Introduction	p. 221
A Very Small Toolbox	p. 222
Different Colorspace, Different Tools	p. 224
Pigeons Out on a Limb	p. 225
Which Tool to Use?	p. 225
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue	p. 228
Take What You Have Gathered...	p. 229
...From Coincidence	p. 231
Mixed Up Confusion	p. 234
Take Me As I Am	p. 236
When I Awoke, This Bird Had Flown	p. 237
Tangled Up in Blue	p. 243
The Times, They Are a-Changin'	p. 246
Making Things Look Alike
Introduction	p. 247
An Introduction to Calibration	p. 249
Why Should We Care?	p. 250
When Options Are Limited	p. 251
A Vote for the Multidisciplinist	p. 253
The Price of the Perfect World	p. 254
The Black & White of Color	p. 257
The Colors That Are Missing	p. 257
Color, Contrast, and Revolutionism	p. 259
Win Some, Lose Some	p. 261
CRT and LCD Monitors	p. 262
The Red Flag of the Revolution	p. 262
How Far Off Can We Be?	p. 263
In Favor of the Machine	p. 264
If Not Victory, Is Yet Revenge	p. 265
Maxims for Color Revolutionists	p. 267
Look for the Pattern	p. 267
The Superior Measuring Device	p. 268
If Our Substance Be Indeed Divine	p. 269
Managing Color Settings
Introduction	p. 271
How the Phrases Are Defined	p. 272
How the Color Is Defined	p. 273
Assigned, Assumed, and Embedded	p. 274
The RGB Working Space	p. 276
Choosing an RGB Workspace: A Flowchart	p. 286
The CMYK Working Space	p. 287
Gray and Spot Working Spaces	p. 292
Conversion Options: Rendering Intent	p. 293
Color Management Policies	p. 295
The Sahara of the Bozart	p. 297
Politics, Printing, and the Science of the Skosh
Introduction	p. 299
The Origin of Political Parties	p. 301
Politics Abhors a Vacuum	p. 302
The Power of the Media	p. 303
Pollsters, Printing, and Predictability	p. 304
A Party and Its Platform	p. 305
The Opposition Is Heard from	p. 308
Rhetoric and Substance	p. 310
A Skosh of Prevention	p. 311
The Contract and the Proof	p. 312
The Platform Is Developed	p. 313
The Cost of Negative Campaigning	p. 314
Stereotyping Is a Form of Printing	p. 315
Welcome to the Team	p. 317
The Investigation Proceeds	p. 318
The Personal Touch	p. 318
Politicians Sometimes Tell the Truth	p. 319
The Gamma-Dot Gain Alliance	p. 321
Voting for a Change	p. 322
Setting Up in Custom CMYK	p. 323
Making Use of the Settings	p. 325
Merging Custom CMYK and "Uneditable" Profiles	p. 325
Clues That Dot Gain May Increase	p. 327
Realpolitik and the Skosh	p. 328
Resolution for the Multimegapixel Era
Introduction	p. 329
The Many Types of PPI	p. 331
Where Did the Pixels Come From?	p. 333
Coping with Poor Resolution	p. 333
More Information Means Less Variation	p. 336
The Law of Averages	p. 338
How Much Is Too Much?	p. 338
Double the Bits, Double the File Size	p. 340
What the Tests Have Shown	p. 341
Shifting In and Out of 16-Bit	p. 341
Final Food for Thought	p. 345
The Art of the False Profile
Introduction	p. 347
A Word Means What I Want It To	p. 348
The Meaning of the Numbers	p. 350
An Invitation to Play Croquet	p. 351
Blurring and Gamma	p. 353
Blending With a Layer Mask	p. 354
I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury	p. 355
Curioser and Curioser	p. 359
Return of the Red Queen	p. 362
Through the Looking Glass	p. 363
The Final False Profile	p. 366
The Golden Key	p. 368
What Comes Around, Goes Around
Introduction	p. 373
The More Things Change	p. 374
Warnings and Exclusions	p. 375
When There's a Choice	p. 376
The Multi-Channel Approach	p. 377
Back to the Future	p. 379
The Mind of the Machine	p. 382
The Duckling Becomes a Swan	p. 383
The Monster from the Deep	p. 386
Reds, Saturated and Otherwise	p. 389
Merging with a Layer Mask	p. 390
Summing Up: The KISS Approach	p. 392
Blurs, Masks, and Safety in Sharpening
Introduction	p. 395
Limiting the Damage	p. 397
Waterfalls and Sharpening Highlights	p. 399
What's Not to Like?	p. 400
Still Waters Run Deep	p. 402
Sharpening Shadows, and Workflow	p. 403
High Risk, High Reward	p. 407
The Search for the Layer Mask	p. 410
Betting on the Sure Thing	p. 415
Sharpening, Past and Future	p. 390
Overlays, Hiraloam, and Shadow/Highlight
Introduction	p. 419
The Most Serene Command	p. 421
The Overall S/H Look	p. 423
The Meaning of the S/H Defaults	p. 423
A Blur and a Blend	p. 424
A Smarter Sharpen Filter?	p. 423
Half Shadow, Half Highlight	p. 428
S/H and Colorspaces	p. 429
The Channel with the Difference	p. 430
USM, Pseudo-USM, and Shape	p. 432
All in the Family	p. 437
Balancing Blur and Blend	p. 438
Don't Try Too Hard	p. 441
An Embarrassment of Riches	p. 442
Color, Contrast, and Safety in Masking
Introduction	p. 443
Finding the Excuse to Use the Mask	p. 444
Red Sky in the Morning	p. 446
The Scanner Operator Takes the Helm	p. 447
Choosing the Right Channel	p. 448
How Green Is My Valley	p. 449
The Double Whammy	p. 452
Multiplication and Masking	p. 453
The Tale of the Towel	p. 459
There Are No Bad Originals	p. 462
It's a Matter of Routine	p. 464
Sinking the Reflection	p. 464
Highlights and Shadows Sail Again	p. 465
Changing Product Color with LAB	p. 468
A Swift and Swelling Ship	p. 472
There Are No Bad Originals
Introduction	p. 473
The Two-Edged Sword	p. 475
On Opening a File for the First Time	p. 477
The Final Curves: The Strategies for Approaching an Image	p. 478
Looking for Friend and Foe	p. 480
Finding the Color Variation	p. 483
The Final False Separation	p. 484
Changes Since Last Time	p. 486
Back to Square One	p. 487
A Toast to Professional Color	p. 489
A Buccaneer's Farewell	p. 491
Notes & Credits	p. 493
Index	p. 505
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