The Creative Digital Darkroom Review

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The Creative Digital Darkroom ReviewIf you've bought a Katrin Eismann book before, you're no doubt looking at this one, too, since her books are so good. And what you've come to expect from her is indeed here - clear, concise information and step by step tutorials with plenty of diagrams showing what's being done. In its layout it's very similar to her Restoration and Retouching books, but denser, with a smaller font and more information, while remaining clear and balanced with a solid presentation. There's very few pages of wasted space.
As the title implies, the theme of the book is using traditional darkroom techniques in the digital world. In fact, part of the audience it's aimed at are experienced photographers who'd like to move to digital and carry over the skills they've learned. Focusing on this theme, the authors give us tools in global and local enhancements of tone and color, as well as sharpening/blurring and removing distractions, to bring out a photo's full potential.
It's all good and thorough, but be aware that in choosing to focus on that, the authors don't touch on many of the tools that are essential parts of Photoshop, including Photomerge, Liquify, Text, and Actions. It also doesn't cover Bridge or printing in depth, but there's actually a chapter on printing available as a PDF at the book's website: creativedigitaldarkroom.com.
It does cover Levels and Curves in more depth than any other book I've seen. It also covers Layer Masks, Shadow/Highlight, Perspective, Blending Modes, Lens Correction, Camera RAW (including the new Clarity tool), Split Toning, Sepia Toning (including Greg Gorman's technique), HDR, LAB, edge effects (using the Filter Gallery), Cross-Processing, and Sharpening, as well as including sections on creating a faded b/w photo and the like.
That said, I do have a few issues with the book. While the landscapes are like those you'd take yourself, many of the photos are a bit too abstract and arty for my tastes. Duggan uses Holgas, pinhole cameras, and a Lensbaby that blurs all the edges, and if you're not into such creative uses of cameras, these can get old once you've seen a few. Also, many are of moody old storefronts and gravestones, which adds a somber tone to the book.
Also, for those interested in working on portraits, there's very few of them here, and nothing about creating dynamic b/w portraits. The five or so portraits are used simply to demonstrate vignetting, sharpening, and the use of a warming filter.
Those points aside, this book delivers. Even when introducing the fundamentals of such tools as Levels and Curves, it goes right into detailed examples of how to use each. Some books merely list what each tool does, simply from lack of room, but by focusing on the essential tools, here you get exactly what you need - a brief overview containing all the important points followed by how you can best use them in your work.
Is a lot of it review? The majority of the tools outlined - the ones you use every day - are indeed covered much as they are in Eismann's Restoration and Retouching. The main difference is that Restoration covers mostly portraits, while this one focuses on landscapes and still lifes. Also, Restoration only covers up to CS2, while this one outlines all the latest tools in CS3, including a good deal on the very useful Black and White filter, as well as the new RAW 4.1 converter. It also gives a good overview of Lightroom, which I wasn't familiar with, but now has me looking that way.
If you already have Real World CS3 or a similar book, you already know more than most about Photoshop's technical aspects, and so you surely don't need a review. Still, this book's two chapters on setting up your Preferences, the different color spaces, and batch renaming are only fifty pages, so there's really not much to skip. And if you don't have Real World CS3, this book actually does cover all the basics you need in setting up your computer and workspace.
By the way, if you don't have CS3, most of the techniques here can be used with CS2 and CS. You won't have the use of the Highlight, Recovery, Clarity, B/W, and Curves tools in Camera RAW, and you won't have the B/W Filter with built-in settings like Infrared, but the authors do tell you how you can use the Channel Mixer, and Levels and Curves work much the same.
To sum up, you'll be pleased with this book if you don't go into it with any expectations that it be anything else. When I first saw it listed, I thought it'd build on where Restoration left off, going deep into creative interpretative techniques now that you have your photos optimized. Such techniques are indeed in the later part of the book, such as in using scanned paper for adding texture, but on the whole this book shows how to use the tools you're used to to get the most out of each photo's tone, color, and dramatic impact. In short, it's for experienced darkroom photographers as well as beginner and intermediate Photoshop users, instead of those who are already advanced in using Photoshop.
If you're a total beginner taking snapshots and are looking for a good overall coverage of all Photoshop has to offer, you might try Deke McClelland's Photoshop CS3 One-On-One or Martin Evening's Photoshop CS3 for Photographers. They're not as thorough as this book in each tool, but they cover more ground, give you a good tour, and set you up fine. From there, if you find your work focusing on family snapshots, portraits, and restoring old photos, go with Eismann's Restoration and Retouching, which covers a great deal more on repairing photos, such as using the floating Healing Patch and Pattern Maker. (You can download a full chapter from her digitalretouch.org site.) And if your interests lead you to fine art or landscape photography, this would be the book to learn from next.
Finally, if you already are a fine art or landscape photographer either new to Photoshop or without a solid grounding in the best use of all the fundamentals, or simply wish to brush up on your skills, this one is made for you.The Creative Digital Darkroom Overview

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