Photoshop Channel Chops

by Bert Monroy, Mark Christiansen, David Biedny, et al.

Book Overview

The Master of Photoshop unveils his secrets of the true power behind the most popular image processing program. Unlock the intimidating high-end features of Photoshop to create stunning digital images... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1562057235
• ISBN13: 9781562057237
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Unbeatable Photoshop theory

If you aspire to be a hardcore Photoshop user, this book is probably the one you want above all others. It's not a step-by-step tutorial, a mere reference book, or a book that leads you through the tools and various functions of the software. Instead it discusses the fundamental concepts you need to know to use Photoshop to its fullest. Some statements in the book are outdated, but fortunately, they are usually statements of opinion and occur only in a few places. Most of the book is still applicable since Photoshop today still has channels, alpha channels, paths, layers, and calculations. This book hasn't been updated since it was written in 1998, but it really doesn't need to be. It's not about how to use particular tools and new features. It's about how to think with Photoshop. And it's deep enough to read over and over for reference. I would encourage even beginner Photoshop users to read this book if they are really committed, especially if they want to learn about compositing. By the end of this book, you'll be able to understand how Photoshop does what it does, and why it is such a powerful program.

the logic and creative potential of Channels is understood

Though this book was published at the time of version 4 its content is totally relevent with versions 5 and 5.5. Chapter four that deals with Apply Image and Calculations increased my creative potential with Photoshop to a level where I now prefer the imaging possiblilies of these two functions over all of the program's combined filter effects. The most worthwhile book I've read on Photoshop.

Recommended reading instead of taking notes

Being an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, I was quite literally flabbergasted with the detail and concepts that this book presents. I teach Photoshop two nights a week at a Fortune 500 company, and was trying to put together a syllabus for my Advanced Photoshop Course. When I read this book I threw out the syllabus and made my students buy this book instead.

Everyone should have this book on their bookshelf!

I've probably read every book available on the subject of Photoshop but i've always come away from each of them with no more than a few tricks you can only use in very specific situations. "hey look, pillow-embossed text!" PCC is the exception to this rule. It's content far outweighs it's perceived size. David's writing style and obvious enthusiam for the subject shows with every paragraph. I found myself excited and couldn't wait to jump into PS and start trying out some of the concepts that he so clearly explains. I think my favorite quote is from the begining of the book: "Learn how to be a creative problem solver. Memorizing sequences of commands in a graphics program isn't the way to such enlightment." I've been trying to find a nice way of saying that for years. You owe it to yourself to hit the buy button. You wont regret it for a second. Actually, you wont have time to regret it, you'll be too busy having fun using the techniques from this book.

The Best Discussion of Digital Blue Screen Techniques

This is one of the best books on using photoshop for what it was originally designed for - compositing images. Written by ILM alumni David Biedny and digital film production veterans Bert Monroy and Nathan Moody, this is not your standard "how to use photoshop" features walkthrough. It is also not a beginner book. You will not find out what the "edit" menu does in this tome... It is designed for someone who already knows what the tools in photoshop do, but wants to find out how to apply these powerful (yet sometimes misunderstood) features to real world tasks. It extensively covers channel operations (add, subtract, multiply, screen, etc) and how these somewhat esoteric "modes" are useful in compositing images. These guys know what they are talking about from thier years of photoshop and feature film production work. This is the second book from these guys, and remember that they wrote the first-ever book on photoshop, years before anyone had even heard of the program! The book also contains the best discussion of blue and green screen techniques that give better results than some well-known software packages costing thousands of dollars. This section alone is worth the price of the book! Includes a section for After Effects users too. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in compositing images, whether it be Photoshop, Premiere or After Effects or any similar package on any platform! Chris Athanas Director of Engineering, DigiEffects