Spring Into Digital Photography

Product Author Bios

Joseph T. Jaynes is President of Abacus Arts, Inc., and Director of Customer Operations for Avilar Technologies, Inc. Joe has twenty-five years of experience in delivering information to computer users in creative and innovative ways. He has written numerous technical books on computer-related topics, including operating systems, digital imaging, programming, help system development, and Web development. He has taught college-level courses on technical publishing, information design, and computer usage. He is also an accomplished amateur photographer, actor, and musician.

Rip Noël is Vice President of Media Production for Abacus Arts, Inc., and founder of Noël Studios, Inc. (a commercial photography, film, and video production company in operation since 1982). Rip was a contributor to Nikon's Beginner Guide to 35mm Photography (composition and lighting chapters), and received one of only two annual scholarships upon entering his second year at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He has worked as a Hollywood studio manager, a newspaper photojournalist, and for nearly thirty years as an award-winning commercial photographer and filmmaker for Fortune 500 clients. One of his most memorable assignments was producing a commissioned portrait of President Ronald Reagan.

The Fastest Route to Mastering Digital Photography!

Want to create truly great digital images? Maybe you're moving to a digital camera for the first time. Maybe you've used one for years. Either way, this book's for you!

You'll learn through dozens of outstanding full-color examples, crafted for simplicity and easy to adapt to your own images. Need specific solutions? This book's modular, visual, high-efficiency format delivers them instantly. Renowned digital imaging expert Joseph T. Jaynes and long-time professional photographer Rip Noel draw on their remarkable experience to cover the entire process and offer tips you won't find anywhere else. You'll learn how to plan perfect lighting and composition, capture the best possible image, improve it with Adobe Photoshop or Elements, reproduce it superbly--electronically and in print--and manage your workflow and content more efficiently than ever before.

• Exploit professional-quality design and composition techniques
• Use your camera's controls to capture more creative, expressive images
• Use light and shadow to capture the most powerful images you've ever shot
• Understand color and control it from start to finish
• Profile your monitor, scanner, and printer, step-by-step
• Fix red-eye, blemishes, keystoning, noise, artifacts, banding, and more
• Optimize any image for Web, e-mail, printing--you name it!
• Organize, manage, and protect all your digital assets

No other digital photography guide covers this much, this well, this quickly. Dig in, get started, and get results!

BONUS: Includes an exclusive dynamic white balance card--a $65 value...your best tool for getting the right color in any light! This single card replaces a whole set of old-style white balance cards.

Spring Into... is a new series of fast-paced tutorials from Addison-Wesley. Each book in the series is designed to bring you up to speed quickly. Complex topics and technologies are reduced to their core components, and each component is treated with remarkable efficiency in short, easy-to-follow segments. Just the information you need to begin working...now! And because the books are example-rich and easy to navigate, you'll find that they make great on-the-job references after you've mastered the basics.

Table of Contents

Preface.

Introduction.

I. CAPTURE THE PERFECT IMAGE.

1. Let There Be Light.

    Qualities of Light

    Light Controls Shape

    Reflected Light: A Bit of Geometry

    Lighting a Cube

    Cube Examples

    Lighting a Sphere

    Sphere Examples

    Lighting a Cylinder or Cone

    Cylinder and Cone Examples

    Softbox Lightbanks

    Light Controls Shape: Wrap-Up

    Portraits, with and without Shape

    Reflective Surfaces: Automobile

    Reflective Surfaces: Jewelry

    Reflective Surfaces: Shiny Metal and Fabric

    Build Your Own Scrim

    Light Controls Color

    The Temperature of Color

    Color Magic

    White Balance Perfection

    White Balance Calibration Card

    White Balance Creativity

    White Balance Examples

    Physical Filters

    Software Filters

    Underwater Photography

    Summary

2. Compose It.

    Visual Push-Ups

    Design Basics: Line

    Design Basics: Shape and Form

    Design Basics: Pattern

    Design Basics: Texture

    Design Basics: Color

    The Golden Section

    The Rule of Thirds

    The Power Points

    Control the Frame

    Fill the Frame

    Shot within a Shot

    The Power of Diagonals

    The Power of Eyes

    The Power of Contrast

    The Power of Focus

    Spot Focus and Manual Focus

    A More Interesting Angle

    Frame within a Frame

    The Power of Altered Perspective

    The Power of the Foreground

    Get Vertical

    Bring It Into Balance

    Summary

3. Expose It.

    Measure the Light

    Set the Exposure

    Automatic Exposure Mode

    Aperture Priority

    Aperture Priority Examples

    Shutter Priority

    Shutter Priority Example

    Manual Exposure

    Dealing with Contrast Extremes

    Contrast Extremes Examples

    Digital ISO Equivalency

    Digital File Formats

    Infrared Imaging

    Rear Curtain Synch

    The Histogram

    Summary

II. UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE COLOR.

4. Color Fundamentals.

    A Simple Test

    RGB Versus CMYK

    Digital Color: 256 Choices for "Reality"

    Color Spaces and Gamuts

    Device-Independent Color Spaces

    ICC and ICC Profiles

    Creating ICC Profiles

    Summary

5. Calibrate and Profile Your Monitor.

    Display Types

    Viewing Environment and Ambient Lighting

    Profiling Setup

    Profiling Process

    Profiling a Projector

    Summary

6. Profile Your Scanner.

    Scanner Types

    Standard Scanner Targets

    Profiling Setup

    Profiling Process: Scan Target

    Profiling Process: Create Profile

    Summary

7. Profile Your Printer, Paper, and Ink.

    Printer Types

    Paper

    Ink

    Profiling Process: Setup

    Profiling Process: Print Target

    Profiling Process: Scan Target

    Profiling Process: Service Bureaus

    Dealing with PIM

    Commercial Printing

    Summary

III. OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES.

8. Optimize for the Screen.

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Introduction

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Color Temperature

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Tint

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Exposure

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Shadows

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Brightness and Contrast

    Basic RAW Adjustments: Saturation

    Further Optimization: Introduction

    Setting Levels

    Color Depth: 8 Bits Versus 16 Bits

    Using the Curves Tool to Adjust Colors

    Adjusting Colors without Using Curves

    Applying Unsharp Masking

    Targeting PCs Versus Macs

    Targeting a TV

    Targeting the Web

    Summary

9. Optimize for Print.

    Personal Printing: Introduction

    Personal Printing: Photoshop Elements

    Personal Printing: Photoshop, Phase 1

    Personal Printing: Photoshop, Phase 2

    Local and Online Printing Services

    Color RIP Software

    Summary

10. Fix Specific Problems.

    Image-Editing Basics

    Removing Red Eye

    Removing Blemishes: Healing Brush

    Removing Blemishes: Clone Stamp

    Repairing Keystoning: Narrow to Wide

    Repairing Keystoning: Wide to Narrow

    Upsizing Images

    Reducing Digital Noise

    Eliminating Banding in Prints

    Adding Selective (Limited) Focus

    Creating a Black and White Effect

    Replacing the Sky

    Summary

IV. OPTIMIZE YOUR WORKFLOW.

11. Manage Your Assets.

    Buying Good Media

    Shooting and Archiving

    Adopting a Naming Scheme

    Keywording Your Images

    Using EXIF and Other Image Metadata

    Protecting Your Images

    Adding Audio Attachments

    Digital Asset Management Tools

    Summary

12. Think Digitally.

    A Personal Reflection (Rip Noël)

    Master Your Tools

    Data Longevity

    There's No Free Lunch: Get the Exposure Right

    Digital Versus Film: The Good News

    Digital Versus Film: The Bad News

    CCDs and Focal Length

    Winning the Digital Rat Race

    Expanding Your Vision

    It's Your Turn

Appendix A. Digital Gear Bags.

    Serious Amateur Gear Bag

    Pro Gear Bag: Camera and Containers

    Pro Gear Bag: Strobe and Constant Lights

    Pro Gear Bag: Lighting Modifiers

    Pro Gear Bag: Grip and Support

    Pro Gear Bag: Computer Hardware and Software

    Growth Path 1: Portraits and People

    Growth Path 2: Nature and Landscapes

    Growth Path 3: Editorial and Action

Index.

Preface

Digital photography is just a fad. The images aren't as good as real photographs shot on film and printed with chemicals the way God intended. If you want to be a real photographer, you should drop this book like a spent flashbulb and stick with film. It was good enough for Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams, and look how far they got. It was good enough for your dad at the Grand Canyon, for Pete's sake! What's with you kids today? Would you give all this digital foolishness a rest? Please? [We interrupt this Preface to give the authors a moment to recapture control of their manuscript. ... hhmmphh ... grrrrgnn ... aacccckk! ... OK, that's better. Let's try that opening again.] Digital photography is more than just the future of photography. It's hands down the best way to take photographs for any and every conceivable purpose today. Film photography was revolutionary and powerful, and created a medium for artistic expression that stood the art establishment on its head. Digital photography continues the revolution, putting even more creative power into the hands of even more people that film photography ever could. Our hope in writing this book is to stir up some creative fervor among the masses. Are you ready to be stirred?

Everyone on the planet should read this book. We've written this book for people who have a passion for photography and who want to improve their artistic sensibilities and skills using the exciting tools that digital photography provides. We don't expect you to be an expert or a prodigy or a guru. We do expect you to care about making great photographs. Are you someone who's owned a camera for years and used it to shoot generally disappointing shots of friends and family that you really wish were better? (The shots, not your friends and family.) That lingering sense of disappointment means this book is for you. Are you an avid photographer who's happy with the results you've been getting with film and now want to "make the leap to digital"? This book is for you. Are you a student of photography looking to supplement your dry textbooks with a perky tome written by guys who have learned their lessons the hard way (by making mistakes) and who are willing to tell you the truth? This book is for you. Are you a professional shooter who suspects that the quality of digital photography has finally overtaken film but can't quite bring yourself to believe it? There are big chunks of this book that are for you, too.

We've organized this book into four sections plus an appendix. The organizational scheme traces the chronology of making an photograph. The first section teaches you how to capture a great image. It contains the following chapters: The second section addresses the thorny problems that managing color creates for digital photographers.

This book--like the other books in the Spring Into series--provides the following eccentricities:

• Each topic is explained in a discrete one- or two-page unit called a "chunk."
• Each chunk builds upon or complements the previous chunks in that chapter.
• Many chunks contain sidebars and "Quantum Leaps," which provide helpful, if sometimes digressive, ancillary material.

We assume that you are a very busy person for whom the time spent in the very act ofbuying this book was excruciatingly painful. To repay that incalculable opportunity cost,we've adopted the chunk-style of presenting information so that you can learn as rapidly as possible. Finally, we hope you'll find this book fun to read and the photographs a joy to behold. If you've paid good money for a book--no matter what the topic--boring text and ugly pictures are a slap in the face.

This book will also have a companion web site:

• The technologies that comprise digital photography evolve too rapidly for a printed book to stay current for very long. While we've tried hard to make this book as "timeless" as possible, you'll want to visit the web site often for the latest news and technical information.
• Some topics need to be discussed in greater technical depth than is appropriate for this book. Example: Learning to light your shots using softbox lightbanks. You'll find that additional depth at the web site.
• Some topics are of interest to a small subset of our readers. Example: Optimizing images for commercial offset printing. Since most of you are probably not publishing images in books and magazine (yet!), we merely hint at that topic in the book and leave the complete discussion for the web site.

Downloadable Sample Chapter

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Index

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