Digital Print, The: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing

I have been looking for a book that covers Photoshop and image color management in a concise and up to date manner. It's not a sexy subject, I but it's an essential one that distinguishes those photographers who do know it. I can spare you reading another tedious review - just get this book!First of all, Jeff gets it. He knows what it is we need to know and is able to communicate it with a great deal of clarity - perhaps too much clarity for some! He starts at a logical place and takes you through the entire color management process as a procedural workflow - which is uber helpful even to us professionals. He covers tough issues like image sharpening and preparation for printing, workflow and final printing - all of which can be HUGE challenges especially when you consider how quickly technologies come and go and change. He gives you the core-level stuff you really need to need to know to make smarter decisions and dodge all of the mental masturbation people who truly have no idea what they are talking about are spewing with regularity on the Internet.If there any weaknesses, it is probably that Jeff doesn't include anything about RAW converters like Capture One Pro, which would be nice since so many use it today. Maybe the next revision, Jeff? That's a pretty minimal nit when you consider the entirety of this work.This is one of the best books I've acquired in a long time - and it should be on every photographer's shelf. In an nutshell, I don't think you can call yourself a professional unless you know this stuff - and this is one place to get it and get it correctly. This book isn't for the faint of heart, but it's essential knowledge covered in a logical way that is both understandable and comfortable.

The book is an extensive study programme between covers that holds the potential of diversing my knowledge beyond the photochemical that has been .y mainstay. Thank you for the means of aquiring such a self assigned course. Best regards, Richard P.

Extremely informative book from a real authority. If you are a photographer who wants to make great prints either as a home based hobbyist or a fine art creator, this book is definitely a top choice. The examples are mostly centered on PhotoShop and Lightroom, with analogous Capture One commands mentioned occasionally.About books that might disappoint photographers: Two other books by other authors that I have were written specifically for a rather different audience: workers in publishing who usually scan original artworks for the end use of publishing on offset presses. Maybe they will or maybe they won't use an inkjet printer for proofing the big press runs. Maybe the input image comes from a camera, or maybe not. Much discussion about CMYK color spaces, very little in RGB. Yes there is some overlap of color management principles between press work and home or fine art printing, but many considerations can get left out.

Schewe's two books have been quite helpful as I ramp up my digital camera usage to get more attractive hard copy results at sizes above 8x10. I respect him a lot from his contributions to the Luminous Landscape website. This book about printing covers all of the bases from digital image to mounted and framed ink+paper. It even covers exhibiting. It takes a grand tour approach with some tangents -- for someone looking for a howto does it make any difference that musician Graham Nash was a pioneer in digital printing?Despite its design that tries to touch every base (and a few too many) within modest length, this book has plenty of depth on some essentials -- his photos of art paper surface textures comparing natural versus white and cold press versus hot press were outstandingly informative. His coverage of color management inspired me to finally appreciate the value of ICC printer profiles and get them working. His settings-then-results approach is very useful even when I can't understand how the two connect initially.There are three problems with both of Schewe's books that lead to my less than 5 stars: (1) To try any of the software examples one must have an Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop license or subscription; (2) The books' software aspects go obsolete quickly as software versions proceed - he does release later book versions that one has to buy at full price again (in Kindle); (3) He is a very advanced practitioner of the arts and sciences of image processing and print production, and for me who is slowly ramping upward his writing often leaves me behind initially and I have to go elsewhere (e.g. Kelby or DPReview) to get up to speed before I can take advantage of what he covers. Compare his to Michael Reichmann's (R.I.P.) writing at Luminous Landscape which often meets me at my amateur, affordable level.Worthwhile purchases both.

If you want to learn all of the aspects of creating a successful fine art print and learn them in a way that is accessible to both a beginning printer and someone who is already very proficient, this is the book to own. I teach fine art printing at a local gallery and have been waiting for years for a book that I could recommend to my workshop participants as a reference source. It is clearly and efficiently written. Nothing is treated superficially and Mr. Schewe presents detail for those who want to drill deeper. The only issue that I didn't find addressed is the issue of printer linearization. Other than that, it is a spectacular effort from a leading expert on digital printing.