Digital Effects Books

Photo-Imaging: A Complete Visual Guide to Alternative Techniques and Processes (Photography for All Levels: Advanced)

Jill Enfield

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: WATSON-GUPTILL - Model: 0817453997 Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $5.95

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

It's about time... 5 out of 5 stars.
35 of 36 people found this review helpful.

I've seen Jill Enfield's work frequently in magazines and books, and was thrilled when I found out she was writing her own text. I teach experimental photography at a university, so any book of this nature that comes on the market, I buy. When this came in the mail from Amazon.com (promptly, I might add) I was impressed. Watson Guptill knows how to lay out a textbook so that it appeals to the reader, and is well supported by images, not only with examples of the processes but with "how to" pictures, also. It is user friendly, especially for those who are somewhat newer to the photographic medium and experimental in nature. That said, I learned new things (e.g. the chapter on tintypes) that I will use in my experimental photography class!
These topics are included: black and white infrared, liquid emulsion, enlarging negatives for alternative processes, ink jet transfers, polaroid processes, cyanotypes, kallitypes, platinum printing, palladium printing, tintypes, hand coloring, and other stuff. It is a good combination of what are traditionally termed "alt process" (platinum, cyanotypes, etc.) and what are more experimental things to try.
For this type of book the price at Amazon.com is excellent--most books of this caliber range from [$$$].

Editorial Review:

If you re interested in mastering alternative photo-imaging techniques, this book provides step-by-step directions and stunning examples of a variety of photo-processing and digital negative techniques. 160 pages 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 Softbound

Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics, 2nd Edition

Jon Krasner

Amazon Price: $42.46 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Focal Press Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $32.58

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Improve the aesthetic and communication qualities of your motion graphics. Reach beyond technical craft skills with this multimedia examination of the essential elements of the art, which includes:
Foundation: Realize the artistic expression of pioneering artists from film, television, interactive media, and immersive environments as they combine the principles of painting, traditional graphic design, and the dynamic visual language of cinema.

Technique: Develop an understanding of motion literacy, kinetic images and type, and the pictorial and sequential aspects of composition and choreography. Principles are presented with contextual examples and suggested assignments to challenge you artistically.

Inspiration: Hone your design and communication techniques with a comparative study of world-renowned designers and state-of-the-art professional and student work presented on the accompanying DVD.

Process: Distill your own set of guidelines for planning and conceptualization, animating, compositing and sequencing motion graphics from informative case studies that illuminate how leading designers formulate ideas and solve problems.

* A color-packed survey of graphic and communication design principles and techniques
* An exploration of how leading designers formulate ideas, solve problems, and achieve artistic expression.
* A companion DVD showcasing the state-of-the-art motion graphics that challenge and inspire.

Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers: 113 Easy-to-Follow Recipes to Improve Your Photos and Create Special Effects (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))

Barry Huggins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With the introduction of affordable and easy-to use digital cameras, people are taking photographs like never before. While the digital medium greatly simplifies the photographic process, it also offers photographers unprecedented opportunities to manipulate their images on their personal computers.

Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers tells you everything you need to know to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 to adjust, correct, retouch, and manipulate your photographs-without making you first learn everything there is to know about the application. These straightforward, easy-to-follow recipes give you specific directions so you can quickly and easily:

• Fix exposure, focus, and color problems
• Add special effects like motion blurs, lens effects, and surface textures
• Improve portraits by removing red eye, wrinkles, and blemishes
• Add and remove objects from photos seamlessly
• Use lighting effects to create more dramatic images
• Restore faded and damaged photos
• Give new shots a vintage, old-fashioned look
• Create posterized and hand-tinted images
• Assemble and fine-tune composite photos
• Correct perspectives

The book tackles each real-life project in full color, with a hands-on approach. The fully illustrated recipes produce reliable and immediate results, and include "at a glance" panels and tip boxes that cover key techniques in detail.

Barry Huggins, the author of Photoshop Retouching Cookbook for Digital Photographers, has created the only recipe-format manual on photographic retouching targeted specifically to digital photographers. Founder of a highly successful multimedia training and consulting company, Huggins is uniquely qualified to deliver step-by-step instruction in digital retouching methodology, with easy-to-follow recipes that address specific problems and teach "best practices" techniques. This is his fifth book on digital imaging and graphics software.

Digital Camera Tricks and Special Effects 101: Creative Techniques for Shooting and Image Editing (Digital Quick Guides series)

Michelle Perkins

Amazon Price: $11.96 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amherst Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $8.74

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Creating polished photo effects with image editing software 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Michelle Perkins' DIGITAL CAMERA TRICKS AND SPECIAL EFFECTS 101 tells how to use basic image-editing software to create polished results. From using a strobe light to create stop-action images to warping and blending digital images, Perkins' focus is on shooting and image editing techniques which require no single program or camera type to achieve.

Editorial Review:

Adding ghostly images, transforming skin to fur, and creating stop-action photography are among the special effects digital photographers learn in this guide to manipulating a camera's conventional settings for unconventional and artistic effect. The camera itself provides the initial departure point from traditional photography as photographers are encouraged to use "incorrect" exposure settings, "poor" focus, and reflections to create striking and dramatic images. Instruction on popular digital imaging programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Kai's SuperGoo, and PhotoVista 3D provides photographers with the means to manipulate photographs further with creative filters that transform daytime shots into nighttime images, a library of facial components, and the ability to combine images to create a three-dimensional digital object. A section on printing both at home and at a lab includes simple tips for enhancing the impact of photographs on paper.

The Digital Photographer's Guide to Photoshop Elements 4: Improve Your Photographs and Create Fantastic Special Effects (Lark Photography Book)

Barry Beckham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Sample files must be purchased 2 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Here is one of those books that provide you with some creative ideas using Photoshop Elements but does not provide the sample files to follow along. Instead the author gives you a website where the files can be purchased. Although the book has some good ideas this fact alone gives it a low rating.
My suggestion is to make sure sample fiels are included in any book that gives tutorials on how to create new creations.. A Thing I overlooked.

Editorial Review:

This updated, up-to-the minute manual on Photoshop Elements includes information on the fourth and latest version of this extremely popular software program—just released this very season. All the new features are thoroughly covered with visuals such as brand-new screenshots and toolboxes. With hundreds of images and hands-on projects, the guide walks digital camera enthusiasts through all the ins and outs of the hardware and software, including cameras, computers, storage, printers, and scanners. Find out about image film formats, and how to save pictures on the Web and improve the composition and quality of a photo by cropping, rotating, flipping, or resizing the image. Even simulate traditional darkroom procedures. Every digital photographer who owns Photoshop Elements will want this.

Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects

Al Ward

Amazon Price: $29.99 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $1.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Dissapointing and frustrating 2 out of 5 stars.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful.

The bulk of this book is step-by-step guided exercises that I had hoped would demonstrate the myrad features in Photoshop Elements. A CD containing art work and support files required by the exercises is furnished with the book.

Unfortunately, my experience with a half dozen exercises left me less than pleased. Some of the exercise steps described items in Photoshop Elements that didn't exist. In some cases I found things that came close... I think. My guess is the author was working with a different version of the program as he was developing the book and never went back to check things with the final version. A further complication were several instances where the instructions called for files on the CD that didn't exist. Finally, the author provides cookbook-like instructions without saying what it is you are trying to accomplish.

Editorial Review:

* Shows readers how to create high-end, professional effects using Photoshop Elements, which offers most of the features of Photoshop at a fraction of the cost
* Features step-by-step instructions for creating amazing special effects like lightning, x-ray illusions, photorealistic objects, "carving" headlines in stone, morphing two faces, and more
* Designed for home users and hobbyists, it's written in simple language that enables readers to maximize the program's capabilities quickly and easily
* Features a thirty-two page color insert highlighting the most striking effects
* CD-ROM includes valuable Elements "toolbox" of layer styles, effects, and gradients

Digital Photography Special Effects

Michael Freeman

List Price: $29.95 By: Amphoto Books Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $11.09

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Read it. Can't do that. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Maybe I've just seen too many books on digital photography hoping to gain an understanding of the eye-popping special effects they claim to tell you how to re-create. Maybe I have too high of hopes that I would actually be able to create those images the book covers claim I will be able to re-create. But I am sure that even after reading this book and enjoying the great images, I could never create those same images, even after following the sketchy instructions. So if you are expecting a recipe book that will hold your hand as you re-create these fantastic special effects using digital photography, you will be disappointed. But if you want a good overview of what special effects are and how in general they are created, then this book is what you want. But then, maybe it's just because I couldn't create a special effect if I lived at Dream Works for a year; or two.

Read it. Can't do that. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Maybe I've just seen too many books on digital photography hoping to gain an understanding of the eye-popping special effects they claim to tell you how to re-create. Maybe I have too high of hopes that I would actually be able to create those images the book covers claim I will be able to re-create. But I am sure that even after reading this book and enjoying the great images, I could never create those same images, even after following the sketchy instructions. So if you are expecting a recipe book that will hold your hand as you re-create these fantastic special effects using digital photography you will be disappointed. But if you want a good overview of what special effects are and how in general they are created, then this book is what you want. But then, maybe it's just because I couldn't create a special effect if I lived at Dream Works for a year; or two.

Secrets of the Digital Darkroom: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Getting the Best Results from Your Digital Photographs

Peter Cope

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Reveals All 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book contains all the technical information you require to manipulate your photographs in any way you desire. Obviously you need a computer and a photographic manipulation software tool, such as Photoshop or something similar. If reviewers have panned this book in the past I cannot understand where they are coming from. The book contains easy to follow exercises that help you to create the effect you are looking for and encourages you to use your own initiative to take things that step further. Anyone with a modicum of computer expertise can vastly improve their digital photogaphs. Not everyone wants to become involved in using filters, layers and masks, but to just be able to sharpen, adjust contrast and brightness of photographs and do some colour corrections makes owning this book well worthwhile. Believe me this book will help you to make a tremendous improvement to your photographs.

Worth the dough. 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I consider digital photography having 3 key components. The first is finding great scenes to photograph. Secondly is actually composing and exposing the photograph correctly. Lastly is digitally re-mastering the image to allow it to reveal all that the image is capable of. This book has answered all my PhotoShop questions regarding that third component and allowed me to exponentially raise the bar on my level of work and create professional quality results in minimal time. The book is very well instructed and very well rounded. If you need to quickly get "up to speed" with basic digital editing techniques and produce results that you previously commented "how did they do that?", this is the book for you. I rented it from the library but will be buying a personal copy for my own library.

The Better Digital Photography Guide to Special Effects and Photo-Art (Better Digital Photography Gde)

Michael Busselle

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Editorial Review:

Nowhere is the potential of digital photography greater than in the fields of special effects and photo-art. Sitting in front of their PCs or Macs, photographers can now easily manipulate their digital images to achieve effects that, using traditional film-based photography, could only be attempted by experienced printmakers with years of darkroom experience. And, if one experiment doesn’t work, they can go back and try a different tack with a few clicks of the mouse. Each of Michael Busselle’s striking images, which he uses to demonstrate the almost limitless range of effects that can be achieved, are accompanied by instructions broken down into three phases—Capture, Enhance, and Print—which show the reader, step by step, exactly how the effect was achieved. Inspired by these examples, amateurs will quickly discover the immense creative possibilities opened up by the new technology.

The Digital Photographer's Guide to Photoshop Elements: Improve Your Photographs & Create Fantastic Special Effects (A Lark Photography Book)

Barry Beckham

List Price: $29.95 By: Lark Books Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $0.91

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Show Me Don't tell Me 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

How many Photoshop Elements books have I flipped through that are absolutely fat with pages and pages of detailed text... yet have no power to inspire me to action?

Barry has crafted an elegant primer on Photoshop Elements replete with lush, color-soaked photos that serve as irresistable examples for my own experiments... icons, as it were, for my own creativity. As an experienced Elements user, I have already read several how-to books that explain every button and menu in rote detail; Barry's approach is much, much simpler. I lingered long over his gorgeous examples and much more quickly returned to my own photographs with envious results. To be fair, this is a perfect book to SHOW whereas Deke's Photoshop Elements for Dummies (bland black and white!) is positioned to TELL. If you are completely new to Elements and demand excruciating detail, then a companion book might be in order. Otherwise, be inspired and get on with more quickly and easily taking your pictures to confident new levels.

Enjoy!

Editorial Review:

Access the power of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 2.0 with this photographer’s companion. Featuring hundreds of images and 10 hands-on projects, it teaches all the ins and outs of the digital hardware and software. With it, you can learn about image film formats and how to save pictures; transform good photos into great ones.