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Author Topic: The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photosh  (Read 11635 times)

Adam L

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Jeff:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Digital-Negative-Processing-Lightroom/dp/0321839579/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT1_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2HEXCKF03UAQ1&coliid=I3FMOHHSV0LJ9G

I'm looking forward to the release of this book.  I thought it was set to go the beginning of August.   Do you happen to know the release date?
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Schewe

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The Amazon page lists Sept 24, 2012...as far as I know, that's still the expected ship date.
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Adam L

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D'oh.  I didn't scroll down far enough.   There goes my vacation reading material.   :'(
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davidgp

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Hi Schewe,

I just got a copy of your lastest book, The Digital Negative (Kindle version, easier to get it in Spain), and I was reading the second chapter when I came a across a reference: "The Digital Print [Peachpit]", does this mean that we can expect a new book from you soon?

Best regards, and thanks for writing the book, this kind of info helps me a lot...

David

Schewe

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I just got a copy of your lastest book, The Digital Negative (Kindle version, easier to get it in Spain), and I was reading the second chapter when I came a across a reference: "The Digital Print [Peachpit]", does this mean that we can expect a new book from you soon?

Yep, The Digital Print is the next book in the series due April 2013 or so.
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Jeremy Roussak

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The Amazon page lists Sept 24, 2012...as far as I know, that's still the expected ship date.

I ordered my copy from Amazon.com (since I'll be in the US next week) and was informed yesterday that it had shipped.

I'm looking forward to reading it!

Jeremy
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davidgp

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Yep, The Digital Print is the next book in the series due April 2013 or so.

Excellent news... I will buy one copy of it for sure...

Schewe

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The Digital Negative (Kindle version, easier to get it in Spain)

David,

If you don't mind telling me, how does the book look/work on Kindle? Peachpit promised that they would do a better job formatting for Kindle this time (the last edition of Real World ACR really sucked eggs). I've got the ebooks but of course, I don't have a Kindle, just an iPad.
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RFPhotography

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I've got the Kindle version using the Kindle app for Android, Jeff.  It looks decent, generally.  Some of the image captions are on the next page but that could be due to the way I have things set up in terms of font size and margins.  I'll try some different settings tomorrow and see if if makes a difference.  A number of the images don't come through really well.  Double tap to enlarge works but many of images I've seen so far seem a bit drab and dark.  Colours aren't looking spectactular.  As an example, it was really difficult to discern the red of the highlight clip on the Niagara Falls image.  It almost looked black.  I don't think it's the tablet (Asus TF700), it produces really nice colour and a couple other digital books I've looked at don't have the issue.  The rusted truck, by comparison does look good though.  So it's not entirely consistent.
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mac_paolo

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I bought the kindle version as Peachpit cancelled my pre-order for back order issues (still can't figure how could a digital file be on back order; neither Jeff nor the publisher gave me any explanation).

The book itself is quite nice, even if, having bought "Camera to Print and Screen" and both Lightroom 3/4 courses from LuLa, the book is more or less a recap.
Some phrases are even the same you hear on the videos. So I'd say definitely buy it if you have never watched one of the courses mentioned above.

Jeff, however, explores the birth of Lightroom with a lot of behind the scenes, which is nice for us who "live" around this software.
Being a "prosumer" (trying not to sound a know-all), I'd rate it 3/5 stars.

The Amazon Kindle version (read on the retina iPad app) is on average quality, as most of the other photography ebooks (I own a lot of them).
Mid quality layout (not ePub's fault) and very low res pictures, which is a shame because they look totally pixelated on retina display. Very few of them are mid-hi res. Maybe five or so.

Maybe a direct download from Peachpit would have been provided a better quality product, because they have separate formats for a number of devices.

Paolo
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Schewe

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Maybe a direct download from Peachpit would have been provided a better quality product, because they have separate formats for a number of devices.

The PDF version from Peachpit is pretty good (I just got my ebook copy). You can zoom into the figures a lot and actually see things like noise and sharpening...since I don't have a Kindle, I can't comment on that electronic version...but it's been my experience that Kindle of fine for text but a lot less good for images :~

I'm still waiting on syncing my iPad to see the ePub version.

Nothing I can do about that, sorry...way above my pay grade.

As far as a similarity between The Digital Negative to Camera to Print, that's to be expected...I've actually been working on the book for a number of years and used a lot of my thinking about the content when working with Mike & Chris to come up with the C2PS content. However, a lot of the thinking is new and of course, there's PV 2012 which wasn't around when we shot C2PS. Different media, different messages... but the book content is current and topical. Plus a lot of the images are new :~) Like the cover image...the designer picked that from about 90 images I submitted and wouldn't have been my top pick, yet I really like the book cover images–kudos to Mimi for talking me into that cover!
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mac_paolo

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However, a lot of the thinking is new and of course, there's PV 2012 which wasn't around when we shot C2PS.
Yes, that PV 2012 part belongs to the Lightroom 4 Advanced Course and new videos with Eric Chan. Nice material but still not that useful for loyal LuLa customers :)
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jed best

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Hi Jeff,

I have had my copy for several days and find the book invaluable. Often times it is faster to look up something in a text vs a video so while there is overlap with the videos you have done with Michael, Chris and now Eric, the book has become my "goto" reference and is indispensable. For me, at least, it provided a great review of what I knew and but also  taught many things I did not know or forgot.

Well done!!!
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RFPhotography

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I tried changing some of the settings this morning and it made no difference. All that does is change the look of each page, it doesn 't alter the layout as in a Word document. Given that I'd have to say the Kindle version is less than optimal.
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stormyboy

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As a less portable option, you can view the Kindle books on a laptop or desktop.
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Adam L

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My copy arrives tomorrow.  This will help me a lot as I can't seem to locate the nuggets of info that I vaguely remember on the Lula tutorials.  I hope the photoshop chapter(s) are info packed as I find myself forgetting how to use this application.
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NancyP

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I'll have a dead tree copy in my hands in two or three days.... :)
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Jeremy Roussak

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I'll have a dead tree copy in my hands in two or three days.... :)

Mine has been delivered to my brother's house in LA, where I arrive on Saturday. Jet-lagged as I'll be, I can see myself reading it when I wake up in the small hours of Sunday morning.

Jeremy
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dmward

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Jeff,
I read the intro from the website last night and plan to get the book as soon as I go by a bookstore.

You mentioned the difficulty with high res images and copyright protection on the website.

What about putting "target outlines" in various places on the image to highlight where the various types of sharpening or whatever are best illustrated. This would spoil the images should some crass person want to hijack them, and also, help those of us that want to try it ourselves with an easy to reference place in the image.

This might be especially useful for print testing.

I remember the Adams books. Read and re-read them many times. Processing a digital negative with software is so much more pleasant compared to the drudge of a wet darkroom.

I'm confident these books will be a suitable extension of Adams' vision.

I've enjoyed and learned from the videos, the books will be a nice alternative source.
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Schewe

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What about putting "target outlines" in various places on the image to highlight where the various types of sharpening or whatever are best illustrated. This would spoil the images should some crass person want to hijack them, and also, help those of us that want to try it ourselves with an easy to reference place in the image.

Well, for the sharpening section what I'm planning on doing is to take the full rez Bryce Point image and processing it into Photoshop with zero sharpening and noise reduction in PP RGB, cropping it to the section shown in the book and then and then saving as a lossy DNG. Then I'll go back in and add the sharpening and save snapshots and make that available for download. The DNG won't be of the full size image but will be at native resolution and the sharpening in Lightroom after the fact should match up pretty close.

I don't think I'll upload Roxana's image though...

As for the Photoshop chapter, I'll be uploading some actions of the midtone, super sharpener and sculpting. I'm not sure how useful the actual down-sampled Photoshop chapter files will be.
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