Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: soboyle on September 19, 2006, 11:38:51 am
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I'm looking for recommendations on books for preparing files for fine art printing in photoshop. I read that the "master printers" spend days tweeking their files in photoshop in preparation for printing.
So what are they doing with all that time? I know what I'm doing with my hours before printing, but its probably not what they are doing.
Any recommendations for the best books on preparing images for printing, how to make the print go from good, to outstanding? Emphasis on photoshop editing techniques, not color management.
Or can't this be found in a book, need to take a workshop?
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Mastering Digital Printing by Harald Johnson. The boys over at Outback Photo have an ebook on digital printing as well.
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I'm looking for the specific photoshop tricks that make the difference between OK prints, and ones that really stand out, not books on the entire digital workflow, and generalized information like that.
What specifically are master fine art printers doing to their files to make them pop and sing? I expect it comes down to local selections, contrast, saturation, color correction, sharpening etc. but I am hoping to hear it from a master printer who does this all day every day, with any tricks they have learned along the way.
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Super. Take a class. Preferrably from someone who's prints you like.
Get a class from Alain Briot or try his DVD
http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/ (http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/)
Hmmm... That DVD looks remarkably cool. I wonder what it will cost?
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Thanks for that suggestion, Alan's DVD does look like a superb learning tool, and probably just what I am looking for. The deal killer for me is the price. So my search continues for a book/website that covers the essentials of a photoshop workflow for prepaing an image for fine art printing.
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Nevermind.
I'm thinking I'm back to Uwe's ebook.
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Thanks for that suggestion, Alan's DVD does look like a superb learning tool, and probably just what I am looking for. The deal killer for me is the price. So my search continues for a book/website that covers the essentials of a photoshop workflow for prepaing an image for fine art printing.
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Where did you see the price for Alan's DVD? It looks interesting. I have the e-book from OBP. It's a fine read, but I would like to see the DVD. At this point in time any workshops outside the metro area of Minnesota is not do-able. Due to commitments, travel is out of the question.
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Digital processing is like a chess game. It is not so much the moves, but the particular combination and sequence of them according to the particular situation one find oneself in that is critical to sucess.
The most time I have spent on a particular set of problems was 4 months. I did do a few other things as well.
In a workshop I took with the master analogue printer Eddie Ephraums, one participant asked how long did it take to produce a fine print. Eddie replied that if everything went well, and the situation
was straightforward, then such a print might be possible in as little as 2 days.
The digital workflow has possibilities of control and subtelty that can exceed analogue techniques.
Each master printer ,like the chess player develops his/her own styles of approach.
I try listen to what the print is saying about where it wants to go to reveal itself.
There are a number of books that can give clues if they are sifted though carefully for the gems.
If you can get it John Paul Caponigro's " Adobe Photoshop Masterclass " Ed 2 is such a book.
Katrin Eismann (The Digital Diva), is very useful too.
I suspect Stephen Johnson's recent book will be good, but I haven't read it yet.
Much can be gleaned from George De Wolfe and Joseph Holmes . Watch out for workshops that may come to your area. Others to watch for are Mac Holbert, David Adamson, John Cone and Franck Bordas. I'm not sure if Franck does workshops and he may not wish to be outside Paris.
There are quite a number of sources that I have omitted.
Photoshop is critical, but it is by no means a perfect program. You should carefully evaluate others. Raw Developer is useful. If you know what you are doing, check out Lobster from FreeGamma. There are very good sharpening and noise removal programs too.
As for me, I am attempting to refine luminance edits and to understand how linearity works in different colour spaces..
Most of all,
Have fun
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au
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For books I'd agree that you look into Harold's book. If you can swing a seminar, the one to go to is anything by Mac Holbert of Nash Editions. He teaches once a year at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops and once a year at Anderson Ranch with Greg Gorman. He's the man that put fine art printing on the map!
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I suspect Stephen Johnson's recent book will be good, but I haven't read it yet.
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I have this and while it's mildly interesting, it's not going to turn anyone into a master printmaker. It's more autobiography with a few Photoshop tidbits thrown in.
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Rodney, we must have passed in cyberspace. Yes Mac was in it right at the beginning . So were some of the others I mentioned. We are lucky that most of the pioneers have kept up adding to the knowledge pot and are now serving it up at workshops. It's a bit tough for those outside North America or Western Europe. We have one glowing (luminous?) exception here in Au in Les Walkling.
To date though Les has not published his research outside his workshop notes.
Stephen - Thanks for that. A shame if that is the case. SJ has been there since around 93 too, and people have spoken highly of The Magical Digital Bus.
Harald's book did not come in at the depth that it could have.
Perhaps publishers think the fine printing market is too small and convince writers to water the gritty down and fill up with pretty pictures. It's a while since John Paul's book and nothing much seems to have turned up since.
I would love to be proved wrong.
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au
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Thanks for that suggestion, Alan's DVD does look like a superb learning tool, and probably just what I am looking for. The deal killer for me is the price. So my search continues for a book/website that covers the essentials of a photoshop workflow for prepaing an image for fine art printing.
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I couldn't find a price for it on Alain's web page - so unless I've missed something, it's not clear where the deal-killer is.
Have you exhausted the resources on this website? There is a tremensous amount of useful material that will contribute to your objective. If you live on the North AMerican continent it could well be worth your while to attend one of the two annual PhotoshopWorld events. The next one will be in Boston. Check the NAPP website at www.photoshopuser.com. You will also find lots of other resources there. It is worthwhile taking out a NAPP membershio. The Adobe website also has a very considerable amount of free download material covering topics relevant to your interest. Outbackphoto as well. There is so much available on the web that will help alot. It does take time to find it, acquire it and digest it, and most importantly spend time working with it. In my experience there is no one source or no one book that covers everything. While on the subject of books, Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS2 for Photographers is very good, not very expensive, and you will find straightforward demos of many image enhancing techniques there.
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Its the same price as one of his workshops. Should anyone get it I'd like a thourough review of it. Cause it could certainly be worth it but I wouldn't jump in unless I'd taken one of his workshops before. (Or at least bought a print. Hmmm.... I wonder what his picture is this month....)
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Its the same price as one of his workshops. Should anyone get it I'd like a thourough review of it. Cause it could certainly be worth it but I wouldn't jump in unless I'd taken one of his workshops before. (Or at least bought a print. Hmmm.... I wonder what his picture is this month....)
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Yes, thanks, by pure coincidence, after I posted my query about the pricing I subscribed to the notification list and immediately received the email with the link to the pricing information. I think your call for some views is well-taken. The usual question for all these things is that of value-added to the individual user relative to cost, and while the price is the price, we are all on different parts of the learning curve.
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If you can swing a seminar, the one to go to is anything by Mac Holbert of Nash Editions. He teaches once a year at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops and once a year at Anderson Ranch with Greg Gorman. He's the man that put fine art printing on the map!
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I recently took Mac's fine art inkjet printing workshop at the Julia Dean gallery in Venice, CA (Los Angeles area). If you're in Southern California, his one-day class is well worth it.
[a href=\"http://www.juliadean.com/fineartdigitalprintmkg.html]http://www.juliadean.com/fineartdigitalprintmkg.html[/url]
Paul
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Alans workshop on DVD is priced at $975.
Very likely well worth it if you have that kind of cash available, which I don't at this moment, because he covers the entire process from just after capture to final portfolio presentation.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into some of these books and other sources.
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Alans workshop on DVD is priced at $975.
Very likely well worth it if you have that kind of cash available, which I don't at this moment, because he covers the entire process from just after capture to final portfolio presentation.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into some of these books and other sources.
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There are about 15 left at $775 and if you have taken one of his workshops or bought any of his CD's, it is $875. The $975 price is for everyone else.