Professional Photoshop 5.0: The Classic Guide to Color Correction

I do agree with some of the reviews bellow about this book being a bit wordy, but color correction is a boring subject. I think the author ment to keep readers interested rather than babble on. Regardless, this book is the book you want to buy if you work at any periodical or graphics house in which you are preparing pictures for press. This book is not for people making simple web graphics. It talks about utillizing photoshop to make things look more life like on paper. I would like to add that colors vary from press to press, so don't rely to much on the colors he specifies. Rather use his techniques and your own experience to find out what colors work best on your press. This is a must have book for people who do any serious amount of printing on a professional press.

For those of us who truly care about sharpening imagery to "best possible quality," this book provides specific, workable paradigms to use. Clear explanations, and powerful visual examples, make it possible for a designer, like myself, to create crisper and more impacting imagery. From the first chapter, I was able to apply the techniques suggested by Mr. Margulis...and they worked. My printer is now using my recent work to promote their work, as the color is punchy, and the imagery very sharp. If you are honestly attempting to "push the limit" of your design ability in print, understanding this book is important to you. Especially clear were the new technical terms to describe dpi, lpi and other vagaries of graphic language. Finally, I understand the differences. This book is sitting next to my computer. Actually, it's my favorite reference when working in color.

dan margulis doesn't waist time with technical blabber. absolute to the point, witty and humorous language is used through out. the first book of it's kind that reads like a thriller to the interested professional. I owe mr. margulis my very deepest respect. «professional photoshop 5» has given my work as a professional fashion photographer a wider view and his profound knowledge of colour correction has given me the possibility of delivering files to my customers that i know will stand up in print. i tip my hat to the author!

This book is not for those Photoshop users who are looking for the latest and trendiest plug-in's and/or filters to customize Photoshop. Nope, for that, you'll have to go to one of those WOW books. If, however, you have occasion to make the images that you work with print better on a printing press, this book is incredible. Margulis takes you step by step into the powerful world of Photoshop curves. He demonstrates dramatically how, in many many cases, you don't have to waste time making elaborate selection masks to correct color. All you need is curves. After reading just three chapters, I was able to get dramatically better-balanced and vibrant images. (And I've been using Photoshop since version 1.5!) For variety, he also takes on the correct usage of unsharp masking and how to use different colorspaces to enhance separations. Margulis eschews most, if not all, of the new color management tools adopted by Adobe in version 5, and version 4 users will feel right at home. Although his writing style may seem a bit strained at times, the data presented in the numerous examples is well-rendered and quite clear. Not for Web graphic artists, if you want better color, contrast and sharpness from your images before they go off to press, you must have this book.

For starters, Dan Margulis is the Plato of Photoshop. Truth and simplicity is the philosophy he preaches, and the shocking thing is, it works. But Plato ain't no simple read, nor is this. His '95 book, "Professional Photoshop," completely changed how I use Photoshop, and put me on the path to professional retouch, which I now do (not for full face cosmetic ads in Vogue, but for almost every less-demanding project). Did I mention that Dan Marglis will save you that $1,200 you were thinking of spending on a monitor calibrator? You don't need it; you'll learn his own (free of charge) technique. The book is crammed with before & after photos in color. Professional Photoshop 5 is probably the best written book in the graphics field, and certainly the funniest. It ranges from easy to quite difficult, and shows you every step on every photo. But, please, Mr. Margulis, we need to work on the same pictures that you did, so if you'd put together a CD-ROM of them, we'd GLADLY buy them. Just so I could experience transforming that humdrum beer glass in chapter 16 into a sweating, foaming masterpiece like you did.