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Mastering Black and White Digital Photography (A Lark Photography Book) Features
- ISBN13: 9781579907075
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Mastering Black and White Digital Photography (A Lark Photography Book) Overview
Black and white has an enduring appeal that just keeps on growing. Above all, it’s a medium for the fine print–one that benefits immeasurably from digital technology and inkjet printers. Written by a photographer well-known for his ability to explain complex digital concepts to a variety of audiences, this essential guide on the art of black and white is packed with information, hints, and tips, along with a plethora of stunning images. Discover how our colorful world translates into black and white and how to create a stunning monotone image. See how to render colors as gray tones and how to manipulate the tonality for dramatic effect. Experiment with high contrast, infrared, and pseudo non-silver looks. You won’t believe the wonderful results you’ll achieve.
Mastering Black and White Digital Photography (A Lark Photography Book) Review
This book presents an introductory exposition of techniques for producing “fine art” black and white images from digital color images. Its intended audience is amateur digital photographers and Photoshop users with limited experience. The technical depth of the discussion is fairly high-level. The book is laid out in a glitzy fashion that indicates heavy influence from the graphic arts department. In this regard, the book is better suited for coffee table display than for use as a workroom reference.
The book divides its discussion into five chapters:
· The Language of Mono
· Color into Grayscale
· Digital Black and White
· Image Editing and Effects
· The Print
The Language of Mono
This is good place to start a discussion of black and white images, by looking at what makes black and white images work. Here, the author introduces his “case study” method, where he uses an image as an example to illustrate his points.
Color into Grayscale
In this chapter, the author explores ways to use the Channel Mixer in Photoshop to manipulate the individual color channels for red, green and blue to produce the black and white tones intended by the photographer. He also introduces the technique of manipulating hues to control tones. Again, he uses case studies of individual images to illustrate his ideas.
Digital Black and White
In this section, the author explores the management of tonal ranges using Photoshop. He discusses setting white and black points to expand tonal range, and introduces methods for managing scenes with high dynamic range. Zone System is introduced, and the author briefly discusses scanning images.
Image Editing and Effects
In this abbreviated section, the author introduces ideas for modifying images to enhance mood. He also provides brief introductions to concepts including adding color tones (e.g., sepia), using duotones and other print finishing techniques.
The Print
In this final section, the author presents a brief discussion of printer types (dye-sublimation vs. inkjet). He introduces the concept of printer calibration, and goes on to introduce ink issues (mainly suggesting external ink supplies). He finishes with a brief discussion of print mounting and display.
Critical Assessment
Clearly, the real value of this book is in introducing the reader to the concepts involved in digital black and white photography. The discussions that have the greatest value are in the first three sections, where the author provides the greatest depth. Topics broached in the final two sections are passed over too lightly to add much to the readers understanding.
Taking the first three sections on their own merit, however, they do justify the price of the book. Although introductory in scope, they delve deeply enough into the topics to provide real help for beginners. There is enough here to keep beginning photographers busy for some time, exploring the techniques he describes. Soon enough, however, students will reach the point where they will need additional information not provided in this book. To be fair, many of the topics the author covers lightly are worthy of books in themselves. For example: the author devotes four pages to zone system, but manages to say nothing that might actually help the reader understand what zone system is about. (I recommend reading Ansel Adams’ The Negative again. Just remember, in digital photography the zone system admonition to “expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights” morphs into, “expose for the highlights, expose again for the shadows.” And, while you’re about reading Ansel Adams, The Print has much good information. Just skip all the lab chemistry parts.)
The layout of this book is such that it is not so much read as explored. Major content is provided in sidebars and captions. The heavy influence of the graphic arts department in the layout can be annoying at times, for instance when it is unclear which supplementary text belongs with which main text, or when an entire column is devoted to a pull-quote in large type of a paragraph we just read on the preceding page. The book does not invite highlighting with a marker or scribbling notes in the margins (it would seem almost a desecration).
On balance, I am glad I discovered this book. It provided me with essential help in getting started with black and white digital photography. I was disappointed that the book lacked the depth to help me with steps beyond the first, so in this sense it does not live up to its title, Mastering Black and White Digital Photography. The book would have more accurately been titled, Introducing Black and White Digital Photography, which it well accomplishes.
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