The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations

Award-winning photography/design team Harold and Phyllis Davis are back with a brand-new volume in their new Photoshop Darkroom series. Picking up where their best-selling first book left off, The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Advanced Digital Post-Processing will show you everything you need to know to take your digital imaging skills to the next level.

Great photographers know that the best images begin well before the shutter clicks, and certainly well before Photoshop boots up. Harold takes a step back, and shares his helpful tips for capturing the most compelling images possible by keeping in mind what type of post-processing you'll do before you start shooting. You'll also find complete coverage of important topics such as compositing, working with layers, and HDR. Packed with tons of eye-popping images which have won Harold national acclaim, this is a fantastic resource for photographers who want to think outside the box and create truly stunning artwork.

• Compatible with any version of Photoshop
• Useful case studies break information down into condensed, real-world examples which are easy to follow and put into practice immediately
• Images and supplemental material are available for free on Focal Press's website

These images show some of the techniques explained in The Photoshop Darkroom 2:

I used multi-RAW processing to build up this striking portrait with a dark background. Photoshop’s retouching features smoothed the skin and helped enhance the eyes.

This macro photo of water drop reflections and refractions was enhanced using partial desaturation and the soft light blending mode.

This image of sea palms (kelp) in the surf is a stacked composite view with photos taken over a period of time combined in Photoshop.

This photo composite started with a shot of an empty eggshell, and an entirely separate shot of a wasp. In Photoshop, I used an LAB color adjustment to turn the wasp wings green, then composited the wasp into the eggshell.

Dear Amazon Readers,

How would you like a Photoshop book that is one part inspiration, one part nuts-and-bolts techniques, and 100% as visually gorgeous as a 21st-century Photoshop book should be? That’s our idea behind The Photoshop Darkroom 2: to inspire you so you can create your best imagery with the tools you need.

There’s really no secret sauce here. Our earlier book, The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing has been hailed as “the best Photoshop book ever,” “easy to use,” and “fun!” We’ve used the same approach in The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations. We don’t try to cover everything: we explain Photoshop from the perspective of what we really do every day in the course of our professional lives. We are not interested in bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles; we are interested in getting things done. We believe that having fun and being inspired is part of the point of Photoshop, and we’ve tried to make every page in our book both fun and inspiring.

We often get asked two questions about The Photoshop Darkroom 2: First, how does this book relate to the first Photoshop Darkroom? And then, do I need the latest and greatest version of Photoshop to get the most out of your book?

These are good questions.

The Photoshop Darkroom 2 and the original Photoshop Darkroom are companion volumes. Each one is meant to be read on its own. Since we didn’t want to repeat ourselves too much, in some places in The Photoshop Darkroom 2 we refer you to the first book for more in-depth information about certain topics. But you certainly don’t need to read them in order.

As the subtitle, Creative Digital Transformations, suggests, The Photoshop Darkroom 2 emphasizes the portions of Photoshop that involve changing the nature of what is shown: retouching to remove flaws and enhance beauty, making the unseen visible, and photo compositing to create new worlds.

The Photoshop Darkroom 2 was written using the most up-to-date software available at the time of writing, Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Lightroom 3. A few of the features specific to these versions are discussed in the book. However, for the most part, the techniques shown in The Photoshop Darkroom 2 (as with the first Photoshop Darkroom) involve core features of Photoshop such as layers and masking that have been available for a long time.

If you are new to Photoshop, The Photoshop Darkroom 2 is designed to get you up to speed quickly. If you are an old hand in the digital darkroom, we think you’ll find some new techniques in The Photoshop Darkroom 2--and, more importantly, some new ideas about how to approach Photoshop and the digital future.

We hope our book helps you along your path as a photographer and digital image creator. Enjoy!

--Harold and Phyllis Davis