With a mantra like "There are no bad originals, only bad Photoshop operators," you know best-selling author Dan Margulis is serious about exposing people to the magic of Photoshop. Nowhere is that magic more apparent than in its LAB color processing capabilities, which can make even the subtle canyon colors of rock, sand, and dirt come to vivid life. However, you may be wary of taming the complex beast.
Here's your guide! In these pages, Dan shows that you can derive enormous benefits from just a few simple tools and techniques. He also demonstrates that you can take these techniques as far as you wish, employing the power-user features he describes in later chapters. Starting with canyons and progressing to faces, you will see just how quickly you can begin improving your images by following the "recipes" included here.
Each chapter includes a sidebar with review questions and exercises as well as a "Closer Look" section that examines some of the principles behind the techniques. A CD includes exercise files.
1 The canyon conundrum
2 LAB by the numbers
3 Vary the recipe, vary the color
4 It's all about the center point
5 Sharpen the L, blur the AB
6 Entering the forest : myths and dangers
7 Summing up : LAB and the workflow
8 The imaginary color, the impossible retouch
9 The LAB advantage in selections and masking
10 The product is red but the client wants green
11 The best retouching space
12 Command, click, control
13 The universal interchange standard
14 Once for color, once for contrast
15 Blending with the A and B
16 A face is like a canyon