Photoshop CS4 for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a Book [With CDROM]

483 Pages·30.471 MB·English

by  Anon, Ellen;Grey, Tim(Foreword);Anon, Josh

Malestrom
81274ffirs.indd 1 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
Photoshop CS4
®
for Nature
Photographers
A Workshop in a Book
Ellen Anon
Josh Anon
81274ffirs.indd 1 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo
Development Editor: Candace English
Technical Editor: Al Ward
Production Editor: Dassi Zeidel
Copy Editor: Liz Welch
Production Manager: Tim Tate
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive Publisher: Joseph B. Wikert
Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde
Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher
Associate Producer: Kit Malone
Media Quality Assurance: Angie Denny
Book Designer: Franz Baumhackl and Lori Barra
Compositor: Chris Gillespie, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Kathy Pope, Word One
Indexer: Ted Laux
Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford
Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed
Cover Image: Ellen Anon
Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
All images contained on the accompanying DVD are Copyright © by Ellen Anon, Josh Anon, and Tim Grey. The images are for practice purposes only.
Any reprint or distribution of the images is strictly prohibited.
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-38127-4
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without
either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance
Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed
to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, [phone], fax [phone], or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or com-
pleteness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular pur-
pose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for
every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If
professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable
for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further
information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it
may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was
written and when it is read.
For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the
U.S. at [phone], outside the U.S. at [phone] or fax [phone].
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anon, Ellen.
Photoshop CS4 for nature photographers : a workshop in a book / Ellen Anon, Josh Anon. —1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-38127-4 (paper/cd-rom)
ISBN-10: 0-470-38127-2 (paper/cd-rom)
1. Nature photography. 2. Adobe Photoshop. I. Anon, Josh. II. Title.
TR721.A5663 2009
778.9’302856686--dc22
2008042929
TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates, in
the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorpo-
rated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned
in this book.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
81274ffirs.indd 2 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
Dear Reader,
Thank you for choosing Photoshop CS4 for Nature Photographers: A Work-
shop in a Book. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of
which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a
gift for teaching.
Sybex was founded in 1976. More than thirty years later, we’re still commit-
ted to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re work-
ing hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the
authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.
I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear
your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know
what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at
[email protected], or if you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please
visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.
Best regards,
Neil Edde
Vice President and Publisher
Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley
81274ffirs.indd 3 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
In loving memory of Max Lurie, our father and grandfather.
You laid the foundation for our love of photography.
8/5/1920–8/28/2008
81274ffirs.indd 4 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
To Dr. Gary Brotherson—whose skill restored my vision and
whose confidence and patience keep me going.
—Ellen Anon
To my family, for continuing to set the alarm before sunrise;
and to Eric Gold for the fun times we had shooting—so long,
and thanks for all the Nikon vs. Canon debates.
—Josh Anon
Acknowledgments
In the past I’ve always dedicated my books to my family. And indeed I hope that they
are well aware that I am very grateful for their continued support. But this book is
dedicated to Dr. Brotherson. When photographers talk about their vision, we usually
mean it figuratively. We take the literal for granted until something stops us in our
tracks, which can be absolutely terrifying. Dr. Brotherson’s skill and patient, confident,
and pragmatic approach have carried me through some rough times. It’s hard to know
how to adequately thank someone who not only restored my vision but continues to be
a rock as I weather this storm. And I want to thank Dr. Stratton as well. He too has
played a vital role in helping me regain my vision. Both of them are outstanding doctors
who have gone out of their way to help me. Major thanks to you both!
It’s been a special pleasure to collaborate with my son Josh on this book. Josh is a
very talented photographer and has been my computer guru for as long as I can remem-
ber! He was responsible for adding the information for Elements users.
Every successful book project reflects not only the work of the authors, but of the
entire team. And as nearly every author will agree, there are good editors…and well,
let’s just say those that aren’t. But on this project we’ve been blessed with an extraordi-
narily great team! The Sybex team of Mariann Barsolo (acquisitions editor), Candace
English (development editor), and Dassi Zeidel (production editor) are unbeatable. It’s
been a pleasure and honor to work with each of them. They truly facilitated the process
in every way possible. Thank you each so much! Thanks also to Liz Welch, who copy
edited the book and did her best to ensure that we are grammatically correct and com-
municate clearly. Once again I want to thank Al Ward for tech-editing this book and
for his excellent sidebar. His careful attention to detail helps ensure that everything is
accurate. Lastly, thanks to the compositor, Happenstance Type-O-Rama, who has done
a great job of laying out the book so that details in the figures are more readily visible.
81274ffirs.indd 5 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
I am extremely grateful to our contributors who were so generous with their
time, writing, and images: Peter Burian, Charles Glatzer, Darrell Gulin, Rick Holt,
George Lepp, Joe McDonald, Arthur Morris, Michael Reichmann, John Shaw, and
Tony Sweet. All are busy professionals, yet they made time to help us. Thank you!
Finally, I also want to thank the readers of the first two editions of this book for
making this third edition possible. It’s quite an honor to do a third edition of a book,
and I want you to know how much your praise, feedback, and support matter!
—Ellen Anon
First, I want to give special thanks to my mother Ellen for including me on this book
as her new coauthor. More importantly, however, I really appreciate how easy she
made the whole process for me. She assembled the material and was more involved
with reviewing the different drafts, which made it possible for me to write with her
even though I was working 70-plus-hour weeks for part of the process. I also want to
say thanks to my dad for putting up with the times I called the house to talk to Mom
instead of him about some aspect of the book. Thanks to my brother Seth for always
supporting me in my endeavors and for being willing to drive his car over rocky terrain
so that I could get a shot.
I want to second the thanks that Ellen passed along to Sybex’s talented staff and
to our photographer friends and contributors; you all are always inspiring and genu-
inely fun people to shoot with!
Day to day, I’m fortunate in that I get to interact with another inspiring group,
the Pixar Photoclub. Its members (including Eben Ostby, Trish Carney, Heesoo Lee,
Ralph Hill, Craig Good, and more) create and share impressive images nearly every day.
I also want to thank my coworkers in the Camera and Staging (Layout) department for
continuing to turn my photography skills into cinematography skills, especially Patrick
Lin, Mahyar Abousaeedi, Andrew Cadelago, Matt Silas, and Mark Sanford.
Last but not least, I continue to be grateful to Claudia Skerlong for teaching
me to write well. Although she slightly disputed my claim that she thought hell would
freeze over before I wrote a book, I’m certain she felt it would freeze before I coau-
thored a second.
—Josh Anon
81274ffirs.indd 6 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
About the Authors
Ellen Anon got her start with photography at age five, but for years it
remained a hobby as she took a very long fork in the road, eventually earning
a PhD in clinical psychology. Finally in 1997 a broken foot forced her to take a
break from work as a psychologist, and she used the time to study John Shaw’s
photography tapes. (Thank you, John, for starting me on the road to photography
as a career.) She debated briefly between building a traditional darkroom in her
home and creating a digital darkroom. Since she’s not fond of being closed up in
small dark spaces with strong smells of funky chemicals, she opted for the latter.
Ever since, photography has been a two-part process for her. Making the image in
the field is step one, and optimizing it in the digital darkroom is step two. Being
creative with it is the icing on the cake!
Ellen is now a freelance photographer, speaker, and writer who specializes
in expressive photography. Ellen’s images, based on nature, are sometimes realistic
and sometimes abstract but are always designed to elicit emotional reactions from
the viewer. Her goal with her photographs is to go beyond the ordinary in ways
that she hopes stimulate others to pause and appreciate some of the beauty and
wonder of our earth. Ellen’s images are included in collections in several countries.
She is represented by several stock agencies, and her photos have been showcased
in galleries, used in numerous publications (including Sierra Club’s Mother Earth
and Inner Reflections 2007 calendar). In addition she has been Highly Honored
in Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, and
Highly Commended in the 2008 BBC/Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year
competition. She is a member of the Aperture Advisory Board and is an Apple
Certified Trainer for Aperture 2.
In addition to Photoshop for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a
Book, Ellen is the coauthor of Aperture Exposed: The Mac Photographer’s Guide
to Taming the Workflow (Sybex, 2006) with her son, Josh Anon, and has con-
tributed chapters to several other books. Ellen leads both photographic- and digi-
tal darkroom–oriented workshops for Santa Fe Workshops and the McDonald
Digital Wildlife Institute. She is a featured speaker at various events, and is also
a frequent contributor to a variety of photography magazines and blogs. Ellen
is an active member of the North American Nature Photography Association
(NANPA) and is an instructor for its high school scholarship program. She is
also a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)
and the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP).
81274ffirs.indd 7 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM
Josh Anon
has been a nature photographer for over half his life, with his
interest in photography starting when he received his first Kodak 110 camera at
the ripe old age of 4. Camera in hand, he received a BS in computer science from
Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
After graduating, Josh started working at Pixar Animation Studios in
Emeryville, California. There he has worked on Finding Nemo, The Incredibles,
Ratatouille, and more. Currently he is a layout artist (camera and staging), and
his past positions have included crowds simulation, Linux and Mac software
development, and model and render optimization.
His photographic work, which has appeared in a variety of publications, is
represented by the Jaynes Gallery and is available for direct sale from his website
(www.joshanon.com). Recently, Josh won best Man and the Environment Image for
the Art Wolfe Environmental Photo Invitational, took second place in the Envi-
ronment at Risk category in the International Conservation Photography awards,
was a finalist in Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International
Awards, and was a semi-finalist in the world-renowned BBC/Shell Wildlife Pho-
tographer of the Year competition. He has traveled the globe searching for the
next great picture, be it 100 feet deep on the Great Barrier Reef or at 2 a.m. dur-
ing the winter in the Arctic Circle. On the weekends and evenings, Josh teaches
photography, both online and in-person. He also writes for the O’Reilly Inside
Aperture blog, and with Ellen, he is a coauthor of Aperture Exposed (Anon and
Anon, Sybex, 2006).
Josh continues to develop software in his free time, currently focusing
on FlipBook, which is movie-making software for iPhone and iPod Touch.
When not shooting, making cartoons, or coding, Josh can be found
kiteboarding.
81274ffirs.indd 8 10/8/08 8:40:19 PM