Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4

This is really an instruction manual on how to sell a book with a misleading title and virtually no useful content for a hefty price. I kept waiting for the authors to quit wasting time and actually get to the "Industrial-strength Imaging Techniques" promised on the cover. It never happened. After 200 pages of filler, there are a few actual examples of compositing, but nothing you couldn't readily find online for free. A complete disappointment, especially considering it's published in association with Adobe Press. Some free advice for Adobe Press: before you put your name on it, try passing it by one of your editors, eh?

I actually enjoyed all the chapters on preparation of your images and setups before tackling a compositing job, it was learning some new things mixed with reviewing/validating overall Photoshop features and workflow sequencing. I equated this book to being similar to painting a room. 90% of the work that will determine a superior quality paint (compositing) job lies in the hours spent getting the right materials, tools (images), and taping/prepping the room (prep-retouching/correcting). The actual painting (compositing) is just the almost-final step in the process, with some cleanup/tweaking at the end. Most important is to collect images with similar lighting source and image quality. It is very fakey to Photoshop-change the lighting on faces, buildings, landscapes, etc. to match other images' lighting if you don't have any artistic sense or experience.

My big gripe is the example composites in the back of the book. They were very amateurish, fakey and dorky, and did not... Read more

Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 goes over the many processes of creating a photo composite in a clearly explained, and at times simplified manner.
Compositing topics such as color correction for compositing, creating 3D content, retouching, layers and layer masks,
blurring for selective focus, and getting your image ready for output are all included.

This book will have you feeling inspired, and will enable you to look at various compositing ideas and options you may have overlooked or didn't even know existed.

Real World Compositing with Adobe Photoshop CS4 is to the point, yet full of information,
making this book helpful both to a novice and experienced Photoshop user alike.