The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers

Product Description
Written in concert with Adobe's development of the Photoshop Lightroom 2 Beta, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers - by #1 bestselling computer and technology author, Scott Kelby - is the most complete and concise Lightroom "how-to" book for digital photographers of all skill levels.

In The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers, Scott walks readers through the basics of Lightroom use, leading them to a brilliantly devised and super efficient digital photography workflow that dramatically improves productivity and allows photographers to spend less time processing photos and more time shooting them.

Throughout the book Scott shares his personal camera and Lightroom settings, as well as the studio-tested techniques he's developed for his own photography workflow. The book is written in his trademark step-by-step, plain English style, and because he knows what really works and what doesn't, he isn't shy to tell you flat out which tools to use, which to avoid, and why. This allows digital photographers of any skill level to jump right in using Lightroom like a pro from the very start, sidestepping a lot of the frustrations that typically haunt those unfamiliar with new applications…especially those as powerful as Lightroom.

What really sets The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers apart from other Lightroom books on the market are the last two bonus chapters where Scott answers the questions, "In exactly what order am I supposed to do things in Lightoom," and "Where does Photoshop fit in to the mix?" Both chapters start with an on-location photo shoot, including full details on the equipment, camera settings, and lighting techniques. Readers then witness as he takes the photos from each shoot through the entire workflow process, to the final output of the 16"x20" prints. And, because he incorporates Photoshop seamlessly right into this workflow, you'll learn some of the latest Photoshop techniques for portrait and landscape photography as well.

If you're one of those people who learns best by actually doing the projects yourself; who learns best without all the complicated technical explanations and confusing jargon, and if you really want to start using Lightroom today to unlock the productivity secrets of "The new digital photography workflow,"---there is no faster, more "straight-to-the-point" or more fun way to learn than this groundbreaking new book, and you are absolutely going to love it!

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

Book Description
Proven best-seller: CS3 edition has sold over 55,000 copies worldwide!

Product Description
Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop for Photographers titles have become classic reference sources for photographers at all skill levels. Whether you are an accomplished user or just starting out, the Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers book contains a wealth of practical advice, hints and tips to help you achieve professional-looking results.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers begins with an overview of the Photoshop interface and the fundamentals of how to use Photoshop, followed by how to configure and optimize your computer's performance to run the program and then it dives straight into the essentials of Camera Raw image editing. The Sharpening chapter shows how to use the Camera Raw controls to obtain optimum capture sharpening and noise reduction and the Essentials chapter outlines how to work with all the basic image adjustment tools that are in the program, some of which have been there since the very beginning.

Practical workshops show you how to master the essential techniques, such as color correction, retouching techniques, toning a black and white image, creating composite images and so on. Each technique is described in step-by-step detail, showing exactly which command to use, whether you are working with a Mac or PC computer.

The accompanying DVD contains a Photoshop for Photographers Help Guide. This is supplied in a web browser format that you can either run from the DVD or copy to your computer hard disk for off-line viewing. The Help Guide contains a complete guide to all the tools and panels in Photoshop as well as other items in the program. It is like having an off-line manual with which to learn more about what each Photoshop tool and palette does. The guide also provides 120 minutes of movie tutorials on Photoshop CS4. If you are just beginning to work with digital images or are looking for new ideas, the best techniques and ways to improve the quality of your work, this is the book for you!

* Learn Photoshop the Martin Evening way! Get up to speed fast with the essential information you need to create superb images in Photoshop CS4.
* Accompnying DVD includes the images you need to follow along as you read, with QuickTime movie tutorials for hands-on learning
* Over 750 professional, color images make this book stand above the rest

About the Author
Martin Evening is a professional photographer and digital imaging consultant, as well as an Alpha tester for Photoshop and key demo artist for Adobe. Based in London, UK, Martin was inducted into the legendary Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers

Product Description
Are you ready for a Photoshop book that breaks all the rules? Updated for Adobe Photoshop CS4, this top-selling book breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that's rare--it cuts through the bull and shows readers exactly "how to do it." It's not a bunch of theory; it doesn't challenge readers to come up with their own settings or figure it out on their own. Instead, it shows them, step by step, the exact techniques used by today's cutting-edge digital photographers and retouchers, and it does something that virtually no other Photoshop book has ever done--it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why. Including coverage of all the newest features of CS4--such as nondestructive corrections with the Adjustments panel, the new Vibrance adjustment layer, better Dodge and Burn tools, and enhanced Auto-Align and Auto-Blend panoramic features--The Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers is full-color, graphically rich, and contains project-based examples of every key step in the digital photography process. Integrating all the newest features of Photoshop CS4 into the book's workflow, Scott shows readers how to work with their images like a pro, from importing and organization to correction and output. Readers will learn all they need to know to create stellar images using Photoshop CS4.

About the Author
Scott Kelby is president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the trade organization for Adobe Photoshop users, which has 70,000 members worldwide. Scott is also Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User magazine. He's the co-host of the highly acclaimed Photoshop User TV, and teaches photography and imaging workshops around the world. Scott serves as training director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour and is the technical chair of the largest Photoshop gathering, Photoshop World.

Learning The Basic Photoshop Tools

Adobe has its own Photoshop tutorials that run the gamut of instruction.

You can find Photoshop tutorials on the Adobe site on abstracts, automation, animation, the basics of using Photoshop, buttons and brushes, using color effectively, digital art, drawing, creating desired effects with drawing or photos, retouching photos, photography in general, scripting, textual effects, Photoshop patterns and textures, graphics for the Web, and layouts for the Web.

One of the most basic of Photoshop tutorials is a complete explanation of all you'll find on the Photoshop toolbar.
You'll learn lessons that include the use of the marquee tools. There are several: the elliptical, the single row, the single column and the rectangular.

The rectangular and elliptical marquee tools lets you expand or reduce an area that is shaped as the tools indicate. You can use a tool to size one row or one column with the appropriate marquee tool.

These basic will be taught in this Photoshop tutorial, along with the use of the move tool which lets you create movement of a layer, the lasso tool which lets you capture a specific area, and the magnetic lasso tools, which lets you change the location of images with varying colors.

The polygonal lasso tool, in contrast, will go from point to point in a straight line or lines. You'll even learn how to use a magic want with Adobe Photoshop tutorials. This magic want tool lets you click inside a one color area and move only that area.

The Photoshop crop tool, part of this tutorial, lets you delete parts of a photo.

Wit h this Photoshop tutorial you'll learn other basic tools such as the spot healing tool, the healing brush tool, the red eye tool, the patch tool, the brush tool, the pencil tool, and the color replacement tool.

With the clone stamp tool, you'll learn how to use Photoshop to copy only parts of a particular image, while the pattern stamp tool will teach you how to take an image and brush a pattern on to it.

The Photoshop tutorial will teach you the mechanics of history brush tool use, how it is used to undo what you've created by simply brushing over the image you've altered and taking it back to the image it was before.

It has an even more advance use, though, in that, you can actually undo the image change in only the specific parts from which you wish to remove your latest alteration.

The art history brush, another tool taught in Photoshop tutorials, is much the same as the history brush except that it also lets you style at the same time.

Photoshop tutorials teach three eraser tools - the standard eraser, the background eraser and the magic eraser tool. With the first you can do just as its name suggests - erase part of the image you've created with Photoshop.

With the background version you can erase only the image background, while the magic eraser which lets you make even more varied choices of what to eliminate from the image.

How to Cheat in 3ds Max 2009: Get Spectacular Results Fast

Book Description
Well-respected, established authority on Max shares her secrets on creative and effective Max tips and tricks.

Product Description
Need to get results with 3ds max fast? Why take months to learn every button in 3ds max when you can create great visuals with just a few key tools? Learn to create quick yet stunning logo treatments, special effects, and animated characters with the fastest techniques possible. Need convincing grass, trees, water, shadows? You can use the memory-hogging methods that choke your display and take forever to render, or you can get it done bing-bang with this book. When you need an animated character you can spend days fiddling with polygons, or you can use this book to put it together in minutes and get the entire project done in a day. How to Cheat in 3ds max includes a host of time-saving techniques as well as little-known tools that will make you look like an expert in no time flat. This book is for busy professionals who need to get it done right, but also need it done fast.

The CD includes scene files and bitmaps used to illustrate the cheats. also potentially Camtasia (video) files showing some of the trickier techniques that are better explained visually than on paper. Music files, organizational samples (i.e. dope sheets) or other files that are referred to in the book.

-Author is well-respected Max authority - she shares her secrets on little-known tools that save a bundle of time

-Concise, step by step, focused, examples with everything on CD so that artists and designers can start toying right away.

-New title in proven How to Cheat series: solution-oriented, quick results.

-No need to learn the entire program to look like a pro - info is quick, task-oriented, with real-life creative solutions.

About the Author
Autodesk Certified Trainer
Member of Boston Post Mortem Game Developers Gathering
WorldFest Remi Award winner 2007
Aurora Award winner 2000
3D Design Big Kahuna Award winner 2000

Michele Bousquet has been using 3ds max since its first release. She has worked as a Senior Technical Writer for Autodesk and has authored more than 20 books on 3ds max.

Michele has also taught 3ds Max, and has contributed to several magazines such as Multi-CAD, Broadcast Engineering, and Desktop.

In 2007, Michele won a WorldFest Remi Award for the TV show Animation Station, an educational series hosted by Michele. In the show, she boarded a virtual satellite to see animation from all around the world and explained how it was done.

These days, Michele thrives on teaching, writing, producing videos, and most of all, animating.

Review
Quotes on Michele's previous books:

On Model, Rig, Animate with 3ds max 7:
"A concise, handy reference. I'll be referring to it again and again." -- Vishnu Ramdass, Autodesk Product Support

On Model, Rig, Animate with 3ds max 6:

"The book's rigging chapter alone is worth the price of admission." --Jonathan Seagull, 3ds max Instructor

Review
'My first impression was "WOW!" and my second impression was "This is what reference material should look like!" The balance between illustration and text is just right for visual people - 3D artists will love it.'
- Borislav "Bobo" Petrov, Technical Director of Visual Effects at Frantic Films

'This excellent book will inspire anyone to dig a little deeper into this incredible piece of software.'
- Stefan Vittori, Managing Director Tangram 3DS

'The most visually interactive training tool ever for 3ds MAX. It is visually engaging and sets a new standard for understanding complex concepts. Michele Bousquet Rocks!'
- Richard Lapidus, Assistant Professor, 3D Animation, Mechanical Design and Drafting/CAD

'Best tricks of the trade, deliciously illustrated. Michelle reveals the secrets behind the magic of using 3ds Max. Move over David Blaine.'
- Mark Gerhard, 3ds Max Guru

'I was instantly blown away by 'How to cheat in 3ds Max 2009'! Michele has managed to capture many of the 3D industry's leading techniques and processes as well as a lot of advanced content that a lot of the pro's all use. Not only that - but in a very straight forward and easy to follow process that should be every beginners handbook and a very useful resource for even the most advanced users! Thumbs up!'
- Allan McKay, VFX Supervisor

'I found this book to be thoroughly readable and filled with time saving ideas. It's well organized and clearly written. There's lots of information in each section and the abundance of pictures makes it easy to follow. I know this book will soon become a well used and dog-eared reference in my classroom. It's filled with just the type of information my students need every single day. Each topic is covered in a single two-page spread so it's easy to read and quick to put into practice.'
- Pat Gombarcik, Autodesk Certified Instructor

'Finally a book that conveys the fun and fast side of 3ds Max. Bousquet has packed the pages with colorful and quick tutorials that help you master all of 3ds Max's main concepts.'
- Jim Lammers, President, Trinity Animation Inc.

'Here's a book you'll want to keep close to your workstation, with important workflow techniques in an attractive and accessible format. Remember that computer visualization is all fake, so "cheating" is exactly the way to increase your productivity. Good luck and have fun.'
- Ted Boardman, independent 3ds max instructor and author

3Ds Max Modeling for Games: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling

Book Description
Must-have modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering tips - to create stunning commercial grade game art.

Product Description
The book will provide insider tips, traps, and techniques on how to create 3d assets for use in computer games and simulation systems. The book will consist of a series of tutorials, starting with simpler models and moving up to more complex builds. As the book comes to us directly from successful game artists within commercial game development circles (Gahan + contributors) aspiring game artists will also find keen insights on how to get ahead in the game industry, i.e. how to prepare your personal portfolio to provide an edge in this extremely competitive world of game development.

The strength of this book is that it teaches all of the important game modeling elements of 3ds Max: character modeling, environment modeling, mapping. The book covers how to model, texture and animate credible game characters and levels using 3ds max. As readers move from tutorial to tutorial, they will be building their own portfolio of high quality work.

The DVD contains countless examples of what's hot and what's not in 3D modeling and also enough support images and photos to keep the budding artist busy for months; Features:
-step-by-step project files for each chapter
-all the relevant texture files and source photos used to create the texture maps applied to the 3D projects.
-extras: panoramic skies, small scene objects and a many texture maps and models so that artists can create whole scenes very quickly without starting from scratch each time.
-royalty free stock photos that artists can use in their own texture maps, models and scenes.

--Author Gahan is a seasoned professional and leading industry expert. Gahan is a key member of an award-winning game team recently scoring number 1 hits in Japan, Europe and America with the Playstation 3 smash hit "MotorStorm".

--Game Modeling techniques offered with artist's potential portfolio in mind. Find out what Art Directors and Managers are looking for.

--Essentials of 3D game modeling covered - Characters, Vehicles, Assets and Scenes - including lighting and rendering.

--DVD contains countless examples of what's hot and what's not in 3D modeling and also enough support images and photos to keep the budding artist busy for months.

About the Author
Andrew Gahan is a leading industry expert in next generation consoles and digital gaming. His roles have included Senior Artist, Lead Artist, Art Manager, Art Director, Art Outsource Manager, and Producer. Andrew is an expert in all gaming tools for commercial game development, including: 3ds Max, Maya, Photoshop, XSI, Gen Head, Z Brush, Mud Box, and Poly-boost (as well as other 3ds max plug-ins).

During this time Andrew has worked on 14 standalone published games as well as sequential spin-off products; as well as developing a number of military training systems for the Warrior - Armoured Fighting Vehicle, Harrier and Tornado aircraft.

In the last decade Andrew has been involved in recruitment and development of artists, including theoretical and practical training. Andrew has been a freelance consultant helping companies to develop and improve tools and applications that are used by artists in the digital gaming industry.
Andrew is currently a visiting speaker and advisor at Liverpool John Moore University for the MA digital games course; and is an external advisor at the University of Bolton, supporting the development of their forthcoming 3D related courses.

Andrew has judged the Independent Games Festival for the past 2 years.

He has been a visiting speaker at Liverpool John Moore University since 2005, and will also be a speaker at the University of Bolton for the forthcoming 3D Games Modeling course.

Andrew Gahan has given numerous media interviews, of which a recent selection is given below:

15 December 2007. Interview with Gamasutra magazine Media consumption: MotorStorms Andy Gahan.

Television interview for 1-up.com with Pete Smith (Executive External Producer, SCEE (Sony)) in San Francisco, during GDC (Game Developer Conference) in the Sony Store for the launch of MotorStorm.

Television interview for GamerTV with Pete Smith (Executive External Producer, SCEE (Sony)) in San Francisco, during GDC (Game Developer Conference) in the Sony Store for the launch of MotorStorm.

Affiliations:
IGDA: International Game Developers Association (Member)
IGF: Independent Games Festival (Judge)

3Ds Max 2009 Bible

Product Description
The only comprehensive reference-tutorial on 3ds Max available, this book is everyone's favorite. Whether you're a beginner looking for 3D basics or a full-fledged animator seeking new ways to dazzle viewers with your creations, it's all here. You'll find pages of professional tips, loads of advice, and more than 150 step-by-step tutorials guaranteed to build your skills and spark your creativity. A 16-page color insert highlights cutting-edge work from 3D artists. A valuable companion DVD provides all the examples and content from the book, including unique models and textures you can customize on your own, and a searchable, full-color version of the book.

3ds Max 2009 Bible covers both 3ds Max 2009 and 3ds Max 2009 Design and covers:

• Navigating the viewports with the ViewCube, SteeringWheels, and other ways.
• Creating realistic materials with new ProMaterials.
• Using Spline Mapping to improve texture mapping over irregular shaped objects.
• Blending multiple texture maps together with the new Composite Map.
• Creating architectural walkthroughs with the Walkthrough Assistant.

Don't miss out on the newest version of this bestselling resource!

From the Back Cover
Covers both 3ds Max 2009 and 3ds Max 2009 Design

This is, hands down, the best book on 3ds Max you'll find

If you want just one book to be your go-to guide for all things 3ds Max, this is the book. Whether you're a beginner looking for 3D basics or a full-fledged animator seeking new ways to dazzle viewers with your creations, it's all here. You'll find pages of professional tips, loads of advice, and more than 150 step-by-step tutorials guaranteed to build your skills and spark your creativity.

• Discover the ViewCube, SteeringWheels, and more ways to navigate the viewports

• Use the new ProMaterials to create realistic materials

• Improve texture mapping over irregular shaped objects using Spline Mapping

• Blend multiple texture maps together with the new Composite Map

• Easily create architectural walkthroughs with the Walkthrough Assistant

What's on the DVD?
You'll find before-and-after example files for every tutorial in the book. The DVD also includes:

• Unique models and textures you can customize for your own designs

• Autodesk 3ds Max evaluation version

• A searchable full-color PDF of the book

System Requirements: See the DVD appendix for details and complete system requirements.

Also in the Book

• A 16-page full-color insert showcases cutting-edge work from 3ds Max artists

About the Author
Kelly L. Murdock has been authoring computer books for many years now and still gets immense enjoyment from the completed work. His book credits include various 3D, graphics, multimedia, and Web titles, including eight previous editions of this book, 3ds Max Bible. Other major accomplishments include Edgeloop Character Modeling for 3D Professionals Only, Maya 6 and 7 Revealed, LightWave 3D 8 Revealed, The Official Guide to Anime Studio, Poser 6 and 7 Revealed, 3D Game Animation For Dummies, gmax Bible, Adobe Atmosphere Bible, Master VISUALLY HTML and XHTML, JavaScript Visual Blueprint, and co-authoring duties on two editions of the Illustrator Bible (for versions 9 and 10) and three editions of the Adobe Creative Suite Bible.
With a background in engineering and computer graphics, Kelly has been all over the 3D industry and still finds it fascinating. He’s used high-level CAD workstations for product design and analysis, completed several large-scale visualization projects, created 3D models for feature films and games, worked as a freelance 3D artist, and even done some 3D programming. Kelly’s been using 3D Studio since version 3 for DOS. Kelly has also branched into training others in 3D technologies. He teaches at the local university and is a frequent speaker at various conferences.