The Landscape Photographer's Guide to Photoshop: A Visualization-Driven Workflow

I attended a Guy Tal "Talk" and was incredibly inspired by him. He told us about his new book soon to be released. I told him I had a love hate relationship with Photoshop and he said most do, but my new book will possibly change that relationship. I received it two days ago and have been devouring it. This is not your normal instructional book on Photoshop. Guy leads you from the artistic visualization to the digital realization of a printed image. He lightly addresses the critical components of a digital image unlike any other authors I've read. This will be a game changer for me!

Really nice guide to the Photoshop tools of interest to anyone using Photoshop to process fine art photography, not just for landscape photographers! Cuts nicely through the bloatware that has crept into the product to let you take full advantage of the current versions.

This is an exquisite monograph. One of his major virtues is having detailed information on the settings and filters use for each photograph. That is far more educational than anything else but I’ve seen it many other monographs on the same topic. Highly recommended, as are the other books by the same two photographers.

This book is a great resource for any photographer who wants to graduate from just documenting their subject to actually creating art. It does not aim to increase your sales, but only how you feel about your work and yourself.

The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Photoshop: A Visualization-Driven Workflow by Guy Tal is a book that appeals to my process improvement, systems thinking side. It provides the skeleton of a workflow that will work for most any kind of photography, not just landscape. It includes steps from concept to publication. This book applies to photography as art. Tal refers to art as something that is deliberately made by human beings. This leaves room to create something that matches out vision rather than just documenting the scene as registered by the camera sensor. Even from film days, the best photographers used capture and darkroom techniques to make images match their vision rather than just accepting the results of a rote chemical process. With digital files, more of us have a chance to do this as well. The book begins with a brief survey of art and photography’s place in it. Then Tal discusses visualization and the maker’s self-expression through his/her images. To accomplish this the author gives the artist an understanding of the digital file and how histograms work. Then he gets to the important step of analyzing the image to see what gaps keep the image from matching the photographer’s vision. This analysis guides the steps of the Photoshop digital workflow. Many Photoshop techniques are touched on, from raw conversion to layer adjustments. He also discusses several of the techniques for blending images like HDR, focus stacking and masking. Photoshop is a vast program. He certainly doesn’t cover everything a landscape photographer could use but does cover the fundamentals. The development process helps the photographer craft and images that meets her/his purpose for it. Tal discusses sharing the output through flattening, sizing, color management and printing to serve the artists purpose for the image. He finishes with a step by step review of the workflow process. In this book Tal gives us the bones of a workflow to reach our vision. It is up to us to flesh out the meat on those bones so that we have command of all the techniques we need to meet out goals.

Guy Tal is a great writer and photographer. I could not put the book down because of the combination of outstanding images and writing. Tal is a strong advocate of Ansel Adams’ concept of scene visualization, he’s renewed my interest in photography.

Guy Tal is as good with words as he is with his camera. A true artist. The book offers insights to the photographer’s artistic vision before, during and after a photograph is captured.

This book is so much more than a "how to" on photoshop. Mr. Tal gets at the reasons to take photographs, and how to express yourself through your art. Highly recommended for any landscape photographer!

This is perhaps the most fulfilling book I’ve read on the subject. There’s plenty of material out there on all the photoshop tools but rarely do they address the question of why you may want to use the tool. But the most important discussion in the book is to help the reader in the illusive visualization process. I got a lot out of it and will continue to use it as an ongoing resource for my photography.

An excellent book that is specific to the landscape photographer. Incredibly helpful

Excellent

Over the years I have read a pile of Photoshop books unfit for my purpose as a landscape photographer. I needed a guide to help me process my images in a workflow that suited my vision; not some Photoshop warrior. I've found it at last: the perfect guide leavened with Mr Tal's inspirational and crystal clear guidance. His books guide me in the landscape and now in the digital studio. My only regret is that it has taken me so long to discover him.

Excellent and informative. Provides useful and practical advice.