"Hecate" wrote in message
On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 12:03:30 -0500, Tom Nelson
wrote:
Is anyone else reading Dan Margulis’ new book? It’s amazing, world-changing, but I think my head is going to explode.
Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography
Disclaimer: No, I don’t have any connection with Mr. Margulis or his publisher.
========================================
my ISP does not have an "x" in its name
========================================
And the title is…?
—
Hecate – The Real One
Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…
Actually … I’m surprised that you are not reading his Color Theory newslist. Go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/colortheory/ From the announcement on that list, made on Friday, August 12, 2005 at 11:20 AM:
= = = = = Begin Quote = = = = =
It is a pleasure (and a relief) to announce that the official publication date of my new book on LAB was Monday, August 8. The title is Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and other adventures in the most powerful colorspace (ISBN 0-321-35678-0). It’s 384 pages in an 8×10 format. Price is $54.95. It’s the first entirely new title I’ve published in eight years.
PDFs of the Table of Contents and Chapters 2 and 9 are posted at www.ledet.com/margulis/articles.htm
The book is currently available at www.peachpit.com if you scroll through the
authors list–it has not yet entered the search database. It should be available imminently at amazon.com, and will be shown at Photoshop World in Boston.
Handled with care, LAB maneuvers are extraordinarily powerful, often achieving effects that are not even possible AFAIK in other colorspaces. LAB is not,
however, particularly user-friendly. I set out to write something that would be
at least somewhat accessible to non-advanced users, while at the same time catering to professional-level retouchers and color specialists.
Therefore, each of the first six chapters is cut in half. The first halves are quite gentle IMHO. All commands are spelled out. The basics of an LAB workflow are developed. While there is some general discussion of under what
circumstances you would want to use LAB or to avoid it, in these first halves I
simply state that certain LAB methods work better than their RGB equivalents and
leave it at that. The idea is to offer something that will give the inexperienced user striking results immediately, and a sharp improvement in color quality.
In the second halves (and in the final ten chapters of the book) the discussion gets more technical and there are many comparisons showing when LAB works
better (or worse) than other alternatives.
Some top experts have seen drafts and offered mildly positive comments. David
Biedny, the principal author of Photoshop Channel Chops and one of the great
retouching authorities, contributed a foreword in which he called the book "the most deeply advanced, inspiring, insightful, maddening, awesome, demanding,
and illuminating educational effort–in any media format–ever created for Photoshop."
Scott Kelby, who sells more books on Photoshop than anybody else, also had a
read. His comment: "This book is going to radically change how we all do color correction from this point on. Anyone not using the techniques Dan unveils
in this book will soon be a digital dinosaur. It’s that revolutionary."
More down-to-earth feedback came from a dedicated group of seven beta readers
selected from this list, a group of very diverse backgrounds and skill levels. They caught a slew of unclear areas and offered many useful suggestions. If
you like the book, you owe thanks, as I do, to Les De Moss, Andre Dumas, Bruce
Fellman, Timo Kirves, Katia Lazarova, Clarence Maslowski, and Clyde McConnell.
Also, I’d like to thank the many list members who offered images for inclusion. Particularly, I’d like to thank those who, after discussing what I was
after, were kind enough to send me a selection of *several* images. They are David
Barr, Jim Bean, Michael Benford, Hunter Clarkson, Mike Demyan, Fred Drury, Jason Hadlock, Mark Laurie, David Leaser, Mike Russell, Marty Stock, Lee Varis,
and Michael Vlietstra. I was looking for pictures that would best illustrate
the potential of LAB, and it was critical that there be a good variety to choose from. Therefore, not every one of these people is represented in the book.
However, each one of them made a significant contribution just by presenting
alternatives, and the book is better because of them.
Here’s a rundown of the contents.
1. THE CANYON CONUNDRUM
The basic LAB correction method is explained through a series of images of canyons.
2. LAB BY THE NUMBERS
How LAB is structured, what the numbers mean, how they interrelate with one another to create colors, and how they relate to the human visual system.
3. VARY THE COLOR, VARY THE RECIPE
The basic recipe of Chapter 1–an overall color enhancement–can be approximated in RGB, although the results will not be as good. When the A and B curves
run at different angles, though, the result is unique to LAB.
4. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CENTER POINT
Using LAB to eliminate color casts.
5. SHARPEN THE L, BLUR THE AB
LAB often, but not always, has a significant sharpening advantage over RGB, even when the RGB sharpening is done in Luminosity mode. When an image needs to
be blurred, LAB is much better than RGB/Color mode. This chapter explains not
just how but why, covering a lot of ground that is not well understood.
6. ENTERING THE FOREST: MYTHS & DANGERS.
Some avoid the use of LAB based on myths, which are debunked here. On the other hand, certain features of LAB are in fact rather dangerous if the user is
not careful.
7. SUMMING UP: LAB AND THE WORKFLOW
The first half comes to a close with a discussion of when and why to use LAB,
a question to which different users will come up with different answers. Only
those who are extremely pressed for time would want an all-LAB workflow. Everyone else needs a disciplined approach to when to use it.
8. THE IMAGINARY COLOR, THE IMPOSSIBLE RETOUCH
LAB permits us to designate (at least theoretically) colors that could not possibly exist, such as a brilliantly red black. Doing so doesn’t sound particularly intelligent, but using imaginary colors can be an extraordinarily
powerful retouching tool.
9. THE LAB ADVANTAGE IN SELECTIONS AND MASKING
The best masks usually use a single channel as a base, but few people think of using the A or B for that purpose. In fact, those channels can make selections appear out of thin air–and in one spectacular example, they make a
selection *of* thin air.
10. THE PRODUCT IS RED BUT THE CLIENT WANTS GREEN
The most effective way of making major color changes away from the art, as when the photograph portrays a product in one color but the client specifies not
just another color but gives a PMS number to match.
11. THE BEST RETOUCHING SPACE
David Biedny, who is one of the world’s most skilled retouchers, calls this chapter "nothing short of astounding."
12. COMMAND, CLICK, CONTROL
A chapter on advanced LAB curving that was one of the favorites of the beta readers.
13. THE UNIVERSAL INTERCHANGE STANDARD
We take a break from Photoshop technique to discuss LAB’s role in the exchange of documents from one colorspace to another, and also see how the difficulties of setting up a conversion of out LAB suggest solutions for other kinds of
color-matching issues, such as making CMYK matches to Pantone colors.
14. ONCE FOR COLOR, ONCE FOR CONTRAST
Four examples, one each of curves and of blends in Luminosity and Color modes. When should they be done in LAB, and when in RGB?
15. BLENDING WITH THE A AND B
The most difficult chapter of all considers blending the A and B channels into each other and/or the L for gains in contrast and color intensity.
16. A FACE IS LIKE A CANYON
We end the adventure with an easy, yet spectacular recipe for improving the believability of face shots, illlustrated step-by-step with five individuals of
various ages and ethnicities.
This book took a lot more effort than I really would have liked. Unlike Professional Photoshop, every chapter was completely new. Also, because so many of
the techniques are bleeding-edge, they haven’t been studied much, and I was learning as I went along. I am pleased with the results and think that almost
everyone will find some powerful new tools and significant improvements for their own workflow.
As previously announced, I plan a new edition of Professional Photoshop in 2006. It will certainly vary considerably from the current edition, but a lot
will depend on what the reaction to this LAB book is.
Dan Margulis
= = = = = End Quote = = = = =
Note: The most recent posting on the Colortheory newslist is
"… For those following such things, the publisher interrupted my vacation today with the news that as of this morning the LAB book was the #1 selling amazon.com title in the entire computer/internet field. …"