Photoshop Channel Chops: Alpha Channels, Masks, Layers, Compositing and Advanced Techniques

click here for more details, find new or used items	David Biedny, Mark Christiansen, Bert Monroy Used from £59.44 Pages: 226 (Paperback) ISBN: 1562057235 Pub: New Riders Pub date: 1998-01-13 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 754350

Reader Reviews:

The Alfa and Omega of Photoshop: simply indispensable (3/3 people found this helpful)

You are probably an intermediate user of Photoshop, otherwise you wouldn't have found your way to this book. (which is quite sad actually).

You have probably gone thru the usual 'Photoshop Bible', 'Photoshop Wow' and quick and trick literature.

You may be feeling after reading the top heap that you have managed to find out how to create a desired look, but with the nagging feeling that you don't really understand how it comes that three gray channels make up a color image? Or what that darn 'calculations' or 'apply image' do and why they are so usefull.

Ever read a decent manual to 'calculations' (may'be you even never heard of it or never use it) or 'apply image'. I guess not.

Actually it should be the other way around: if you truly understand how channels make up an image, this really opens the way to professional enhancement of an image.

And this is exactly what this book is about: how to use knowledge of channels and alphachannels (masks) to get to the core of every image out there.

Although this is a book about a complex subject, you'll never get a headache, and all the techniques which flow out of the theory are laid out in a very understandable language. And they are very usefull for image compositing, which makes up a great part of image enhancement.

You can use this book to create the masks you want and target the areas of an image which need enhancement, and ever better, you'll feel that you know really understand Photoshop.

It is simply a book which belongs on the shelf of every aspiring Photoshop user.

Although, the book is now quite old, it beats most of the newer books when it comes to decent literature and using Photoshop on a professional level.

The downside: this is a book which is aimed almost solely on RGB channels techniques. True, other colormodes consist of channels as well, but the way they relate to each other can be hugely different to the RGB layout of channels.

Never the less, a classic, even so many years after date in print: it only shows that this book doesn't become dated when certain effects go out of fashion, it is the guide which lays at the very core of Photoshop.

The definitive book on Photoshop (5/6 people found this helpful)

Although aimed primarily at Photoshop 4, the techniques this book describes are useable in any version after 4 (and probably before too). The author's grasp of the subject is second to none, and everything is explained in simple terms. I think you'll probably need some experience with PS first, as its not a straight step-by-step guide. I thought I knew everything that PS could do, until I read this book. I find myself continuously saying 'Doh! oh yeah!' when I've read about the techniques in the book.

Nice one, lads. Looking forward to books you'll hopefully produce in the future!

Uh, actuallyý (1/3 people found this helpful)

Excellant book, but I believe that Kai Krause coined the term "chops" to describe channel ops back around '90 or '91 :

"Chops" is an acronym, created by the authors, for channel operations."

this is THE photoshop book to learn from!!! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Most books teach you to move forward and backward thru photshop. This book shows you the possibility of moving sideways. It shows a variety of methods of generating complex masks and selections thru relativley simple repeatable processes. By learning these processes, you can reduce up the time it takes to generate complex edges and increase the number of artistic choices available in the all too often crunch of deadline, and improve the quality of your work. With this book you can actually begin image-processing, instead of just pixel-pushing.

Best Resource book ever! Buy it for the Holiday's Now! (0/0 people found this helpful)

A must have for everyone's computer library. Blows the roof off my head. I had waded my way through the other "Guides" without results. This book goes strait to the point, direct, simple easy to understand, good condensed facts without the fluff. These guys have a great sense of humour!

Categories

Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories: