As I said in my review of her DVD training video The Fine Art of Photoshop, as soon as you see it, you can recognize a Susi Lawson work of art. There is something about it that jumps off the page and says look at me! In Photoshop Magic, Susi Lawson shares more of her techniques and insight, so you get a better feel on how to create these kinds of wonderful works of art.

Photoshop Magic contains 15 videos covering 13 lessons that detail how to work with Photoshop. They cover techniques of working with brushes, creating portraits by using photos to begin your creation and using Photoshop skill to enhance with drawing and painting over the image. Photoshop Magic comes on two disks, one with the videos and one with the necessary images so you can follow along.

Lesson 1, "Festive Cover Art" begins by showing you how to reproduce the cover artwork. You begin with an ordinary photograph and you will see how to create the festive look using Photoshop. This lesson covers setting the background, using selections and curves, showing you how to touch up a photo, filling in hair, and finally using vector shapes add the colorful shapes.

Lesson 2, "Air Brush Art" (two videos) now takes you on a journey to create what I consider one of the quintessential Susi Lawson styles. It has that Saturday Evening Post look to it. Here you will see how to replace the sky background and make the image look like it was shot that way. Again you will learn how to do portraiture retouching to get the best image you can.

Lesson 3, "Landscape Edit with a Punch" now diverges into the world of landscape image enhancement. Here you will learn how to add flair to your landscape by using various Photoshop tools. You start with levels and curves to do your initial adjustments. Next you work with hue and saturation, as well as the sponge tool to bring out the colors. Finally, you see how the gradient tool and high pass filter bring out the details.

Lesson 4, "Switching Backgrounds" shows you how to replace background on an image and make them more believable. Here you will see how to carefully replace an image onto a new background and see how to blend it in.

Lesson 5, "The Best Plug-in on the Net" is from optickVerve Labs' and called virtualPhotographer. VirtualPhotographer includes over 50 presets that let you automatically apply combinations of film grain, color modification, B/W, soft focus, high contrast and many artistic effects. In this video you will see how to apply some of these effects.

Lesson 6, "Fun with Filter Effects" continues in showing you how to use different effects, this time with some of the natural Photoshop filters. Here you use High Pass filter, Poster Edges, and working with the texture filter.

Lesson 7, "Fine Art Grunge" will show you more filters beginning with Find Edges to begin with a grunge feel, then working with Curve and Levels to punch things up. You work with some brushes to get that certain look, as well as using an adjustment layer to add more effects.

Lesson 8, "Draganizer Action" shows you how to work with an action that is included in the extras. This action will step you through a series of sequences that will allow you create spectacular portraitures by bringing out the subject and placing them on a dark background.

Lesson 9, "Creating Pages" (two videos) will show you how to create book pages that have that antique look and feel by creating bent, tattered, and aged pages. Then you will see how to transform it into looking like a book sitting on a table. Finally you will see how to then put an image on this book.

Lesson 10, "Slimming the Figure" will show you how to enhance an image. Here you will see how to slim the waist and arms of girl in a photo. Here you will use the clone tool, pinch tool, and the brush tools.

Lesson 11, "Album Page Composite" will examine how to prepare a page in an album for a senior or wedding photo composite. Here you will see how to place and adjust images, add drop shadows, and text.

Lesson 12, "Shadow Play" you will see how to add and adjust shadows behind a figure to give the image new life. Lesson 13, "Vector Art Simplified" will now take the image that you created in lesson 12 and convert it into a vector art line type drawing.

I found Photoshop Magic incredibly easy to follow along and the techniques are rather easy to use. You will find yourself amazed that these simplistic techniques are all that are needed to get such superior results. In no time, you will be able to create really great works of art. There is some unevenness between some of the videos' sound levels; that is you might need to adjust the volume on one or two of the videos, but it does not really distract from the quality of training that is given here.

Photoshop Magic is available from Susi Lawson Photography for $80.00 plus shipping and handling. Better yet, Susi also has two other videos, Portrait Magic, and The Fine Art Of Photoshop, and you can buy all three at a special bundled price.

If you are still not sure, what I suggest is that you check out Susi Lawson's gallery over at Susi Lawson Fine Art Photography to see some of her work. My guess is that before long you will find yourself wanting to see how she does it. I very highly recommend Photoshop Magic.

Buy a cheap and low price digital cameras

There are so many sales, bargains, coupons and deals available to enable you to get a truly cheap digital camera that it can seem impossible to choose between them so it is important to find a website that gives reviews on the products as well as the vendors themselves. A cheap digital camera may not be such a good deal if it turns out that the vendor has poor levels of customer service.

Obviously, a lot of the cheap digital camera deals are constantly changing and having the latest information can be the difference between getting the camera you want and having to pay more because the offer has ended. Many websites have a number of services to help get the information about current cheap digital camera offers to you as fast as possible. You can choose to have specific cheap digital camera deals sent to you via email, mobile phone or palm text message or RSS feed amongst others. These alerts can be customized so that you can choose to only receive cheap digital camera offers that relate a particular vendor, brand of camera or area if you want to. You can also set the parameters that you would class as being cheap digital camera prices because everyone has a different budget.

Digital cameras upto 55% off

Many people underestimate the influence that coupons and rebates can have on their search for the best cheap digital camera deal. It is a good idea to take the time to check through those available as they can make a big difference. Again, check to make sure that these are not subject to an expiry date or you may miss out on cheap digital camera offers.

At the end of the day there is nothing better than finding other shoppers who have bought a particular cheap digital camera. They can give you truly unbiased views about the camera itself and the place where they purchased it. You may want to pay a few dollars more to get a relatively cheap digital camera from another supplier if they have a lot of bad reviews from customers.

Buy a cheap and low price digital cameras from Best online camera shops and stores

About the Author

Helper Of The Helpless In Online Shopping - Find here the World's best online shops and stores to buy all your needs
SureToShop.com

As with a lot of books, Take Your Best Shot is one that has been years in the making. While working with the nature photographer George Lepp, Tim Grey started a quarterly newsletter called "Digital Darkroom Quarterly." Over time he kept getting questions via email asking questions on digital photography, and many times these questions were the same or similar questions. So instead of just responding to these questions, in 2001, he started the Digital Darkroom Questions (DDQ) email newsletter. To this day, these questions still go strong. Tim Grey's latest book, Take Your Best Shot, was developed from these questions. The book is 252 pages in length and is divided into 10 chapters.

Chapter 1, "Digital Fundamentals," begins with question topics that will help give you a strong foundation in digital photography and help shorten your learning curve. The goal here is that even if you have the basics down, by reviewing some of these topics you will even pick up a point or two. Topics covered here include the debate between film and digital, dynamic range, ISO, resolution, RAW capture, and lens problems such as chromatic aberration.

Chapter 2, "Digital Cameras and Tools," examines the wild and wonderful world of ever expanding digital technology. In the days of film cameras, things did not change that frequently, but with the advent of digital, things don't stay the same for very long. Now you have many choices that constantly change. Here you will learn about the differences in camera choices, cleaning sensors, memory cards, lenses, and even about some specialty accessories like Lensbabies lenses.

Chapter 3, "Digital Capture," is really a new technology in the grand order of things, and so we are all still trying to define the rules. While there are a lot of similarities between this technology and film, there are also a lot of differences. This can lead to frustration. In this chapter the author attempts to remove those frustrations by examining some of these new rules. This includes comparing RAW to JPG, why to shoot RAW, setting color temperature, when to change ISO, what color space should you use on your DSLR, and how to interpret the histogram on your image.

Chapter 4, "Digital Darkroom," is a place that you will likely spend a lot of time if you are serious about digital photography. The digital darkroom needs equipment much like the traditional darkroom, but it is dry and performed in open spaces (and it does not have that chemical smell). To build a system, there are also a lot of questions to be answered such as Windows vs. Mac, storage and backup, do you need Photoshop? Do you need Lightroom? As well as many more topics examined. Here you will get a good feel for what you might need.

Chapter 5, "Color Management," examines why there are two kinds of photographers with regard to color management; those who are frustrated with it, and those who ignore it. Topics here try to look at how to manage color. Questions answered here are about profiling camera, calibrating monitors, color spaces, how to use print preview in Photoshop, as well as color management in Photoshop.

Chapter 6, "Optimizing in Photoshop," will help you overcome the learning curve that one generally finds when learning Photoshop. In this chapter the author examines many of the common questions that people have when working with Photoshop. These include working with RAW files, Curves and Levels, Cloning and Healing, Adjustment Layers, Selections, and working with Gradient Effects on an Adjusted area.

Chapter 7, "Creative Effects," looks at some of the more advanced techniques that many use with Photoshop. As you become better, you tend to want to emulate more of what they see others do. It is not always easy to figure out how these techniques can be accomplished. Here you will learn about creating Black and White images, using Photoshop filters, adding Vignettes and edge effects, as well as reproducing classic darkroom effects.

Chapter 8, "Image Problem-Solving," takes on the adage of "I'll just fix it in Photoshop." While it is always better to "fix it in the photo," once the shot has been taken, and you are not in the field, short of going back out, you do have to fix it in Photoshop. Here you will see how to fix things like overexposed skies, removing color casts, fix motion blur, reduce haze, and clean up noise in an image.

Chapter 9, "Printing," examines what it takes to get the best image on paper. Yes there are other ways to display your work; there is just something fundamental about viewing a print. Again, each new technology brings out new questions. Here you will learn about the different types of printers, inks, sending images out to be printed, as well as other topics relating to generating a hard copy image.

Chapter 10, "Digital Sharing," provides the options for those who like to share their images. In this chapter there is a discussion on the problems that can arise with sharing your images online, as well as how to sell them online, creating slideshows, and how to use the Lightroom Web Module.

Like his DDQ, Take Your Best Shot provides a wealth of information for novices through the advanced hobbyist photographer. Many, many of the questions are ones that either are not readily available without searching through a ton of books, or when they are answered, do not provide as complete an answer as presented here.

Some of the things that make me really like Take Your Best Shot is its conversational tone. Tim Grey presents each question as it was asked to him and from there he puts forward his answer. Occasionally there is a "Pet Peeve Alert" in which he pulls out his soapbox and makes his feelings known on something that he objects to, and occasionally there is a "Let's Settle This Already" segment where he discusses a particular topic in more depth.

I have been a fan and regular reader of his DDQ's for a couple of years now, and have always found them informational, entertaining, and I always look forward to that little tidbit that I didn't know. It is for this reason that I think that Take Your Best Shot is a great book for anyone from novice to advanced amateur as well as anyone making the move from film to digital. I very highly recommend Take Your Best Shot.

While taking pictures is easy, especially in this digital world, mastering the art of photography is not always clear and straightforward. There are a lot of variables to factor in and one of them is Depth of Field (DOF). The first barrier that usually makes people's eyes glaze over is that it is a mathematical calculation. It combines a number of different factors including the distance of the camera to the object being photographed, the focal length of the lens, as well as the aperture that is being used.

The ExpoAperture2: Depth Of Field Guide was developed to make this process much easier and much more accessible to the average user. While there are several versions, the one that I am reviewing is the combo pack which contains two ExpoAperture disks. The first covers standard focal lengths (15-135mm), and the second is for telephoto lens lengths (70-600mm).

ExpoAperture is a tool that will allow you to take control over depth of field and let you apply selective focus within your images. This guide will show you the relationship between focal length, focal distance, aperture, and the resulting depth of field and let you make the calculations you need quickly and easily.

Just what is an ExpoAperture disk? It was invented by George A. Wallace as a companion product to the ExpoDisk. Essentially, it is a small hand calculator made of durable plastic that can fit easily into your camera bag or shirt pocket so you can always have it with you.

There are two ways to use ExpoAperture. First is to determine the aperture that will produce your desired depth of field, or to figure your depth of field by your chosen aperture.

For example, say you are using a Nikon D200 camera. The first thing is to determine the sensor size; they give you a chart to look up the sensor size, and in this case it is 1.5x. You set your sensor size on the disk (the green #1 in the image). You then rotate focus zone dial to your lens focal length, in this case 200mm (yellow #2).

You next flip the dial over to find your subjects distance, say 13 meters (red #3). Then you choose your desired depth of field, in this case, 12 to 14 meters (red #4). You count the number of alternating gray and white zones covering this depth of field (gray #5). In this case it covers about one zone. You flip the dial back over and look for that zone number on the gray ring (gray #6), in this case it is one and shows f11 (brown #7). So that is your aperture. Determining the depth of field is handled in much the same way.

I found the ExpoAperture incredibly easy to use and understand. Once you get the steps down, it makes figuring out depth of field simple and much more accurate than ever before. ExpoAperture would be a great tool for the classroom, and in fact they make a large size that can be used in the classroom setting.

If you want to have better control of your depth of field, if you want to have a tool small enough to fit in your shirt pocket, if you just want to get it right, then you need ExpoAperture. At $39.95 USD, the ExpoAperture is incredibly affordable, and is usually available for much less if you shop around. I highly recommend the ExpoAperture.

There are a lot of things that Photoshop CS3 Extended can do that Photoshop has never been able to do before. These include importing and editing of video and animating any object in a file. Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended For 3D And Video is the first book to provide a detailed look at these new features. This book is geared for both those who want to learn about video and 3D in Photoshop as well as those video producers and 3D artists who want to incorporate Photoshop into their workflow.

The goal of CS3 Extended For 3D is to get you started down the road in using Photoshop for 3D and video. Even if your workflow is print based and you think that there is nothing in this book for you, or you feel intimidated by professional grade 3D and video software packages, this book is aimed at you.

One thing to keep in mind is that because of the specific nature of this book, it does not go over how to use Photoshop. It is assumed that you are comfortable with using Photoshop and know the most basic concepts such as the interface, pallets, tools, how to work with layers and other fundamental topics. CS3 Extended For 3D is 318 pages long divided into ten chapters.

Chapter 1, "Photoshop's New 3D Abilities: The Basics," starts off by looking at Photoshop's new extended capabilities with regard to video and 3D. These include working with 3D files, transforming 3D objects, preset views, and the 3D camera tools. Chapter 2, "Playing with Lighting and Appearance Settings" now shows you how to work with the tools that will light, cut up, and change the appearance of 3D objects. Then you will see how to display wireframes, create cross sections, and learn about some rendering tricks.

Chapter 3, "Even Cooler 3D Tricks," begins to experiment and gets more creative with the tools that you have been learning about. You also begin to learn how to use them with the standard Photoshop tools. You will work with Layer Styles, adjusting color and luminance, and use Layer Masks with 3D Layers. Chapter 4, "Editing Textures of 3D Objects," tackles what may be the most important part of Photoshop Extended for 3D; the ability to alter textures on 3D objects. These changes can be made either non-destructively or permanently, all without having to go back into an external 3D program.

Chapter 5, "Creating Textures for 3D Models," goes over some of the features that are available for 3D users in the standard edition of Photoshop, especially with the creation of textures. Here you will see how to refine bump maps and create a realistic eyeball texture as well as other tips for using Photoshop in your 3D workflow. Chapter 6, "Video Basics," now shows you how to work with video in Photoshop. Once again, the basics are covered beginning with working with files, exporting video, and using audio in your productions.

Chapter 7, "Animating," shows you the six animation properties: position, opacity, style, Layer Mask position, Layer Mask enabling, and Global Lighting. Here you are shown that you can animate just about any layer. With these you can make each of those layers come to life in Photoshop Extended. Chapter 8, "Editing Video," shows you how to do just that, edit raw video footage within Photoshop. Topics covered are cutting video, filling gaps, animation conversions, as well as take advantage of other bells and whistles when it comes to editing your video.

Chapter 9, "Creative Video Techniques," now gets into all sorts of creative video techniques that you can use in your videos. You will work with styles and filters, Paint tools, cloning, healing, and the use of composting. Chapter 10, "Plug-ins and Resources," finishes up by discussing the third-party plug-in solutions that are available for use with Photoshop as well as other resources that may be useful to you.

Adobe continues to push the envelope from within Photoshop and the new extended version is no exception. While narrow in focus, CS3 Extended For 3D is quite broad within the areas of 3D and video and is a needed volume for beginners on this topic as well as those who want to use Photoshop in their workflow.

The author writes clearly and the easy to follow tutorials are great to learn from. I think that this ease comes from his background as a trainer for Lynda.com. Since this release of Photoshop is really a version 1 for 3D and video within Photoshop, Perkins is able to point out strange oddities that he has encountered which may make for an easier time for you while working in this medium.

CS3 Extended For 3D is definitely the resource that you want if looking to get into 3D and video from within Photoshop Extended. The book also comes with a CD that gives you the resources to work with to make your journey much more enjoyable. I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended For 3D And Video

Last August, Adobe released the second incarnation of their photography workflow product Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 to rave reviews. As is to be expected, new editions of companion Lightroom books are also coming to market to provide educational assistance to learning Lightroom. Scott Kelby's Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book For Digital Photographers, along with being one of the best, is also one of the first out of the chutes.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, while it certainly addresses the new features of Lightroom 2, also guides you through the existing features that have not changed. This version is 456 pages in length (40 more pages of material) and contains 14 chapters (3 additional chapters)

Chapter 1, "Importing," devotes it's time to showing you how to get your photos into Lightroom. The improvement I see in this chapter is that not only are you shown how to get them in, there is more devotion to figuring out where to store your files, how to set up your folder organization, shooting tethered, as well as discussing topics like the use of the Adobe DNG file format advantage. Chapter 2, "Library," focuses on organizing your photographs. Here the author looks at using Collections, Quick Collections, adding Keywords, working with Metadata, and working with multiple catalogs. This chapter is more focused on the library and some of the content from the previous edition was reorganized and moved to the next chapter.

Chapter 3, "Customizing," looks at how to set up Lightroom 2 to fit your work style. Here you will work with setting up two monitors, adding a logo to your interface, choosing what the Filmstrip will display, and learning to work with panels in a faster and much easier method. Chapter 4, "Editing Essentials," gets into the basics of developing your photos. In this chapter you will see how to set the white balance, add more punch to the color of your images, adjust the tone, hue, and color of your photos, as well learning techniques such as vignetting, getting that gritty look, and using AutoSync to fix a bunch of photos live while editing just one.

Chapter 5, "Local Adjustments," moves beyond basics to editing specific parts of your image. This includes Dodging and Burning, working with the Adjustment Brush, retouching portraits, and learning how to fix skies. Chapter 6, "Problem Photos," will show you how to correct problems after you have taken the image. Here you will work with cropping, reducing noise, removing red-eye, fixing backlight photos, sharpening, and fixing chromatic aberrations.

Chapter 7, "Exporting Images," shows you how to save your images as JPEG's, how to email photos from Lightroom, using the export plug-ins to auto upload to sharing sites like Flicker, and how to export your original RAW photo. Chapter 8, "Jumping to Photoshop," examines how to move between Lightroom and Photoshop. This includes how to get there and back again, how to add Photoshop Automation to your workflow, stitching panoramas by using Photoshop, and working with High Dynamic Range images in Photoshop.

Chapter 9, "Gorgeous B&W," begins by showing how to determine if a photo would look good in Black and White. Then you will see how to do it yourself, how to tweak individual areas, how to add a split tone, and how to create a duo tone image. Chapter 10, "Slideshow," begins with a basic slide show and quickly moves to customizing your show, adding music, picking preferences, and finally how to email the show.

Chapter 11, "Print," examines how to properly setup the print, and then moves onto adding text to your print layouts. You then see how to print multiple images on one page, how to setup your final print and management settings, and how to add borders to your photos. Chapter 12, "Web," starts off with a simple online photo gallery and then from there customizes the gallery layout by working with the layout colors, working with templates, and then shows how to put your gallery on the web.

Chapter 13, "Portrait Workflow," is the first of the workflow chapters that will give you a sense of how you should work with Lightroom from a professional standpoint. This is a step-by-step on-location shoot process that will give you a feel of how someone would use Lightroom in real life. Chapter 14, "Travel Workflow," is a different type of workflow because unlike the portrait shoot, this is geared more for those who shoot for themselves and either uses the images for family and friends, or to sell to, say, a magazine or stock agency, not to a specific client. It would work as well for those who sell fine art photos.

There is also a virtual 15th chapter that is available online from a secret location that you must own the book to gain access to. It is a video workflow that will take you step-by-step through a wedding shoot. It is unique in that you will see how Scott Kelby uses Lightroom real time and it really makes for fascinating viewing.

So what do I think Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2? Let me preface it by saying that I loved the first version, but I think that this version is much better. Why? Two reasons that I can pinpoint directly.

First, in the 17 months since the first book was released, the author has been training Lightroom and putting on workshops. I believe that he has learned not only how better to work with Lightroom, but how better to answer the kind of questions that his workshop participants have with regard to the use of Lightroom. Second, which may also come indirectly from the first, is that while much of the content is reused from the first book, the layout is much more concise and has a much more logical order, and therefore easier to understand.

Certainly if you do not have the first version then you should by all means get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, but what about if you have the first version? I think that depends on your situation and your finances. If you have the first version and have been using Lightroom for the last year or so, you can probably figure out much of the new version, but so much has changed in Lightroom since version 1.0 on which the prior version was based, I would seriously recommend upgrading to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book For Digital Photographers as you might just learn a few new tricks. I very highly recommend this book.

Here’s their list of “Most Wished for” Digital SLR Cameras, Lenses & Photography Books based on their user’s “wish lists”. If everybody wants them, maybe you’d be interested too. Here, take a look:

Top 5 Digital SLR Cameras

1. Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
2. Canon EOS 5D Mark II (body only)
3. Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens
4. Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
5. Nikon D60 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens

More…

Top 5 Lenses for SLR Cameras

1. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
2. Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom
3. Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM
4. Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF
5. Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom

More…

Top 5 Photography Books

1. Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera
2. The Digital Photography Book
3. The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2
4. Vanity Fair: The Portraits: A Century of Iconic Images
5. The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world’s top shooters

More…

More…

There are some quite interesting trends in these lists. Take a look at the full list by clicking the more button to see ‘em. Do visit the comments here, if you’d like to leave an opinion.