Photoshop Astronomy second edition R. Scott Ireland - a detailed review

[m37]

I've read through this book and am now working through it again in more detail so I thought I would share some thoughts about content and how effective the book is. It's £42 plus postage so it's not super cheap but I thought my imaging rig is pushing £1k and Photoshop currently retails at nearly £500 so in the grand scheme of things I thought it was worth a punt. Also there are nearly 4Gb of example and tutorial images included on a DVD.

It's worth saying now that I highly recommend this book as it covers so much and in such detail I fail to see how anyone can not take something useful away from it. I used to be a designer and although I'm fairly rusty in Photoshop the basics were still useful. I think it gives a really thorough knowledge of the techniques from basic to very advanced, how they apply to AP, and most importantly (to me at least) why you are doing what you are doing.

• 310 pages (contents to index)
  
• 215 x 280 x 15 mm dimensions
  
• heavy, quality, solid feeling book. nicely printed and typeset. paper is a bit shiny for my liking but it is good heavy grade and is very much like the stock used in a lot of top-end educational textbooks.
  
• Font is nicely spaced and bold enough to give good contrast. Line spacing is very nice and has a little breathing room which I like.
  
• Bullets, lists and sub clauses are all laid out well and consistently giving an overall effect that is very easy on the eye
  
• Images are all grayscale but the DVD contains colour.
  

In the interests of you not having to just take a punt I'll try to give a chapter by chapter breakdown and my thoughts on how effective each bit is. I will post one chapter at a time so I give enough detail to assist purchasing decisions. Hopefully I'm not giving away the author's secrets or breaching copyright but Mods please shout if I'm in danger of doing that and I'll chop it out. Chuck questions at me if you want. Cheers and clear skies.

Chapter 1 - The Digital Darkroom

• Background to astrophotography
  
• digital imaging in general
  
• importance of hands-on learning
  
• the approach of the book is explained "a primer that [outlines], step by step, the things I needed to do in Photoshop to optimise my images and why I needed to do them - a primer that did not cut corners"
  
• explains that the content is not simple, not 'Photoshop for dummies', and that complex techniques have not been left out
  
• The digital darkroom and components
  
• The Computer including minimum specs
  
• Brief look at each computer component highlighting what is useful and what is not needed for AP, particularly good and brief summary of necessary graphics card features.
  
• Monitors
  
• Monitor calibration systems and camera calibration systems
  
• Graphics tablets
  
• Printers, paper, RIPs, scanners and storage
  
• Difference between backup and archival storage, lifespan of storage media
  
• Image management and browsing software (Adobe Bridge etc)
  
• File formats discussed as a fairly detailed overview
  
• Detailed example of an image processing workflow
  
• How to use the book
  

Comments

What I like about this chapter is that the author clearly sets out why things are done, and that 'do this and do that are not sufficient'. Step by step instructions will be combined with explanations and theory. The section on computer hardware is a little out of date as is so often the case. Written in 2009 recommendations like minimum 1Gb ram are a little behind the times perhaps but there is a formula for calculating how much RAM you need. Although it doesn't take into account the amount of RAM used by other processes and the OS of today. SCSI and FW are of course becoming less relevant as we move more and more towards USB2 but they are still covered in brief.

The section on monitors and calibration systems is very detailed and very good at explaining your options and the relative merits of each. The prices quoted are of course out of date. The recommendation to buy a colour calibration system is perhaps one of the last things we would think of when looking at what to buy next but the argument is convincing.

Backup and archival storage are explained very nicely which is often overlooked. File formats are also well covered in a simple yet comprehensive way.

In this chapter we also learn that the latest version of Photoshop from the author's POV in 2009 is CS2 so prepare for a few shortcuts and features to be different, or just missing completely. I only have CS5 so I can't say what is missing in relation to CS6 or Elements.

The workflow looks very thorough and comprehensive and it might well be a useful aide memoire so I might write this our and stick it on the wall to help me.

This chapter also gives us an idea of the level of detail we can expect i.e. a lot. I think a lot of the techniques could even be transferred to GIMP etc. as you understand what you are doing and why so it might just be a case of using different clicks and keys to apply the same methods to other packages.

[stang]

Nice review - thanks

[m37]

Chapter 2 - The Digital Environment and Colour Management

• overview of bitmap/raster and vector, bit depth, 8 vs 16 bit
  
• greyscale and RGB values demonstrated from the basics very thoroughly with tif image from DVD (checked image which was accurate for RGB values and had no artefacts)
  
• info window, dropper and channels covered very comprehensively. also RGB as greyscale data explained well
  
• another tif to explain colour sampler points nicely (although image was oddly not centered at all)
  
• colour models - RGB, CMYK, HSB, Lab, grayscale
  
• Colour spaces (AdobeRGB and sRGB) and gamuts (including the basic operation of the eye!)
  
• four pages on colour management and setting up Photoshop correctly. Explained nicely and with helpful diagrams
  
• 12 pages on calibrating monitors, printers and other devices. very thorough but well explained and easy to understand even for the novice
  
• summary
  

Comments

nice to see two whole pages devoted to explaining channels (a lot of information in such a large format book), a real fundamental concept covered in good depth yet still accessible to beginners

nice big sharp screenshots so you can see the detail

impressed with the quality of the sample images so far

advanced techniques such as spot and dot gain, rendering intent not often covered in AP books but covered here

good summary of a fairly heavy going chapter, and relatively turgid subject matter made interesting and accessible (let's face it, setting up colour profiles is not as exciting as stacking or revealing nebula detail in an image!!!)

next chapter... Histogram and Levels - Defining Tonal Range (was looking forward to this one)

cheers

[kirkster501]

Very useful M37, look forward to additional chapters! I am a numpty when it comes to PS. Does the book refer to the examples in the DVD so you can "have a go" yourself?

One question. I only have CS3 version. Is this book ok for that version do you know?

Rgds, Steve

[m37]

Very useful M37, look forward to additional chapters! I am a numpty when it comes to PS. Does the book refer to the examples in the DVD so you can "have a go" yourself?

One question. I only have CS3 version. Is this book ok for that version do you know?

Rgds, Steve

I'm familiar with standard uses for Photoshop but astro stuff is so far outside my knowledge it's ridiculous! The book does indeed refer to the DVD, the examples you work through are all from the DVD.

The book is written as of CS2 being released so you might find a few shortcuts and features differ slightly but the principles and techniques should transfer well. I'm using CS5 and have managed just fine.

More chapters to follow, the levels and curves chapters are warranting some re-reading so I can try the examples out a few times before writing up. So far so good though.

cheers

Chris

cheers

[r3i]

Very useful M37, look forward to additional chapters! I am a numpty when it comes to PS. Does the book refer to the examples in the DVD so you can "have a go" yourself?

One question. I only have CS3 version. Is this book ok for that version do you know?

Rgds, Steve

I've got CS3 too and the book is fine - there is a chapter at the end that goes back over each of the other chapters and discusses how new features in CS3 & CS4 can be incorporated into the workflow.

[m37]

Chapter 3 The Histogram and Levels - Defining Tonal Range

Explanation of what a Histogram is. Nicely done.

16/8 bit histogram differences, overview

What the histogram actually shows us, relating this to an image

Clipping in shadows and highlights, nice simple explanation with examples

Histogram and contrast - how they are linked

Questioning 255,255,255 as the white point, and why we might use different values

Combed (gapped) histograms, posterization, banding

Included TIFs of grayscale steps/continuous tones demonstrates the concept very well

Histogram peaks/spikes and their impact

More detail on 8 bit/16 bit differences, converting etc.

How to change the black/white points using levels, and why you would want to do this

Sample size for eyedropper, which is best? And why!

Setting sampler points

Introducing shadows, midtones, highlights and levels window

explanation of preview

effect of moving levels sliders

what gamma is and what it does

output level sliders and what they mean

Why you should not use brightness/contrast adjustments, using levels instead

intro to adjustment layers and non-destructive editing, why they are advantageous

Working through an example image of Andromeda,

assessing what is wrong with it and how to address that using a step by step levels adjustment for black and white points

Working with RGB channel vs R, G and B channels separately

PS history palette

Setting black and white points 'by the numbers' rather than by eye with target black and white points

Selecting RGB values for black and white points - nice discussion on this subjective area

two different ways of using threshold to find darkest and lightest points in an image

using these methods to set black and white points accurately

This is a nice chapter with great detailed explanation of a subject that can somehow seem both simple and complex at the same time. Liked the fact that there were different methods explored and I like the fact that 0,0,0 is not used as the target background colour although this is a subjective thing I guess. There are lots of shortcuts and general photoshop tips that are very useful although I found the first possible typo - the book advises us to hold shift to temporarily select move tool; I believe this has always been space bar, correct me if I'm wrong!

Also this chapter explained how changes to one area can affect another area and the interdependency of making these adjustments and as stated in the book's introduction I am starting to notice a few minor bits of repetition and, as promised, I have realised that I am noticing this because I have learned it! Nice approach I think.

Most tutorials I've seen just advising setting the black point just to the left of the histogram and the white point to the right. This was really picked apart in this chapter. Very useful stuff.

cheers

[kirkster501]

Only issue is getting a copy of it. Seems rather a rare book in terms of stock...

[Scott]

Sounds like another great book... will it ever end?

[r3i]

Only issue is getting a copy of it. Seems rather a rare book in terms of stock...

Steve, have you tried abebooks.co.uk? - I think that is where I picked it up from at an almost reasonable price.

[Steve 1962]

I think I saw some copies on the shelf in SCS Astro in Wellington for £42. I got mine from a seller in the States where it was $39.95 - if you can get a reasonable postage rate that's the way to go.

I have CS5 and the book tutorials work fine.

Steve

[m37]

yup. got mine from SCS. http://www.scsastro.co.uk/catalogue/photoshop-astronomy.htm

[m37]

Sounds like another great book... will it ever end?

I know... I'm working through some of the chapters several times to get the details and there's still SO much left!!!