The Art of Photoshop for Digital Photographers

Along with advantages come potential pitfalls because the immediacy of digital photography threatens to make us sloppy. We see the image instantly, we can reshoot at will, and the individual shot is almost trivialized. Why take your time to compose and shoot properly when you can just do it over if you don't see what you're after? People are cutting corners, not cleaning their equipment, shooting casually, almost glibly, with the assumption that they can make up for their mistakes in the computer. And although the computer does improve the raw image file, it often creates parity with film rather than creating improvements because of the sub-par raw images created by this casual approach.

It's very difficult to create meaningful images with poorly captured images, no matter how fast your computer is or how well you know Photoshop. Start with a solid image that is thoughtfully composed and exposed. Afterwards, open the image and process it skillfully in Photoshop. Embrace both aspects of the process and you will find the medium to be an articulate and expressive tool that's poised to surpass the current limitations of film. To address the first part of this equation, this chapter and the three that follow it focus on helping you capture the best images possible.