Others say...

"Great digital photo book!"
Vincent Versace's Welcome To Oz is quite possibly the most innovative and best digital photography title I've ever come across (excluding my own books, of course!).

Versace is a superb photographer. So this is not one of those digital photography books that is written by a Photoshop guru without the creative gifts and guts to make images. But it is still largely a Photoshop book.

Versace's subtitle tells the story of his book: "A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop". After reading this book, I felt better able to view photograph-making from the perspective of what would happen to the photo in the computer as well as in the camera. And, as I said, the images are splendid (and the step-by step accounts of how they were created very thorough).

If I have one caveat here, it is that Versace provides versions of his original images, and encourages readers to duplicate his work on these samples. Personally, I prefer to try things out on my own images, and I enourage readers and students to process their own work. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes a slavish imitation of a master rather than an original creative endeavor. But that's a matter of individual taste and a quibble, this is a really, really good book.

"Inspirational"
This book is inspirational; there are 4 or 5 very detailed step by step exercises. There are, also, many example pictures of finished work, like the one on the cover. It is a pity that the author has chosen the "less beautiful" pictures for developing the exercises. Don't expect to find how to make the one of the cover.

"Some great concepts - very sloppy editing"
Versace's book introduces some great concepts about seeing and handling images that are not found in your typical Photoshop book and are always given from the perspective of a practicing photographer rather than a computer jocky. It is designed however as a tutorial with the intention of having the reader actually do all the exercises not just once, but several times. All great advice, but there is one aspect of this book that is exasperating. The editing is terrible. I have found this problem with many technical tutorial books. I believe it is because the editor does not have the knowledge to know when something is amiss in the instructions and the author is too close to his material to see the ambiguities and layout mistakes are never picked up. In layout mistakes, the author never sees them and the editor has no clue if they exist or not. It is only the poor reader trying to follow very detailed instructions that picks up these gafs.

In this book, I found every tutorial had mistakes in the instructions with steps out of order, ambiguity in instructions, mismatched example images for the step involved, layer masks that did not match the instructions. Truly maddening. These types of books should be proofed by a student so that these mistakes can be reported and fixed.

So I have started doing the exercises, but when I come to a step that has mistakes, I just have to wing it. Frustrating for an expensive book.

One reviewer mentioned that the exercises depended on using proprietary plug-ins. Well, he does encourage the use of Nik plug-ins, but does usually give you a work around with the exception of the Nik Skylight filter. He also notes that you can freely download time-limited trials that can be used to do the exercises. I agree that the arrangement between Versace and Nik is just a bit to tight in this book.

Overall I am glad that I am working through this book, but poor production practices have made it a struggle and thus my 3 star rating.

Also it should be noted that Versace's handling of images is quite theatrical with very strong lighting effects that will strike some viewers as phoney looking. This however is this photographer's style. I believe that the concepts he is trying to impart can all be used but much more subtly if his style seems way over the top to you.

"A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop"
Looking for a wild ride or an interesting trip? This is the book for you. Along the way, you'll get a few important glimpses of the future. This a highly personal, idiosyncratic, at times eccentric, thoroughly original, book.

The contents include: The Tao of Dynamic Workflow; Image Harvesting: The Unwitting Ally; Classic Studio Lighting; Creating a Black-and-White Image from an RGB File; It's About Time.

Vincent shares his personal experience with and passion for how digital tools have changed the way he sees and makes photographs. He invites you into his world.

His `cinematic approach' is fascinating and timely, as the nature of visual culture and still imagery becomes more and more impacted by moving pictures.

In this book you'll get a first-hand glimpse of how Vincent struggles to achieve original authentic expression with the basic building blocks of photography - light and time.

He uses compositing to represent how the human eye sees in more compelling ways, controlling depth of field, time, and light.

Ultimately the concerns of this book transcend Photoshop. It's really about perception. He draws on other fields (acting and science) to expand our understanding of this process.

If his sentence structure is extended at times, Vincent more than makes up for it with passion and insight his reveries contain.

Vincent's shares more than what he knows about Photoshop. Vincent shares how he's come to see in new ways. He offers many valuable opportunities to you in this book.

See other books I recommend here: http://astore.amazon.com/johnpaulcapon-20

"Informative, but..."
I can certainly see why Versace has earned his reputation as a first-rate professional photographer and Photoshop techniques expert, but... this book would benefit from a little less of the pseudo-philosophical art theory and cute jargon, less on recommendations to buy the products of his pals, and lot more on explicit details of the how-tos of producing quality images. Note that this edition is primarily based on the CS2 version of Photoshop. And be prepared for a fair number of editorial errors -- misnamed images, layers, etc.

A worthwhile read, but it could certainly be better.