| This is not a traditional paper book. It is a digital book on a CD-ROM. You can view it on your computer using any internet web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Opera. This book is a guide to basic digital correction and advanced image enhancement techniques for astrophotos using your own existing Adobe Photoshop image-processing software (Photoshop software is not included with this book). Cheap, fast home personal computers and image processing programs such as Photoshop have opened a new world of digital enhancement possibilities for both film and CCD astrophotographers. Now, with image processing software, you can turn your computer into a digital darkroom where you can easily improve the brightness, contrast, color balance, and sharpness of images. You can effortlessly crop, resize, dodge and burn, remove dust and scratches, adjust the color saturation, apply filtration, and more. Whether you are a beginning amateur astrophotographer, or a seasoned veteran, you will learn new and exciting techniques to produce visually stunning images. The book gives detailed, step-by-step directions describing methods for properly adjusting, correcting, and enhancing images with Photoshop. These techniques produce the best results, both technically and aesthetically, for output to the web, your monitor, a printing press, desktop printer, or film recorder. These basic and advanced image correction and enhancement techniques are applicable to both CCD as well as film original astrophotos. The book offers unique features such as 杜ouse-overs" that allow before and after comparisons of images by simply holding the mouse cursor over the image. A powerful built-in search engine provides automatic links to the pages containing the search terms. Practice files are included for use in the step-by-step tutorials, as well as comprehensive references and links to more information. In this book you値l learn fundamental concepts such as: light, color and vision; resolution; dynamic range; bit depth; histograms; color spaces; and more. You値l discover how easy it is to use digital image processing to produce beautiful astronomical images. You値l learn tips and tricks for scanning difficult astronomical film images; correctly set the black and white points in Levels to maximize the image痴 dynamic range; make brightness, contrast and color adjustments in Curves. You値l learn how to perform specialized color correction; correct vignetting and uneven field illumination; reduce grain and noise; create masks to selectively manipulate different parts of the tonal range in an image; composite multiple images to improve the signal to noise ratio; and select the best file format and storage media to archive your images. You値l be able to soft proof your images and produce dazzling prints on a desktop inkjet printer. The traditional wet darkroom with its messy chemicals is dead. It has been replaced with enormously powerful yet inexpensive desktop computers, scanners and printers. With this book you can become a master of the new digital darkroom. The author, Jerry Lodriguss, is a prize-winning sports photographer and expert in Photoshop who has been an astrophotographer for more than 25 years. His articles on Photoshop, digital processing and scanning astrophotos have been published in Sky and Telescope and other magazines, and his astronomical images have appeared in books and magazines throughout the world.
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