PaintShop Pro X4 for Photographers
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Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Ken McMahon, Author of Paint Shop Pro X4 for Photographers
Dear Amazon Readers,
You're probably used to hearing about how digital photography has made things so much easier and extended the boundaries of what it's possible to achieve with a camera. While this is undoubtedly true, there are times when it all seems to have become a lot more complicated. What do you do with thousands of photos scattered among an assortment of hard drives, CDs, DVDs and memory cards? Why do photos of scenes that looked stunning at the time often appear a bit lackluster? And why do printed photos often look nothing like what you see on screen?
If you're looking for answers to questions like these then PaintShop Pro X4 has the tools you need and PaintShop Pro X4 for Photographers will show you how to get the most from them with real-world examples and step-by-step projects.
Possibly you already have PaintShop Pro Photo X4, have experimented a little, but want to learn more about how it works and how you can use it to to organize and edit your photos. One of PaintShop Pro's great strengths is that it's really easy to use, but also has a raft of powerful advanced editing tools. In the book I've tried to reflect that approach and after a thorough introduction covering the basics I move on to look at some intermediate projects including basic retouching. From there I graduate to more advanced techniques using selections, layers, masking and special effects. I also look at working with Camera RAW files so, if you have a DSLR or advanced compact that can shoot RAW you'll learn what the benefits and downsides are and how to go about it.
This is the sixth edition of the book I've written, having started with PaintShop Pro 9 back in 2005. In each edition I've covered new features, introduced new projects that use them, and updated existing projects to work with the latest version. This means that as well as being up to date, this is a book you can use with older versions of the program. If you've got Paint Shop Pro 9, X, X1, X2, or X3, there's plenty you'll still find useful.
With so many opportunities to take, edit and share pictures, it's an exciting time to be involved in photography. I hope you'll find Paint Shop Pro X4 for Photographers a useful, informative and enjoyable guide.
Best wishes,
Ken McMahon
Take a Look Inside Paint Shop Pro X4 for Photographers
Moped, Portbou, Spain. This shot was taken using using a filter effect in the camera. I think this particular filter effect suits the subject well, but generally I'd advise against using these kinds of filters in the camera.
Brasserie, Le Boluou, France.
I've chosen this shot because it shows something that's become a lot easier with modern digital cameras: low-light and night photography. Better sensors with excellent low-noise high ISO performance and image stabilization make it possible to get great night shots without having to lug a tripod around.
Pier and barge, River Thames, London.
Monochrome shots like this provide lots of scope for changing the mood by altering the dominant color. You can do this with a hue adjustment, or if you shoot RAW use the temperature slider in Paint Shop Pro X4's Camera RAW Lab.
2011 World Bellyboard Championships, Cornwall, UK. The reds in this image are very saturated and after adjusting the contrast I had to reduce the red saturation to stop them from clipping.
Top Ten Photography Tips from Ken McMahon
1. If you own a Canon compact, change the image quality setting to Fine from the default of Normal. You'll get much better quality images and you'll still have room to fit hundreds on even a small, say 2GB, memory card.
2. Get into the habit of frequently downloading photos from your camera to your PC. It's much easier to deal with small batches of recent images than hundreds dating back to that wedding you went to last spring (what was his mother's name?).
3. If you don't have the time or patience to add keyword tags to all your photos, at least caption them. Even if you give an entire batch a generic caption (whatshername's son's wedding in Westminster Abbey) they'll be easier to find.
4. Get closer. Most people I see taking photos stand too far back.
5. Use the crop tool. If you do nothing else to a photo, cropping it can usually hugely improve it. Especially if you stood too far back when you took it.
6. Back up your original files. And use PaintShop Pro X4's Auto Preserve feature (it's on by default in Preferences) to create an automatic backup of any edited files.
7. When you've got the Paint Shop Pro X4 workspace set up the way you like it, save it using File>Workspace>Save.
8. Make occasional backups of the PaintShop Pro database so if something goes wrong you can restore all your collections and other metadata. Select File>Database Backup>Export.
9. If you can remember roughly when you took a photo, you can find it using PaintShop Pro X4's Calendar Search. Click Calendar in the Collections tab of the Navigation palette.
10. Don't use Image>Grayscale in PaintShop Pro X4 to convert images to black and white. You'll get much better results with more control over tonal reproduction with Effects>Photo Effects>Black and White Film.
