July 12, 2010 @ 11:50AM

New Epson Complete Guide To Digital Printing

By Damien Franco

New Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing by Rob Sheppard, Lark Books (July 1, 2008)

About the Author

Rob Sheppard is the author/photographer of over 20 books about photography, digital photography and Photoshop. His website for photo tips and free Photoshop videos, plus his workshop and book information is at www.robshepppardphoto.com. His blog about digital photography tips is at www.photodigitary.com.

Sheppard has had a long-time and nationally recognized commitment to helping photographers connect with digital imaging technology. He is an internationally known speaker and workshop leader, and was the editor of the prestigious Outdoor Photographer magazine for over 12 years. He was one of the small group of people who started PCPhoto magazine over 10 years ago to bring the digital world to photographers on their terms. He was the first editor of PCPhoto.

Sheppard is editor-at-large and a columnist for Outdoor Photographer and has written hundreds of articles about photography and nature, plus a wide range of books.

As a photographer, Sheppard worked for many years in Minnesota (before moving to Los Angeles in 1993), including doing work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Norwest Banks (now Wells Fargo), Pillsbury, 3M, General Mills, Lutheran Brotherhood, Ciba-Geigy, Anderson Windows, and others. His photography has been published in many magazines, ranging from National Geographic to The Farmer to, of course, Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto.

About the Book

In this thorough revision for the bestselling Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing Rob Sheppard takes you from start to finish through the process of creating picture-perfect digital prints. There are key insights and invaluable tips on every page–such as the pros and cons of RAW vs. JPEG files, the fine points of sharpening images in the computer, the advantages of a printer with six or more ink colors, the importance of choosing the right paper, and much more.

This book on digital printing is beautiful. As well it should have been. It reads well from start to finish using common sense mapping. The step-by-step instructions work well and there are tons of examples for most images.

The Best

Sheppard’s writing really stands out in what could have easily been a jargon heavy technical reference book. With plenty of examples and great advice this book is sure to help many a frustrated photographer get the most out of their printer.

This book is for…

New to semi-experienced digital print-makers and any photographer still struggling with getting their ink jet prints to look great.

Almost all of this information is on the web. That certainly doesn’t discount the value of this book however. This book is a handy reference and a time (and money) saving way to get better prints at home.

Conclusion

Most advanced print-makers learned all of the stuff in this book through research and trial and error (at least that’s how I learned how to print at home). Many prints were tossed out along the way. I can easily imagine this book could have saved me at least the money spent on the book and then some.

If you’re already getting good prints and are looking for advanced techniques you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. If you just bought your first high end Epson printer I would highly recommend this book. You’ll easily avoid a few headaches!