Why digital?
If you’ve picked up this book while browsing the shelves of your local bookshop (or, better still, if you’ve already bought it!) the chances are that you own and use a digital camera. You’re far from alone. According to the digital imaging research company Lyra, in 2006 we bought nearly 100 million digital cameras and this figure is set to grow to 130 million by 2010.
To those of us who have been using digital cameras for a while, this comes as no big surprise. While early digital cameras were more expensive and less capable than their conventional counterparts, as tends to happen with consumer electronics, it was only a question of time before this situation was reversed. Today you can choose from a huge variety of digital cameras that are competitively priced and outstrip film-based models in terms of features and performance. Indeed, many well-known camera manufacturers have stopped producing film-based cameras altogether.
The most obvious advantage to owning a digital camera is that you’ll never again have to pay for a roll of film or to have it processed. Neither will you have to change film to cope with different lighting conditions, or because you want to take some black and white shots, or transparencies.
Before the advent of digital photography, for most photographers, the picture-making process began and ended with the pressing of the shutter release. The film was sent for processing, the snaps came back, were maybe stuck in an album and that was it. Only professionals, or those lucky enough to have their own home darkroom, were able to extend the creative process; even then it was an expensive, time-consuming, often frustrating process with limited creative possibilities.
Modern personal computers and digital image-editing software have transformed the way we make and use photographs in the 21st century. With only a modest PC and with software costing very little (if you’re lucky, it might even be included in the box with your camera) you have at your fingertips creative tools and photo processing power that would have been beyond the scope of even the most lavishly equipped photo lab of a decade ago.
Why Paint Shop Pro Photo?
Which is where Paint Shop Pro Photo enters the picture. This inexpensive, versatile application will allow you to do just about anything with your digital pictures, from correcting exposure problems and removing red-eye to making Christmas cards and event posters.
Why this book?
Paint Shop Pro Photo is a powerful image-editing application that’s packed with sophisticated tools and features that will help you get the most from your digital photos. But all this power and sophistication comes at a price – you need to learn how to use it. This book is designed to help you do that.
In Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for Photographers I’ve tried to do much more than simply explain how Paint Shop Pro Photo works. In each of the chapters I’ve taken a practical approach to demonstrating tools and techniques so that you can learn how to use the program to do the things you want with your own digital photos. At the end of each chapter you’ll find a series of step-by-step projects that demonstrate many of the techniques covered.
Why me?
The book is aimed at anyone who wants to get more from their digital photos and has a basic understanding of how to use their PC. You don’t even need a copy of Paint Shop Pro Photo! If you go to www.corel.com you can download a free, fully functional, trial version which you can use for 30 days.
If you’re new to Paint Shop Pro Photo, I’d recommend you work through the book in a linear fashion as later chapters introduce more complex techniques. If you’re keen to cover a topic dealt with later in the book, start by taking a look through the first two chapters, which provide an introduction to the workspace and basic feature set.
If you’re already familiar with Paint Shop Pro Photo, feel free to dip in wherever your interest takes you or where there is a gap in your knowledge. Chapter 1 covers features new to version X2. This revised edition contains a great deal of new material as well as new step-by-step projects that give you a chance to learn while carrying out ‘real world’ tasks like restoring old photos, or preparing pictures for the Web.
Digital photography is here to stay and Paint Shop Pro Photo makes getting the best from your digital images easier than it’s ever been. With Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for Photographers you’ll be able to get the best from Paint Shop Pro Photo – and have some fun in the process!
About Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the latest evolution of a program that has been in continuous development for more than a decade. Paint Shop Pro Photo’s main purpose is to edit digital photos and it provides a wide range of tools to enable you to do this. But it goes much further than that and can be used to create and edit original artwork using vector-based graphics, type and ‘natural media’ painting tools that simulate ‘real world’ materials like oil and pastels..
There are other image-editing applications out there that do the same thing, but what makes Paint Shop Pro Photo unique is that it combines power and versatility and yet sells for a fraction of the cost of similarly equipped applications. Adobe’s industry-standard professional image-editing software, Photoshop, costs five times the price of Paint Shop Pro Photo, yet does little that can’t be achieved in Paint Shop Pro Photo.
A note from Corel
Corel® Paint Shop Pro Photo® X2 delivers a complete set of photo-editing tools to help you create professional-looking photos fast!
By combining Ken McMahon’s ideas from a photographer’s viewpoint and the powerful yet easy-to-use features within Corel® Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, you will be able to fix brightness, color, and photo imperfections; compose photos full of depth and imagination; give photos a unique and exciting look, plus organize and share all your photos with Corel® MediaOne™ Plus.
Corel, Ken McMahon, and Focal Press have worked very closely to create a book for anyone who aspires to make good photos great and puts the power of Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 at the finger-tips of anyone who wants to create stunning photos right out of the box.
About Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation provides innovative software solutions that help millions of value-conscious businesses and consumers in over 75 countries improve their productivity. The Company is renowned for its powerful software portfolio that combines innovating photo editing and graphics creation, vector-illustration and technical-graphics applications along with office and personal productivity solutions. Corel’s flagship products include the CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, the WordPerfect® Office Suite, the Corel® Painter™ and Natural-Media® painting and illustration software and the Paint Shop™ Family of digital photography and image-editing software.
Founded in 1985, Corel is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. For more information, please visit www.corel.com.
© 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, Paint Shop Pro and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product, font and company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.