Eddie Tapp is an award-winning photographer, lecturer and consultant. He writes for O’Reilly, and one of his latest books covers customising Photoshop for digital photography. The book’s title is slightly off the mark. It’s not really about setting up Photoshop, but more about finding those features in the application that can help with digital photography.

Eddie Tapp has something to say. The first book written by him that I read was the one on Practical Colour Management. I liked that book a lot, although some of the opinions in there are open for discussion. But discussion is good. I’m afraid this book won’t be food for discussion, though. It’s basically a very thorough training book for people who start using Photoshop for digital photography.

The book has a pleasant look and feel about it, and it is clear and concisely written, but I was a bit surprised by its user level. I doubt if seasoned photographers will find much new in this book, because it’s really all very basic. Beginners will like it, I’m sure, but digital photographers should at least know 80% of what Eddie Tapp is telling here.

I was also a bit disappointed about the tone of voice of the book. As I said, in the Practical Color Management book, there were opinions that are open for discussion --you might agree or disagree with the author on a lot of issues covered there. In this book, it is automatically assumed that Photoshop is the photographer’s application of choice, period. 

That’s not entirely true. Only recently has a small company started to deliver a competing application that’s not only more simple to use, but also more true to digital photography itself. Photoshop is pixel-based, while we really need a light-science based application if we want to correct and enhance our digital photos. We need Photoshop especially for all those other tasks, such as web design, masking and creating cut-outs, etc.

Tapp only briefly touches on those issues by saying he’s not interested in those capabilities for this title. That’s why it’s a good introduction to Photoshop, but nothing more, I’m afraid.