Rating: 
Summary: Principles and practice not ONLY for advanced CMYK
Review: I came to this book as an amateur and beginner in need of RBG output only, and I came to it right after reading one of the best-known Photoshop "cookbooks". While I certainly learned things from that other book, it was Margulis's book that brought me to an acceptable level and who injected enthusiasm into the job. My thoughts seem to echo those of A Reader from Brooklyn, who posted a review in October, 2002.Some specific points about the book: DM's basic method of drawing curves has helped me a lot. It made the field easier to navigate. While not making long-term experience superfluous, it really got me going in a very short time. A thread going through the book is that the human visionary system is adaptive and flexible, making its own "colour corrections" based on the input, like seeing colour in context. The camera does not make use of these cognitive principles, so the image needs to be corrected to compensate for that. This is an eye-opening guiding principle that can make a difference for the result. After reading this book, I've started noticing how some people in online photo forums let their colour-correction decisions be guided by the opposite approach of DM's (like not correcting blue casts just because they are blue "in reality" and they're faithfully captured on film), without being aware of the alternative. Also, the guiding principle gives the most convincing explanation I've seen of why, as often noted, it helps overexposing indoor shots taken without flash: human vision "overexposes" the scene as well, seeing a scene lighter when there's less available light. DM's handling of conversion to black and white is very clear (and even more so compared to the other book I've read): he shows ways to correct the image while it's still in colour to optimize the (only) kind of contrast that can be utilized in b&w. DM repeatedly stresses that he's a colour-space eclectic (obviously to fight back reactions he has experienced to previous editions), and I think he shows it in practice. (His handling of LAB is very inspiring, by the way.) Portions of the book are not specific to either RGB or CMYK, and these are held in CMYK, because DM is mainly writing for professionals using CMYK as output. As he says, one can think in RBG instead in those cases. As an RGB user, I would have preferred that, somewhere in the early chapters showing the "by-the-numbers" approach, there had been a forward pointer to Chapter 8, especially to around p. 151 (4th edition). There are a lot of interesting and apparently innovative ideas about blending channels and similar techniques. Some of it is clearly more advanced than I need or can make use of now, but I did get interested. There's a lot on prepress work for CMYK output, such as handling dot gain for different papers. I passed lightly over those passages. Professional Photoshop serves as an interesting (and forceful) alternative to the widespread assumptions that it's always better to correct as much as possible in 48 bits and to scan at a high resolution (although I didn't quite get what exactly is considered high and low in this context -- DM's point about resolution is perhaps relevant for professional gear only?). As a general comment on the book, I think it's an asset that you not only get the practical methods, but also the principles. DM's views on the principles are clearsighted and tidy, and he shows how the principles can be applied. It can be added that not all beginners in need of RGB output will be equally good at extracting the relevance of what's said and applying it to their own situation: For example, people trained as university academics could be more likely than some others to favour DM's approach over the "cookbook" approach. Those who don't may also be less good at "translating" from CMYK to RGB when appropriate. I've read that Michael Kieran's book (which was praised along with Margulis's), takes a similar route as Professional Photoshop, but is more geared towards RGB and doesn't go in quite as much depth. Although at least partly outside the main target group, I enjoyed this book very much and found it both inspiring, clear and, to a large degree, relevant. Others in my situation may find it boring, confusing and irrelevant. My modest hope is that this review will help making the latter group a little smaller...
Rating: 
Summary: Less ego and more Photoshop
Review: I did not find this book to be user friendly. The author waste time and print taking about things that has nothing to do with photoshop. Likes to blow his own horn a lot and does not explain why he does thing.
There are a lot of better books on photoshop than this one.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite author
Review: I have an earlier book of this series by Dan Margulis. I found it so useful that I sought out and purchased this book (Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction)as well when it first came out. He also hosts a very useful mailing list that I've taken the time to subscribe to and read.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book on Photoshop Color Correction
Review: I have read just about everything available on color correction with Photoshop. This book simply goes deeper and further than any other I have seen. It covers creative new techniques such as channel mixing, color correcting with profiles, and the use of alternative color spaces like Lab, as well the more basic techniques like curve writing and selective color. For those who need to know how to correct in CMYK, there is a wealth of solid information and proven techniques, far more than in other Photoshop books which are often more RGB focused. Mr. Margulis writes in a spirited and refreshing style. He expresses his views on many of the hotly debated color related issues. This makes the book more fun and more thought provoking to read than the usual sanitized computer 'how to' book. One word of caution, this book is for the serious user, and hence the word 'Professional' in the title. Casual users of Photoshop and those wishing to get a little help for occasional image improvement tasks may feel overwhelmed by the depth and would be better served by the more basic material in one of the many excellent general Photoshop books. The book includes a CD so you can try the techniques using the actual images from the book. This is a better way to learn this stuff and it gets you from being someone who has 'read all about it' to someone who can 'just do it'! If you are serious about improving image quality using Photoshop, and especially if you need to do rescue work on really poor images, then you'll find this book essential and an ongoing resource.
Rating:
Summary: Find Color Correction Advice Somewhere Else.
Review: I thought I would write a review because I did not want you to spend your money buying this book. It is rather out of date, which is not bad in itself, but with the ongoing, strident egoism and my way or the highway attitude: I would advise you to look elsewhere. I could go into particulars but enough said. Look elsewhere for more up to date, user friendly advice.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I walked into this book knowing nothing (at any level of detail) regarding printing and color theory (beyond high school art class, but definitely could not explain the details of RGB, CMYK, L*A*B, HSB or any other colorspace). The book is a bit heavy in parts, but if read carefully teaches even a newcomer amateur, such as myself, a few things. After reading this I feel that I better understand what I am doing in any program when "correcting" a photo. I read it the first time without really trying the examples. I am now going back and following through. The time you invest in reading, and rereading, this book clearly seems to be worth it. The corrections I have been able to do on my own photos improved drastically after reading just the first few paragraphs.
Only comment, maybe it is just proof of my lack of professional training or experience, but I had a hard time noticing the difference in some of the before and afters. Most of the time I could see the difference.
Rating:
Summary: This is the ONE book to own!
Review: I've been using Photoshop since 1991. It's my bread and butter. I've read through at least 10 Photoshop books and this is by far the best one. I've even worked for one of the major computer book publishers and I have to say that as nice as that companies books were, they still don't even touch Margulis's books on Photoshop. WARNING: this book is NOT for the novice, and it is difficult to read. But it is worth it! I would estimate that 50% of all Photoshop books are crap, another 40% are good for novices, another 9% are good for intermediate users, but Margulis's book is part of that rare 1% of Photoshop books that is good for both Intermediate and uber-pros. This is the one book every professional user of Photoshop should own!
Rating:
Summary: A great book that you will refer to over and over
Review: If you look for a Photoshop manual for beginners look elsewhere. But if you want to sharpen your understanding of colour and have a passion for ultimate image quality, this book will take you on a fascinating journey. Dan puts Photoshop into the context of traditional image making showing that the digital tools we use today address the same problems Leonardo Da Vinci and El Greco were dealing with. This is not a manual of hot Photoshop tips that will be out date in a year, but its full of useful insights into the ways we perceive colour. Some of the techniques are absolute gems and will save hours of work.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Photoshop Color Correction - Period!
Review: Ignore the 1-star reviews! This book rocks!! This book is truly about professional level Photoshop. That means that it really deals with issues pertinant to the majority of WORK that gets published in print. If you don't do any work that ever gets printed then don't bother with this book. Far from being a dinosaur, Dan is very up-to-date with the latest techniques for dealing with color... just don't expect to see much in the way of color management, spectrophotometers and printing rips. That material is outside of the scope of a Photoshop book as it relies on other software. If you're looking for a book on Color Management get the excellent "Real World Color Managment". However, for a book on creatively manipulating color in Photoshop you can't get a better book than "Professional Photoshop" by Dan Margulis. The other, highly touted book "Photoshop Color Correction" by Michael Kieran is largely a pale copy of Dan's work with some material about ColorSync color managment added for political correctness. This is a decent book but you're better off with the original by Dan. The chapters on Curves, B+W, Luminosity blending and "false profiles" (a technique that Dan invented) are much better in Dan's book and the illustrations show the effects much better. As far as color management goes, Dan's position has softened a bit over the years but the reader should understand that this book is more about creatively manipulating color for the best possible reproduction NOT tracking a fixed color rendering from input to output (again, see "Real World Color Managment" for that).
Rating:
Summary: An updated classic
Review: Margulis is a highly respected professional who transcends the usual oversimplified chapters on color correction by writing an entire book on the topic. With a background in CMYK press work, his emphasis is on press color preparation which may seem a bit off track to RGB inkjet jockeys, but he has balanced his techniques to include all three color spaces Photoshop offers, CMYK, RGB and LAB, giving examples of the strengths and weaknesses of each. This is a book that will be re-read and retained for reference, and despite some curiously negative reviews, I found the book extremely helpful and quite well balanced. This is not a beginner's tutorial, but a professional's proven methods of color control within the Photoshop environment using all the tools available. I own 7 books on Photoshop 7 and this is the most indispensible. The book includes a CD with sample images for user experimentation.
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