Table Of ContentAfterShot Pro: Non-destructive
photo editing and management
This book will show you how to edit, develop, and
manage your photos with AfterShot Pro
Joachim Ziebs
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Aftershot Pro: Non-destructive photo editing
and management
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
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First published: December 2012
Production Reference: 1191212
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-466-7
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Cover Image by Avishek Roy ([email protected])
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Joachim Ziebs Esha Thakker
Reviewers Proofreader
Anutosh Ghosh Lesley Harrison
Jacek Ksiazek
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Acquisition Editor
Robin de Jongh
Production Coordinator
Prachali Bhiwandkar
Commissioning Editor
Harsha Bharwani
Cover Work
Prachali Bhiwandkar
Technical Editors
Ankita Meshram
Kaustubh S. Mayekar
About the Author
Joachim Ziebs teaches Computer Science, English, and History at a German
abendrealschule (a night school). When he was fifteen, he was given an old
camera. He was hooked on photography immediately and was seldom seen
without his camera. Later he bought his first computer, a Commodore C64,
and another passion ensued.
Strangely, however, the author decided to study English, History, and Philosophy
after he finished school. After graduating with an MA, he found work as a Computer
and Network Administrator and Software Trainer with a small start-up software
company, where his passion for teaching awakened.
Following this calling, he quit his job to become a teacher.
This is his first book.
I would like to thank my family: Lisa, Marie, and Nina. I'd also like
to thank all the fine folks at Packt for putting up with my chaotic
style of working, for believing in me, and for their dedication in
nudging me to turn my scribbling into a fine book.
About the Reviewers
Anutosh Ghosh loves coding, but has worked extensively only in the world of
PHP and its associated stuff, for over 5 years now. He has some good knowledge on
Magento, and has worked upon the integration of Magento Web Services with SAP
for more than 2.5 years. He is trying hard to figure out the jargon of Java, as well,
among other stuffs. However, he likes to venture out into other technologies as and
when he gets time.
He enjoys spending his free time by watching cool movies and singing regional
songs. However, he loves to poke his blunt nose in some forums and Stack Overflow,
from time-to-time.
I would like to thank my family, especially my mom. Today
whatever I am is only because of them. Their perseverance and
experience has always been my base.
Jacek Ksiazek is an amateur photographer, constantly exploring the secrets of the
traditional black and white photography.
He is a homegrown guitarist, industrial, and a prog rock fan.
He works as an advertising specialist and graphic designer.
You can follow him online at http://jaxxx.info/.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Installing AfterShot Pro 5
Obtaining AfterShot Pro 5
Installing on Windows 5
Installing on GNU/Linux 6
Installing on OS X 6
First start of AfterShot Pro 7
Summary 8
Chapter 2: A Quick Tour of the Main Controls 9
Default window layout 9
The top tool bar 10
The left panel – library/file system/output 15
The right panel – where all the tools live 18
The thumbnail strip toolbar 22
The main toolbar 23
The status bar 23
Summary 24
Chapter 3: Basic Editing 25
Basic adjustments 27
Sharpening 28
Cropping 30
Colors 31
Black and white 35
Straightening 37
Summary 39
Chapter 4: Advanced Editing 41
Layers and regions 41
Heal/Clone Layers 43
Table of Contents
Adjust Layers 48
Plugins 54
Wavelet Sharpen 54
Nostalgia 57
GradFilter 60
Working with versions of images 63
Summary 64
Chapter 5: Digital Asset Management 65
Creating and working with catalogs 65
Getting your images into catalogs 67
Importing images 68
Downloading images from a memory card 70
Organizing your images within a catalog 72
Writing XML files 74
Summary 75
Chapter 6: Exporting Pictures 77
Using the default batches 77
Adapting and creating batches 79
Creating a personal gallery batch 79
Summary 85
Chapter 7: Making Yourself at Home 87
Key bindings 87
Raw and camera defaults 90
Customizing the tool tabs layout 93
Summary 96
Appendix 97
Important websites 97
AfterShot Pro Plugin Repository 97
Reporting Bugs and Feature Requests 97
Access to Beta Versions 97
Social networks 98
Support forums 98
Official Support Forums 98
Bibble5 Forums 98
My customToolsUI.txt 98
Summary 100
Index 101
[ ii ]
Preface
With more and more people buying digital cameras, interest in photography seems
to be at an all-time high. But taking that picture with your camera is only the first
part of the process. To get the best out of your equipment you have to post-process
your images. That is you need to edit or develop your images. How you can
elegantly and efficiently do this with AfterShot Pro is what you are going to
learn in this book.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Installing AfterShot Pro, will tell us how to install this RAW development
tool. It is a software to create images out of the RAW sensor data that modern DSLR
cameras can save for best image results. But this is not all, AfterShot Pro also has
powerful image manipulation features. In short, AfterShot Pro can be a perfect
addition to your photographic workflow. This chapter will serve as a step-by-step
installation guide for users new to AfterShot Pro.
Chapter 2, Quick Tour of the Main Controls, offers a quick tour of the main controls
to make sure that you don't get lost in the later chapters. The user interface of
AfterShot Pro is quite different from those you are probably accustomed to from
other applications, especially if you mostly use Windows programs. It is therefore
necessary to look at the interface very carefully.
Chapter 3, Basic Editing, will start with basic editing, such as basic adjustments,
sharpening, cropping, tonal adjustments, and converting to black and white.
All these will be covered here.
Chapter 4, Advanced Editing, will unleash the advanced editing functions of AfterShot
Pro. We will use layers, regions, and plugins; and we will work with versions of our
images to get the most out of them.
