Essentials of Digital Photography has much more than the essentials, actually; it"s a complete guide to image input, editing, enhancement, composition, and output. The authors start out by explaining monitor calibration; light, color and tonality; recording and output devices; and resolution and other digital imaging terms. They provide an overview of available digital cameras and excellent in-depth advice on how to use scanners and digital cameras successfully. You"ll learn how to correct photographs using Adobe Photoshop controls such as brightness, contrast, and color balance and how to use pictures from a variety of sources to create composite photo images in Photoshop. There"s also lots of information on output devices such as printers, film recorders, and image setters. The rest of the book focuses on the hardware and software requirements for casual and professional digital photography systems. While the book primarily focuses on the Macintosh in its hardware discussions, it does include information for PC users; and while the hands-on editing techniques involve Photoshop, there are also tips on using other software packages such as Live Picture, Fractal Design Painter, and third-party plug-ins. The hybrid CD-ROM contains tutorial images and files, as well as demonstration software and graphics utilities.