Thoughts/Reviews of Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography

I was in Chapters today looking through the books and as you all know, 99% of

the photography books nowadays are crap and are essentially "How to Use Your PoS

(oops, I mean P&S) Camera and Your Stolen Version of Photoshop" - but something

struck me. There was a book there by renowned artist Vincent Versace and it

looked pretty interesting. I was rushed for time so I didn't go through it in

detail, but he had some incredible photos in there with tutorials. The photos I

was most interested in were the landscape photos - he had a couple in there

called "American Gothic" and American something... that looked absolutely

amazing with moody fog, and incredible tonality.

 

Has anyone purchased the Welcome to Oz book? Is it worth the money and will it

teach me skills I can apply to landscape photography, or was he just putting

those images in there to "show off"?

 

 

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this book.

 

 

Regards,

Jeff

I have taken a workshop with Vincent and I have his Oz book. This is NOT a Photoshop how-to or touch-up book; it's very different. Vincent will be the first to tell you to get it right in the camera and plan ahead what you want the final image to be. He wants you to have a vision of what the final image is going to be before you ever trip the shutter and then "harvest" all the images needed to blend in PS to produce your image. His techniques are not quick and dirty - they take time and planning. A CD comes with the book containing the images so you can practice what he's shown. Many of his images combine 5 - 10 separate photos; I've seen one that had about 45 ! He'll tell you that Photoshop is not a verb, it's a noun; it's a means to an end. He's a master and a perfectionist. If you like his work (www.versacephotography.com) and are willing to take time crafting images, you'll like his book.

I saw VV last year at the Epson Print Academy here in Toronto and later bought his book

when it

came out. Highly recommended! FWIW I find it cheaper to buy off Chapeters Online than in

their retail stores - even with added shipping.

I bought the book a few weeks ago.

 

I've quickly skimmed the entire book, and I'm about a third of the way going through it slowly, doing the work on the sample images provided myself as I read along.

 

For me, it's worthwhile. I always learn a few new photoshop techniques when I follow along with examples like these. If nothing else, I've learned a couple techniques that I had never thought of before.

 

I doubt if I'll be applying his methods in bulk to most of my work. I simply don't work like that. But so far, it has been worth the money and time to read.

 

 

Eric

well, Jeff, thanks for bringing this question up. I never heard of him before, never saw his pics........and surprising, seeing on how much time I spend on NAPP related sites.....but, after reviewing the book on my own on the internet, I went and ordered it.......heh. Amazon had a price on it I could live with.....especially after seeing Vincent's website. Gorgeous work!

Thanks for everyone's input! I'm going to go ahead and order it - as Roger mentioned, it is significantly cheaper off of Chapters.com than in store, so I think I'm going to go that route.

 

I'd still love to hear from anyone else if they've found his techniques useful.