A few weeks ago I heard through the grapevine that George Reis’ new book “Photoshop CS3 for Forensic Professionals” was available, so this past Monday I finally took a few minutes to order it through Amazon. I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up at my door step Tuesday.

Now before I go any further I want to tell you up front I haven’t completely finished reading the book, but the first thing that impressed me about it was that it’s layed out so you don’t have to. There are three parts to the book with a total of twenty-four chapters. At the very beginning George makes it clear that after completing part one all remaining chapters stand on their own, and can be read in any order that may meet your needs or interests.

The next thing I’d like to point out is that I have attended a few seminars and classes taught by George. For years George has been the first person I think of if I ever have a question or issue related to processing images via Photoshop, and despite the thorough notes and documentation he typically provides via his classes I always leave wishing I’d recorded and indexed the entire session for future reference. Basically, now he’s done that for me too by wriiting this book.

Part 1, “The Essentials”, is comprised of six chapters. The first two chapters are not specific to Photoshop, and are a must read for anyone interested or involved in the use of digital images within a legal setting. The remaining four chapters provide an important foundation for analysts and investigators using Photoshop.

Part 2, “The Digital Darkroom”, and Part 3, “Image Analysis and Enhancement”, are detailed instructions regarding Photoshop’s settings, filters, and the multitude of related processes to achieve optimum imaging results. Included with the book is a CD-ROM contianing sample images to work with when going through the tutorials, as well as some free scripts and trial plugin’s.

I’ve been using Photoshop for several years now in my Forensic Video workflow, as well as personally for Graphic and Web design projects. This book has already proven to be the single most valuable reference for me pertaining to the use of Photoshop in either setting. It’s also probably the smartest investment I’ve made in quite some time.

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