Photoshop Classic: The Basic Effects Every New User Needs to Know

Scott takes us through finished projects and shows us exactly how to produce them. I've experimented on almost all of them and have used close to half of them. And I can tell you my boss was amazed at what I had designed.

What I like most about this book is the way eye-catching ideas are implemented most effectively in fantastic desings and finished layouts.

With utmost confidence I would recommend this book to anyone looking for inspirational ideas and superb graphics.

Good luck!


useless book   February 21, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I have found this book really useless.
Beginners should avoid it, because the step-by-step description of the classic effects doesn't give any informations about photoshop principles and tools. It isn't a reference book about the why and how of basic photoshop functionalities (color correction, color manipulation, masking and composing techniques,...). Mr. Kelby simply describe how to create an effect in the following way: "Hit D to do this, then Ctrl-J to do that and finally set this to that".

Intermediate users can create the effects, just by simply playing/experimenting a little bit with masks, compositions and filters.
Advanced users, well, they are "advanced", therefore they already know how to re-create those effects.

Another observation: at the end of the book there is a 1-page description of each effect described in the rest of the book.
You need only those 1-page descriptions to re-create the effect! This book could be done with one tenth of the pages!

Neverthless, effects are very well illustrated with nice pictures (that's the reason of the 2 stars instead of just one).


Not for advanced users!   January 21, 2005
Marque Pierre Sondergaard (Liverpool, United Kingdom)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

My first book on Photoshop was one of Scott Kelby's Down and Dirty books. And while it didn't teach me an awful lot about the inner workings of Photoshop, it did get me hooked with a lot really quick and simple "wow, I made this" experiences.

Today I revisited Scott Kelby in the shape of his Photoshop Classic Effects. I must say that was a bit of a disappointment. Not only was there absolutely nothing to learn for this Photoshop user, but the tutorials were more or less updated versions of the old ones in my Down & Dirty book. I suspect Scott Kelby only has this same set of tutorials/effects and more or less reuse them in each of his books. I for one, already have my Scott Kelby book, so I will stay clear of his stuff in the future. It goes without saying that none of these effects are terribly new, or couldn't be found elsewhere on Photoshop tutorial sites on the net.

If you are a brand new to Photoshop or anything below intermediate user, this is still a good book to get, granted the above caveat. Do however realise that it is heavily slanted towards the kinds of work you'd do in advertising, and Photoshop is used in so many other avenues, but if that is your game, then it is a fine book.