Last year I moved from Corel to PhotoShop and needed to find out how to do things the Adobe way. This book was ideal, explaining clearly and concisely how to use PhotoShop's design capabilities quickly and easily.Most PhotoShop books contain murky black and white screenshots. Not so here. All the exercises are presented in full colour making it easy to see what to do and what each step should look like once completed. Additional useful tips are given in the wide page margins so as not to interfere with the flow of the main text.
The chapter on type (text) effects uses commercial fonts in the excercises but the techniques work on any font including the standard Windows ones.
Throughout the book the author's humour helps ease the reader into the complexities of PhotoShop CS. Each chapter reveals the power of CS beyond colour management and photo retouching.
Down & Dirty Tricks is best suited for the knowledgeable designer new to PhotoShop or absolute newbies to graphics. More experienced PhotoShop hands would do better looking elsewhere like the PhotoShop Wow! books.
Photoshop CS
Down & Dirty Tricks
[ISBN 0-7357-1353-7]Scott Kelby
New Riders
Review by John Shaw
It boasts, 'a 100% all cool new stuff' and yes this is not just an upgrade to his previous volume, it's a refreshing look at what's vogue in the ever-changing world of Photoshop effects.
A whole new book that shows you the latest cutting edge Photoshop effects that are being used today. A book that will appeal to anyone that uses Photoshop as the creative medium, whether it be Photographer, Graphic Designer or Web wizard etc.
Its eight chapters are packed with easy to understand, step by step instructions that will enable you to produce a multitude of special effects quickly and efficiently. The chapters cover photographic, text and advertising effects as well as icandy, which show you tricks for creating photographic chrome reflections and realistic neon effects etc. It is pitched at the intermediate to advanced user, as it requires some previous Photoshop experience, but having used the book to create several effects, I can say a novice would also find it very useful and productive.
The most rewarding aspect of the previous book has been retained and that is the ability to 'jump in', pick a page and have a go. You don't need to read several chapters before getting to something interesting, its instant !
This version has a fresh feel with up-to-date images, tricks and tips to show of the potential of the new Photoshop program CS. It exploits the latest tools and shows you how to get the most from them, in easy, well illustrated tutorials. Although it doesn't come with a CD you are able to download many of the images used from a dedicated website and try them out yourself.
If you follow the techniques used in this book you will soon be producing cool, jaw dropping effects and at the same time mastering the intricacies of Photoshop and having the satisfaction in knowing how to simulate the effect yourself with total control over it!
So, take a leap forward and buy this book. A must for any serious Photoshop enthusiast. Highly Recommended
