Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop 5.5 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the most useful and informative Photoshop I have ever read... especially for photographers who want to understand Photoshop and how it can work for them. It has practical sections and examples on colour correction, image adjustment, black and white techniques (duotones, solarization ), selection techniques etc. I found these examples could easily be directly applied to my own work. The examples are easy to follow without being too basic. The book doesn't waste time on jazzy filters, type, effects etc, which are of little interest to photographers. If you work with digital photography in any way this book is indispensable, a great reference.

The biggest advantage, and I consider it a must, is the examples are in color, not B&W. Do not waste your money in any Photoshop book printed only in B&W.

Most of the techniques were illustrated in the examples in the color figures (inserts) in the chapters. The advantage of this approach is that you can see the changes and steps as the examples progress. The problem is that there is not enough room in the illustration to fully explain the techniques involved. Sometimes the author assumed that you had the prior knowledge required. There were a few important techniques that I had to go through it a few times before I got it.

The other shortcoming is that most of the pictures used in the important illustrations were not included in the CD. So, I was not able to practice the technique as illustrated.

I love the "Shortcut" chapter, which gave me all the keyboard shortcut keys to all the functions. This is a must when you do some heavy duty editing.

I think any author of Photoshop books should concentrate in the version of Photoshop the book is about. There is no need to go back and forth of any prior version because anyone who purchase a book like this is probably a new learner without any knowledge of prior version.

The CD has great video that outlines some very important techniques. I found it very helpful.

All in all, I rate this book a 8.5 out of 10, which is much better than most of the ones I've seen.

If you are a photographer with a keen eye in the world of digital imaging, this book is a must. Although, a certain amount of Photoshop knowledged was presumed.

The five chapters - (8)Image Adjustment, (9)Color Adjustments, (10)Repairing An Image, (13)Black & White Effects, (14)Coloring Effects - are of particular relevance; justifying the title of the book. Last but not least, the accompanying CDrom enhances the value of this great instruction manual. Highly recommended.

Excellent book! As the title says so, most of the techniques are inclined towards photography retouching and enhancement, but it will appeal to most photoshop users. The 1st few chapters touch on fundamentals and serves as an instant guide, much better than the user guide. The other all-important criteria that I always look out for: FULL COLOR! I cannot imagine using a book on photos in b&w....how to see instant results to ease following the steps/techniques? The only bad thing is that most photos shown in the book are copyright and you will have to find comparable images yourself to work on.

An excellent companion book would be Photoshop 5 Artistry.

This book is not for beginners. But if you think you know Photoshop well, you'd do well to check out this book. There's advanced chapters on color adjustment, repairing an image, creating silouhettes, and more.

The book was indeed and excellent source of information even for an experienced photoshop user like myself. I definetly recommend this book to anyone really interested in applying successful techniques to their artwork. BEST BUY

The book is very well written and seems to be complete. The Author has made several assumptions that may limit the usefullness and readablity of the book. He assumes that we are all planning to be commercial photographers with our work being prepared to be published and he seems to think that we have unlimited budgets and can afford scanners, cameras and printers that cost several thousand dollars apiece. One other small complaint is that the author being English has used numerous terms and measurements that are unfamiliar. A good book for advanced photographers

I concur with most of the positive things that have been said about this book, BUT ... it is limited as a learning tool

Unfortunately, the images printed in the book are not included in the CDROM. The author's excuse is that they are copyright images and therefore can't be included. My view is that he chose the wrong photos, since it is now impossible to follow along with his book in photoshop.

My second beef is that his descriptions are sometimes unnecessarily complex and lack clear direction. Again, I am looking at this book package as a source of learning.

The big shortcoming is the lack of alignment of the CDROM with the book. I felt badly let down. If you forget about the CDROM, you will be much happier and probably give him 5 stars.

This is a dense book of how-to's and why's. An excellent book for advanced users of Photoshop.

the first several chapters of this book focus on only basic theory, it may stop people who is new to photoshop and want a quick start reading rest of the book.