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63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, useful lessons., November 23, 2001
This review is from: Adobe® Photoshop® 6.0 Classroom in a Book (Paperback)
I purchased this alongside the Illustrator Classroom in a Book course. What I found, as with any course, is that my experience was determined by my own effort. Adobe has done its part by developing a thoughtful series of lessons to make any user comfortable working in Photoshop. I have heard two competing (and contrary) objections to these courses. People complain that there is a) either not enough or b) too much information in the Classroom in a Book series. It is true that Adobe has not developed a course that custom fits the requirements of every single possible user. This can hardly be held against them. They have created a series of straightforward courses for intermediate users. Neither this book (nor the application it is designed to teach) is for absolute beginners. It is for people who are comfortable in front of their computer. Nor should an expert user looking for some advanced tricks and tips purchase it. There are other books available to fit these needs. Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book does a wonderful job orienting a typical computer user to a heavy hitting image manipulation application. If you take the time to complete this course, you will know your way around Photoshop. By properly learning the skills featured in this book, you will be prepared to absorb the sorts of tricks you have always wanted to learn.
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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beginners beware...Intermediate have fun!, March 29, 2001
This review is from: Adobe® Photoshop® 6.0 Classroom in a Book (Paperback)
Typical of the "Classroom in a Book" series, this book is set up as a series of lessons. They take you through the major functions of Photoshop providing both instructional overviews and hands-on exercises. Lessons-wise, I can't fault the authors. They did a bang up job of hitting all of the major functions of the program. I would however like to warn users to realize that this book and the others in the series are really not for beginners. Photoshop packs A LOT of functionality. If you are a beginner and you start going through these lessons, you may feel VERY overwhelmed. I strongly suggest beginners start with another Photoshop book. Perhaps SAMS 24 hrs version. Good intro. Then buy this book and try the lessons. You really need the grounding in the application so you won't feel blown away. I really did like this book, but it is truly for intermediate to advanced users only.
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Lesson In Judging Books By Their Covers, June 18, 2002
This review is from: Adobe® Photoshop® 6.0 Classroom in a Book (Paperback)
The Classroom In A Book books have impressive-looking covers and the stock used for interior pages feels good in hand. For people, like myself, who just love books--who love the way they feel, the way they smell, the way they look on shelves--I would give this book high marks; it's well-designed. If you actually want to learn Photoshop, however, you would do well to look elsewhere. I would expect that a tutorial like this one would be concise; however, many of the step-by-step instructions are so brief as to be meaningless, particularly if you don't know the program already. Photoshop is very complex and the interface is not at all intuitive. The writers introduce tools and refer to other application features without bothering to explain where to find them. Many step-by-step instructions are misleading, which is to say, the results you will get by following the intructions verbatim will not match the outcomes shown or described. (Many relatively complex procedures are not illustrated at all, or not illustrated adequately.) I have found a disturbing number of instances where the instructions are just, well, wrong. (You will figure it out, but it might require another book!) Several people reviewing this book have mentioned that it would be better used as a companion to other reference documentation or as a companion to classroom instruction. I would agree; the book could be particularly effective as a classroom text. Presumably there would be an instructor to show you where to find this tool or that, or to explain why the book says "drag up from point E to the red dot" when the actual series of keystrokes require you to click and release the appropriate mouse button and then click and drag from point E to the red dot. I think the book would also be good for someone who knows Photoshop and just needs to brush up on features in a newer version. But it is not a book that I would recommend to learn this application. (I also question how much information any Photoshop newbie is actually going to retain. The book gives virtually no explanation about how the program operates or how various application elements relate to each other. You're mostly just pushing buttons. And if your results don't match the book's, tough nuggies. There is no attention given to alerting user to common errors and what to do about them.) I don't know about you, but I am real tired of shelling out big bucks for impressive-looking computer books that do not fulfill their stated purposes. This book has real value; but, if you are looking to actually learn Photoshop on your own, you would probably do better to look at another resource...
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