Customer Reviews

Adobe® Photoshop® 6.0 Classroom in a Book

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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...

I am an Information Technology Training Specialist currently taking a free online course for Photoshop 6. I am learning more (and having more fun) using the Classroom in a Book than I have from the online course and the book it is using (Visual QuickStart Guide). The tutorials in this book are great and provide the detailed steps necessary to complete tasks as well as references to where you can access more in-depth information from Adobe's online Help. The book covers how to complete tasks in ImageReady as well as Photoshop. One of the first things I recommend is printing up the Quick Reference Card so you can add your own notes to it -- an irreplaceable guide! To ensure I've mastered the lesson, I recreate the end picture on my own.

Although I am pretty proficient with computers, I am not a designer, yet I wanted to use Photoshop for simple Image manipulation, enhancement, etc. When I got Photoshop I was at first intimidated. Sure, I could figure out the VERY, VERY basic stuff, but not much more.

Well, this book changes everything. A huge amount of information is conveyed in an easy-to-learn format with clear examples and set-by-step instruction. Everything from the work environment, tools, and palettes , selections, layers, masks, painting, photo retouching etc. It's awesome!

If you own or are getting Photoshop 6, this is a REQUIRED purchase to go along with it! You'll be glad you did!

I teach Photoshop at the local college and have complained to my adminstrator about the use of this book for our level one classes. The lessons are too long, and introduce too many different features of Photoshop at one time. I've found that students appreciate a linear approach, and want to master the essentials of one topic before they move on. The lessons in this book "skip" around so much that my students get lost easily, and I've reorganized many of our lessons as a result. As well, it often ignores the "why" of a feature, and focuses instead on the "how". Inquisitive students want both questions answered. Adobe Photoshop is fabulous, but this book is not. I'd recommend that a beginner use the Visual Quickstart Guide instead.

This book assumes you are new to image editing/Design Layout software and are new to graphic design type work.

The tutorials are excellent. The Lessons are carefully planned and work great.

Of all the computer books I have purchased through Amazon, this one has the best cd files ever. The lessons make sense and the examples are excellent.

If you are new to image editing/layout software and want to really learn what Photoshop is and what it can do without becoming entirely overwhelmed then buy this book.

Just Buy it!

I don't think there is a 5 star book on Photoshop. That could be because no one book could possibly do justice to the whole of Photoshop so the books have to pick and choose where to put emphasis. I teach at a community college in an area different from this. I am taking the Photoshop course there and the book we are using is packed with so much information that I've found it worthless as a starting text, although now that I am getting the hang of Photoshop even it is useful. I now own 5 Photoshop books and they all do different things. This one's plusses are, in order: the images on the CD-ROM to do your lessons with that are in the book; the simple, straight forward style on an unjumbled, uncrowded page format and a logical, orderly way of proceeding and learning. Photoshop is considered a really tough program so I am not surprised that one book does not do it all. I would say if you are going to get more than one book, make this one of them. If you are only going to buy one Photoshop book, I honestly don't know what to recommend to you. It might be better to tackle the lessons in online tutorials in that case. The Photoshop Magazine is also excellent and better than all the books combined because it is chocked full of all color visual tutorials, every single page.

While Adobe undoubtedly makes THE best graphics software, it falls extremely short in its Classroom in a Book series. I've been using Photoshop 6.0 for a while and I wanted to learn more. I purchased Adobe's Classroon in a Book thinking this book had to be as good as their software; not so. While the lessons in the book are extensive, the instructions are not always clear. (I also agree with other reviewers that the lessons take longer than stated.) The visuals are often not clear and they should be in color; flipping back and forth to the color section of the book to see the final result is annoying. In the lesson on Basic Pen Tool Techniques, in the converting paths to selections section, after completing step 5, the catmask does not look like the result in the book. I have done this segment several times with the same result every time. It is also a shame you cannot email Adobe about their Classroom in a Book series; suggestions from readers could be helpful. Adobe can do better.

I just finished the last of the book;s 17 lessons. I gave this book a 5-star rating because it provided an excellent method for learning Adobe Photoshop 6.0. Although I have the user's manual that came with the software, I decided to go ahead and buy the "Classroom" book. I was glad that I did. Step-by-step instructions are presented for each lesson that are relatively easy to follow. The only complaint that I have is that their estimates for the time expected to complete the lessons was underestimated. For instance, a lesson that should take about "90 minutes" to complete may actually take up to twice as long. Nevertheless, the Classroom book will be as useful a future reference as will the user's manual itself. I just bought the "Adobe GoLive 5.0 Classroom in a Book" and am eager to go through all of the lessons in that book as well.