Customer Reviews

Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 7.0 Studio Techniques

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I come from a strong photographic background and have been using Photoshop since version 4.0 for preparation of web and print material. I only wish I had this book 4 years ago instead of wasting my money and time on a dozen fluffy Photoshop books. If you only buy one Photoshop book, this is the one to get.
Willmore has a gift for explaining the most complex subjects in a way that is very easy to understand. He holds your hand through many excercises but doesn't fall into the trap that most writers do by telling you step by step, you will learn Photoshop much more thoroughly with Wilmore's method.

Thinking of taking a college Photoshop class? Buy this book, work through all the chapters and you probably will end knowing more than than most teachers, this book is that good.

If you want to really learn Photoshop and not just follow steps 1 - 10 like most books do (and end up just knowing how to follow steps) this is the book to get.

The section on color management and color correction is worth the price of the book alone!

I highly recommend this book to help you really understand Photoshop. Ben Willmore's Photoshop 7 Studio Techniques is a book required by my latest Photoshop class. With a previous professor I was using Classroom in a Book. What a difference everything makes!

First thing, you open the book and it is filled with lovely color pictures. Imagine that? Sounds silly, but maybe, gasp, all computer graphics books should be in color? After all, we don't live in Pleasantville.

Second, the book is easy to read. When you read a chapter you don't want to be bogged down reading a page for half an hour. The book informs you well, with a flow that makes you feel as though Ben is right there in a chair next to you.

Third, the book doesn't make you follow directions without letting you know the how and why of it all. This book actually teaches you how things work, without the pocket-protector. Anybody with the most basic understanding of their computer should easily learn from this text.

Fourth, all computer books should be accompanied by a cd-rom. There is also a web site mentioned in the book that the author runs that is well worth a bookmark.

I actually wanted a Classroom in a Book for an Illustrator class, because I was used to the format, and now I only wish that Ben Willmore wrote books for that program as well. All textbooks should be this informative and easy to read. Worth every penny.

Mr. Willmore started off on the right foot with me in the intro when he states that he would include at the end of each chapter a "technobabble decoder ring," which serves to demystify the terminology thrown around in most software guides.

Coming from a web design background, I was mostly interested in how I could use Photoshop to do website layouts - material which is covered in only two or three chapters at the end of the book. Before actually reading the book, I was a little disappointed at first that internet design was given such little attention. Then I started reading through the chapters.

As I continued through the pages, I was delighted to see that ninety percent of the book covered material that would prove to be invaluable in learning to master the program, both for offline and online designs. With humor and insight, Mr. Willmore takes the mystery out of blending modes, curves, layer masks and channels - tools that, as he puts it, "separates the amateur from the professional."

I wish Mr. Willmore would write books covering other programs like Paint Shop Pro, which badly needs a guide as in depth as this one is for Photoshop 7. Needless to say, this is a MUST-HAVE for any aspiring or established Photoshopper.

I'm a beginner at Photoshop 7 and this was definitely NOT the book to start with. Because one review said that it covered the basics, I thought it would be okay, but I just don't have the experience with the program yet to benefit from what is no doubt an excellent book.

I really just want to tack on another very positive assessment to the others posted here. Mr. Wilmore is a very good technical writer and a Photoshop master. I've been using the program since v3.0 and, while we all know it as the Cadillac of digital imaging programs, it has a very steep learning curve indeed. I have lots of PS books, many of them follow the step 1, then step 2, recipe. This is definitely not that kind of book, and doesn't employ that approach to learning.

As others have already stated, the section on color correction is hands-down the best I've seen - even with the new auto-color correction in PS v7.0, his explanation is not only worth reading -- with what you learn you can sometimes do better manually.
This is one great book for a fantastic program.

Perfect!...Exactly what I needed. If you're looking for a great PhotoShop book that's for beginners, but that's "Not-For-Dummies", this is the real deal. Extremely well written, great "insider" info. Will not bore you....very fun to real. I never wanted to close this book! Highly recommended.

I have read a few Photoshop books before I read this one and now I wish I had read this one first. If you really want to know what you are doing and why it works rather than just following a recipe for a certain effect, then it gets no better than this book. Learn to use the tools the masters use and truly understand what you are doing!

One of the greatest things about this book is that it made all my other Photoshop books make sense. I went back and re-read other books and it all came together. I not only use this book now but I can use other "recipe type" books and I understand what I am doing and therefore I can modify the steps to get "My Look" and not the authors.

The book is easy to read. Ben Willmore uses a language everyone can understand and if you want to learn the advanced termonology he lists the terms and definitions at the end of every chapter.

This book should be the next Photoshop book you should read!

I'm new to Photoshop and this book is not helping me to learn it. The techniques discribed in this book look great but you have to know Photoshop pretty well before you can use them. Probably a good book - but not for beginners.

Willmore's book is certainly one of the best Photoshop books ever. He is able to cover both simple and powerful features of PS7 in an engaging, clear, and often entertaining manner. Like many other reviewers, I enjoyed that the book does not follow a "Step 1, do this; Step 2, do that" scheme and rather lets the reader work in the program and truly understand why things work the way they do in Photoshop.

For everybody, beginners to Adobe-certified PS professionals, this book serves as an excellent tutorial and review.

While the HOT photoshop book only teaches through steps and examples often failing to show how to get there independently, this book omits the steps entirely and is not integrated with the practice cd provided. I found myself often frustrated with the lack of examples and the lack of integration with the practice images provided. Perhaps this book is better geared towards intermediate to advanced users, but it falls short for beginers.