Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS Creative Studio

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

 

 

There are many training books available for Photoshop, those for the new CS version are just arriving. Frankly, you'll need at least one, probably several. The in-the-box 'documentation' for Photoshop is pretty meager. Some of these books are step-by-step, hand holding instructions and some are more generous in why and how the steps are taken. This is one of the latter. Perhaps what's more important, the examples are selected very well for usefulness. Follow each one, and you'll have a very good repertoire of skills. This book uses extensive color illustrations and examples, something surprisingly missing from some PS books.

Also, this book in oriented to illustrators. You will learn now to create textures (wood, marble, chrome), shape overlays, masks and how to apply some of the artistic filters, but you will not find anything on photo retouching, sharpening, and enhancement. (This is actually a good thing; Scott Kelby has some good books in this area so you won't be duplicating anything in your library.)

Why not 5 stars? (4.5 is more appropriate) It would be very helpful to have access to some of the images used in the book; these are not downloadable and there is no CD with the book. Also, each of the 37 chapters starts with a really fine example of the author's work, but it is not the basis for the lesson that follows. Too bad... the examples are terrific!

There are a few 'bugs' in the book where the settings for some of the layer styles are missing. An errata list on the publisher's site would help.

Highly recommended!

Yep! I call "Photoshop CS - Creative Studio" as another winner from Peachpit Press! Although a strong basic working knowledge of Photoshop is required to make the best use of this book, even a novice would benefit from the hundreds of time saving tips, shortcuts and appendices. The creative exercises are clear and concise. This is a real "nuts and bolts" sort of recipe book... no dry or unwanted "humor" to wade through, just a LOT of real INFORMATION! (This is NOT an instructional book for Photoshop, but a creative supplement). As an "intermediate level" user of Photoshop CS, I found this publication to be an extremely valuable creative resource.