Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-Click Wow! (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I expected more from Jack Davis - his other books I truly enjoyed. But after waiting several months for this release, I am disappointed. I was hoping for a whole new batch of tricks fro my bag. A while back, I bought th One Click Wow for Photoshop v7. Now two iterations of Photoshop later, the CS2 version of One Click is almost idential, verbatim, to the old one. Pictures, effects, text and all! I wish there were some warning from the author or Amazon that this was the same book with a few pages and an updated title. It's not that the content isn't great - if this is your only book in the One Click series. If you want great effects that are quick and spectacular, this is the book. If you already own a One Click book for Photoshop, spend your money on a Kelby book.

I too have the Photoshop 7 edition of this book and I could not be more disappointed. Same actions, same text, same pictures, same everything. This is close to criminal.

If you haven't added one of Jack Davis' WOW! books to your digital art library, you should consider the latest One-Click-WOW! for Photoshop CS2. It's packed with preset styles and effects for every task you might have. What is a preset? Basically, it is a special effect or group of effects (style), such as a drop shadow, that already has the options set for you. After you install the presets from the CD, they will appear with the other presets in the Styles Palette. All you need to do is apply these ready-made presets to your image. In his WOW-Styles Tutorial which is included in the book, Davis gives you all the information you need to apply and customize the 900+ presets in Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady. He explains the mystery of using layers and clipping masks, changing the resolution, brush size and scale of the presets as well as how to customize the WOW! presets and save the changes as a new style to your own Styles Library.

To help you decide which preset is best for your needs, the book contains a full-color gallery of the presets applied to various types of images from photos to text. On the CD, there are over 300+ layer styles and custom shapes such as frames and panels that you can apply to your photographs or digital art. For your webpages, there are 150 button styles for creating static web buttons in Photoshop. In ImageReady, you can choose from 50+ rollover styles, with accompanying JavaScript, to create that popular rollover button effect. You can even preview the rollover effect in your web browser. Also included are gradients and seamless tiles for your backgrounds, many natural media brushes, pattern stamps, crop and marquee selection presets, and tools to help you fix your photographs.

The one thing I found disappointing was that some of the presets are repeated from previous versions of Davis' WOW! books. Jack Davis is a well known digital designer, photographer and author. He is also part of the NAPP Dream Team.

I'm still looking through this book but I mainly like the styles to play with. (I didn't have to pay for this book, it was given to me but I don't normally buy these "instant effects" things....I have to know how an effect is created and why)

In my opinion, this is a "fun" type of book to have especially if you want to get right to doing fun/cool things without having to do any hardcore thinking...it's for those who don't really need to know "how"...just that they "can".

It's fun =)

Jack Davis' ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 ONE-CLICK WOW! is based on a cd-rom which packs in over 900 of the time-saving enhancement solutions contained in the workbook ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 ONE-CLICK WOW! From working with the shapes gallery and tinting photos to WOW custom overlays for framing and their differences, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS2 users will find the WOW manual packed with important tools for quick, pro results.

Excellent instructional book that relates to present versions of photoshop also. Very fast service and in excellent, new condition. Very affordable.

Jack Davis is incredibly talented, creative, and funny, and he has a desire to share his knowledge with his readers and classes. He has been providing his audiences both the shorter ways and the longer ways (read: deeper explanations) to do amazing things in PS. "Photoshop CS2 One-Click Wow" provides you the short ways to do impressive things in Photoshop whether you're up against a deadline, a PS newbie, or just a little lazy like me.
If you desire to understand PS in some depth, there are more appropriate books and video training (Mr. Davis has some incredibly useful and entertaining videos available at Software Cinema. And take one of his classes if you can. The knowledge he shares will inspire you to greater heights in PS.)
Other books I recommend are "Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques" by Ben Wilmore of any of Katrin Eismann's books on PS including "Masking and Compositing in Photoshop". Both of these provide all the sordid details for the detective in you.
For the audience "One-Click Wow" is aimed at, it is a great and consistently useful tool. That audience will find it an indispensable book, you'll refer to it often as is gives those that need it or want it quick ways of doing some very fancy things in PS almost effortlessly.

I bought this based on the description here on Amazon, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. Many of the 3D and rounded effects that I been using (with as many as 8 various filters) are here, in "1-Click" simplicity. I scan the book until I find the effect I am striving for, and apply that filter. It's just that easy. Some required a little tweaking to get the correct color for my projects, but it was SO EASY.

I am not a graphic artist, so this book is a relief to me, saving me long hours of experimentation and trial and error. I rec. this book highly.

Why only 4 stars? Of the 900 filters in the book, about 25-30% are web/website applications, which I do not use. Other than that, I liked it a lot.

If you have Photoshop, this book and CD are excellent value for your money. The CD with the Styles, Actions, Presets will make you productive right away. The book guides you on using all the tools on the CD.

Excellent, lots of Wow factor.

Jack Davis not only delivers incredibly useful and creative ideas for us, but translates the moves into steps easy enough for a newbie to follow and acheive great results, but witty and interesting enough for us old pros out here to stay interested and intrigued. He delivers the most useful set of actions, styles and patterns I've seen to date on the CD. Buy the book. You'll be doing yourself a favor.