Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS3: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks (Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Adobe Photoshop has had a long and well-deserved reign at the top of the heap of digital image editors. The broad-ranging capability of this behemoth to parse and modify pixels in just about any way imaginable, and the dedication of its parent company Adobe to continue to improve it and make its tools available to as many high-level users as possible has helped it carve a rather niche in the industry. But one of the drawbacks is a steep learning curve.

If want to teach yourself more about a number of Photoshop CS3's capabilities and you prefer complex issues carved up into small, illustrated packets - that is, you're a visual learner - this book would be an excellent choice. One of the "Simplified Tips & Tricks" series, it is part of Wiley's 5-Star Visual Learning System, all of which have these features: 1. Minimal text and maximum illustrations; 2. Task-oriented, step-by-step approach; 3. Navigational aides connect instructions to illustrations; 4. Self-contained, two-page lessons; 5. Uniform layout makes it easy to read less, learn more.

It's important to note the presumption by the author that you already know Photoshop CS3 basics; the intent is not for this book to be your first tutorial, but to help you learn more shortcuts, tips, and tricks quickly and efficiently after you've mastered the fundamentals of installation, opening files, and other basic operations of the program.

Does the book succeed? Very well, in my view. Though my personal learning style tends to be more old-school, textbook oriented, I was very positively impressed with how well the book meets the goals of the 5-Star Visual Learning System. The limited commentary is direct, informative, and spare without falling into the trap of trying to be distractingly trendy, quippy, and cute. Illustrations are well done, covering much of each two-page spread, and companion instructions are clear and concise. And the Tips boxes contain really useful additional information that in effect broadens the scope of the book well beyond the original 100 topics.

Conclusion -- highly recommended. While I'm generally put off by book publisher's promises to make learning difficult topics easy, this is one example that actually succeeds.

I really like the organization of this book because I can jump right to learning about the exact thing I want to do. I don't have to read a 100 pages to get there. This makes it really easy.

I have followed Lynette Kent's writings and have never been disapointed with the simple tips & tricks she provides. Need something done, look it up in her book and in several short steps the task is complete. Without having to read a chapter or more of information to accomplish a project. This book is a must in every graphic artists and Photographers library.

This book clearly and consisely explains techniques that go beyond the basics in an easy-to-follow self-contained, two-page format. Great for the visual learner!

This book is well written and well organized. It teaches you some time saving tricks and some of the basic concepts that are beyond what's in Photoshop's very inclusive Help system. You learn how to make selections, how to color correct or even change a selected region's colors. You learn how to crop an image to specific dimensions and fit the crop to a certain size. You learn basic concepts on how to use layers to the best advantage, and how to use layer masks and adjustment layers. The book is full of great tips. However, once you've gone through the tips in the book, you'll put the book away and not use it again (unless you have a poor memory). Once you learn what is offered here, you won't need the book in the future.

Another thing -- Most of the tips are quite useful. However, some are not, and some are downright 'the wrong way' to go about getting your work done. A few of these 'wrong ways' waste your time, and once you learn the wrong way, it's up to you to find the faster, better way.

All in all, it's a great book for people starting out with Photoshop CS2, CS3 or later, and it's helpful for intermediate users. But advanced users will find this book unsatisfying. So, buy this book if you're new to Photoshop and need some help in getting started, but beware. Some of the techniques here are not quite right -- there are easier, faster ways of getting your work done. However, this book provides a good place to start. It will get you going. You'll become familiar with what you need to know. Then soon, you'll discover that some of the techniques shown here are real time wasters.

I just received this book today and already love it! It's exactly what I've been looking for. The instructions are very elementary and easy to follow. You see the before, during and after photos, which make it even better for visual learners. The first pages of each section are very basic, but the pages after elaborate even further on each tip/trick. I also love how at the top of each page is a difficulty bar that lets you know how easy or difficult the tip/trick is.

I highly recommend this book. If you're a beginner in Photoshop CS3, there's plenty of room to grow with this book. If you're a novice, you'll find new tips/tricks to do that you didn't already know.

I bought this book three weeks ago and have used it a lot. Its good though it has its flaws. Perfect companion to have with Photoshop CS3 essential skills, which is more professional and very good, but I like the fun things on Simplified, which the other book does no have. All in all I recomend it, you learn a lot of neat things.

I bought this book thinking to expand my knowledge on Photoshop CS3. I had bought Photoshop CS3 one-on.one from Deke McClelland and this is more complete and acurate.

However it is well designed.

Pros: Good diagram layout, and good way to explain a step-by-step procedure.

Cons: Doesn't comes with video or images examples CD. The examples are not accurate and sometimes you don't get even close to the expected results.

I have always been skeptical about following tips and tricks of photoshop CS3 from books...humans are normally visual in nature. It is easier to follow instructions thru DVD tutorials because you get what you see and this book is just as close as can be vs a DVD tutorial to teach simple tricks on CS3. It is easy to follow and the author really knew how to keep it simple. I love it and I highly recommend it to anybody wanting to learn CS3 the way it should be. If you are a novice in photoshop this is the way to go....

This is a "must have" to help you get up and running with CS3. All the most common things you need to do are covered - and it's fast and easy to go back and find the lessons when you do a memory dump . . .