Adobe Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques (Paperback)

~ (Author), Dan Ablan (Author)
Key Phrases: smart object, camera raw, creative techniques, Dan Ablan, Production Essentials, Quick Mask (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques has been completely updated to cover the new features in CS4. In a friendly, easy-going style that's long on information and short on techno-babble, Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Ben Willmore and photographer Dan Ablan guide you through the concepts and features that will truly make a difference in how you use Photoshop every day. They'll take you from blindly following step-by-step instructions to an in-depth understanding of how Photoshop works, cutting through the fat to focus on what they consider to be Photoshop's essential features. This full-color book delivers the content in three easily digestible sections: Working Foundations, Production Essentials, and Creative Explorations. Streamlined for this new edition, the book will distill Photoshop's vast capabilities down to what you need to know for a full understanding of the program, while simultaneously focusing more directly on best practices for the photographer. Beginning with a quick "refresher course" on the working foundations of Photoshop, you'll move on to real-world production techniques. Finally, you'll get to fully explore Photoshop's creative potential by blending and enhancing images, creating collages, retouching photographs, colorizing, and working with filters and layer masks. By the time you finish this book, your creativity and efficiency levels will soar and you'll feel like you finally "get" Photoshop.

About the Author

Considered to be one of the all-time great Photoshop gurus, Ben Willmore has personally taught over 50,000 Photoshop users on four continents. Famous for finding the simplicity that lies within Photoshop's most complex features, and for his signature teaching style of "not just how but why," Ben was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2004. Dan Ablan is president of AGA Digital Studios, Inc., and author of twelve books on computer graphics and publishing. Dan is an accomplished photographer and 3D animator, working the arts for the past twenty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Adobe Press; 1 edition (March 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321613104
• ISBN-13: 978-0321613103
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,680 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #12 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Digital Photography & Video > Adobe Photoshop
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I finally understand!, April 18, 2009

By	Susan Walker "Ben & Dan Fan" (Ohio, USA!) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been using photoshop professionally for a few years if you can call it that. Like a lot of people I would mess around with the curves not really knowing what they do to my images. Then I'd adjust the levels and eventually end up with what I thought was a decent edited photo. I like the other books out there for quick tips and recipes but it was clearly this studio techniques book that helped me finally understand what the hec i was doing.

This is not a step by step cookbook type of book but instead its a journey from the basic overview of CS4 to the complex curves, histograms, layers, sharpening and more. Do yourself a favor and get this book if you want to really learn photoshop, not just click the buttons and hope for the best. Congrats Ben and Dan on a terrific book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get This One Excellent Photoshop CS4 Book And Save Yourself Some Time And Tears, September 6, 2009

By	J. S. Osthoff (Minneapolis, Mn USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would like to recommend a book for those, who are like me, learning Photoshop or switching to the CS4 version. It is the main text used in my current Photoshop class.

This book gives a fast overview of what's new and the basic tools, then dives into the deeper mechanics of just what makes Photoshop the most efficient image manipulation tool on the market today.

This was chosen for the students in my class, because the philosophy of this book meshes with my professor's own ideals of Photoshop use (and he is a stickler for efficient, lean and potent work).

It is a step-by-step tutorial/manual for gaining proficiency in Photoshop.
I am enjoying it very much and find it emphasizes what the pros use and do over the sometimes sloppy methods of flashy Photoshop pizazz books that sometimes appear.

Web graphics, electronic publishing, art, poster creation - whatever your creativity leads you to, this book will serve you in acheiving your goals. If you want to learn how to "do Photoshop right", then this is a great first step on the journey to not only eye-appealing image wizardry, but most importantly Photoshop elegance and professional mastery.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not on par with the previous books..., August 21, 2009

By	Natalie M. Rishe "natsy kline" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hmmm. Well, I've been using this title in my Photoshop courses at the college level since 2006 and I must say that this newest release/version is unorganized and mismanaged. What happened? I automatically order this book as soon as it is released with EVERY new version of Adobe CS, but I think I may start looking for another book. I can't understand the purpose of a chapter on "Layers and Curves". Why would these two LARGE and somewhat UNRELATED topics be bundled into the same chapter. What about a chapter on something a little more consistent, like "LEVELS and CURVES? Instead, Levels has been relegated to a small section in a chapter about preparing images for output and Curves has found a home in the premature chapter of 3.

In addition, there is what I assume to be an error between Chpt 1 and Chpt 2. Chpt 2 starts as "Selection Primer" on page 43, with an introduction to the necessity of mastering selection techniques, then it is interrupted by an entire section on using Adobe Bridge, which has nothing to do with selections. There isn't a mention of "selections" until page 60. Again, what is going on here?

Also, there is very little information on the new interface, and that which is included is muddled and hard to understand.

Generally speaking, the book is organized poorly - the flow that is introduced, from one chapter to the next, does not assist the user. Topics are jumbled, chapters are seemingly out of order and the new information doesn't mesh well with the old.

Overall, I am disappointed with this version of the book and will begin my search for a new textbook for my class. Perhaps if Ablan rewrites the book from the ground up, it will fill its shoes completely, once again.