Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm a jack-of-all-trades, master of a few, and simply don't have enough time to learn all my apps in-depth. I usually have a project, and have to dive into an application to the point I can get my work done, then move on. This book has been magic for me. Example - I learned how to create chrome text, so it was easy to create other chrome objects for our company web site. Same with other metal effects. Our site looks fantastic! It let me get on with my project, even though I didn't completely understand why some of the effects did what they did. But, then I put some effort in those areas, and nailed it.

Everyone thinks I'm a Photoshop guru (I'm not). But it fast-forwarded me to the point I could get my projects done. Some day I'll read one of those 1200 page monsters - right after I master Flash, Visual Studio, C#, Python, SQL Server, Illustrator and InDesign. That's after I finish installing our new Linux server and write our new MRP package.

It's NOT a tutorial - it's a cookbook. Rather than teaching you everything Photoshop can do, you flip through the book and find something that "WOWs" you. Follow the steps and it's on your screen. Cool. Very very cool.

If you are busy and need something that helps you get your work done, get this. It jumpstarted me.

Adobe is used to having a lot of books written on its products. They tend to be the most complex of any program on the market, but it is because they are so powerful. If you have got the Photoshop bug and can't make pretty changes to your pictures or projects, this is a good book to start with!!!

Yes it will not teach you a lot of the "Why???" of Photoshop, that can take some years to learn anyway. A lot of Photoshop books come it two groups, those that know Photoshop and those who don't. Most of those that are for the expert expect you to know your Gaussian Blur from your Unsharp Mask and what kind of effect it will have on your picture. Photoshop "cookbooks" as some have called them teach by example, this author's "recipe's" are easy to follow and will give hints in the margins to learn more indepth or customize. Again you might be mimicing the author, but sometimes that is all you need to feel good about your investment in Photoshop. This book was a complete rewrite from the Photoshop 7 book, I own both because both have a lot to offer that was different enough to almost consider them volumes 1 & 2. Also if you are just needing digital photographry help, I would check out Scott Kelby's books on just digital photographry.

Worthwhile tutorials IF you are into type twisting, pixel bending or reality contortion, and IF you don't need work-along images to follow the author's steps. The title led me to expect an enhancement to Kelby's other to-the-point Photoshop books. Rather, this appears to be more of a collection of Photoshop User magazine submissions. If you consider shortcuts 'L' for lasso tool, 'M' for marquee, and 'I' for eyedropper as a revelation worth a half page sidebar, then you'd be far better served by one of the "Dummies for ..." books.

Regrettably,this dog-and-pony show of random techniques for digital contortionists - held together by the slim threads of glib verbiage and glossy pictures - is big on funny-talk but thin on substance. Some giveaways of publisher's deadline page fillers are: 2 pages of kudos, and 5 pages of rambling "This is not an Introduction" (a 'pre-ramble' perhaps?).

Unpardonable is this mentor's cavalier attitude towards teaching materials; to label a student "pushy" if asking for work-along images to follow the tutorial steps seems incomprehensible. More on this: should you have the temerity to look for images, you are referred to the Brand-X website, not a mention there [a "mis-print ... sorry for the inconvenience"]. The Kelbybooks website has no link to image downloads; with persistence, you arrive at a gallery of highly-compressed tiny web-sized images (downloaded one-by-one), many marred by a disfiguring 'BrandX' stamp. It's like learning to do an appendectomy after reading an illustrated textbook.

Adobe offers this barnburner as a freebie with Photoshop purchase; don't check that gift horse too closely in the mouth though. The production team certainly deserves credit for one of the two stars awarded here.

This is now the second book for photoshop by Scott Kelby that I have bought... a lot of great tricks on how to maximize photoshop. However, when I gave the book to a couple of friends who were just beginning, they had a lot of trouble following it. I would not recommend it if you are starting out, but if you are a little experienced in photoshop, I HAVEN'T FOUND A BETTER TIPS BOOK OUT THERE!!!

BTW, I still only use PS 7.0, and have been able to use just about everything in this book.

I have been of fan of Scott Kelby's work for soemtime. I didn't pick up the last version of this book because severl of the techniques had been previously covered in past editions. This one's entirely new with tons of great ideas.

Scott's passion and enthusiasm for Photoshop make this a highly enjoyable read. the skills covered are sure to please your clients as well. I bought this book the day it came out and I suggest you pick it up fast!

Don't listen to Don from Florida. No book can include fonts - THAT'S ILLEGAL! More importantly, Don has missed the point. Scott Kelby's book is demonstating techniques that can be applied to ANY font, not just the fonts used in the book. I'm not sure how he missed that, but I was able to take the techniques shown in the book and make MY fonts look very cool. If I was only able to use a technique on one specific font, that would make for a pretty lame technique. That's not the way this book works.
The Down & Dirty Tricks book gave me lots of great ideas that I can adapt and make my own. I've only begun to scratch the surface with this book and it's already been well worth the money!
Highly recommended!!!!!!!

I have bought many, many books on Amazon and this is the first I am returning that was not received damaged. I am a photographer and could not find anything in this book to justify keeping it - there is simply nothing which applies to my personal photography interests. I think it should be titled Down and Dirty Tricks for the Graphics Designer.
That said, I like his style and his recipes are easy to apply and clearly demonstrated. If you are in a commercial advertising business, web design, etc, this would be a terrific book to own. For those simply interested in editing and improving your photos via Photoshop CS, this is not the book. I am going to try to read some of his other books and see if there is one that is applicable, as I certainly like his teaching style.

Has step-by-step instructions on how to create a variety of cool effects you see in today's websites and advertising. Right to the point. A bit more advanced than ""The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers" by Kelby, but then again this book is more about creating special effects and doing cool tricks to replicate what high-dollar CS designers can do, vs. general photo manipulation. A great addition to your CS reference library.

So, you have Photoshop -- quite possibly the most incredible piece of image manipulating software ever released. You want to learn some incredible 'magic'. Well, look no further than this book. Scott Kelby is a great writer, making an already killer Photoshop tip book, one that is entertaining to read as well.

The real 'meat' here is the step-by-step guides to help readers quickly reproduce these tricks. Added value comes from the column side bars on each page, chock full of additional (and quite useful) Photoshop tips.

I also have Scott's previous 'Down and Dirty Tricks' book. Rather than rehashing (or revising) these older tricks, Scott has rewritten his book from scratch, filling it with completely new ones. As another reader mentioned, the tricks described in the book can all be completed with Photoshop 7. If you've been looking for a great tutorial book to help jumpstart you into the world of Photoshop, buy this book! Highly recommended.

Although this was written for CS and I've since upgraded to CS2 I still find the book extremely useful for those quick tips that can make a big difference to your image. Additionally "Down & Dirty" speeds up your production of projects as you get to learn about the new features that make Photoshop the number one product in its class.
I found it best to read through the articles before trying specific ones on your computer because the book is designed to improve your knowledge of Photoshop rather than teach you the basics. If you're familiar with Photoshop this book will broaden your horizons considerably and give you the confidence to try things you'd never dreamed of doing before!