Customer Reviews

Commercial Photoshop with Bert Monroy

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

 

 

Bert Monroy is, undoubtedly, one of the most amazing Photoshop artists IÕve ever seen. He can produce images that look like photos, even though no photo was used.

All of the examples in the book are from actual projects. This is a BIG book. The pages are about 10 X 10 and full of color photos of each step in the various projects he shows. The large size is more suitable for sowing the step-by-step examples, but I found it slightly unwieldy.

He is very complete in his explanations, so that even someone with only modest Photoshop skills should be able to follow along easily.

He shows several photo quality images he created from scratch for a magazine. He says he creates realities in Photoshop. I was in awe of the shiny chrome-plated shower handle in a bathroom scene, the reflection in a water puddle on a path he created next to grass and bushes he created, the glow of the light bulb he made and the textures he created for a stucco wall and marble floor.

Monroy also show several projects in which he composited many images together for amazing results. It gave me some inspiration to do some projects on my own. He explains it very well. There is even an explanation of how an alpha channel works.

And there are examples of re-touching and correcting images in order for them to be used in advertisements and magazines. His attention to detail is phenomenal. (Perhaps it is due to his 20 years experience as an art director with a New York City Ad Agency.)

Bert Monroy is a commerical illustrator with 30+ years of experience in the business and co-authored the very first book on Photoshop. Needless to say, the technical content of this book is unquestionable and quite educational. While many of the techniques in the book can be applied in other areas, a prospective buyer should be aware that the book is completely targeted toward illustration work. One of the techniques that Bert is famous for is creating photo-realistic images by painting them entirely in Photoshop with very few stock photography elements. Whether this is good or bad depends on what you're looking for, but don't buy the book thinking it's going to teach you how to retouch your family photos. One of Bert's many other books would be better suited for the later.

Bert Monroy is the Babe Ruth of Photoshop. He co-wrote the first book on Photoshop, and has created brushes included in photoshop. In my opinion there is nobody better then Mr. Monroy for creating art in Photoshop, his photo-realistic paintings will leave you speechless.

Enough about the man himself,(I can rant and rave about Bert all day). Lets get to the book.

This book is not for an absolute beginner, it's more geared toward the intermediate/advanced user.

The book showcases different paintings of Bert's and then goes into some detail of how he created certain parts of it, with short tutorials of the techniques used. He does not hold your hand and walk you through each and every step, but gives you enough info to hopefully figure it out, with some prior knowledge of the tools.

Throughout the book he uses both Photoshop & Illustrator. You will need both programs to effectively reproduce every project.

I absolutely love this book. Just to see Bert's work is very inspiring.

Since this book is OOP, a used copy is very expensive. I got mine at the library, but there's a digital PDF version available from the publishers site.

If you like Bert's work, this is a great book on revealing his techniques. A must read book.

Happy reading!

Book Name: Commercial Photoshop with Bert Monroy
Author: Bert Monroy
Publisher: New Riders
Reviewer: Bruce Frank
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Wow! If you've never seen or read any of Bert Monroy's stuff you're missing out on the real power of Photoshop. Bert is a master at Photoshop and a true digital artist. Though his book is titled "Commercial Photoshop" this book is much more than that. Bert also shows you how he incorporates Illustrator and three-D programs to create his final works of art.

You'll pick up some really cool Photoshop tricks while thumbing through the book but more than that you learn valuable techniques for real work. There are several chapters on how to make composites. This can and has saved clients and me hundreds of dollars. Every time you use an image you've purchased in the past that's money in the bank and Bert shows you how.

He also teaches techniques in tweaking images after a photo shoot. Though we try to make each shot perfect, that's nearly impossible. He gives several practical situations that can and will happen after you get your images back from the photographer. A few of these examples are items in the background blending or overpowering the proposed "hero" in the shot. Another example is cloning an image to make it closer to the other images in the shot. You'll also learn how to tweak entire images color or focus on adjusting color in one area or the image.

I loved the chapters on merging Illustrator and Photoshop. Again it's a real job that Bert had for a real client and you not only learn from the steps he uses in Photoshop, you learn from Bert's experience with the client. One thing I use on a weekly basis is using alpha channels to create complex masks.

I own two Bert Monroy books and I'm constantly going back to both of them for reference. They are well worth the money you spend on them. I only regret I don't have a 6th star to give the book. "Commercial Photoshop" is definitely 5 out of 5 stars.