Customer Reviews

The Hidden Power of Photoshop CS

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

 

 

An excellent way to learn what is needed to make above average to excellent prints.

Since I just reviewed Photoshop CS Complete Course I thought that this book would flow from the basics to the more advanced features in CS, and hopefully give more insight into some of the new tools in Photoshop CS. This book is broken down into six major parts with nine chapters covering: Image Color, Altering Image Objects, Creating Objects, Photo-realism and Illustration. The book also comes with a tutorial CD in the back that corresponds to the different chapters plus is has a bonus selection.

Part one; chapters 1&2: Covers tone, color correction and separation. You get more in depth knowledge of curves, using channels and correcting specific colors. This may explain why some of your images may not output to your printer in comparison to what you see on the screen. Lesson learned make sure to calibrate your monitor. Chapter two covers color separations. You learn how to adjust each color separately. Being able to adjust each color separately gives you the control over taking your image from flat to it's full dynamic color range. You also learn how to create duo-tones, and how to separate CMYK color both manually and the automated way.

Part two; chapters 3&4: Covers altering image objects. The cloning tool & I have been friends forever. It's one of the tools that I use extensively with many of my photos with live models to cover blemishes and other unsightly marks on the face and hands area. Ch 3 covers the use of the cloning tool, healing brush and the patch tool. While using masks can be a bit frustrating, using a mask does help with some very time consuming modifications you might need to make to an image. This tweaking can make an otherwise flat image or over saturated image much closer to what you visualized. Ch four covers correction filters. We've all had noise in our images, noise is akin to grain in film sometimes a little bit is acceptable and other times it can really sink an image. In this chapter you learn how to smooth out color noise and tone.

Part three; chapters 5&6: Covers shaping objects, vectors and illustrations. Ch five deals with shaping objects, like buttons for a website, it shows how light and shadows give these objects depth. I really loved creating the seamless textures and tiling backgrounds segment. In my photography business it's "Senior" time and making my own customized graffiti wall is proving to be a neat choice for some of my clients. I am going to spend more time playing with the jigsaw puzzle component. Making an object from scratch shows why graphic artists get so much money. It's a very time consuming endeavor and you realize that those already designed graphics have a lot involved. Ch six covers vectors and illustrations. I have used Illustrator in the past and I really liked being able to make something small and then blow it up to the size of my desk and not lose any of the quality. You get a practical approach to building your own object, it might make some people want to start using Illustrator. This chapter also covers converting pixel images to vectors.

Part four; chapters 7&8: Deals with image output options and creating images for the web with Photoshop and ImageReady. Ch seven covers printing for at home and a printing service. Of course at home you could just reprint if it doesn't look right, with a printing service you need to have all of your settings done prior or your results may not match what you have in mind. There is usually more coordination between the user and printer to get all of the information and formatting. Not all printers are created the same: Laser, ink-jet and dye sub all have very different looks and feel to them. Make sure you know how your paper and the printing process you choose will interact with each other. Ch eight covers ImageReady. I haven't really used this program yet. However since it can create animated effects that will probably be the next program I start looking for more info on. You start using actions with this chapter. You learn how to make a complex and simple animation.

Part five; chapter 9: Deals with creating, editing and using actions. Let me tell you from a person that has had to resize and put my logo on thousands of images this is a feature that I will be the mistress of shortly. I do use the automate feature to have my images resized for my website, but I still am manually putting my logo across the front of my images using PaintShop Pro. So I'm looking forward to being able to tell Photoshop have at it. This is a very underused and discussed feature of Photoshop I feel. Some of us do lots of repetitive tasks in Photoshop and this baby needs to start earning it's keep more.

I do have a confession to make about this book. I am a reader and manual person, give me a book and I'm a happy camper. This book gave me a headache at times, I had to back track on some of the step-by-step instructions because they left something out or told you to turn something on or off later on during the steps. The book is in black & white except for the middle pages. Now I don't need color photos to make me happy but it certainly lets you know right off the bat if you are on the right track or not.

While the book has lots of knowledge it was at times confusing. You can't really skip around in this book many of the chapters make mention of some step you made in another chapter then you have to hunt for it and try to figure out how it fits into your current chapter. I had to put the book down and pick it back up after my brain had some time to process what it was I just read. Lot of information but you have to put aside some serious time if you want to master these secrets.