Customer Reviews

Photoshop 5 & 5.5 Artistry

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Photoshop 5&5.5 Artistry is an upgrade to Photoshop 5 Artistry to add documentation for the new Photoshop 5.5 and Imageready Web features. Photoshop 5 Artistry includes all of Photoshop 5 Artistry and the Photoshop 5 Artistry CD plus 50 pages. To see reviews of this book, look at the reviews for Photoshop 5 Artistry and know that the 5.5 version is even better since it is the same book plus 50 pages on the new Web features. This is a great book for photographers and all digital image makers. Hope you enjoy it!

If you are a serious photographer looking to be guided in the use of Photoshop 5 to produce fine art color photographs (e.g., through a Lightjet 5000 digital printer, an Iris printer or an Epson EX), this book is in a class by itself. It is so superb, it defines the genre. The other books out there are warmed over versions of the manual that comes with PS5. This book actually shows photographers how to use PS5 to accomplish the specific things photographers want(or will want) to use PS5 for. It is so well written that even a complete newcomer to Photoshop can follow the instruction and the tutorials.

If you're already a digicam owner and are beyond the beginning stage of digital image processing, treat yourself to 'Photoshop 5 & 5.5'. Published by New Riders (who do a first class job of printing and binding) 'Artistry' is, in a word, a BEAUTIFUL book. The techniques described are exciting and soon you will be producing work incorporating the described techniques.

There are a lot of Photoshop books in print, and most of them are little more than a rehashing of the stock Photoshop manual. 'Artistry' though is truly in a class by itself.

If you only buy one Photoshop book get 'Artistry' - I really can't say enough about it. It's a big book, profusely illustrated on very thick glossy paper, has lots of _practical_ info on layers and masks, and the several chapters on color space and color theory are fantastic (although not absolutely necessary to accomplish many of the techniques). The book includes a CD, and most chapters contain exercises that give you the opportunity to try, hands on, what is described in the book - the raw images used in the exercises are all on the CD! You will find a lot of uesful information about web-safe colors and creating limited palates which result in _uncompressed_ 72 ppi images that will weigh in at a tiny fraction of the full-palate image and will load at 28.8 in seconds rather than minutes. Compressed, they will load in a fraction of that! VERRRY Nice! :)))

I have 3 books on Photoshop 5, and have worked with PS 4 for over 2 years. I found this book to be an easy read, documents many of the most useful PS functions in detail with excellent examples. The techniques it describes for using Levels I found extremely helpful and very simple to use. It makes using adjustment layers seem easy and very natural. I highly recommend this book. The book certainly covers the functions most users would need for photo processing. I only rate it a 4 because it does not cover enough examples of some Photoshop techniques that are covered in other books, most of which have 800 pages or more.

This book is your first aid kit for organizing your workspace in Photoshop. It has great timesaving tips - explained in plain english. The book will show you how to use Adobe Photoshop to save time and make more money. Definitely much better the Adobe Photoshop books.

Kendall Howell, ACE (Adobe Certified Expert)

If you want to get the most out of Photoshop 5 this book is it. It is a full color tutorial/course in the Program; every page. Some have been critical of the depth and complexity. This is not the fault of the authors. The program itself is complex. If all you want to do is enhance photos to remove "redeye" in your photos you shouldn't be using Photoshop 5 to begin with. The book, unlike other Photoshop 5 books, differs in two important ways. First, the images are all in color. Every one. (except where the instruction involves greyscale). Second, the book is project oriented. It is not merely an instruction on how every tool is used, although it does that. You go through complete practical projects, start to finish. Clearly, the best of its kind for the best. A tour de force for the serious user.

This is a book for everyone who wish to learn more about Photoshop. Although this book is meant for intermediate to expert users, I strongly feel that beginners can get a lot out of this book.

The book is wonderful in .. oh so many ways! First, it includes so many visual guides ranging from basic Photoshop palletes to complex Photoshop graphics to help illustrate the text. Second, it concisely yet thoroughly covers everything a serious user of Photoshop needs to know about Photoshop such as: setting up the work environment and monitor callibration; the various factors to be considered in scanning, printing, file saving; fancy graphic manipulations. Third, it comes with a cd that includes hands-on exercises which are superbly explained in a step-by-step manner in a few chapters of the book. These exercises help to clarify Photoshop features like Levels, Curve, etc. Fouth, it includes chapters on ImageReady 2 for web and multimedia presentations. Fifth, the book is written as a reference, so that the reader need not to read the whole book to find out how to use a certain function like Snapshot. Still, the book reads well from chapter to chapter.

I can say much more about how wonderful this book is. However, the most important thing I can tell to someone who is interested in purchasing this book is that it makes learning and understanding Photoshop less frustrating because it is so thorough yet very concise. Whether you are a digital artist, photographer, web designer, or just a curious individual, you'll find that the book covers just about everything you need to know about Photoshop. All you need afterwards is your own creativity.

In my job we train photographers who have "gone digital" and I haven't found any better teaching aid than Photoshop Artistry. We have developed several manuals of our own for teaching Photoshop, but this book does all of that and more. We recommend it to all of our students and clients and even include it with our Digital Photography systems. It is very in-depth, as any good Photoshop book has to be, but still very readable. The tutorials and included CD are first-rate, giving you real-world examples of Photoshop's power. There are some minor production issues with the book (at least the printing I have), such as incorrect references to images and pages, but these are easily figured out. Overall, this is easily the best Photoshop book I have ever read, and I've read a LOT of them.

I found myself reading this book and saying to myself "Let me skip the first few chapters and get to the fun stuff." So I went to chapter 19. The first paragraph urged me to read 4 of the earlier chapters before I went on. So I did.

I found the information in these chapters and the other ones quite insightful. Sure there are a couple of typo grammar errors. But the information here is on the money. I like the procedure list on how to color correct an image.

Some people complain that this book isn't for an average photoshop user. I agree. It is for those users who want to manipulate the best quality image possible. This book is meant for what the subtitle suggests - photographers, artists, and production artists.

Many people complain that there are no good photoshop books out there. And that the Adobe line of books are all overpriced with no true knowledge. This is the book that will free your mind.

Great for advance users to photoshop and those serious in photoshop, you would need to have some basic experience in photoshop 5 in order to skip to the more intresting parts of the book. Extreamly well written examples, easy to follow steps and photos with description. I have worked with photoshop for over four years. and this is the only photoshop book i keep beside my bed and read before i sleep. The best desktop refrence i have seen.!