Customer Reviews

Photoshop 6 Down and Dirty Tricks

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The author Scott Kelby certainly knows how to be down to earth in his Down & Dirty Tricks book. I found his style to be simple enough for the occasional photoshop user as well as time saving tips for the professional needing to meet tight deadlines and please a variety of clients. What impressed me most was the abundance of helpful tips on a wide range of subjects and the step by step approach found through-out the book. I found the sections on drop shadow effects and working with type especially helpful to me in order to satisfy my clients' needs that have a limited budget but still need incredible looking pieces. I enjoyed the overall layout of the book and the fact that it showed you color results of what you are looking to achieve. I would highly recommend this book to the beginner as well as the professional looking to always expand his knowledge, surely this book will do that for them; and at a price both could afford. Out of all the books I own about photoshop, this one will certainly NOT grow dust!

I just finished reviewing Photoshop 6.0 Down & Dirty Tricks and I think it is the best tutorial/tips and tricks book that I have ever seen. The things that I like best about the book are the:

1) huge screen shots and display of graphic images; 2) the generous step-by-step directions; 3) clarity of the explanations; 4) large easy to read text and displays 5) many special effects -- I found effects here that I have always wanted to know how to do and could never find easy/simple directions/instructions or even instructions for at all. Now I have them all in this one phenomenal book.

If you don't believe me... the next time you are in a bookstore take a look and see if you can find this book there. For sure, you *will not* leave it on the bookshelf. This book will make even the novice Photoshop user look like an experienced expert!(What a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa gift this would make! If you already bought your gifts, why not throw in this book as an added bonus. The recipient(s) will be grateful you did.)

Although the book weighs in at 228 pages -- approximately 8x10 -- I wish it were more! Seriously, I think that anyone interested in/using Photoshop 6.0 needs to have this book to add to their library. I wish I had it a long time ago. Scott Kelby just got himself a new fan!

Roz Fruchtman ...

Yes seven is the least this book deserves. It is laid out thoughtfully so the reader becomes familiar with its format effortlessly. There is absolutely no verbal or graphic fat anywhere. You see the effect you want; you read how to create it and it works. What more could you ask for?

The author writes in a friendly, concise manner and lets the reader in on a few hard won facts. Follow the directions and even a novice can produce the beautiful effects. Along side each trick are sidebars containing Photoshop tips. It's just a great tool to have. I'm still shocked at some of the effects I've created while reading this book.

Scott Kelby, the author, is also editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals ( NAPP ), training director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour, and a great teacher. Don't be intimidated by his titles, however, he knows how to get the message across. You will only grow from reading this book.

Scott Kelby is no doubt a well rounded expert in the graphic arts, and photoshop. Whether your interest lies in advertising, photography, web publication, or design, Scott's got it covered here in this book. Nifty little tricks you've already seen in media and wondered "How did they do that" are covered here. Step by step it's easy to follow, making each step very clear. Some knowledge of Photoshop may be required, but only just to understand "why" these little niffty tricks work. Think you've seen it all? What to be amused by what you can do with Photoshop? Scott's book is for you then. Get it!

I really enjoyed this book. I can understand the negative reviews, because if you bought earlier versions, then this book will duplicate a fair amount of that material. One problem that a series book like this has is the rate at which software upgrades come out. If current info is a problem for you, consider subscribing to some of the newsletters or magazines devoted to Photoshop. Some readers are annoyed by the offhand writing style, a matter of personal taste. My students and I found the layout helpful, with boxes and sidebars appropriately handled.

One feature my students and I found useful was the grouping of effects in the "chapters." Although possibly unintended by the author, it turns out that by doing almost any of the more involved "tricks" you learn lots of keyboard commands that streamline work. This turns out to be quicker (beyond the basics) than slogging through the Adobe tutorials that come with Photoshop manuals (I have them going back to version 3.x). You can also pace your learning by selecting small or large "projects" then modifying the process according to your goals.

The reasons I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that I had to make some modifications to improve its ease of use. I added sticky note day-glo page tabs to make its content more quickly accessible. The book could have had some page-edge coding that would make look-ups of ideas faster. I also found that some of the effects are missing an occasional command (for instance, command-T for a resize transform near the end of the Stargate lightburst effect). Furthermore, some of the tricks are redundant. On balance, I found many more positive features of this book than negative ones.

After reviewing many Photoshop books, I decided to purchase this one. And I am so glad I did!

My primary reason for choosing this one, was that I could sit down immediately and start creating really cool, but also very useful, design concepts. Although some knowledge of Photoshop is useful, anyone, beginner as well as seasoned professional, can jump right in and start using these "down and dirty" techniques.

Scott Kelby's appoach is simple and straight-forward. The book is filled with an abundance of graphically-illustrated exercises that are very educational as well as useful in design projects. In addition to the exercises are many tips and hints to enhance the Photoshop users skills.

I highly recommend this book and encourage all Photoshop users to add it to their bookshelf--no--desktop!

This book is correctly named. The whole book contains "tricks" or more correctly "techniques." Organized by chapter/similarity, Scott Kelby walks you through each technique starting from scratch. For some of the techniques, he shows you multiple ways to achieve similar versions based on level of difficulty. (Meaning he'll show you a simple way first and then move on to progressively harder ways that look even better but are tougher for more novice users to follow.) The cool thing with this book is the consistentcy of his lessons, the clear language for explaining the techniques and the very appropriate graphics. One thing to be sure and also notice are the great tips that line the edges of the techniques in a yellow banded area. These are MUST reads. I learned just as much from them as I did his tutorials.

In summary, I KNOW my work looked better / more professional after buying / using this book. I HIGHLY recommend it.

I just received Scott's book a couple of days ago. I must say it is the absolute coolest PhotoShop book to ever hit the shelves. I actually started playing with the examples about 9:00 p.m. (intending to be in bed no later than 11:00 p.m.) Yeah, right! I looked up at the clock and it was almost 3:00 a.m. The next day at work was a bit tough but, man...it was well worth the loss of sleep! You just get into the book and can't put it down. I would have to say that this book is a "must have" for anyone who is serious about doing some heavy duty Photoshop Graphics.

Scott's book leads the pack!

This book convinced me to join NAPP. I was that impressed by this book. I figured that the people that published the book, NAPP, had to have something good going for them!

It's a GREAT book. I still need to learn *a lot* more about Photoshop (though I use it a lot) and I decided that I needed to push myself a bit to advance my skills. So, I got several Photoshop books, including this one. The other more "basic" books were needed, and helpful, but this book really got me excited! I find I am learning all sorts of little details about Photoshop (new keyboard shortcuts, new functions, new features) from this book! Not only am I learning the "tricks" (which are great fun) but I am also learning Photoshop BETTER in the process.

If you are a bit of a Photoshop newbie, you owe it to yourself to get this book. You will have fun, and you will find yourself becoming more well-rounded in Photoshop!

This was the first photoshop book I ever bought. At that I was quite happy with it. Quickly I was able to make a few "Wow! How did you do that?" effects, which gives you appetite for more.

Do you know the Chinese proverb about giving a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, but give a man a fishing rod and you feed him for life?! Anyway, the way I see it, when you want to master a program like Photoshop or 3DS Max, you need 3 kinds of materials to take you to advanced level: Babysteps to show you around the program, teach you how things work and get you started on your first few projects; A detailed reference for later troubleshooting; And probably also some material on advanced effects or projects, that both can give you inspiration and get you through a few common advanced choke points.

This book is a little bit of 1 and 3. A shame because all beginners should be able to follow the instructions in the detailed tutorials. But still you don't learn anything about WHY did I just do what I did, or HOW can I use this in completely different situations. Also the focus of the book is more on touching up photos and applying effects to them, than creating illustrations, if that has your interest.

So without the focus, and the ability to teach you something valuable for the long run, I am hard pressed to give it more than 3 stars. A shame because there are nice effects in there, and everybody will be able to carry them out, thanks to the easy and detailed instructions. BUT they will not be able to understand them.

For users that need any of the 3 kinds of learning materials, described above, on photoshop. I would suggest the photoshop wow! book. It comes strong especially in the second and third cathegory, and is still very friendly and informative for beginners. Feel free to mail me if you have questions.