107 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great reference book, September 23, 2007
This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Bible (Paperback)
My 3 star rate for this book is an average of the 4 points I found interesting. I will write a brief explanation of each of the 4 points and will mark the number of stars I think each point deserves.
Content: 5 stars
This is probably the best reference book about P CS3 on the market today. However, anyone who buys this book must have this in mind: This is a reference book, it's not a handbook, manual, nor a tutorial. Therefore you won't find many step by step examples. What you will find is a very comprehensive, easy to read (for begginers and experts), explanantion of every single menu, tool and variantion of tools that phosohop has. Probably you won't need to read the entire book or will need all the topics at once, but you will need the book from time to time to review whatever is importat for you at that particular moment.
It's amazing how deep it goes around every single topic, nothing is left behind. The book has 1,164 pages, has 20 chapters plus appendixes. The book is divided in six parts: I) welcome to photoshop; II)Painting and retouching; III) Selection, masks and filters; IV) Layers, Objects and text; V) Color and output; VI) Appendixes
Size: 4 stars
It's huge, however not heavy, probably less than a pound. Nothing you wouldn't expect for a book like this. The buyer will read it better if the book is over a table not when he is in his bed.
Presentation: 0 stars
One of the thing that impressed me the most (and I mean negatively) was the poor quality of the paper and the pictures. Yes I know this is a paperback copy, but I was never expecting that this book was going to have black and white photographs, I mean all of them but those in 16 pages. There are some chapters in which the book explains about color managment and it tells things like this (page 955) "camera Raw's Temperature slider takes an image (left) andts you to warm up (right) or cool down (bottom)", presenting 3 small (1 inch by 1.5 inchs, actual size) pictures in white and black that suposedly reflects the explanation about color temperature. Theres's no way you can tell the difference between the color temperature. Exaples like this are many.
CD: 2 stars
In the Cd you can find some pictures and some viodeo tutorials (11). The CD has some of the pictures that you can see in the book but they are not many and by all means you need more (remember the book has black and white pictures). The video tutorials are very good but impressively, you won't hear a voice explaining the video. I don't know if I am wrong but I was expecting to hear a voice explaining the video, instead of that there are only some text lines that appear from time to time explaining it.
Conclusion:
This is an excellent reference book and a must have if you work with photoshop. However if you want to learn more you probably will need to buy a manual or tutorial type book.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Best if you know PS already, February 5, 2008
This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Bible (Paperback)
I bought this book based on my memorable experience with the Filemaker Bible. I still have a nice warm fuzzy for that book. As a complete neophyte, I jumped into the FM book, and soon found myself creating some fairly complex and useful databases to manage client data for my business. Not exactly the same experience with the CS3 bible.
The best approach, for a newbie, would be to buy a different book with more step-by-step examples, and then reference this book, as needed. I'll definitely be keeping this book, and remain confident that it will rise to the occasion of answering nearly any future question I can concoct.
PROS
- The authors obviously know their stuff.
- The book has a kazillion pages, and it totally packed with information. For me, it will serve as a great reference guide for years to come.
- Seems to be indexed pretty well.
- I like that it comes with a hands-on CD, but frankly, I have not used it yet.
- I have to hand it to the authors, for tackling such a difficult subject to write about.
CONS
- Organization. As you read a chapter, it touches on a subject and then sometimes again on the same subject later. It can be hard to correlate how this fits into the big picture. I found myself turning to the table of contents to figure out what the current paragraph was addressing. The sub-headings in the chapter are not always helpful, and sometimes I found myself having to read a paragraph or two to find out what was being discussed. Paragraphs do not often start with a a transitional sentence, forcing the reader to follow the course of discussion.
- I'm not a big fan of the authors' writing style. In order to comprehend many sentences, I had to read them 2-3x. Often, it can be like reading a patent or a college math textbook. You can't really spring from sentence to sentence. Time consuming to digest. Admittedly, it's difficult subject matter to write about.
- The book is in serious need of more diagrams, indexed by arrows and labels. With much discussion of menus and sub-menus (admittedly necessary, due to the subject matter), it is easy to get lost. What menu are we discussing, and how to I reach this function again? I annotated some diagrams on my own, for example, to label which menu was which. Otherwise, all the menu discussion can get pretty dry, while at the same time disorienting-- a bad combination.
- The book would benefit with some step-by-step examples. Perhaps, addressing some common tasks in PS and how you perform them. Honestly, though, that might not be the proper the role of this reference tome, although some more examples would go a long way.
- The early chapters go into great detail about setting preferences. If you've been using PS for years, this is probably important right off the bat - making the program comfortable to use. But for me, there was much more important subject matter to discuss up front. Perhaps an overview of the some different components, such as color, selections, layers, masks, etc.
- Some foundation concepts (like file format, color, compression, and resolution) appear scattered throughout different chapters, making it hard to assimilate the material quickly. Some of this material is repeated, nearly verbatim, in different places.
- Tiny font. I guess this was a necessary evil, to avoid dividing the book into multiple volumes. But again, it's like reading a patent.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unleash the power of CS3!, October 2, 2007
This review is from: Photoshop CS3 Bible (Paperback)
I have been using Photoshop in my work for years, and recently acquired the new CS3 software. Photoshop CS3 Bible is a logical and concise reference. The beauty of this book is that it walks you through the many features of CS3, unlocking all of the power for which you have paid! Although this is a technical book, it is fun and easy to read. The book has added to my use of Photoshop in that I have found many more creative avenues with less experimentation. The authors have saved me time and frustration in my transition to CS3. Many thanks for a well written book!
This may be the best CS3 plug-in you can buy. It wakes up your creativity!
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