Customer Reviews

The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers

5 star:		(137)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

In my recent effort to educate myself in matters of Photoshop CS2 I read in detail three books - Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers by Martin Evening, Photoshop CS2 by Fraser & Blatner, and The Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. Of the three, I would rank the Evening and the Fraser & Blatner books as comprehensive books that, if the reader would fully understand all that was discussed, they would be considered a Photoshop Pro. The Kelby book I considered to be quite basic in that it covered only some of the principal topics and did so in an elementary fashion (it would take Kelby four pages with all his illustrations and stepwise instructions to cover what the other books might cover in one). I would recommend the Kelby book for a hobbyist that doesn't want to devote a lot of learning time and who wishes only a basic knowledge of Photoshop CS2 in order to occasionally turn out a nice image. I would recommend either of the other two books if one wants a mastery of what CS2 can really do. But, be warned that the subject is complex and will take a lot of time to learn. Of the two, Evening's book has the advantage in that it is a little less expensive, he includes a disk containing the images used in many of his tutorials so the reader can follow along with the same exercises, and because he is a fashion photographer many of his images are fashion shots of pretty women. The Fraser & Blatner book has the advantage of being somewhat larger and more complete and goes into deeper detail on some aspects of CS2. Both of these books have a high orientation to producing images for commercial press publication. I would recommend that if one wants to really learn CS2 they read both books, even though the same topics are covered in both, the subject is sufficiently complex it pays to learn it twice from perhaps somewhat different angles.

I gave this book 4 stars because it covers all the new features in Photoshop cs2 very well. I don't agree with the authors avoidance of 16 bit process so that is why it doesn't get 5 stars. I bought this mainly to learn all the new feature in photoshop cs2 and the book covers those features very well. Especially the new smart sharpening feature and the enhanced camera raw, and all the other new features. Also it includes a multi-tone grey card to help with color balancing. This books covers in a much more intresting fashion- the material in the new cs2 manual included with the cd. The nice thing here is that the author offers example settings that probably can be applied to 85% of your images as is and give you good results.

If you use Photoshop CS2 to edit digital images, this book is a must-have. Scott Kelby doesn't waste your time showing you how to do artwork with Photoshop. This book is about digital photography, and it's by far the best book in my library for that.

Even if you have Kelby's earlier book on Photoshop CS, there's a lot of new and added material in this book. It's well worth the price to upgrade.

In one word: Indispensable.

I did traditional darkroom photography for years before stepping into the digital world several years ago. This is the first truly useful book I've found about Photoshop. Instead of trying to describe individual functions in Photoshop (about as useful as painstakingly describing a fork while leaving it to you to figure out how to actually eat with it), it tells you how to actually do all sorts of common things that experienced photographers want to do, and know that there must be some way of doing, but just can't figure out. It is laid out like a cookbook. If you want to remove dark circles under the eyes, there's an entry for that in the table of contents. If you want to colorize hair, there's another entry, and on and on. Once you get to the actual discussion, the book tells you step-by-step, with lots of illustrations, how to do it. The book assumes you already know your way around photography, but that you don't know anything about Photoshop. The writing is engaging and often funny. The best chapter title (and it sums up my feelings exactly) is "Anger Management: Color Management Step by Step." Although I've now had a fair amount of Photoshop training from actual people, I think this book is clear enough that a Photoshop novice could use it alone and achieve competence.

The problem with Photoshop CS2, or any software this extensive, is the enormous amount of time it takes to cull out the overwhelming number of functions it offers to arrive at a working list of the 2 to 3 dozen the serious photographer will actually end up using based on their specific needs. Scott Kelby's book already did that for me saving scores of hours and mental anguish.

Problem number two with software like CS2 is the time it takes to learn how to use the short list of features you'll be using. Now you have 2 choices. The manual or Kelby's book. The manual takes you through the process verbally which is very time consuming. While the CS2 book does it graphically, using photo before and afters to illustrate the enhancement, and, most important, walks you through the menus the way they appear on your computer screen. Time expended - Manual vs Kelby book - it's no contest. Say your time is worth $100, $50 or even $25 per hour, you'll probably save more than the price of the book learning just one function.

And to those who complained about Scott's little humorous asides I say, "Get a life!" I'll take a photographer with a sense of humor over a software geek anytime.

Bill Evans

This book isn't a great general overview of Photoshops capabilities or a theoretical explantion to understand the underpinings of the program. I've bought books like that and still not known what is the best way to convert a color photo to black and white. This book provides an extensive list of real-world issues that photographers have to deal with using Photoshop and step-by-step ways to deal with those problems. It is perfect for those of you who want practical, usable advice to change and improve digital images using this extremely powerful, complex program and don't need to understand Photoshop theory.

This is the book to have next to you if you are doing digital photography and feel your images could stand improving, or ... even rescuing. I'm not a Photoshop practitioner or a very good photographer but I do know how to follow directions for tweaking and occasionally salvaging an image. And with sufficient successful rescues, I'm now feeling pretty comfortable with Photoshop and finding my results are really pretty decent. Kelby has a comfortable style and the book is laid out in a logical manner making even your first attempts rewarding. I have two other books on this same subject: one I haven't seen in months, and the other is in a stack somewhere awaiting the time when I can't get satisfactory results with this now dog-eared and well used book. So far, Kelby hasn't let me down. A suggestion if you do buy it or already own it - Keep it close by and refer to it often as I'm constantly discovering more gems of usefulness. I just love the "Advanced" technique for adjusting exposures that starts on page 218 - that alone salvaged many pictures from last Christmas that were underexposed by at least two stops due to a slow cycling flash unit and an impatient photographer. See, told you I wasn't a very good photographer. But with the help of this book, no one will ever know.

This is not the biggest book on Photoshop, nor is it the most comprehensive. The author makes no pretense that he will cover every feature contained in the massive program known as Photoshop CS2. What he does attempt to do is identify tasks useful to digital photographers (and this includes film shooters who scan) and give step-by-step explanations to get them done. Most of the information is presented in a very task-oriented approach. The emphasis is squarely placed on giving you the tools to get things done quickly and efficiently. I find myself referring to this book often as I edit photos.

On the negative side, I wish that the author did not try to be funny on virtually every page of the book. Humor has gone from being unknown in how-to books to being painfully overused and this book is a prime example. If the "humor" were actually funny it would be one thing but it goes from being mildly cute the first couple of pages to just getting in the way and slowing down the flow of information without providing any real comedic relief.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Mr. Kelby has done an excellent job organizing and presenting a useful guide to Photoshop CS2 and I commend him for that. With CS3 just around the corner, you may want to wait until you upgrade before buying this book, however... no doubt the author will have a new edition ready for sale as soon as CS3 hits the shelves.

This is a good book for a photographer looking to get into photoshop. It contains all the info needed to get up and rolling with the program. The book is, however, very basic and individuals with already decent Photoshop skills and ones who want all the details will be dissapointed.

On the positive side, Kelby presents techniques that are effective, real world and easy to follow. Among them, cropping based on the rule of thirds and finding a neurtal gray in a picture were tips I found particularly useful.

Potential negatives are the author's humor which is dispersed liberally throughout the book and the fact that there is little explanation provided with the techniques.

One technique I'd recommend to a potential reader who finds Kelby's brand of humor offensive/annoying is to ignore the book's intro and the intro to each chapter and about 90% of his "humor" is eliminated. This made my reading experience more enjoyable and productive.

When I bought this book was the first time I bought a book about photoshop and I was afraid that it was gonna be very complicated but I started reading and wow!!! I just love this book!!! It guides you step by step from "open the photo" to the final effect, and you do not have to be a pro in this subject because you only need to know the basics of photoshopto start using this book, other thing I loved is that totally visual and that makes it so easy and exciting to use and start giving your pics different effects.