Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book, The (8th Edition) [Paperback]

Linnea Dayton (Author), Cristen Gillespie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ever since Photoshop version 2.5, The Photoshop Wow! Book has enlightened and inspired graphic designers, illustrators, and photographers around the globe. This newest edition delivers the familiar award-winning mix of explanations and step-by-step tutorials for creating both commercial and fine-art images, with a DVD-ROM full of tutorial files and other goodies. Tips and beautiful galleries distinguish this book as the most inspiring Photoshop resource around. Designed for easy reference, The Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book includes short features in which professional photographers and designers let you in on their creative secrets for quick solutions. You’ll learn the most innovative techniques for creating and enhancing images, graphics, and type.

• Use these techniques with Photoshop CS3 and CS4; most fundamental techniques also work with Photoshop CS5
  

• Use the new and improved features in Photoshop CS3 and CS4, including Smart Filters, the Quick Selection tool, the new Black & White and Vibrance adjustments, the Refine Edge command, the Clone Source panel, the Adjustments and Masks panels, and video, animation, 3D, and Analysis features in Photoshop Extended, as well as improvements to Bridge and Camera Raw
  

• Build your skill with familiar Photoshop features such as blend modes, Adjustment layers, channels, filters, Actions, and Layer Styles
  

• Focus attention on the subject of a photo, retouch a portrait, tint an image, or convert a color image to black-and-white
  

• Bring out your inner artist with Photoshop’s sophisticated brushes and vector-drawing tools
  

• Create dazzling special effects for type and graphics

• Keep your creations organized with layers, groups, Smart Objects, and layer comps

About the Author

LINNEA DAYTON, who has authored nine previous editions of the award-winning Photoshop Wow! Book, has written and edited numerous other books and articles about computer-based artmaking and is series editor of Peachpit Press’s Wow! books.

CRISTEN GILLESPIE authors her second edition of Photoshop Wow! She has contributed to other books in the Wow! series as well as the “Wow! Factor” column for Photoshop User magazine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 8 edition (May 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321514955
• ISBN-13: 978-0321514950
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #22,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #84 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia
  #40 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Digital Photography & Video > Adobe Photoshop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best CS3/CS4 Book in Print, May 30, 2010

By	Donal Jolley - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book, The (8th Edition) (Paperback)

When the second edition of PS WOW! came out I simply couldn't wait to drool all over the amazing work inside, and spent hours honing my skills late into the night. I wore out my early editions from heavy usage. Now the long awaited WOW! CS3/CS4 Book is everything we as designers (and students, teachers, computer geeks and people drawn to shiny objects) have come to expect. From the beginning of the book to the end there are many tricks, step-by-step demonstrations, and great explanations of both difficult and easy concepts.

The predecessor to this volume has been used heavily in classrooms all over the world and in several languages, and this one should see just as much use as it's simply the premiere book in its class. Dayton and Gillespie have carefully sorted through each exercise as well as writing a lot of new material to make sure the updates of Adobe's developers have all been perfectly covered.

The WOW! book doesn't just tell you how to make Layers; it gives you multitudes of ways to leverage them. It doesn't simply talk about type; it provides tricks and tips used by the best designers in the world to get the most out of the powerful tools PS offers. Channels, Brushes, Groups, 3D, Styles, Actions, Video and far more things than any one Photoshop user ever will get into are covered in great detail. Chances are that if it's a trick that's not here you'll have trouble getting your hands in greater detail anywhere.

For those who are concerned about the lack of CS5 materials in the book, and it's a valid concern, nothing in the book is now outdated other than some of the screen shots of the tool palette. Everything that is in CS3/4 is also in CS5, so the material is completely relevant. The most interesting new items for most users are some selection and editing tools, and some of the more artistic users will get excited about some of the artistic brushwork that is now possible. Those are all well explained within the application itself, and while they are kind of neat the lack of those few items shouldn't make anyone feel less inclined towards this edition.

After all... there's -nothing- else like The Photoshop CS3/CS4 WOW! Book in existence.

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And for the three-star and one-star reviewers, one of whom merely noted CS5 was out but didn't actually look at this book before his "review," I don't think I could be convinced to disagree with your assessment more than I already do. Perhaps I'm not understanding your concern, but the WOW! series has never been strictly for beginners, it has hundreds of pages of meticulous step-by-step instruction and nothing about CS5 makes this book incorrect about a single method. I just don't get your reviews at all - they're like you put the review on the wrong book's page!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Photoshop Specialist's Essential, May 16, 2010

By	B. Koski - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book, The (8th Edition) (Paperback)

This is a must-have for any Photoshop artist - It is a large book (read the product details) and extremely informative. If there was one Photoshop book I could only own, this would be it. And by the way, all of the WOW! books are phenomenal (I'm referring to the WOW!, not the How to Wow - some of those are good, too, though).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PHOTOSHOP WOW BOOK..., June 2, 2010

By	T. Cregan ""photo freak"" (Winter Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book, The (8th Edition) (Paperback)

Have purchase many on-line tutorials and also reviewed many Free tutorials from the Internet, and this is the BEST purchase so far!!! Very detailed, easy to follow, and made my new venture into Photography so much easier! I do use this along with other things I have purchased, however, feel this Book was well worth the $'s. A great reference and has many extras as well...YOU WILL LOVE IT!