Customer Reviews

Photoshop CS3 Restoration and Retouching Bible

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't be fooled by the "Restoration and Retouching Bible" title because this book offers substantially more for anyone wishing to develop a firm understanding of the post capture phase of digital photography. Starting with a comprehensive examination over all aspects of the digital image (for instance, the value of histograms), as well as how vital a file management system is; the author knows the importance of laying this foundation of knowledge before proceeding with Photoshop and retouching skills.
You are fully a third into the book before retouching and restoration is covered and Mr. Fitzgerald does not leave anything out, covering all aspects of working with old damaged photos or problem complexion; there is even a section on architecture. The big plus for this book are the sample images that can be downloaded from a web site to follow along with the work flow examples in the training, so that at each stage the reader can compare their results.
Training books are tough to write and keep engaging, but the author's tone and language shows both a strong understanding and deep commitment to the photographic image. He also does not favor Mac world; respecting the growing percentage of Photoshop users on Windows as well. This book will be an important resource for many photographers regardless of their specialty or level of expertise.

I have been a professional photographer for three years and I have made a real effort to learn Photoshop and use it efficiently. I consider myself to be proficient, even with CS3, so when I picked up this book I was simply hoping to skim through it to learn a bit more about the new features in CS3 and make sure I hadn't missed anything. Instead, I found myself sitting down to read each page and I picked up new tips and tricks in every chapter that affect not only how I use Photoshop, but also my basic workflow.

I really appreciate that the author takes nothing for granted as far as the reader's previous experience. The fact that I have used Photoshop almost daily for years doesn't mean that I understood exactly how each tool works or why I should choose one over the other. The author does a great job of suggesting which tool to use and why. I think this book is appropriate for first-time Photoshop users and for people with much more experience. I even learned things that had nothing to do with Photoshop, such as how Mac now compares to PC and the best ways to back up data.

The author's conversational style and excellent organization make it easy to read this book from cover to cover as well as to refer back to it when seeking specific information about a specific tool. I especially appreciated the "New Feature" and "Tip" boxes.

This is a very useful and informative book!

As an architectural photographer, who has been using Photoshop since version 2, I intended this book as merely an occasional reference guide. Due to the title, I anticipated that some areas of the book would have little relevance to me. Not the case. I was delighted to find it was written with universal relevance. When working with a program for as long as I have Photoshop, certain approaches become habit and I at times fail to become familiar with many new program functions without frequent periodic review. This book's author is able to organize and communicate clearly, through examples, the principles behind the program and its new features in a way that all users would benefit. I am not accustomed to writing reviews or recommendations, but I feel it is well deserved here.

Awesome book on Photoshop. The title miss leads you into thinking this book is about the dedicated area of old photo restoration & retouching. This book covers all the fundamentals, into the skills need for photography enhancement and then into skills associated with old photo restoration. You might think photo restoration is of no interest but the skills presented are the very same ones used to improve a normal photography. The book is written with a clear and guiding style. There are numerous tips to get you quickly going with quality results. All the images used in the illustrations are available online. I have numerous books on Photoshop from the various masters and this book will be one I keep for a long, long time. The book is appropriate for the beginner to the advanced user of Photoshop. This book is money well spent.

Ron G.
Image Reflex

This is an excellent A to Z reference book! No matter what restoration or retouching project you have at hand, you will find a solution in this book. Instructions are very clear and easy to follow. I have been a power user of Photoshop for some time, but still I found a lot of new or time-saving tips. I would happily recommend this book for both novice Photoshop users and seasoned pros, there is a lot of useful information there. I would also recommend it to those who have a background in Photoshop Elements and now are ready to step up and do editing in Photoshop.

This book uncovers the mystery of Photoshop for the beginner and progresses to the fine points needed by the experienced user. By starting with the basics of photo editing, Mark does an excellent job of directing the reader through the necessary steps in logical progression to complete a work flow.

The downloadable images provided for practice are an added benefit that allow the learner to have a hands on approach at his or her own speed.

The progression of topics is logical, straight forward and easy to follow. The color illustrations are an addition that makes the book easy to use and follow.

I have been a Photoshop user for about 8 years and this is the best teaching tool I have seen so far.

I highly recommend this book for any Photoshop user.

John Sanders
Lake Oswego, Oregon

Photoshop CS3 Restoration and Retouching Bible I downloaded the sample of this book which, whilst it reads only in black and white on the Kindle, displays in full colour on my Mac computer, so I bought it. Obviously in full colour on the Mac it should prove to be even more useful as a tutorial aid than the paperback version which gets such good reviews. However the downloaded full copy of the book will only open on the Kindle and will not open on the Mac. I am following this up with Amazon Help. I have now downloaded it on three separate occasions but still I get the message from the application "Kindle for Mac" - "The book could not be opened. Please remove the book from your device and redownload it."
Is this a fault with the application "Kindle For Mac"? Until this is fixed it seems that it will be impossible to rank this Kindle version of the book other than as 1-star. If anyone else had similar problems perhaps they can offer a solution? Meanwhile best to stick with the paperback version.

After studying and attending SO MANY classes on photoshop I finally get it!! Only with this book .No longer do I have to go to my own notebook with half scratched,quick writing short cuts that only gets me kind of what I want to do. Now after using this book for the past few weeks, I am faster and more efficient. Mark Fitzgerald is a incredible teacher.So easy to understand all the magic that photoshop has to offer!! What a relief!!

Excellent Reference guide, April 8, 2008

I have been a photoshop user for a couple of years, but tend to only edit the obvious such as exposure, color balance, maybe the contrast and/or sharpness and then I'm done. It wasn't until recently that I have been using various layers to enhance my images and im finding that I still lack confidence with the abundance of tools and options CS3 has to offer. I relate these inadequacies to sporadic practice. Like anything, practice makes perfect, and if you don't use it... you loose it. Since photoshop isn't my full time job, I find that I forget minor details more often than not. This is where "The Photoshop Bible," comes in as an amazing resource. First of all the table of contents is written very well. Being able to look up a specific tool or scenario, fast (portraiture, architecture) is vital to a 500 page book of information. This book is relatively new to me and I have already used it several times as reference and im happy I did. Each time I have used the book, I start by scanning the index, after finding the page and reading into it I always find additional information that helps me perform the task more effectively. I also find that his dialogue makes for an easy read that's comprehendible the first time read.

I would recommend this book to anyone serious about photoshop, who doesn't have the time to continually practice and learn the new tricks because this author makes it easy! It's easy to find what your looking for and it's easy to read, understand and perform what the author says!

This book definitely merits five stars. My book selves are lined with photoshop books and my hard drive has hundreds of tutorials that I have accumulated over the years. I started working with photoshop with version four I have worked as a professional retoucher in a portrait studio and have worked for a photo conservator restoring old photos.
Mark has done an amazing job in creating a series of easy to understand tutorials that you can have hands on experience to work through. I find his explanations very easy to understand, I really feel no matter what level you work with photoshop this book is a must for your library. There is only two people that write photoshop books that I will even consider buying,but Mark's book has convinced me I need to increase that number to three. Thank you for writing a photoshop book that explains multi step procedures in in plain English and at the same time covers so many aspects of a fairly complicated software application.
Galen H.