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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good choice for building intermediate to professional skills, December 29, 2008
This review is from: Photoshop CS4: Essential Skills (Photography Essential Skills) (Paperback)
I'm a newcomer to photoshop, having bought CS4 the week it was released. I purchased this book because I was impressed by a similar book written by Mark Galer on Elements, and also because it was simply the only book on CS4 that was actually in print at the time of purchase. I have given Essential Skills five stars due to the quality of the written and video tutorials. The target audience would be someone with preexisting basic skills who can jump over the mediocre introductory materials and get right into the tutorials. For example, there is a tutorial on HDR technique that is far more advanced than anything I have seen online or in any other book. And, believe me, I have spent a lot of hours looking. I'll grow into this book in a few months and will be very glad I bought it. However, it is not the best choice for someone in my present circumstances. I have since been able to spend an hour or more with Martin Evening's book, Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers, at the brick and mortar store. Evening's book is more readable and stronger on the basics. I would not hesitate to recommend Evening's book as the default choice for a newbie struggling to get started with CS4. The "missing manual" for CS4 hasn't hit the shelves yet, but Evening's book is far superior to any of the prior missing manual volumes. Update 9-23-2009: Ten months later, I'd give this book (really, the CD) six stars if I could. First, I regret the snide remark about the "mediocre introductory materials." Flame in haste, repent at leisure. Still, the gist of the thought was correct. The point of this publication isn't to read about color theory, it's to be able to stand over the shoulders of a real professional while he works. For digital photography theory (histograms, diffraction limit, out of gamut colors, etc., etc., etc.), google "Cambridge in Colour." Don't forget the "u" in colour. You'll be impressed by the quality and quantity of the free tutorials, not to mention the artist's gallery. Second, my title was a bit off. The range is more like beginner to advanced intermediate, with the understanding that "beginner" doesn't include newbie. I recommend The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers by Derrick Story for people who are just starting out from ground zero. Story's book is a good quick start guide, although you'll outgrow it quickly. Third, I continue to recommend Martin Evening's book Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC, which I now own. Evening's book doesn't duplicate this one at all, being more like an owner's manual or reference publication. You don't sit down to read Evening's book from cover to cover; you consult it as needed. However, I was wrong to recommend Evening's book as "the default choice for a newbie struggling to get started with CS4." Story's book works as a quick start guide; Evening's doesn't. Finally, I really can't say enough good things about the video tutorials. You'd pay at least five times the price of this publication to take a CS4 class. Galer's lessons are good enough on the first viewing, but where they really begin to shine is when you start to work on some prize photo of your own and remember that a photograph he worked over had the same problems that you're now facing. Unlike a class, you can go back and find that lesson, and go over it as many times as you need to figure out the details of his technique. As much as I enjoy what Photoshop can do, it has to be understood that the interface is truly wretched and in need of a top to bottom overhaul. No one, no matter how bright, can learn to use CS4 effectively just by reading from text.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
One Size Does Not Fit All, April 2, 2009
This review is from: Photoshop CS4: Essential Skills (Photography Essential Skills) (Paperback)
There's no way around it. Photoshop is a very complex piece of software with a lot of capabilities. It's because of this that there is no easy way to learn all the in and outs of Photoshop quickly. One way to get a handle on it is by learning just enough for the most basic processing, and as you get comfortable with that, adding more tools to your toolbox. It looks like this might have been the original concept behind this book. The authors divided the book into three parts: the foundation module; the advanced skills module; and the imaging projects module. The foundation module provides enough information for basic processing of a RAW image up through printing, and provides enough information on camera raw to allow for some local corrections of images. There are a few tutorials, (which the authors call projects) in this and the second module, which focuses on layers, selections and filters. The imaging projects module puts together all the tools learned in the first two modules for specific tutorials. The book includes a DVD, and it provides not just the images for the projects but also movies showing the Photoshop screen and how each project is handled. Unfortunately, this book seems to have lost sight of the goal. For example, almost half of the introductory chapter is devoted to the new features in PS CS4, something for which a beginner who was not familiar with previous versions would have no use. And should that new user read about content aware scaling and watch the accompanying movie, he might throw up his hands in fear. And if any new user looked at the projects in the third module, he might just quit reading the book. This is a problem that many Photoshop books encounter. They try to speak to both the beginner and the experienced user with the result that they do neither very well. I'm surprised publishers haven't picked up on this and that they continue to print one-size-fits-all Photoshop books. A new user would have been better served by many more simple projects to work on. There were some strange mistakes in creating the book, particularly with regard to the DVD. For example the table of contents of the book suggests the DVD includes a section on fundamentals, but I couldn't find it on the DVD. The first few movies have captions but later movies have none so that you have to guess what they are about. Sometimes the book tells a beginner too little and some time too much. For example, in the discussion of Bridge there is no mention that the gateway to Photoshop is highly customizable while the chapter on printing starts with a discussion of securing customized printer profiles, even though many of today's photo printers have excellent profiles available for download so that customized profiles are probably needed only for the most exacting work. There are no instructions about preparing an image for the internet. If a beginner understands that not all of the book is appropriate for him, uses both the book and the DVD, and understands that no one book is enough to become competent with Photoshop, this book may be a useful introduction. I suspect more experienced users might benefit from skipping the first two modules and going directly to the third module and its accompanying DVD. But I wish the authors had decided on a single audience and hewed to that line.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Step-by-step guidance from beginner to pro-level skills, March 3, 2009
This review is from: Photoshop CS4: Essential Skills (Photography Essential Skills) (Paperback)
Galer and Andrews' book is perhaps one of the best resources I have found related to learning digital image retouching and image manipulation, and allows the reader to develop skills at a pace they can set themselves. I am a student of photography at RMIT University in Australia, which offers one of the best courses in commercial photography in the world. This book is the basis of 2 years worth of education we receive relating to digital imaging (and image manipulation)---and most of us come into the course with no background in Photoshop. If you cannot afford to go to uni, but can get yourself a copy of this book---you're in good hands! :o) The book provides sound foundations and background knowledge regarding the digital imaging workflow---while not everyone might be interested in such information, grasping this material significantly improves the quality of one's work. Other books I have referred to often skip steps assuming that reader can "fill in" the gaps on their own, or may not contain the files needed to complete a project. Such short-cuts on the part of authors can be frustrating and demoralizing for the reader, particularly for those who are beginners. In marked contrast, this is the only book I know of that explains in painstaking step-by-step detail every step of the process involved in each project---then backs it up with a full-length video tutorial for each project *and* includes all the RAW/stock image resources that are needed to complete each task. You simply cannot get it wrong with this kind of support. If you have the passion and consistency to work through (and understand!!) each exercise, this book will help you every step of the way towards gaining professional level proficiency---even if you have no background in the use of Photoshop. For those who may be interested, my website contains images created using skills I have learnt from this book: http://www.abjet.net PS- I recently purchased this book for an 80+year old Photoshop novice who is already going from strength to strength with their skills!!
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