21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you want to acquire a thorough grounding in Photoshop skills, this is the book to buy ..., October 11, 2010
This review is from: Photoshop CS5: Essential Skills (Paperback)
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If you are interested in mastering digital imaging, the best way to hone your skills is not by picking up a few hints here and there on the Internet, but rather by having a book in hand and a tutorial DVD that will help you with digital basics. Before you purchase this book you'll need the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be able to read the PDF content and QuickTime 7 version or later in order to watch the movie tutorials. There are links to these resources on the DVD if you haven't already updated. Most people like to know what they are getting for their money so I'll try to be as detailed as I can in explaining what you'll get on the DVD as you cannot skim that if you pick up a copy in a bookstore. If you are confident PhotoshopCS5 is what you'll need, you simply can scan this review or bypass it completely.
What is on the DVD:
FOUNDATION MODULE
Digital Basics (DVD Chapter)
Channels palette
RGB* (Red, Green, Blue)
CMY* (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow)
HSB (Hue Saturation Brightness)
Perception
Titles of movie tutorials include Refine Edge, Mixer Brush, Content Aware Fill, Puppet Warp, Merge to HDR Pro, Repousse, ACR6, 3D Images, 3D, Foundation-l a.dng, Foundation-l b dng, Foundation-l c.dng, Project-l.mov, Foundation-2.dng*, Foundation-3.dng*, Vibrance.dng*, Foundation-4.dng*, Spot-l.dng*, and Spot-2.dng*. You can test print in JPEG or TIFF and your record sheets are available in JPEG OR PSD. Instructions are given for the PC or MAC.
* Note: Raw images cannot be displayed on some browser interfaces. Some of the movies take a while to load so you will need to be patient or press on the spacebar to load if they don't play automatically.
ADVANCE SKILLS MODULE
Layers and Channels
Titles of movie tutorials include Intro.mov, layers & channels.mov, layers masks.mov, Selections1 mov, Selections2.mov, and Selections3.mov.
You will then have an opportunity to work with several layer blends (opacity, darken, multiply, screen, lighten, overlay, difference, soft light, luminosity, and saturation).
Filters
You will be able to work with several pictures and will have one movie tutorial. Vanishing-Point.psd
RETOUCHING
There are seven movie tutorials and ten digital images to work with (TIFF or PSD format)
MONTAGE
There are seven movie tutorials and fifteen digital images to work with (a mix of TIFF, PSD, Raw)
ADVANCED RETOUCHING
There are eleven movie tutorials and nineteen digital images to work with ( a mix of TIFF, PSD, Raw, JPEG)
ALIGN AND BLEND
There are six movie tutorials and twenty-one digital images to work with (a mix of TIFF, PSD, Raw)
RESOURCES
In this section we can find Author Info, Free Skies (stock skies), QuickTime, Actions, Luminance Preset (Black and White), Essentials Skills, A Digital Basics Chapter, a Digital Darkroom Chapter, Focal Press, Adobe, a Shortcuts Printout, and RMIT University (Mark Galer is affiliated with this University).
USEFUL LINKS
* Essential Skills
* RMIT Photography
* Adobe Digital Imaging
* Deke
* Adobe TV
* Russell Brown
* PhotoshopSupport.com
* Image Science (Printing services)
* digital photography review
* PhotoshopNews.com
* John Nack
* Luminous Landscape
* Digital Dog (Andrew Rodney)
* Studio Exchange (Photoshop)
* Planet Photoshop
* Adobe Evangelist
* Retouch Pro
All of the links provided are current and provide many additional tips and techniques that the reader will find to be quite useful. The book and DVD are designed so you can take advantage of some of the best information out there at no additional cost. When they mention "Extensive Support" in the book, it is no exaggeration.
The book itself provides a step-by-step visual tutorial that provides a "structured learning approach" to learning Photoshop. You will learn about Photoshop revisions, the CS5 version of Bridge, workflow, raw processing, digital printing, digital basics (DVD, chapter 1), and digital darkroom (DVD, chapter 2). For the more advanced reader there are chapters on layers and channels, selections, filters, and layer blends. There is an imaging projects module that includes retouching projects, montage projects, advanced retouching, and a section on how to align and blend projects.
Each section provides general guidelines, thorough instructions, and is extremely generous with photographic illustrations. In the back of the book is a thorough index, a glossary, a list of keyboard shortcuts, and several recommended web links to explore (tutorials, illustrators, information and blogs).
If you want to acquire a thorough grounding in Photoshop skills, this is the book to buy. You can "hone your image editing skills" without having to pay big $ for a course or spend hours trying to glean bits of information from the Internet. You will obviously need to work hard learning these skills, but I think you'll be quite satisfied with yourself as you progress. I'd say that all things considered, the thorough tutorials provided in this book and on the DVD will be well worth the monies spent with this reference/tutorial.
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