The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)

by Scott Kelby (Author)
Key Phrases: camera raw, smart object, options bar, The Adobe Photoshop, Step One, Step Two (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is not some reprint of an old book, but new text with tons of great, new ideas on how to polish your images. Our capture devises while good don’t capture everything we see. Our images also go to many places, not just the computer monitor. Scott’s book is full of techniques for cleaning up color, sharpening, presentation either by print, web gallery or a host of other ideas, organization, black and white conversion and the list just goes on and on. And all of these techniques take advantage of all the power and ease of Photoshop CS3.This is one monster of a book!"  -- Moose Peterson, moosepeterson.com

“In my opinion, The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book is one of those books that contains so much information that it really is a must have. If you are a beginner to Photoshop, you will have everything you need to create better photos. You will be able to learn things in a step-by-step approach that will fine tune your learning. If you are experienced, The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book will fill in many of the holes that you may have because of the depth and breath of Photoshop itself.” -- T. Michael Testi, Blogcritics

Product Description
Scott Kelby was honored with Professional Photographer magazine’s highly coveted 2008 Hot One Award for The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. Here’s what Jeff Kent, the Hot One Editor at Professional Photographer, has to say about the book: “In a how-to published by Peachpit Press, Scott Kelby, best-selling author on Adobe Photoshop, delves into CS3 to uncover the most important and useful techniques for digital photographers. Our judges liked Kelby’s direct approach with step-by-step instructions. In this new edition, Kelby shares even more secrets from the top pros.”

Shutterbug magazine chose The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers as a Top Digital Book of 2007.  Here’s what Joe Farace of Shutterbug has to say about the book: “Scott Kelby’s name on a Photoshop book is like the Dodge brand on the front of a pickup truck. You know it’s built RAM—or pixel—tough. Combining his famous twisted wit with unwaveringly straight tutorials, Kelby takes you through a detailed tour of Photoshop CS3 by showing how to use the new features. No fluff; just page after page of well-illustrated tutorials showing photographers how to get the most out of the new features, commands, and effects found in the latest version of Adobe’s flagship. It will get you up to speed on CS3’s new features faster than you can all by yourself.”

Scott Kelby, the #1 best-selling Photoshop author in the world today, once again takes this book to a whole new level as he uncovers the latest, most important, and most exciting new Adobe Photoshop CS3 techniques for digital photographers. This major update to his award-winning, record-breaking book does something for digital photographers that’s never been done before–it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure it out on your own. Instead, Scott shows you step-by-step the exact techniques used by today’s cutting-edge digital photographers, and best of all, he shows you flat-out exactly which settings to use, when to use them, and why.

That’s why the previous editions of this book are widely used as the official course study guide in photography courses at college and universities around the world, and this new edition for Photoshop CS3 exposes even more of the top pros’ most closely-guarded secrets.

Learn How The Pros Do It
Each year Scott trains thousands of professional photographers on how to use Photoshop, and almost without exception they have the same questions, the same problems, and the same challenges–and that’s exactly what he covers in this book. You’ll learn:

• The sharpening techniques the pros really use.
• The pros’ tricks for fixing the most common digital photo problems fast!
• How to get great looking prints (that actually match your screen!)
• A whole chapter on the latest, most requested Photoshop special effects!
• How to color correct any photo without breaking a sweat.
• How to process Raw images, plus how to take advantage of all the new Camera Raw features in CS3!
• The portrait retouching secrets only the pros know about!
• How to add real automation to your work.
• How to show your work like a pro!

Plus a host of shortcuts, workarounds, and slick “insider” tricks to send your productivity through the roof! If you’re a digital photographer, and you’re ready to learn the “tricks of the trade”–the same ones that today’s leading pros use to correct, edit, sharpen, retouch, and present their work–then you’re holding the book that will do just that.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 1 edition (August 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321501918
• ISBN-13: 978-0321501912
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,144 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #25 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Digital Photography

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Step-by-Step Guide, August 18, 2007

By	Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is neither the biggest book on Photoshop, nor the most comprehensive. The author makes no pretense of covering every feature contained in the massive program known as Photoshop CS3. 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. As such, I find it a highly useful reference book often as I edit photos.

For those who own the prior version for CS2, this is much more than a rehash of the same material with a few odds and ends added to cover the new CS3 features. I was surprised to see that most or all of the example photos appear to be new for this edition and the author has reorganized the material within each chapter. I applaud Mr. Kelby for what looks like an earnest attempt to earn our money rather than just cash in on the sales a new version of Photoshop automatically generate.

On the negative side, I do wish that the author would tone down his attempts to be funny throughout the book. Humor has gone from being unknown in how-to books to being painfully overused and this book is a prime example. It goes from being mildly cute for the first couple of pages to just getting in the way and slowing down the flow of information as you continue reading.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Mr. Kelby has done an excellent job organizing and presenting a useful guide to Photoshop CS3 and I commend him for that. If he prunes 90% of his attempts at humor, I'll give his next book 5 stars instead of 4.

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'MUST' have for every photographer ... whatever level!!!, August 10, 2007

By	Glyn Dewis "Dinkiz" (Buckinghamshire, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is Scott Kelby's revised edition of his Photoshop for Photographers series covering CS3, but don't be fooled in thinking that it's just as the previous version with a few added extras. Not only does this book cover the new features of CS3 which are mainly relevant to photographers, it's packed with all new techniques for retouching and finally presenting your images.

Since the last edition, it's clear that Scott Kelby has been studying his craft hard. The book is full, cover to cover with beautiful photographs, taken by him, which are motivating by themselves. Amongst the many, two techniques which stand out to give superb results are what he calls the Trendy High Contrast Portrait Effect and the Hollywood Highlights technique.

The book is written in Scott's easy going humerous style, and yes there are people that don't relate to his sense of humour, but then you can't please everyone. That being said, if you don't like the humour, then do yourself a favour and look past it, cos amongst it is some of the most valuable information, we as photographers need if we want to keep 'up there'.

Covering everything from the Bridge, color correcting, enhancements, presentation and more, as I've said this book is a MUST HAVE for photographers of all levels.

Oh and incase you were wondering, 'no' I'm not on commission ... I just like to spend my money wisely!

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Wanted To Learn To Fish, November 30, 2007

By	Michael W. Schellenberger (georgetown, in United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book reminds me of the old proverb, 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' This book just throws some fish at you.

With that being said and the popularity of the book I guess a lot of people like being thrown fish. I wanted to learn to 'fish' but the book taught me little about 'fishing'.

I can say I did learn some stuff from the book and I was certainly glad I'd used Elements for a couple of years prior. The book is certainly not for newbies as it covers nothing about the many tools/options you have available in the toolbar other than in some contexts of creating a visual effect. I didn't see much in the book for a seasoned Photoshop user as only basic 'retouching' ideas are 'thrown' you.

I was particularly appalled when told to just use Adobe RGB as the color profile with no explanation other than sRGB is for the web. While I am no expert I do know there is a lot of talk/arguing in the industry about which you should/might use and the heart ache that Adobe RGB might cause you. There should have been some discussion on this topic, I don't need advice like this.

So, in my opinion, if you have played with Photoshop a little and are 'a learn by example' type of person then this book might be for you. If you want to learn about why you might grown/feather a selection, understand the various tool settings/options or learn anything remotely advanced I would look for another.