Customer Reviews

Photoshop Filter Effects Encyclopedia: The Hands-On Desktop Reference for Digital Photographers (O'Reilly Digital Studio)

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Until this book was published, I still used my old 1999 copy of "Photoshop in a Nutshell" as the definitive guide to Photoshop filters. However, this book surpasses that one in its coverage and its no-nonsense approach to each filter. The book has a chapter for each class of filter: Artistic, Blur, Brush Strokes, Distort, etc. Depending on the complexity of each filter there are two to four pages describing each filter in detail, its controls, and how to use each filter to improve a photograph or achieve a particular effect. Some effects require combinations of filters, and this is covered in detail too. There are plenty of colorful photographs demonstrating the effects that are possible with each filter. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a complete reference on all of Photoshop's filters and not just the coverage of the most popular subset of filters that most books have.

Of all the things that Photoshop can do, the Filters option certainly is one of the coolest options available to users. Taking a digital picture or just a standard graphics file, you can use the power of Photoshop Filters to create unique art for whatever purpose you want. From a colored pencil effect to blurring images to one of the newest filters "Vanishing Point", this book is an absolute gem.

If you use Filters on a daily basis and want to see what can be done to take a normal image and make it stand out from the "blah" that is out there in the world, this book is for you. If you are a heavy Photoshop user but want to go beyond the basics of just resizing images and cropping pictures, you will also heavily enjoy this book. Of the 4 books in this Photoshop line I love each one of them and feel that all readers should rush out and pick them all up for their reference.

The only downside of this book really isn't a fair one at all, and that's that I wish there were more pages and examples dedicated to all of the filters covered here. Obviously this isn't a realistic gripe so it's barely even worth mentioning.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As soon as I saw that O'Reilly was going to be publishing this encyclopedia of filter effects, I placed my pre-order for it. When it arrived I was not disappointed. This book explains how each filter in Photoshop works as well as having plenty of photos to illustrate them. The same picture is used for each group of filters so it is easy to compare and contrast the differences in filters.
Beside showing what every filter does, tho book also demonstrates how the settings in the filters will affect the final result.
This is a great reference that explains the filters in Photoshop better and more comprehensively than any other Photoshop book I own while still being very easy to use and understand. O'Reilly also has a similar book for Photoshop blending modes that I'm now planning on buying after seeing this book.

To be frank, I bought this book because to get free shipping, I had to add one more book to my order of "Photoshop Cosmetic Surgery, by Barry Huggins. It was one of many that I could have chosen for this purpose, but I chose it because it appeared that it could illuminate in detail an area of Photoshop that I was interested in exploring in greater depth than I had previously been able to do. In general, I am satisfied with my choice, although there were some areas where I would have liked greater detail and explanation. This book is not for a newbie to Photoshop. It assumes a reasonable degree of familiarity with the program, and simply proceeds, without fanfare, to describe how to use the many filters and their settings. I recommend this book for a reasonably competent Photoshop user who wants to continue to increase his/her mastery over this wonderful and hugely flexible program.

Each filter is described in a page or two and has a very simple introduction and a great "How it works" section with full color examples. Most filter descriptions also include "why you might use this" information which is equally useful. Whether thumbing through for ideas or learning the specifics of a filter, this book educates the reader. It's a no-nonsense, straight-forward reference book.

I have no complaints, it is a great reference guide of the Photoshop CS2 filters.

While this book is not really thick like some Photoshop books are. That doesn't mean it lacks anything when it comes to the filter menu. Mr Pring has not only managed to cover every filter but give us the lowdown on them too.

He explains the basics of each filter. When he is done with the summary of a filter, he moves on to the next section for that filter, which is called "How It Works".

In "How It Works" Mr Pring takes an image and applies the filter at different settings. There could be anywhere from three to 28 different images per filter. What is really impressive about this section is that he supplies us with the settings that were applied to every image to achieve each of those effects. Thank you Mr Pring!

The next section is called "Using the filter", and of course this is my favorite part for each filter. Here Mr Pring has provided us with a MINI tutorial for each filter. Notice I said MINI. Don't expect a tutorial that will walk you though how to make a movie poster from start to finish or you will be sorely disappointed. The tutorials are only about applying a filter to your image. Period. However, they are very detailed for what they are meant for.

Some filters do not have a Using the Filter section. That's because the How it Works section will also be your tutorial. For example, the Extract and Liquify filters will fall in this category. Don't worry though he still gives you a lot of information to help you understand how they work. The Liquify filter has 28 examples explaining how they were achieved.

One of the things that I really like about this book is the layout. They have kept the filters in their proper groups with the same layout as Photoshop. This makes it extremely easy to find the information you seek in not only the contents, but the index area as well. The chapters are created around each filter group. Artistic, Blur, and so on.

Well, all that is left is my finishing thoughts about this book.

I know I have a lot of readers who are Corey Barker junkies like me. We can't wait for him to upload that weekly tutorial at Planet Photoshop. So what is the one major thing you notice about Corey? That he is a filter freak? DING! DING! DING! You just hit the nail on the head. What does he always tell us all the time? Get in there, play and experiment with those filters! He has ended up with a certain look more then once by experimenting. Well, this is the book you want to help you play around with those filters. Furthermore, this book was written based on the Photoshop CS2 Filters Menu. I went though the book and the filter menu in Photoshop CS3, which is the version that I own. It appears that no changes have been made from one version to the next in the filter menu. The only change that has been made that I am aware of in CS4 is the removal of the extract filter. (Thanks AJ). So with that said. Even though this book was written four years ago, it is still up to date and can hold its own with Photoshop CS3 & 4 too. This and all the goodies contained within it have earned it a place on my desk right between Katarina Eismann Restoration and Matt Kloskowski Layers book. This book will not be hitting my bookshelf anytime soon...

For anyone who uses Photoshop in graphic design and or to correct or edit their precious photos, this book is a must have in your library of reference materials. It takes the mystery out of all those scary, misused, underused and never used filters in Photoshop by clearly showing and explaining how to use them and when to use them. This is one fantastic book.

The O'Reilly Studio put their thinking caps on for all ages and levels of expertise at Photoshop. The step by step instructions with options made this, as well as all their other Cookbooks, a delight to learn from and practice with, in an easy-to-understand format. I would love to see them come out with CD's for their books included.

As all the collection of this books it is good to have this in your personal library to check out how filters work with different kind of pictures, of coarse these books are directed to professional photos, but you can maybe experiment with your personal as well, I just wanted to point that out because in the book the examples given are for applying filters to pictures you maybe wanna show or give to a client.

But as a reference book is just great, I mean someone took the time to write and visually show you all the filters in photoshop and as its name it is a real encyclopedia, where you can look every filter how is going to look like and then decide.

Buy this it will always be useful

This is a book where you get exactly what you think it'd be based on the title. It goes into the stock filters included in modern versions of PhotoShop (CS) their variants and adjustments. Similar tools exist in filters vended by third party sellers so this book is extensible more or less to other than stock filters.

The value of this book is in its examples of how to use the rather large array of filters to enhance your work. Although I've been using PhotoShop for years now, I rarely bother with filters (aside from the common ones like Unsharp Mask) because I wasn't interested in turning my photos into a weird freak show. This book demonstrates how one may use these filters to truly enhance the photos rather than distort them in an effort to make startling an otherwise indifferent photo.

A good example of how this book can assist your productivity is the Diffuse Glow filter. This is one I never even bothered with before but I plan on experimenting with it for both landscapes and portraits - all from seeing the examples and settings of how it was used for the making of this book.

My only quibble is that the filters' tech isn't explained which may help the reader in getting more from these filters. Frex, it gives an explanation of the High Pass filter but no mention of what is passed or not passed by this filter. What is 'high' and 'low' in a photograph? What is passed or not passed then? Yes the examples show images of before and after but not the why. I would have liked some more 'why' and 'how', but that's me.

The bottom line is that in learning more about a few filters, I feel sure that I have gotten more than my money's worth from this book.