Customer Reviews

Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am about mid way through this book and I HAD to check Amazon.com to see what in hell other people must have said about this book. I saw what I expected to read. THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS!! And.. I liked one comment that summed it up, THIS BOOK IS AWFUL!! I will also NEVER buy a $45 book from Borders on a whim.
The directions are VERY hard to follow, there are many typos, and here and there, parts of sentences are cut off right in mid-instruction.
Another big BOO BOO... on the disc that comes with the book, there is a password to get the zip files open. And instructions to GET the password from a file on the disk's chapters that don't exist. I looked for contact info to let them know I had a faulty disc.. I found nothing but London's Website, which led no where except other Websites. I finally contacted Comstock and a VERY nice customer service agent informed me that the password is on the file named JupiterImages EULA.doc. Okay, fine..anyone can make a mistake, even a writer/publisher.. but I work on a Macintosh, as do most graphic designers, and this password is hidden in a Microsoft Doc that I could not open. I had to hunt down someone with a PC to get the .doc open to get the password. This was supposed to be Mac first tutorials!!
WAAAAYYY too much hassel for me having to pay that much money for the book.

The reason for the two stars? The book made me think. I HAD to think. Because the instructions cirtainly are not easily defined in this book. By forcing me to figure it out everything that was missing from instruction, I am learning to put two ends together by winging it and giving it my best shot. I got aggrivated to where I had to put it down and come back to it later.. but so far, I've figured out how to get these projects to work. I am also not a beginner in Photoshop.
So, take what you can from this, I hope it's helpful.

Thank God I visited my local Borders and went to the publisher's website before purchasing this book. The "wild effects" taught are nothing short of awful looking. Don't just take my word for it, you can actually view the ToC with sample photos at the publisher's website.

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0764598139.html

An awful book. As an amateur, my comfort level with Photoshop was enhanced by having used similar books. The formula? Follow the author's step by step instructions to replicate a project. In doing so, learn how and why specific features are useful and how they create a desired result. In addition, I learned to use tools that previously had been unknown to me. This was not my experience with Gone Wild.

The first challenge was selecting a project to replicate. Ninety-five percent of the projects looked to me more like a caricature of a professional's work (proof that creativity and quality are not always synonymous). Okay, so the projects are underwhelming. Perhaps the value would be found in the journey and not the destination? Sadly, I soon discovered this was not the case.

The instructions were often confusing and at times seemed contradictory. Rather than becoming more comfortable with the CS2 features being highlighted, I was becoming more frustrated. Again, I am admittedly an amateur. Maybe those more experienced with Photoshop would have been less frustrated. Which begs the question, why would they use this book?

Bottom line. My Photoshop creative genius was not freed (see cover). My desire to never again purchase a resource book on a whim was definitely freed. Knowing what I now know, I would have avoided this book even if it had been offered to me for free.

What can I say? This is by far the best Photoshop book I have ever gotten and I own most of them being a Photoshopaholic. Sherry London writes in a way anyone can understand and work along. I couldn't put the book down. Do yourself a favor and put "Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild" in your Christmas stocking and then sit down at your computer and have some fun. She thinks of things to do with Photoshop that most of us would never try on our own. The only word I can think of to describe this book is GREAT.
Ann Roberts

This book is nothing more than some very poor examples of how to make the most annoying pictures possible using filters in the most obnoxious way possible. Looking through the book, I saw MAYBE 1 thing I could use. If you are someone who just wants to make goofy pictures using nothing more than filters, you may get some use out of it, if you're a graphic designer / professional, don't waste your time or money.

Very involved graphic techniques. Probably excellent effects for a graphic artist, but not much value for editing and tweaking photos. Certainly a waste of time and money for those of us just interested in photography.

This book exceeds my expectations in it's creative projects. I have had the most fun working out the projects she has included in the book, and included CD, and applying her techniques to my own photographs. The instructions are so easy and I marvel at the results. She includes the steps as well as screen shots of the layers palette so that anyone at any level of expertise with Photoshop can follow along and actually create the wonderful projects. This is one book you don't want to miss! I love it!

I am going through this book aftter Adobe's Classroom in the book and Deke's One-on-One. I think the workshop examples are a little too advanced for Photoshop beginner. I think this is the type of book you can learn more by going through 2 or 3 times after the first read.
However, this book is very difficult to follow, even though I sit down and go through the chapter slowly. I am going to put this book aside as it gets me frustrated as I loose track of what the author is writing. I have been reading many other graphics books for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Painter, and MX2004. But, this is the first book I had a difficulty to following the lessens.

After reading all reviews (that I find not really fair) I decided to put my opinion on the table.

Before I write my reviews, I'm very curious what other people think about this or other book. And I should say that in this particular case I am not agree with some of them.

I see that many people have chosen this book as a start point for travel inside of Photoshop. And this book (as I see) is often compared to other references. This book is not a reference and if you would visit companion website, you would without any doubt have more information about what you can expect inside of this book.

This book is continuation of "Gone Wild" series. As distinct from "Illustrator CS2 Gone Wild", this book have more interesting tutorials (bigger book - more tutorials) and also CD, where you can find all files for this book and follow every step of tutorials.

From my side I would also like to say that this book is very interesting in that way, that it gives you a look at very unusual tutorials and designs. What I mean by unusual? Let's say that at the end of 19th century nobody understood paintings of Kazimir Malevich. And misunderstanding with this book is related to that fact (I guess) that many people think that all information is too easy or not interesting. But try to do it yourself and you will stuck at some point not knowing what to do or HOW to do.

With this book you get a chance to see unique and inspiring techniques that are very abstract.
That means that you have chance to make acquaintance with new style or start from it. In couple of words, this book dares to show you that side of design that from first look you can find unimportant.

I think many tutorials are great and very good explained. With a bit of fantasy you can always combine different techniques and make your own. It's good way to study, to improve your skills and to take a look in new direction of designing. The one think I agree that this book is not for photographers. For them there're always special series of books with mark "For Digital Photographers Only" (Photoshop CS2 I found very good and really great book for Photographers).

If you're a person that likes theory first, I would suggest that you need to start from Photoshop Bible. Great reference and all information is always within a touch.

Book is printed on good quality paper; it has a lot of tips in places where you would like to do some things in other or your own manner. At the beginning of every tutorial you will find end-plan.

What kind of tutorial can you expect inside? Let's see:
- "Make your ex-partner old" (very funny tutorial if you want to see how looks your partner or ex-partner when he/she is old)
- Atlantis found (one of my favorites - very creative tutorial)
- Photo merge
- The Highway
- Neon signs for bars or café (maybe you want to become a marketing executive then this kind of tutorials will be very useful for you)
- It come out of space (make your own alien without any sketches using only Photoshop)

Any person will find his favorite tutorial in this book and don't afraid to take new challenges or extend your designers vision. You should try it or you will never know if it is good for you or not.

Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild
I paid $34.99 for this book- I wasn't impressed with the imagery inside, but the concepts and techniques looked interesting. Boy was I disappointed! Ms. London teases the reader with good ideas, but then holds back critical elements from her lessons. A typical example - in the first chapter on metallics, there is a point where a curves adjustment is required - Ms. London, rather than telling us what settings to use to achieve the effect, instead tells us to use the preset file which is supplied on the CD Rom that accompanies the book. Unfortunately, no version of Photoshop (CS1, CS2, or CS3) on either Mac or PC will recognize the curve preset as a valid file. And since the author didn't see fit to include the settings for the curve, the chapter on metallics and chromicity is worthless. I've found other such problems in the book as well. Perhaps Ms. London's students benefit in classroom from demonstration and clarification, but the book as a stand-alone resource was a waste of time. Ms. London's support website was totally useless as well - there are links that go nowhere, and a contact link that doesn't supply an email contact address. Save your money and subscribe to one of the excellent British trade periodicals like "Advanced Photoshop" or "Digital Camera" - their tips are great, their images are top-notch, and they don't leave out crucial steps in their lessons!