Customer Reviews

Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is for someone who is experienced at PhotoShop, but wants to work a little faster and get more familiar with navigation. It is also slanted toward new features in CS2, though it still contains many older tips. Scott devides the book into about 9 sections: The Bridge, Essential Tips, Production Tips, Way Cool Tips (?), Camera Raw Tips, Layer Tips, Text Tips, Image Correction Tips and Advanced Tips. Curiously missing is a section on Selection Tips, or any mention of Web tips. The book is very heavy on pointing out the shortcuts in PhotoShop. All but a few shortcuts are well documented in the software, so if you throw out these "tips" you are left with about 50% of the remaining book - which does still leave some cool stuff.

If you are interested in these types of things, you may want to get this book:
- Finding the Center of a Document or object quickly
- Creating a flattened copy of your layers
- Changing brush sizes and types quickly
- Using Photo Filter Adjustment Layers
- Drawing Lines with Arrowheads on them
- Putting Photos into Type
- Typing within (or on) a Perfect Circle

The biggest disappointment is the lack of tips around creating better selections - which tools to use and when, how to configure them when making different selections, etc.

Almost anyone who buys this book will find a couple of "I didn't know you could do that" items here. However, if you are relatively new to PS, you'll want a more complete book and if you are really experienced with PS, there may only be a few great tips here. Thus, the audience is a bit limited and if you fall into either of these groups, there may be better books out there for you.

I loved this book but it took a lot of effort to read it. That may sound funny but the format of this book is nothing but tip after tip after tip and that can get old pretty quick. If you can stand it, read through the whole thing. Then you'll find yourself either using the tips you've learned, or like me stopping and saying to yourself, "Uh, wasn't there a tip about how to do this faster?" at which point you refer back to the book and find the quicker way to do what you were doing.

Did you know that you create a flattened layer from your whole layered document without flattening the image? Yep, Mac: command-option-shift-E, Win: cntrl-alt-shift-E. Something I learned from the book that has changed my life with Photoshop.

Cool.

After you are familiar with Photoshop you can get a lot done. But then you meet someone who is a true pro and you learn that what you did works, but what he does works better, faster and easier than your approach. He (or she) just happens to know a shortcut, a tip if you will, that is specifically oriented to just what he wants at that exact time.

Here the Editor-in-Chief of Photoshop User magazine (Scott Kelby) and the Creative Director of the magazine (Felix Nelson) have combined to bring several hundred of these tips to your attention. As such, these are not for beginners, many of them are simply short cuts for things that you could do using other more standardized techniques.

The authors suggest that you read this book in front of your computer ready to jump in and try new things. I'd suggest instead that you don't. I suggest that you read through the book rapidly, from front to back, covering the whole thing before you start experimenting. The reason is, I find that I learn best when I actually have a need to do something. So, read it quickly, then just remember the concepts. Then when you need to do something, go back to the book. There's even a convenient couple of pages in the back of the book to make some notes to make it easy for you to find what you need. Then, every few months go through the whole book again. You'll have forgotten all the tips, and the next time you'll be working on a different project, needing to use different tips.

These are the tips, the information that enable you to move from say intermediate level to advanced.

This was a quick read. It covers new features of CS2 and the book is basically all about keyboard shortcuts and few hidden tips. Honestly, most of these "tips" can be found on the internet search engines or tutorial sites but if you need a book that complied it for you in a accessible format, it is a good purchase. I noticed some of the tips came straight from the CS edition and was not updated (not a big deal). It's a nice desktop reference. I like David Blatner's CS/CS2 Breakthroughs because of it's question/answer format but both are very nice addition if you are a power user. The title fits the content of this book, it is all about speeding up your workflow.

Some Photoshop books purport to teach you how to use Adobe's flagship image editor. Others help you sharpen your skills. This one simply presents an array of useful and unusual tips, and it's hard to argue with that. The techniquews are clearly presented, and should appeal to any level of expertise. Whether you are still attempting to scrabble up the learning curve, or are already a Photoshop veteran, you'll find something to use within the pages of this book.

If you like straight to the point tips, this book is for you. It helps speed up your work flow and learn all the misc stuff associated with Photoshop.

This book is not designed to be read cover to cover. Rather, it is a reference book organized more like an encyclopedia of photoshop techniques. Want to convert a color photo to Black and White? Look up Black and White in the index, go to page 98 and there it is, step by step. The index is well thought out and easy to navigate. The writing style is straight forward and easy to understand. A great gift or addition to any photo library.

Awesome book. Full of amazing tips-could not
use the program to it's fullest without this book.

Now,this is a book for the ones who already know the basics,then and only then you will truly appreciate what Mr.Kelby is revealing here. Or dont get it and go into hard lobor for years through 'trial and error' techniques of your own invention.Eventually you will find them all out! I mean the 'Killer Tips',but you are risking your life on the way,you will most probably get killed without Kelby's wise shortcuts.That's all Folks!

This book by Scott Kelby and Felix Nelson has a little something for everyone from the novice to the professional. Especially for the novice, each tip is fully illustrated with complete and easy to follow instructions. Also, I especially liked that there was no CD or image downloads. Because the authors did not rely on any sample images, the instructions are general enough to be used in many situations.

As with most books on Adobe Photoshop written by Kelby, Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips has many of the tips and tricks you will need for photo editing and manipulation. However, this book also has some tips for those of us who use Photoshop to create digital art. The authors have divided these tips into logical categories which makes it quick and easy to find the information you need. So, this is a great book to keep close by on your reference shelf. Each chapter covers one category such as Adobe Bridge, essential tips, production, cool tips, camera raw, layers, type, image correction and prepress, advanced tips, troubleshooting and web tips.

Some of the tips that I found to be most helpful were those that I could apply to my digital art. Blending edges of adjacent colors and gradients is one way to prevent that computer generated look in your digital art and I found some nice tips for painting with digital color and gradients. One was a cool tip for achieving a custom gradient and another for softening paint strokes for a more traditional painting style. Another important aspect for creating art digitally is the freedom and flexibility that using Photoshop layers gives you when creating your design. There were several tips for working with layers including dragging layers between images, creating a more realistic drop shadow effect and controlling opacity in only a section of a layer. The book also had many good tips for creating print-ready graphics such as how to set your computer monitor to display print colors correctly and how to get a better drop shadow in print.

Scott Kelby is Editor-in-Chief for Photoshop User magazine, President of NAPP (National Association for Photoshop Professionals) and a popular author and Photoshop seminar instructor.

Felix Nelson is also an author and instructor, the Creative Director for Photoshop User, Senior Art Director for NAPP and Art Director for Layers magazine.