Customer Reviews

Photoshop Studio Skills: For Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS

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Do you have Photoshop and can't figure out how to repair a digital photo? Have you scanned some old pictures that have been distorted by dust and scratches and would like to restore them to their original state? Or maybe you need to add some special effects to your project. If so, then "Photoshop Studio Skills" would be a good addition to your library.

Design Graphics "Photoshop Studio Skills" is a reference book for Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite (CS). "Photoshop Studio Skills" is collection of tips and tricks from Design Graphics magazine and was published by Wiley, Publishing Inc.

There are seven different chapters that cover everything from color correction to creating your own textures. Each chapter contains many tips and tricks that are labeled for ease of use. The tutorials range from "easy" to "power user." I found it very easy to follow along. The authors jammed packed the book with screenshots and photographs which come in real handy if you're not familiar with the vast number of tools and platelet's that Photoshop comes with.

Photoshop is an amazing piece of software. I have used Photoshop for almost three years now and feel like I have only scratched the surface of the program. A book like "Photoshop Studio Skills" is great to cruise through and see how the professional do things. I found myself saying, "oh, that's how you do that," or "I always wondered what that tool was for."

I would mention "Photoshop Studio Skills" to anyone who is new to Photoshop, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, due to its steep price tag of $35 dollars. You may be better off downloading tutorials from Adobes website. I would also suspect that all professional users and power users would already now most of the tips and trick contained in this book as well.

If you are a fan of Design Graphics magazine then you already know that it is one of the best magazines for digital publishing and the Studio Skills series from the magazine covers a wide range of techniques. Now, you can find the best of these useful and cutting edge techniques compiled in a new book that every Photoshop professional will want to keep close at hand.

What makes this book such a good choice for your reference shelf? The techniques are organized into topic areas and each technique is fully illustrated and updated for Photoshop CS. Although many of the techniques are for working with photographs, the digital artists will also find some useful information. There are techniques for every skill level and the step-by-step instructions are easy to follow.

The first section is Palettes and Tools. Some of the techniques you will find in this section are how to create special effects with the Art History Brush, ways to use the Crop tool and Photoshop's automation features. Photographers will find the technique for automating and customizing Photoshop's Picture Package feature a time saver. Digital artists will enjoy the techniques for using Photoshop's natural media brushes and for making custom brushes.

The second section is Paths, Selections, Channels and Masks. In this section there is a very good technique for removing the background from a photograph and replacing it with another. A technique everyone will find useful is manipulating selections with the Transform command.

There is a section devoted to Layers which has some interesting techniques for controlling how layers interact. You can get some great special effects with Photoshop's Pass Through blend mode.

Colour Effects and Correction is the fourth topic area. There are techniques for creating a digital master, removing color casts from a photograph and adding sepia tints to a photograph.

Section five, Light and Shadow Effects, has techniques for creating realistic shadows. You will also learn how to use Photoshop's Lighting Effects filter.

The Helpful Hints section has a useful technique for scanning line drawings. There is also a great technique for removing the moiré pattern that occurs during scanning and in certain photographs. Those who work with web graphics will find the technique for removing artifacts from a JPEG image very useful.

The last section is Special F/X. Among the techniques you will learn is how to distort text and how to use the Clouds filter to create textures such as woven fabric and rust.

Twelve Photoshop professionals contributed their techniques to this book. They are Rita Amladi, Daniel Brown, Russell Preston Brown, Katrin Eismann, Bill Fleming, Julieanne Kost, Brian P Lawler, Michael Ninness, Carl Stevens, Daniel Wade, Ben Willmore, and Colin Wood.

Of all the Photoshop books out there (and I own a lot of them), this has got to be the most beautiful, and certainly one of the most useful. I've subscribed to Design Graphics for years -- mostly for its monthly Studio Skills feature. To have years' worth of the best, updated techniques in this one package is incredibly valuable for me. I'm partial to the Carl Stevens material, but there are also excellent examples from the likes of Ben Willmore, Russell Brown and others.

Lots of color photos, lots of information and most of it is pretty useful. I leave it in the bathroom and read it when I have time and I still have not gotten through all of it after several months.

Unless you are a beginner, this book is not worth buying. Most of the tutorials are just far too simple. And some of them you wonder why would anyone care. I currently have a subscribtion to the design graphics magazine on which this book is based. The tutorials in the magazine are just crap. Needless to say I do not buy the magazine for its tutorials.