Real World Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Paperback)

by David Blatner (Author), Conrad Chavez (Author), Bruce Fraser (Author)
Key Phrases: camera raw, smart object, history brush, Real World Adobe Photoshop, Color Settings, Essential Image Techniques (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Anyone who relies on Photoshop to meet tough production challenges knows that when a new version arrives, especially one as chockfull of enhancements as Photoshop CS3, there's no time to fool around. You need to get up to speed on it, and you need to do so now. This book will get you there. In this copiously illustrated book, best-selling author David Blatner offers shows you how to sharpen your Photoshop production techniques and provides clear explanations of the concepts that drive them. Readers will learn about managing color, correcting colors, capturing images, getting great scans, and more. They'll also find complete coverage of Photoshop CS3's new features: a streamlined interface, nondestructive Smart Filters, a new Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools, improved Curves, automatic layer alignment and blending, and more. Throughout, the emphasis in this book is on efficiency: the timesaving tips and professional shortcuts that will allow readers to solve their everyday production challenges creatively with Photoshop CS3.

About the Author
David Blatner is an internationally known expert on Photoshop and QuarkXPress and is the author of numerous other books, including Real World QuarkXPress and Real World Adobe InDesign. David lectures on desktop publishing and digital imaging at conferences and workshops around the world.

Conrad Chavez began providing education, training, and support for digital-media applications in 1987, contributing countless pages to the user guides for print, Web, and digital video products at Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems Incorporated. Now a freelance writer and editor, Conrad co-authored the books Adobe Photoshop CS/CS2 Breakthroughs (with David Blatner) and Real World Scanning and Halftones, Third Edition, and is a contributing writer for The Adobe Illustrator CS2 Wow! Book by Sharon Steuer.

Bruce Fraser is a widely recognized authority on digital imaging and color reproduction. He is the author of the best-selling Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and the co-author of Real World Color Management, and was a principal and co-founder of Pixel Genius, LLC.

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (December 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321518683
• ISBN-13: 978-0321518682
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,319 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best There Is, March 21, 2008

By	Russell S. Lewis "Russ Lewis" (Manitou Springs, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There's nothing else out there that comes even close to this book as an encyclopedic reference to Photoshop CS3. Losing Bruce Fraser is a terrible blow to all of us who've relied for decades on his ability to make complicated subjects understandable, but David Blatner is keeping up the tradition and it appears that Conrad Chavez is a valuable addition to the lineup.

The chapter on color settings in this book is worth the price of admission all by itself. If you do serious work with CS3 you NEED this book. Sit down and read it all the way through, highlight revealing passages, and make notes on the blank parts of the front pages. When you finish you'll have the whole story at your fingertips. Like most CS3 users I work with a subset of Photoshop most of the time, but when I'm faced with an unusual problem I can dive into this book and come up with the solution in a minute or two. Once you've done your homework on the book you won't want to be without it.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a good book, December 31, 2007

By	tommy "tommy" (Sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews

THE 'owner's manual' for this incredible program. Particularly scholarly on color fundamentals, layer masks, adjustment layers, adjustment curves, blend modes, channels, digital workflow and shortcuts. You will see how most of this list is really a journey into masks. Treatment focuses on science of optimizing photographs, not special effects. Contains recurring praise for the late Bruce Fraser, and even Adobe's commemorative easter egg for Bruce. This and possibly a special effects book by Scott Kelby is all you need.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real winner, March 3, 2008

By	Dean W. Wilkey (New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very in-depth explanation of Photoshop CS3. A lot more detailed and advanced than most Photoshop books. This is really a resource or reference book and not a book that you can just sit down and read through like Scoot Kelby's book on CS3 for digital photographers, but it is far more informative and in-depth than Kelby's book.