When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop [Hardcover]

Avi Muchnick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592005241 | ISBN-13: 978-1592005246 | Publication Date: October 7, 2004 | Edition: 1

This book is for readers who find themselves looking at funny images and thinking "Hey, how'd they do that?" Readers will learn how to have fun with photos, such as taking still images and making the characters in them invisible while leaving the clothes untouched and combining images of animals to produce unrealistic characters. With the growing use of digital cameras, this kind of photographic humor is commonly desired by a large audience-both average digital camera users who like cartoon collections as well as those looking to learn Adobe Photoshop. This book is meant to be funny, but it's also very educational. The end-of-chapter tutorials are tongue-in-cheek, yet contain useful, easy to understand information. Organized into chapters by the general theme of the images, this book is packed with fun and interesting photos that will keep readers entertained until the end.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Avi Muchnick is the founder of Worth1000.com, a highly popular, Photoshop-based graphic design website that sponsors numerous Photoshop art contests, most of which feature humorous, spoof, and surreal images. Worth1000.com receives over 200,000 visitors a day and boasts more than 100,000 registered members. After graduating from Queens College in New York, Avi worked for a year as a graphic designer and became an expert in Photoshop. When he left to start law school, he simultaneously launched Worth1000.com, which became popular immediately. Worth1000.com was chosen as one of PC Magazine's top 100 websites in their April 20, 2004 issue, and their images have been featured in USA Today, on CNN and Good Morning America, and on the cover of the New York Post. Avi currently resides on Long Island, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 259 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592005241
• ISBN-13: 978-1592005246
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,316,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Highly NOT Recommended, June 10, 2006

By 

Donal Jolley - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop (Hardcover)

In my work as a Photoshop "Master," I am asked by people all over the country for recommendations on books. While I am much more likely to push a good book than drag a bad one back, in this case some of the things written in other reviews bothers me to the point of saying something.

I have taught workshops and classes to beginners and experts in Photoshop, and look at nearly everything that comes out. While many volumes dig into processes that produce finished, professional results, this particular book is only acceptable for an individual who wants examples of how to get into an image quickly, hack a change that is amusing at best, and close the file. Finely tuned, printable images are next to impossible to achieve through the examples and processes included.

It is cute to cut an image from one source and place it on another, or to put teeth on a pancake, but plain and simple... these methods are simply not believable, largely in part to poor methodology. Blurring and distorting creates soft pixelization, which is then dropped into sharp images and hacked together. Parts of images are roughly isolated and the colors changed through simple methods, leaving the image looking clearly as what it is... a color piece with an isolated image with a color shift (ooooo).

If I brought this book into a classroom it would be used as an example of what people THINK they can get away with, but in fact is a recipe to be always one of those frustrated people who wonder how the pros really do it.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining effects, there are better learning resources, January 6, 2005

By 

John Kitchen "jfk9999" (Westborough, Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop (Hardcover)

Kind of fun, wacky ideas, but they are mainly recipes for doing the same thing as the author did. I prefer more emphasis on techniques such as in Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS books or Huggins and Probert's "Surreal Digital Photography". That allows me to use my own imagination better.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too good for words, January 29, 2005

By 

M. Taylor "WyldViolet" (Northeast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop (Hardcover)

I've learned so much from this book. I now own 2 copies! I wasn't a beginner, more intermediate, photoshop user. There are tips and techniques I wouldn't have thought of before, or tried, had it not been for this book.

I'm pretty much a layperson when it comes to the copyright laws but after searching the internet I discovered that museums can't hold a copyright and if the artist is no longer alive the copyright doesn't necessarily pass on. In any event, I found most every image to recreate some of the ideas in the book on the sites that are listed in the book. A good review of the copyright laws of the US and the fair use/guidelines listed on any site will give you all the information you need. Besides, many images can be done using a digital camera and some imagination and that is what this book is really all about.

When Pancakes Go Bad has inspired me to try new things, see things differently, play with ideas and images. It's a great learning tool for even more experienced photoshoppers.

I've shown this book to friends and they thought it was great, and funny. I know many of them got inspired too, now they understand how and what I am doing with all those hours on the computer!

Bravo, Mr. Muchnick, I can't wait for the next volume.