Customer Reviews

When Pancakes Go Bad: Optical Delusions with Adobe Photoshop

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is a very fascinating read for an ameture photoshop user. The techniques explained in this book are more for a person who wants to make "modern" art. The tutorials are clearly written and understandable.
The only disappointing thing was that the author didn't show how to do all of the pictures presented in the book.

This is a great book for the Photoshop illiterate as well as the very experienced. It is definitely a fun book, just to see the wonders of digital manipulation.

While this book doesn't quite go into making pictures of yourself look like the ideal person, it does go a long way towards giving you the know-how and showing you the tools to make it happen. I was surprised with how easy some of the more difficult looking pictures were to duplicate.

I recommend this book for anyone who is familiar with Photoshop and wants to learn how to do more the program.

After reading the review titled "Teacher's Perspective" , looking at the cover and the Worth 1000 website - I thought I should review it for use in my class.

I also teach computer graphics at a public high school and I also am also on the look out for books that could motivate a couch. - Boy was I disappointed. Yes students are motivated by the cover - but I can't let them look inside - nor would I want to...

I'm not sure what liberal area the other reviewer is from - but I'd likely lose my job if I even began to request this book be adopted for classroom use. I counted more than 10 instances in the text that students at my high school would receive punishment for creating. Every thing from the image of an international hand gesture on a stop light to 2 dogs in a sexual position on road sign - and these are mild compared to the ones I can't write about in this review. While the inappropriate content in this book is less than the "Surreal Photography" an other reviewer mentions - it is still not an appropriate book for a high school classroom.(IMHO)

As far as the books tutorials go...
Not having a CD with the pictures included is a big draw back for beginners. The publisher claims to have the pictures for download - but not all the photos are on the site and those that are there are only the same `finished' files printed in the book - NOT the photos used to create the finished tutorial photos.
Without the `sample' files it would be impossible for a reader to follow each step in the tutorial. The book also assumes a reader will have a great deal of Photoshop knowledge.

Also - don't be fooled by the cover or the examples before each chapter - the most compelling examples are not used for the `tutorials'. Only one or 2 of the images on cover are explained in the book.

All in all I guess if you want less detailed tutorials than the ones for free on the Worth1000 website and are more than 18 years old... the education value of the book is good.

If you like the neat pictures and - want full color gloss copies of them - then you are in luck - because this book is a great buy.

The other night I watched part of a show on UFO's. And the show had real life pictures of UFO's. Then I picked up this book. It's a picture book of What Photoshop can do to an image. Based somewhat on the author's web site: Worth1000.com (As in a Picture is Worth ....), this shows what intelligent people, with good software and a somewhat strange mind can do.

I see this book as having three possible uses. First you could simply leave it on the coffee table. It's a lot better than most. Second, as a beginner in Photoshop it will give you a good idea of what can be done, and to a certain extent how to do it as some of the pictures are explained. Third, if you're a Photoshop pro, one of these pictures just may give you the idea you need to illustrate that next ad or whatever it is that your customer or boss want.

This book is not for beginners, if you want to learn how to use Photoshop by books from the Friends Of Ed series (also on Amazon.com)

The author covers how to perform various acts of digital trickery and photo editing in this book. Just glancing at the book and fooling with Photoshop for an hour so, I was able to create some pretty disturbingly funny images.

I'd say this book is for people with intermediate to advanced photoshop knowledge.

This is a good beginner's guide to Photoshop. I look at books with an eye to using them as references (I teach Computer Graphics and Animation), and this book would certainly interest my beginners who like to create gags and jokes. It doesn't have any photos a teacher would think twice about showing a public high school CG class.

The information is layed out clearly. Some of the illustrations are muddy and a professional will notice a few technical errors in the finished artwork, but the actual lessons are OK.

Another problem I have (and most readers will think this is petty) is that none of the illustrations that use famous paintings (G.Wood's "American Gothic" for example) have the paintings properly cited. Museum, painting title and other copyright information is totally ignored; it's not even in the index or bibliography. When you're teaching students about copyrights, it's not useful to promote a book that doesn't properly cite. Also, I'm pretty sure Michaelangelo painted more than one painting.... if I want to repeat an exercise I'd have to search Michaelangelo's entire catalog visually to match the author's sample.

Over all, it's a fun book, and a good addition to any library. If you're a professional CG artist you'll already know the techniques illustrated and for your purposes, there are better books out there.