Adobe Photoshop Cs4 One-On-One (Paperback)

~ (Author), McClelland Deke (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

How can you master the fundamentals of Photoshop CS4, with all of its incredible features? Deke McClelland's proven One-on-One learning system offers step-by-step tutorials, five hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Read about features such as Photoshop's new Adjustments panels in the book, and see how they're used first-hand in the video.

Author Deke McClelland's Photoshop CS4 One-on-One Top Ten New Features Roundup

10) Spring-loaded tools. Temporarily select a tool by pressing and holding its shortcut key. For example, when retouching an image with the healing brush: Press and hold Y to temporarily get the history brush, erase part of your modification, and then release Y to return to the healing brush.

9) The Adjustments palette. Nondestructive adjustment layers (which are independent layers of editable color adjustment) are now handled in a palette. Some folks will love the convenience, others will lament the many changes that were required to accommodate this feature. Mostly, though, the palette aggregates stuff that’s been there for ages. One new item, Vibrance, enhances color intensity without exaggerating noise.

8) The Masks palette. CS4’s other new palette is largely another aggregator, providing convenient access to old features. Three new items: The wonderful Color Range command can now directly generate masks. Color Range can see base colors based on proximity. And you can blur edges parametrically (meaning non-permanently, by the numbers).

7) The enhanced Bridge 3.0. The Bridge is CS4’s asset manager, permitting you to preview and organize your images. Auto-updating workspaces, a review mode complete with image carousel, full-screen preview, folder-independent image collections, and search-based smart collections are just a few improvements. Oh, and you can assemble multipage PDF contact sheets from the Output panel.

6) Improved toning tools. Paint with the dodge tool to lighten an image; paint with the burn tool to darken. Only thing, the tools used to suck. Now they’re so good, I actually use them on a regular basis. They’re still destructive (meaning they permanently change pixels), but in a good way!

5) Camera Raw 5. Essentially a logically organized and altogether independent color adjustment application, Camera Raw continues to be that top-secret tool that makes every version of Photoshop worth buying. This time, it offers the equivalent of nondestructive and highly customizable dodge and burn. Which you can apply as brushstrokes or gradients. Plus you can add vignettes inside crop boundaries. It’s like a free copy of Lightroom bundled inside every version of Photoshop. Which given that Lightroom costs more than a Photoshop upgrade, and this is just feature 5 of 10, is fairly significant.

4) Target adjustment tool. Associated with three color adjustments—Hue/Saturation, Black & White, and Curves—the target adjustment tool lets you selectively modify colors and luminance levels by dragging in an image. For example, drag on a model’s lips to boost their saturation. No need to isolate a hue range. Just drag. Honestly, if you aren’t loving this tool within a week, check to make sure you have a pulse.

3) The tabbed-window interface. This feature has already proved controversial, with a few noisy Macintosh users in particular voicing disapproval. But speaking as a cross-platform guy with a decidedly Mac bias, it’s a net-sum gain. You now have the option of docking every image in a tabbed window. Click a tab to switch documents. Drag a tab to reassign priority. Plus, you can drag-and-drop a layer onto a tab to move that layer from one image to another. The tabbed window interface is a masterpiece of design and a thing of beauty.

2) Content-aware scaling. Part of Adobe’s advance compositing suite, the Content Aware Scale command lets you stretch or squish low-contrast “background” elements independently of high-contrast “foreground” ones. Which means you can bring people together, turn horizontal images into vertical ones, and otherwise transform photographs intelligently. My guess: five years from now we’ll all be mocking this feature for what it got wrong. (The degree to which it can mess up certain images is fantastic!) But in the moment, you’re going to be singing its praises. This is Photoshop’s first truly magical feature since the magic wand. And that was 18 years ago, babies. (Okay, the healing brush was also magical. And that was, what, seven years ago? So we’re talking three magical features in two decades. Got to admit, magic is rare.)

1) OpenGL navigation. Forget all that other stuff. Seriously, content-aware scaling? As if. So far as I’m concerned, Photoshop CS4 offers one and only one new feature: OpenGL navigation. Assuming you have a video card that supports OpenGL (most do), then here’s what you get: Slow continuous zooms. Rotate the view. Get the hand tool, toss the image, and watch it sail across the screen. Hold down H and click and hold for bird’s eye. And by God if every zoom level isn’t a thing of bicubically rendered beauty. (No idea what I’m talking about? Trust me, huge.) OpenGL navigation is so good it makes me hate CS3. Some nights, OpenGL navigation and I open a bottle of wine and just talk about how lucky we are just to have met each other. It’s that good.

Product Description

Master the fundamentals of Photoshop CS4 and then some with One-on-One, Deke McClelland's unique and effective learning system. Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One includes step-by-step tutorials, more than five hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to help you improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Once you read about a particular technique, you can see how it's done first-hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective.

Whether you're new to Photoshop or a creative professional interested in the groundbreaking features of CS4, Deke's conversational style and carefully structured lessons guide you easily through the program's fundamental and advanced concepts and techniques. More than 850 full-color photos, diagrams, and screen shots illustrate every key step. With this book, you will:

• Learn at your own speed with 12 self-paced tutorials
• Master Photoshop's workflow and file handling features
• Try out techniques and best practices with engaging real-world projects
• Discover how Bridge and Camera Raw can help you optimize digital photos
• Create beautiful multilayered documents, including posters and flyers
• Test your knowledge with multiple-choice quizzes in each chapter

And more. Written and produced by a Photoshop expert with well over 20 years of experience, Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One simulates a classroom environment that provides one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson. You'll learn to use Photoshop faster, more creatively, and more efficiently than you thought possible.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Pap/Cdr edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596521898
• ISBN-13: 978-0596521899
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,750 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Knowledge in Entertaining Package, November 22, 2008

By	Brett Merkey (Palm Harbor, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Photoshop can be a big bundle of frustration to learn. Adobe makes a powerful tool but then seemingly blocks our ability to summon that power by hiding it in some way. This hide-and-seek game is unappealing for those of us who need to use Photoshop as one of many tools we must master to earn our daily bread.

There is fantastic value in this book because of the way the material is organized and presented. You are definitely going to learn something when you can read the material, watch the material and practice the material as it comes at you in these well-paced lessons.

There is something more here too: as you can tell from Deke McClelland's "Ten New Features" on this Amazon page, the author's knowledge is matched by his advocacy and his ability to convey a fresh perspective and irreverence that prods your thinking.

Physically, the book is richly illustrated and opens flat, just perfect for the "read, watch, do" format.

As I discovered with McClelland's book on the CS3 version [ Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-On-One ], the instructional videos on the accompanying DVD included an astounding amount of information. There is incredible content here. The video material does not repeat the written instruction -- it complements it. That is 5 hours of personal class time at your convenience with one of the best instructors out there!

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for intermediate Photoshop users, January 7, 2009

By	Stephen Kalman "techauthor" (Hawley, Pa USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are plenty of PS (Photoshop) books out there; most are good. The problem is picking the right one.

Certain things are essential. High quality printing. Easy to follow examples and tutorials. Logical flow (simple to complex).

Then, it has to match and be just slightly better than the reader's current capabilities. Just as a beginner would get lost in an advanced book (like Deke's Channels and Masks) and an advanced reader would find an introductory book a waste of money, middle level PS users need to find just the right book for their current skill set.

For me, this book was a perfect fit. Photography (and digital darkroom work) are a hobby that takes 10-15 hours a week. I like to learn new tricks and techniques. I like to learn ways to work faster and smarter. This book helped me with that on all points.

First, some advice: The first chapter has a series of settings and shortcuts that Deke uses and that he recommends. Follow this chapter carefully; it will make the tutorials that follow easier to work through. You can always reset things later if his workflow isn't the best for you.

Aside from that, the book starts out with a recommendation to watch the video (there's a high quality video for each chapter that shows him working through the techniques. It is an overview and not meant as a stop-start-follow-along tutorial. Then, he recommends reading the text first, followed by editing the sample pictures that match the tutorials.

I did just that and even did them again so that they'd become natural for me. After that, I went back to some of my own inventory of images and worked the steps on them -- and often wound up with better end results that I had previously achieved. (Perhaps that's the best measure of a book like this.)

Nothing is perfect, and I do have a few minor wishes.

1. A much better index.
2. A summary of the tips at the end of each chapter
3. A few blank pages at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book for jotting down notes.
4. Some advice on when to use Bridge (comes with PS) vs Lightroom (a separate but more robust product).

In summary, it really felt like Deke was sitting there giving me personalized training at my own pace.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand book on Adobe's Photoshop CS4, February 6, 2009

By	Pam R (Port Huron, MI USA) - See all my reviews

Adobe's Photoshop has always made me feel a little like Dorothy in Oz. Deke McClelland manages to take the "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" feeling out of it. From the navigation of files with Adobe Bridge to printing, this book walks you easily through the program. It provides an honest look at Photoshop CS4 covering changes from the CS3 release as well as a good general overview of the program.
The book is lesson based and each chapter is prefaced by a video lesson complementing the chapter. The DVD that comes with the book includes both these video tutorials as well as files to complete the lessons. Deke also shares his set up of Photoshop and includes things such as his keystroke shortcuts and custom colors. This insures that your program looks exactly the same as what is in the book. In each lesson you have the choice of working quickly through the highlights of the program or taking your learning experience a step further by working through the "Extra Credit" portions. The explanations not only cover what you are to do but also why. The "Pearls of Wisdom" scattered throughout the book provide information that while not needed to complete a lesson provide a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
This book is well enough organized for a beginner to use yet has enough insight into the program for seasoned photo editors to find it a good learning tool. Deke McClelland certainly shines as a Photoshop expert. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to better their skills.Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One