Adobe Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Bestselling author Scott Kelby (Editor of Photoshop User magazine) is back with an amazing new collection of Photoshop Down and Dirty Tricks, including how to create the same exact effects you see every day in magazines, on TV, at the movies, and on the Web. It's more of those eye-popping, jaw-dropping special effects that made Scott's previous version an award-winning worldwide smash hit!

But this isn't just an update to his previous book--these are 100% ALL NEW EFFECTS from cover-to-cover to reflect the latest trends in Photoshop special effects and design. These are nothing but today's real world techniques--the same ones you see used by leading Photoshop photographers, designers, and special effect masters, and its all here in the only book of its kind.

You'll learn the most closely guarded inside secrets for creating the latest cutting-edge effects, including techniques that have never been revealed before anywhere! And the book is written so clearly, and is so easy to follow, that you'll be able to create every one of these amazing effects yourself. You'll learn:

• Tricks professional photographers use to show off their work
• The most popular effects used by the big Hollywood studios
• The latest cutting-edge photographic special effects
• How to fake all kinds of studio shots (you'll be amazed how its done!)
• The type effects that are most in demand by clients
• How to get stunning 3D effects without using a 3D program
• How to turn simple snapshots into museum quality gallery prints
• The most asked for new Web effects
• Plus loads of advanced effects that look hard, but are easy, once you know the secrets

But Down and Dirty tricks is more than just a just an effects book--it's a tips book too, because on every page Scott includes a cool tip, a quick trick, or a timesaving shortcut, making this an invaluable productivity tool too! Plus the whole book is packed with design techniques, creative ideas and stunning layouts that will help you unleash your own creativity. It's all here-- "Just the funk and not the junk" and if you're into Photoshop, you're absolutely gonna love it!

About the Author

Scott Kelby is president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the trade organization for Adobe Photoshop users. NAPP has thousands of members in the US and 63 countries around the world. Scott is editor-in-chief of both Photoshop User magazine, the "how-to magazine for Adobe Photoshop Users," and Mac Design magazine. Scott serves as training director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour and is the technical chair of the largest Photoshop gathering, Photoshop World. Scott is one of the leading Photoshop trainers in the country today and trains thousands of Photoshop users across the country each year, and is featured in a series of Photoshop training videos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 3rd edition (October 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735713537
• ISBN-13: 978-0735713536
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,967 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that gets right to the action, June 12, 2004

By	Ken Elliott "masterofgoingfaster" (Daytona Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a jack-of-all-trades, master of a few, and simply don't have enough time to learn all my apps in-depth. I usually have a project, and have to dive into an application to the point I can get my work done, then move on. This book has been magic for me. Example - I learned how to create chrome text, so it was easy to create other chrome objects for our company web site. Same with other metal effects. Our site looks fantastic! It let me get on with my project, even though I didn't completely understand why some of the effects did what they did. But, then I put some effort in those areas, and nailed it.

Everyone thinks I'm a Photoshop guru (I'm not). But it fast-forwarded me to the point I could get my projects done. Some day I'll read one of those 1200 page monsters - right after I master Flash, Visual Studio, C#, Python, SQL Server, Illustrator and InDesign. That's after I finish installing our new Linux server and write our new MRP package.

It's NOT a tutorial - it's a cookbook. Rather than teaching you everything Photoshop can do, you flip through the book and find something that "WOWs" you. Follow the steps and it's on your screen. Cool. Very very cool.

If you are busy and need something that helps you get your work done, get this. It jumpstarted me.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent PS "Cookbook", Great for beginners, April 7, 2004

By	J. Jensen (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Adobe is used to having a lot of books written on its products. They tend to be the most complex of any program on the market, but it is because they are so powerful. If you have got the Photoshop bug and can't make pretty changes to your pictures or projects, this is a good book to start with!!!

Yes it will not teach you a lot of the "Why???" of Photoshop, that can take some years to learn anyway. A lot of Photoshop books come it two groups, those that know Photoshop and those who don't. Most of those that are for the expert expect you to know your Gaussian Blur from your Unsharp Mask and what kind of effect it will have on your picture. Photoshop "cookbooks" as some have called them teach by example, this author's "recipe's" are easy to follow and will give hints in the margins to learn more indepth or customize. Again you might be mimicing the author, but sometimes that is all you need to feel good about your investment in Photoshop. This book was a complete rewrite from the Photoshop 7 book, I own both because both have a lot to offer that was different enough to almost consider them volumes 1 & 2. Also if you are just needing digital photographry help, I would check out Scott Kelby's books on just digital photographry.

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The "Dirty Trick" is hyping this 'Downer'; no work-along CD, March 7, 2005

By	Rudy "pain-doc" (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews

Worthwhile tutorials IF you are into type twisting, pixel bending or reality contortion, and IF you don't need work-along images to follow the author's steps. The title led me to expect an enhancement to Kelby's other to-the-point Photoshop books. Rather, this appears to be more of a collection of Photoshop User magazine submissions. If you consider shortcuts 'L' for lasso tool, 'M' for marquee, and 'I' for eyedropper as a revelation worth a half page sidebar, then you'd be far better served by one of the "Dummies for ..." books.

Regrettably,this dog-and-pony show of random techniques for digital contortionists - held together by the slim threads of glib verbiage and glossy pictures - is big on funny-talk but thin on substance. Some giveaways of publisher's deadline page fillers are: 2 pages of kudos, and 5 pages of rambling "This is not an Introduction" (a 'pre-ramble' perhaps?).

Unpardonable is this mentor's cavalier attitude towards teaching materials; to label a student "pushy" if asking for work-along images to follow the tutorial steps seems incomprehensible. More on this: should you have the temerity to look for images, you are referred to the Brand-X website, not a mention there [a "mis-print ... sorry for the inconvenience"]. The Kelbybooks website has no link to image downloads; with persistence, you arrive at a gallery of highly-compressed tiny web-sized images (downloaded one-by-one), many marred by a disfiguring 'BrandX' stamp. It's like learning to do an appendectomy after reading an illustrated textbook.

Adobe offers this barnburner as a freebie with Photoshop purchase; don't check that gift horse too closely in the mouth though. The production team certainly deserves credit for one of the two stars awarded here.