Adobe Photoshop CS3: one-on-one

Pioneering computer graphics author Deke McClelland updates his bestselling hands-on tutorial for Adobe Photoshop CS3, the latest version of this industry-standard image editing and production program. You’ll be guided step by step through the program’s features and functionality. Once you read about a particular technique, you can see how it’s done first hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective. And hugely popular.

Thoughts

Reviewing an instructional book like Adobe Photoshop CS3: one-on-one ($49.99) always brings the same dilemma: treat it as a training course and work your way systematically through it, or treat it as a reference point and dip into it when you need it.

The first way makes most sense, the second way is more fun. The second has a fatal flaw though, you have to know what is in the book to know what you can dip into, and in this case my CS3 Photoshop skills are so new that I actually don’t know anywhere like everything that Photoshop can do.

A such I ended up with a sort of hybrid approach – I had to read through the contents to see what it could offer me and at the same time learn more about Photoshop, which actually meant that at some points I got distracted and read lessons in full. In general though I left it as a book that I dipped into, and in fact still do regularly, as and when I wanted to do something specific to a picture.

Book Structure

The book is made up of 12 lessons supported by a very adequate companion DVD-ROM from lynda.com which includes over two hours of lessons and exercise.

The lesson structure is:

Lesson 1: Open and Organize
Lesson 2: Highlights, Midtones and Shadows
Lesson 3: Correcting Color Balance
Lesson 4: Making Selections
Lesson 5: Crop, Straighten and Size
Lesson 6: Paint, Edit and Heal
Lesson 7: Creating and Applying Masks
Lesson 8: Focus and Filters
Lesson 9: Building Layered Compositions
Lesson 10: Text and Shapes
Lesson 11: Styles and Speciality Layers
Lesson 12: Printing and Output

I think I may have got more out of this book because of my newness to the Photoshop world, but I have to say that I loved it. Technically it was easy to follow and easy to use. There was a good logic to the flow of the lessons which sort of blend into a natural workflow, and it gave enough insight and ideas as to how to improve not only the post production but the actual taking of the photograph as well, that all in all it was a very impressive and useful book.

The ‘course’ is slightly intrusive as you are required to install a few lessons and keyboard shortcuts onto your computer, but these are minimal and actually ensure you have a pretty useful reference on your computer in the future. The book also suggests modifying a few Photoshop preferences, not so much because they are needed to follow the lessons, but because they actually feel that some of the default preferences are just wrong!

All in all one-on-one is an excellent tutorial and reference book. I like it a lot!

What They Say

Whether you’re a first-timer looking to learn Photoshop, or a seasoned user interested in the groundbreaking features of CS3, Deke’s conversational style and carefully structured lessons guide you through everything you need to know to get up and running, and then takes you well into mastery. You’ll learn to:

• Grasp fundamental and advanced concepts and theory
• Use best practices, and techniques for making the most of Photoshop CS3
• Build relevant, real-world projects
• Use Photoshop’s workflow and file handling features
• Use the combined power of Bridge + Camera Raw to process your digital photos
• Choose the right technique for converting your images to black & white
• Create beautiful multilayered documents including posters and flyers

A Photoshop expert, sought-after computer graphics and design lecturer and author of over 70 books, Deke creates a classroom environment in Photoshop CS3 One-on-One with written instruction and video training — except that you get one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson at your own pace. It’s like having private lessons with the author.

Whether you’re an enthusiast, prosumer, creative pro, technical pro, or newcomer, Deke’s book will have you speaking fluent Photoshop CS3 in no time.

Book details

Title: Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One
First Edition: June 2007
ISBN 10: 0-596-52975-9
ISBN 13: 9780596529758
Pages: 544
Price: $49.99