Photoshop Tricks

5 Comments for this entry

• Diane Cipollo
  July 28th, 2010 on 4:23 am

  Review by Diane Cipollo for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
  Rating:
  Adobe has released the new upgrade for Photoshop CS3 and a new version called Photoshop CS3 Extended. Whether you get Photoshop as a single product or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3, this book by the Adobe Creative Team is the latest edition of the official training series for Adobe software and covers both versions of Photoshop. As in previous editions, this book contains lessons that will help both the novice and advanced user get up to speed with the new upgrade. For the novice, the authors cover the basics of Photoshop and the advanced users will want to check out the lessons for the new features. Each lesson has step-by-step instructions and accompanying image files that give you hands on practice. At the end of each chapter is a Q & A review. Within the chapters are tips and techniques from Photoshop professionals Julieanne Kost and Russell Brown. Some of the new features and tools covered in the book include Smart Filters and the Quick Selection tool. Other lessons teach you how to take advantage of the improvements to your favorite tools such as Camera Raw and Adobe Bridge.

  As you would expect, the authors begin by discussing the workspace’s new layout which has several improvements to help you streamline your work. The next few chapters cover the basics of photo correction, retouch and repair. You will also learn how to create a PDF presentation and how to use the Adobe Lightroom. Next, the authors move on to discuss the many ways to make selections. They discuss some of your old favorite selection tools and new additions such as the Quick Selection tool.

  I especially enjoyed the sample projects that were more interesting than usual in a book such as this. In one chapter the authors used an example scrapbook page to show how to use layers to organize the objects on the page and how to work with layer comps and blend modes. The next project was a book cover which the authors used to teach masks and channels. You will learn how to create temporary Quick Masks, store a mask as an alpha channel and how to use filters, effects and blend modes with masks. Working with type in Photoshop is one of my favorite tasks and the authors use a poster as a sample project for this chapter. They cover the Type palette, paths, shapes and Smart Objects. I especially liked the lesson about applying text to a complex path.

  If you have never tried your hand at the Photoshop vector drawing tools, you will enjoy the chapter which covers drawing paths with the Pen tool, layer shapes and more. Advanced layers is next and the authors show you how to use adjustment layers and the Vanishing Point grid to achieve a 3D effect for product package design. Next, you will create a four image montage and learn about advanced compositing. In this chapter, you will also learn about automating a series of steps to speed up your workflow.

  Photoshop is still the best when it comes to creating and optimizing images for the web. You will learn several tasks including slicing an image, adding HTML linkage to image slices, rollover buttons and optimizing GIF, JPEG and GIF animations. You will like how easy it is to create an animation with the Tween feature. The authors included a chapter that touches on some of the features in Photoshop Extended. You will learn about the Measurement tool, Measurement Log palette and more. The last chapter covers color printing, four color separation and preparing for PostScript CMYK printing.

  The members of the Adobe Creative Team for this book were Andrew Faulkner and Judy Walthers von Alten. The CD includes files for the lessons, fonts, stock photos and training videos from [...] and Total Training.
  
• Jeffrey N. Fritz
  July 28th, 2010 on 4:48 am

  Review by Jeffrey N. Fritz for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
  Rating:
  Adobe Photoshop CS3 is a masterful and expansive product. Using it requires a decent knowledge of the powerful tools that the software offers. “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Class Room In A Book” provides the basis for knowing how to make the best use of the sophistication built into CS3.

  The book is well written and nicely produced (although the screen shots are all of the Windows version of Photoshop CS3 something that is not likely to impress Mac users.) It contains a CD-ROM with sample photos, videos and quite a number of royalty free images. The book was written by Andrew Faulkner and Judy Walthers von Alten who are part of the Adobe Creative Team. So a lot of information is from internal Adobe sources. Not too shabby.

  There are some downsides to the book (beside the high cost for a paperback.) The book sometimes assumes that user knows where to find certain tools and options within CS3. That may work for some folks who are extremely knowledgeable with CS2 and can translate the new UI in CS3 to something they can work with. For Photoshop newbees and those who may not be able to make the transition from CS2 quite so easily, this makes parts of the book frustrating. There are some minor errors such as the section on the Zoom Tool. The authors state that the maximum zoom is 3200% for Windows and 1600% for the Macintosh. Ah, no. It’s 3200% for both platforms.

  Still, even with these small issues, the book is a good read, very informative and the exercises are downright fun.
• CMOS
  July 28th, 2010 on 5:31 am

  Review by CMOS for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
  Rating:
  Among all the excellent Photoshop instructional books out there, this series and this particular edition, do not break the Top 20 in terms of depth, writing quality and detail. In general the CIB series is known far and wide to be lacking, when compared to its non-Adobe counterparts. One must wonder therefore if one of the editors who reviewed this book, has ulterior motives for “talking it up” so much. The reality of what’s in the book, does not jive with what’s in her review IMO.

  While not as poorly done as the InDesign CS3 CIB edition, this book is far from a good value at the price. If it cost $15 I might rate it differently but this title is no different than your average computer manual that you find in a box (from companies other than Adobe). Some good examples here and there but mostly thin on details and screenshots.

  Buy this book only if you have many others (such as those from Martin Evening, Scott Kelby, Deke McClelland, Katrin Eismann and Ben Willmore) and are still not finding what you need (very unlikely BTW).
• R. Durham
  July 28th, 2010 on 6:06 am

  Review by R. Durham for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
  Rating:
  I purchased PS CS3 this summer, and have been slowly working through CLASSROOM IN A BOOK (CIB). A lot of the material is new to me. Photoshop is a beast of a program; it’s incredibly powerful and useful. The downside of such complexity is that you must know what you’re doing in order to get things to work. I was hoping that CIB would give me a solid understanding of how to use PS. While I did learn quite a bit, I still had a lot of basic questions about PS when I finished the book.

  CIB is written textbook style. It has chapters on basics topics like layering, retouching, making selections, using type. Each chapter works you through one or two examples provided on the CD that comes in a sleeve under the back cover. At the end of each chapter are review questions and answers.

  The writing is excellent and the examples thoroughly cover what the chapter aims to teach you. The problem is that it’s not nearly enough. Some terms are defined in the text but a lot of other information is left out. There is no glossary or other type of reference chapter. Sometimes the authors explain the purpose behind the techniques, sometimes they do not. I found I had to work through chapters twice to understand what I was doing. Nothing is offered beyond the basics.

  While CIB does give you a good run through of CS3, I would only recommend it if you have some basic knowledge of photoshop. I found myself seeking out other books to help me get a better grasp.
• Rosie Star
  July 28th, 2010 on 7:03 am

  Review by Rosie Star for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book
  Rating:
  Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book

  This book was for a Photoshop Class and I stopped using it after I found step-by-step instructional errors in Chapters 6 and 10. The instructor was happy with previous editions of this book and didn’t realize the problems with this one. I wasted valuable time and effort trying to follow instructions that were inaccurate.

  I ended up using Adobe Photoshop CS3 Professional Portfolio by Against the Clock publishers which had accurate step by step instructions as well as entire pages that gave more detailed information about the various functions of Photoshop (resampling, channels, distinguishing blending modes, layer styles in depth, curves, etc. etc.) It goes into depth on every photoshop tool and gave more info than most books I’ve seen since. *Adobe Photoshop CS3 Professional Portfolio* is one that a person could learn from as well as keep as an invaluable reference guide.