Poorly written book
Real price for this book should be $0.99,touch only the basic information.author claim to be technical writer,I doubt this.
GREAT BOOK
This book is a wonderful source of information for Corel. My only complaint was in the actual procedure for layering which produces the same affects as 35mm multi-exposures. It just needs an example and a step by step method (on combining two images)which I later found on the internet. This and other manuals never assume that you don't know you have to right click on certain layers to make them work. This is a simple thing that can leave you totally perplexed since a wrong click can really mess you up. If this had just been there I would have rated it a 5 star.
Too Simple & Too Advanced
I have been into digital photography for the past couple of years and have been using both PSP Photo X2 and Photoshop Elements 5. Through experimentation, I had figured out how to brighten, sharpen, soften, clone, straighten, crop, etc. I had tried using masks and layers but failed miserably. I was looking for a book that would walk me through the creation and application of masks and layers and hopefully guide me through the more sophisticated tools such as curves. What a disappointment. The first chapter takes roughly 30 pages to list the tools, e.g., "Red-Eye tool" duh! It finally gets down to an example at the end of the chapter, taking 2 full pages to show how STRAIGHTEN AN IMAGE!
Chapter 2 nicely covers "Simple Picture Manipulation", with a thorough explanation of the "Smart Photo Fix". It also covers the use of Histogram Adjustment and tools like "High Pass Sharpen". Unfortunately, it only touches on "Soft Focus", which is actually quite complicated, i.e., requires a lot of playing around, and skims past Curves with 9 short sentences and nary an example.
Chapter 3 "Moving Past the Basics" is an understatement. Suddenly I was seeing "tips" like, "For an interesting effect use a Hue/Saturation/Lightness Adjustment layer in colorize mode to apply a tint, then reduce the layer opacity to blend it with the original color." Right. It reminds me of the proverbial ski trip where the "expert" skier lets everyone take one warm-up run down the bunny hill and then takes them to the top of an "easy" black diamond trail. At that point, he drops over the edge and vanishes from sight, expecting his novice charges to follow - forgetting that it took him years to perfect his technique.
great product
Arrived next day, very helpful if you work with corel paint shop Pro 2. -
very informative
A huge benefit, particularly for those who downloaded their program, although experience tells me it's also much clearer than the packaged manual. Well written and takes alot of the mystery out of using Paint Shop Pro.
(14 reviews)
