Good book for graphic beginners
I bought this book today after considering one other books. I needed a book on simple graphics. I have worked with Photoshop for a while but only for photo processing and need to learn more about graphics. I'm a very graphically challenged software developer (my 6 year old draws much better than me;) so I need every bit of help I can get;) However I'm going to return this book tomorrow for the other book I was looking at, Scott Kelby's "Adobe Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks" as I found some omissions in the book that make it less useful than Scott's book. For example the section on creating a product box is only about placing the image on the box, but not about how to create the box. I need tutorials that take me step by step through how to make what I want to make. This file may be in the online archive for it, but I feel the book should have demonstrated the steps to create it.
I see some reviewers saying this book is garbage and for beginners. Well, it IS for beginners, which is why I bought it. But this book is definitely not garbage and there is a LOT of good stuff in it. It is aimed at a certain niche, which is people who want to start with something simple for their websites - pretty obvious from the title I'd think. If you are advanced user of PS for graphic work you will be disappointed, but IMO that's self inflicted since there is nothing that indicates that this book is for advanced users. For example there is a very good section on creating seamless tiles, something I have looked for in online tutorials for quite a while without much luck.
I give it 4 stars because it is lacking in some respects, but it does a good job overall. Just paging through it I have picked up quite a few ideas that I will be able to implement.
If you are creating or maintaining your own website and want to create some nice looking graphics for it but you are not familiar with creating graphics in Photoshop, this would be a good book. If you are looking for advanced book or bleeding edge graphic designs then this is probably not the book you are looking for.
Ultimate Photoshop book for BEGINNERS!!!!
This book is very basic. I was hoping to find some information on how to create interesting backgrounds and web graphic's instead I found garbage. If you have used photoshop for any amount of time this book is generic. I was very disappointed.
There are much better books that cover a much bigger range of photoshop tricks but I wasn't looking for tricks I was looking for a detailed book on designing things like web 2.0 buttons and backgrounds. If your looking for something like that turn around.
Jump Start!
Being relatively new to Photoshop, this book has proved very helpful. Everything is briefly and easily laid out for rapid application of content.
Great all-around PhotoShop Book
There are a whole lot oh Photoshop books out there teaching all sorts of cool stuff, but if you are graphically challenged like some people (like me) most of those books just stay on the bookshelf and never see the light of day. But his new book on Photoshop by Corrie Haffly makes sing Photoshop easy and actually fun.
Every page is in a workbook like format to make it easier to understand every concept with beautifully detailed screenshots and explanations. The author assumes no prior knowledge and takes the reader through the basics first and then goes through some very special exercises creating backgrounds, buttons, text formatting, image adjustment, and web site layout design.
Chapter 1 explains to the reader the basics of Photoshop:
Workspace, image file types, layers, toolbox and tools, palettes, saving preferences
Chapter 2 describes how to gain basic skills of manipulating images:
Placing artwork on your workspace, creating Smart Object, rasterizing objects, resizing a layer or selection, rotating an image or selection, creating curves, reusing vector shapes, adjusting layer transparency, fading an image into background, blending two images together, and adding a drop shadow
Chapter 3 shows you how to create different kinds of very cool buttons:
Flat buttons, smooth buttons, chiseled buttons, gradient button, button with matte finish, metallic buttons, shiny buttons, aqua button, glass buttons, and plastic button
Chapter 4 shows you how to create different kinds of tiled backgrounds:
Photographic backgrounds, striped background, pixel background, metal background, wood-grain background, textured stone background, and textured paper background
Chapter 5 shows you how to manipulate and add text to your images:
Adding single and multi-line text, increasing space between lines and letters of text, warping text, wrapping text around curved object, making text follow a path, making text glow, creating chisled or engraved text, and adding a show to text
Chapter 6 shows you techniques on adjusting your images:
Creating adjustment layers, adding tone adjustments and contrast, making colors more vivid, removing tint from photos, darkening areas on an image, fixing red-eye effect, converting images to black and white, and combining two different images
Chapter 7 shows you how to design a website from scratch in Photoshop.
This quick overview doesn't do this book justice of course, but it is a great book nevertheless. If you already a Photoshop user it is still a great book because there are so many things you can do in PhotoShop that it is impossible to know them all. So this can be either a great beginner - intermediate guide or a superb reference book for designers looking for a specific technique. A must buy!
Exactly as the title implies
A previous reviewer, "S. Lensselink" was disatisfied with the book, having expected more advanced techniques. But the book's title aptly sums up the contents: this book is a collection of tips on how to create web design elements you've seen on many websites, using photoshop. It is not geared toward advance users, but individuals like myself who wish to create a website, have photoshop, know the basic tool functionalities, but would just like to skip learning everything in detail and jump right into creating design elements.
I was worried because the book begins with the most basic of steps, such as "how to resize an image" - which belongs in a basic primer photoshop book instead. This continues for the first 50 pages and if you judged the book only on those 50, then you would agree with Lensselink wholeheartedly. But the book begins to pick up the pace and can be breathless in its instructions. Another reviewer suggested the author's quickened pace neglected many steps, but none were missing. The problem lies in the layout. Instructions are giving in paragraph form like a narrative. The steps should have been broken into bulletted or numbered steps, making it easier to follow and turn back to.
Advanced tips specific to web presentation are quickly introduced such as creating bevelled buttons, confined text, color-matching photos, and layouts.
Lensselink belittles other readers for being lazy, implying all the information contained in the book is readily available through a simple google search. As a new photoshop user, I would have to disagree. As of Feb 2007, the search engine results are still populated with false positives and unless you know specifically what to type, you'll end up browsing through multiple webpages looking for instructions matching exactly what you want to achieve.
Although many tricks can be found in other photoshop books, they are scattered in a myriad of titles. Few books focus specifically on photoshop for web design, and this book does a great job of collecting some of the best ones. It's great reading for beginners (or Photopaint/Paint Shop Pro migraters like myself) and anyone who doesn't have the luxury of time to go on a wild google chase for the info.
