Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 592 pages
• Published by: Adobe Press August 27, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0321321898
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0321321893
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 2.9 pounds

Reader Reviews
Ben Willmore is one of the world's best Photoshop teachers. He possesses an extraordinary wealth of knowledge about Photoshop and, just as importantly, he has a great gift for sharing that knowledge in an almost folksy and down-home style. In one of the editorial reviews above it says "arguably one of the best Photoshop books ever written" and I would take the word "arguably" out of that sentence--it's absolutely one of the best Photoshop books ever written. I have taken all-day seminars with him and when I leave them my head is swimming my so many new ideas that it's hard to know where to begin (and if you're like me, you forget a lot the minute you walk out the door--good thing he hands out notes!). That's why Ben's books are so great: they are beautifully written and he carefully explains myriad technqiues in simple step-by-step fashion. If you've been bewildered and frustrated by the awful guides that Adobe includes with Photoshop CS2, you will find this book to be incredibly refreshing and simple to use. Ben has a very scientific approach to Photoshop which you might think would take the fun out of it, but it doesn't. In fact, by explaining things in a very clear way and giving you the underlying "why" of how things work, you understand the tools and techniques of Photoshop much better. Things like Curves (a huge thing in Ben's teaching) and Layer Blending Modes (a world unto themselves) become easy to understand and use. The book is also nicely illustrated with good step-by-step photos and diagrams and is very well indexed (what good is a Photoshop book that isn't well indexed?). I am a photo how-to writer myself and even though I've been working with Photoshop since 1993, whenever I finish writing a piece on Photoshop I double-check my facts with this book (or one of the older versions). I think that Ben Willmore and Katrin Eismann are the two best Photoshop teachers that I've encountered so far (Katrin is brilliant and funny and quite an artist I heartily recommend anything that she writes). If you ever get the chance to spend a day at one of Ben's $99 seminars, do it, you'll be glad you plunked down the money. Finally, there are a few small things I look up occasionally that are not covered in this book, but that is rare and the topics really are minor. On the other hand I've never picked this book up and not walked back to my comuter to try something new. You learn something worthwhile every time you open the book and that is saying a lot. Jeff Wignall Author, The Joy of Digital Photography (Lark Books) Comment | | (Report this)