Macworld® Photoshop® 5 Bible

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 913 pages
• Published by: Hungry Minds July 1998
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0764532316
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764532313
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Weighs: 3.7 pounds

Product Review
This well-rounded guide to Photoshop 5 for Macintosh and Windows helps beginning, intermediate, and advanced users learn essential image-creation, -editing and -retouching techniques. The author, Deke McClelland, starts off with help for novices, including an introduction to Photoshop and digital-imaging concepts such as resolution, file formats, color and color management, and printing. Next you work with the paintbrushes, the Brush palette, the smudge and sponge tools, Fills, Strokes, Arrowheads, the Pattern Stamp, the Rubber Stamp, the Eraser, and the History Brush and palette as you create, retouch, and restore photos.

McClelland also teaches you how selections work, how to make selections using everything from the magic wand to the path tools, and how to move and duplicate selections. You create masks, work with layers and transformations, and add and format type. The section on filters covers corrective filters for improving the look of photographs as well as creative filters, such as Distortion and 3D Transform. You even construct effects of your own with the Custom and Displace filter. The final section covers color-mapping and color-correction features such as Hue/Saturation and Brightness. In this section, you work with adjustment layers to help you apply and manage your changes. You also work with Opacity and Blend modes and Channel operations to create interesting effects. Finally, you create graphics for the Web, fine-tuning the size and color of your images.

McClelland does a fine job of teaching you how to do each task, sometimes by showing you what he's done and sometimes by stepping you through an image of your own. He carefully explains the technology behind a lot of the advanced features, such as the Custom filter and color-mapping tools. An appendix helps beginners select the best hardware for their image-editing needs. Two full-color sections show you images from the book's projects and examples of the application of filters and color-management techniques. The included CD-ROM has images from a variety of artists; a demo version of PC MacLan, a PC-Mac networking program; demo and full versions of third-party plug-ins; a sample Photoshop lesson and course information from a Web-based training company; and images from a variety of digital cameras (so you can compare their output). --Kathleen Caster

Book Description
Now that Photoshop 5 is finally here, it's time to get up to speed on all that's new and improved in the latest version of the world's most powerful and sophisticated image-editing program. That's a pretty tall order. So where do you start? How about with the updated version of the most comprehensive Photoshop guide around.

Reader Reviews
I don't normally respond to the reader reviews; I think they should be allowed to stand on their own. But I feel compelled to address the one titled "Rehash" below. As with all my Photoshop Bibles over the years, I rewrote the Macworld Photoshop 5 Bible, replacing more than half the images and roughly 70% of the text. Four chapters (6, 10, 14, and Appendix A) are either new or bear no resemblance to previous incarnations. With this in mind, I don't quite understand how the term "rehash" applies. The rest of the review is fine, I suppose. True, the book is not a tutorial, but nor does it claim to be. I believe the term "Bible" implies an authoritative reference, and that's what this Bible is intended to be. I can'ton whether the info is too basic (though I've never heard that one before) or whether everyone else is on drugs (just say no, kids). But the rehash thing -- well, I've stated my case on that. Anyway, probably should have let it go. The "rehash" review is six months old, after all. But couldn't help myself. Thanks for indulging me. --Deke PS: I entered a five-star rating because that's the mean for this title. I would have prefered to forego a rating, but the system wouldn't let me.