Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC
I**N
Comprehensive Reference, Easy to Use
In my opinion, if you need only one paper-based Photoshop reference (for photography purposes), it's not the Kelby books you should be buying or the Bibles or other books. It's this book. With color-coded pages, a very detailed TOC and Index, and a ton of good information from one of the best and most experienced Photoshop authors, you'd be hard-pressed to find something better.That's not to say you shouldn't buy other books. Only that this one is the single best reference book that I have found over the years, and it keeps getting better. The sections on ACR / raw editing is great, as are the sections detailing the new interface options, preferences and other important settings. Lots of important details and hidden tips. Often overlooked by other authors or glossed over, Evening handles these types of topics the right way, making you more efficient / good at what you do.The one downside is that if you like to carry your reference books around with you this thing is (by necessity because it only gets longer with each version, as new features are added) is pretty huge. Weighs in around 750 pages so it's bulky and heavy but hey, it's worth it.
G**S
My "go to" reference for Photoshop applied to photography
I have used Classroom in a Book and similar tutorial and reference books for Photoshop and think of myself as being very proficient in using the basic tools Photoshop has to offer but this is by FAR the BEST reference book for Photoshop as applied to working with photographs and feel that reading it has taken my skills to the next level.Mr. Evening explains the "whys" and in many cases the history behind the vast tools and technologies available in Photoshop. He explains the nuances of various approaches available in accomplishing a desired end-result, later allowing me to make much better decisions as to my choice of tools and general approach for my given situation. Very powerful!The book is well-organized so that it's easy to find information on the fly. The screen shots are well-done and very useful.I recommend this comprehensive reference for anyone who takes photo editing in Photoshop seriously. The knowledge will probably save you a lot of time in the long run. It has for me! :-)
S**H
great photoshop cs6 book
This is a great book for photoshop cs 6 when i was in college working toward my BFA in photography. the three books we use for photoshop was Adobe Photoshop for Photographers, Photoshop Artistry, and Real World Adobe Photoshop for Photographers.(any of the Real World Photography books are pretty good for photography) Now i'm not sure if the other two books make a cs6 version yet. but i can say that this book is still great for learning Photoshop. Yes some of the content that was found in older books have been moved to there website for PDF down load but i don't have an issue with that. the author also recommends getting the last book as well because it covers more advanced editing. though I haven't looked at the CS5 version of this book yet it seems to have good reviews though. Might think of checking it out at the library first before getting it to see if it's worth it if your tight on funds.
P**T
Well written, concise and helpful - but not for the Photoshop newbie
The book description states it is “the essential reference for photographers of all levels using Photoshop.” I respectfully disagree. This book is not for people new to Photoshop and newbies will likely get lost and frustrated if this is their first jaunt into figuring out the many amazing facets of PS, and I would hardly call this an essential reference (the crappy index ruins that). Having said that, if you have experience in PS, it offers some great tips and is definitely worth the read. If you are an intermediate (as I am) or advanced user, you likely will find some helpful tools in this large 700+ page book that’s well illustrated.Here is my personal opinion after having just finished reading this book, and why I consider it to be average rather than super good or super bad:• Index is woefully lacking, which renders this less useful as the resource book it purports to be• You MUST have some experience with PS – some concepts are simply mentioned with nothing further, and if you don’t know what they are you will have to look elsewhere to figure out what the author is talking about – it is written as if the reader has at least an operational knowledge of PS (just as one example, the author briefly mentions alpha channels and how they are similar to mask channels, but does not go into detail on either – if you don’t know what channels are, you will not get an in-depth explanation of that here)• The book contains some great information and tips on structuring workflow from capturing the image all the way to print• The writing is concise and in short enough blocks that it is easy to read a while, practice, take a break, then read a little more• The images and many of the examples are great, and some of the images are available online to download and practice yourself• There are many points when the author says “for more information go to the website and read pdf blah blah blah” – so be prepared to have to use supplemental materials from the web that are not included in the book (not my favorite task)• There is a HUGE amount of material and reference for using Camera Raw (in fact a nearly 140-page Chapter 3 is nothing but raw, which is about 20% of the book, and then raw is mentioned sporadically throughout after) – if you only shoot in jpeg or you use some other process and will not use Camera Raw, just know that probably 25% of the book is devoted to raw processing, and the author’s thinking seems to be that much of what needs to be done to an image should happen in Camera Raw before it even gets into PS for further editing (a point with which I happen to agree, but only because I shoot raw and use Camera Raw to process my photos)• Finally, I’m both an intermediate user of PS and a fairly adept photographer, and I don’t believe this is the best that could be created for a photographer – I know in my circle of photographer friends, they are more interested in shooting than photoshopping, and so a book written in the style of a McClelland or Kelby might be more suitable for those individuals who just want to know what settings to use without the why, and without all the history about the evolution of PS and how things came to be as in PS6 this author sprinkles throughout the bookAll in all this is a good book, and a decent read. I’m glad I read it and I learned several things that I now routinely use, and the workflow information and the raw information (for me, since I always shoot raw and use Camera Raw) were the most helpful.
S**N
Photoshop book CS6
Good book
N**R
not only for CS6
My copy of 'Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers' arrived well packaged and in good condition with occasional annotations, mostly lightly written in pencil. The cover was clean and there were no dog ears or creased pages but the edges and corners of the closed book showed signs of wear that were more suggestive of storage after being very carefully handled by one or more readers rather than heavy usage. I am very satisfied.CS6 was the last version of Photoshop available as a freestanding DVD. Authored by a scion of the profession, Martin Evening, the book runs to 744 pages and weighs circa 800 grammes. It is no pocketbook but it would be almost impossible for most amateur photographers to appreciate the wealth of possibilities of Photoshop CS6 without such a book. Like many paperbacks, the pages cannot be laid flat, making reading the book slightly difficult and the photocopying of even one page for personal reference impossible.The author has made a brave and largely successful attempt to assist the interested amateur photographer wishing to explore the intricacies of the avowedly professional CS6 programme. (I am unqualified to comment on the value of the book to professional photographers.) Much of the content of the book, which is highly readable, is equally relevant to both older and newer versions of Photoshop.Little of the material in the book extends into theory that belongs elsewhere, yet there is suffficient explanation to avoid providing only a bald list of instructions to be followed blindly. That is a commendable approach to meeting the practical needs of the amateur photographer. There are plenty of coloured photographs, boxes and cross-references to clarify the text, which, in conveniently short sections, is interspersed with helpful icons; and the small text in screenshots is always sharp, although a loupe may sometimes necessary.The author makes the indisputable point that images in camera Raw format should be used whenever feasible. Indeed, 20% of the book is devoted to Raw image processing. However, the amateur photographer is often dealing with what is available, for example, .jpg files that need to be retouched or restored for family members or friends, or is constrained by the format of images transmitted by E-mail: I would have welcomed more explicit information regarding what could or could not be done with the .jpg format.I found the chapters devoted to setting up CS6 and printing an edited product on a home printer especially well explained by comparison with other books.The index is long but cannot be and is not comprehensive; nor is the book. Although "LZW compression" is covered, I could not find any reference to "Hoffman compression", a term that appears on a CS6 panel. (An internet search gave me the details I needed.)There is no CD /DVD but the book's web-site is replete with supporting details and tutorial material.Overall, this is a book for enjoyable reading and reference that I have no hesitation in recommending strongly to serious amateur photographers.
M**Z
A very good book.
Clear, well written, lots of information for you. This book has helped me tremendously learning Photoshop. I recommend this book as 1 to buy to learn and become comfortable using Photoshop. A great reference and learning tool.
I**!
An excellent in depth book on Photoshop
An excellent in depth book on Photoshop. However, if you are thinking to buy the Kindle version don't bother. You'll most likely end up buying the actual book.Navigating this on a Kindle is nigh on impossible. Or at least it is on the Kindle for Mac App. I don't own a Kindle (and after this experience I won't be buying one either), so I'm guessing the method of navigation is the same.I decided to buy the Kindle for Mac version for two reasons, the first being one of economy ; Amazon has brutal rip off postage prices to the Irish Republic for anything under £25, and the second being that I thought it would be a better method of using the book alongside Photoshop on screen.Now I'm unfamiliar with Kindle but it seems to lack a properly thought out page locator.If for instance the author states something along the lines of " I describe this process in far greater depth on page 57" then it would be useful would it not (Duh! as the Americans say) to be able to navigate quickly to page 57 to read said detailed process, but no, the Kindle app offers only to tell me that I am at 'location 3326 of 15116' and offers only a search facility to find any one of the other 15116 locations without offering any clue as to which location page 57 is located at. The author refers to page numbers and the Kindle app refers to locations. This is of course entirely useless in a manual.So the book gets 5 stars and the Kindle for Mac Version gets 0 stars.If there is a away to navigate by page numbers then I shall happily stand corrected but so far my only foray into electronic books has been very disappointing.I've just bought the actual book and since Amazon insist on ludicrous postage charges I've bought it secondhand from a third party book dealer.
A**O
Completísimo
Enorme manual que abunda en detalles y ejemplos sobre el manejo de photoshop. Incluye un amplio apartado sobre Camera Raw, lo que permite hacer un tratamiento de la foto desde el primer momento.Si os apañáis con el inglés, vale la pena comprarlo en versión original, ya que la versión española es el doble de cara.
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