Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques by Ben Willmore
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Book Reviews of Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques
Book Review: This text-like book puts the "POP" back into pictures!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has two advantages over other CS2 books. First the book is organized like a text book. Each topic is covered in a chapter. The author defines all the different tools, highlights their application, and explores the various settings available to each tool. I find this arrangement very rewarding, as I am better able to make educated decisions as to which tool to use and how to use them in my projects. Most other books handle such topic by going through a project in which they omit using so many essential tools and never explore important settings. This book is obviously different.
The second advantage, admittedly this one is limited to a segment of CS2 users, is that this book is useful for photographers who want to learn how to process their images. If you use a digital SLR this book will help you put the "POP" back into your pictures. Hence, this book treats correcting an image is an end of itself. Other books view pictures as a raw material used to create some piece of art through Photoshop. So the approach of this book is very well suited for photographers and graphic designers alike as the first advantage display.
I cannot recommend this book enough for any photographer. It will help you put the "pop" back into their photography by understanding things like color management, sharpening, level/curves, and many other things. The best thing is that it handles every subject in a comprehensive manner, so you will be able to add new skills as you read this book. I particularly found the following chapters helpful:
Chapter 4: Resolution Solutions. This chapter helped me understand the definition of dpi, ppi, and their relation to print size, conversions etc.
Chapter 5: Optimizing grayscale images: Here I learned about compensating for oversaturated prints
Chapter 6: Understanding Curves. As the subtitle entails I truly took curves for a ride.
Chapter 7: Color management. I learned all what I need about device calibrating down to paper and ink specific profiles to match screen view to print output.
Chapter 10: Color manipulation. This chapter was extremely helpful in revealing the relation between hue, saturation, levels and many other functions.
Chapter 12: Sharpening. This chapter revealed some new tricks of the trade that I couldn't find in online tutorials.
There is so much more to this book, but this is what I found most useful as a "photographer". All in all, this book is a master piece in simplicity, quality, and of course usefulness. Many thanks to Ben for writing this six star (yes six is not a typo) book!
Book Review: Extremely well written and full of great techniques
Summary: 5 Stars
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)
Book Review: One of the most comprehensive books on Photoshop
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll be very honest about how I found this book and how I ended up ordering it from Amazon. I have mentioned in my previous reviews that I live in Pakistan where we do not have Photoshop books readily available in bookshops to browse through. So I am always on the look out for "other" means. I found the e-book version of Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques on the internet and out of "curiosity" downloaded it (I know its unethical but could not help it..wanted to see what the book was like).
Guys, when I was half way through this book (reading it from the PC screen) I had made up my mind that I needed a hardcopy of it in its original form, not because my eyes were all puffy and red but this is one amazing Photoshop Book. I own 10 Photoshop books at the moment including Katrin Eismann's Photoshop Restoration & Retouching 2nd Ed. and Masking & Compositing and thought Katrin was the best when it came to explaining techy stuff. But Ben Willmore is masterful. I have yet to see a Photoshop guru explain Photoshop blending modes in the crystal clear way he did in this book. Simply amazing. Infact each and every concept of Photoshop has been dealt with the same finesse. People who want to learn the "behind the scenes" of Photoshop must buy this book
Ben's blend of explaining every tool/technique and the situations in which they can be used is fantastic. The pages are chock full of information...nicely arranged small images which might be too small for some but do the job perfectly fine along with perfect explanation. I mean Scott Kelby can make atleast 10 books out of this one amazing book by leaving out extra space on pages and using larger images. This book is 573 pages ...but it is much bigger when it comes to the information it contains. The only thing I wish is that the bonus chapters on the CD were included in the book...small gripe though
I hope Ben would forgive me for reading the ebook version since I bought the book eventually along with Bruce Fraser's Real World PS CS2.
P.S. Both books arrived with free samples of Degree Silver Ice deodorant. Do the folks at Amazon think that Photoshop users have smelly armpits? It can't even be a third world country aid thing cuz the delivery was made in Missouri and I got the books when my relatives from US flew in.
Book Review: Best introductory and intermediate Photoshop book for Photographers
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read many PS books, and have spent many hours in bookstores carefully reviewing all of the popular PS books. This is without a doubt the best book to start with, and may be the only one you will ever need to buy.
This is the PS book best suited to photographers, either digital or analog. It covers the basics in great detail, and also the sophisticated techniques and tips required to optimise any image.
Most PS books fall into one of two categories: either they are full of "creative tricks" like showing you how to replace someones nose with their dog's tail; or they simply state "to achieve this do this", with no explanation. In both cases they scrimp on or gloss over what is important to photograhers: how to get a great image from a digital file. Getting from a raw file or scan to the optimal print or web image in the easiest and quickest way is all this book is about. Because of that it concentrates on the features in PS that are crucial to achieving these ends, and has enough space to explain them comprehensively and clearly.
Most PS books don't explain features well or at all; they say "do this in this situation" but when you happen upon a slightly different situation you are stuck, because you don't understand what you are doing. This book explains clearly, and in simple terms, all of the CS2 features that a photographer needs, and doesn't waste your time on anything you don't need.
Covered in detail:
PS tools and how to use them
Making selections
Using layers
Optimising images, color and grayscale
Understanding curves
Color managment and correction
Camera Raw
Color manipulation
Adjustment layers
Sharpening
Advanced Masking
Collage
Retouching
Workflow (thorough coverage of all of the steps to follow, and why from start to finish)
Book Review: The Best Photoshop Book Available
Summary: 5 Stars
A book is only as good as it's author and Mr. Willmore is an incredibly gifted writer in that he is able to explain WHY different techniques are used in Photoshop rather than simply listing a clinical step-by-step HOW-TO, as most of the Photoshop cookbooks out there do. This ultimately leads the reader to a much better understanding of the program and the tools that it offers the digital artist. The so-called telephone-book-thick "bibles" that are offered up for every software suite under the sun are nothing more than 'do this, do that, arrive at this' lists of instructions; they do very little in the way actually explaining WHY you would want to use a certain filter here, or adjustment layer there.
Ben Willmore however does a fine job of explaining, in everyday English, what it is that makes Photoshop's offerings so useful and also so powerful. He also provides a CD with tutorials and sample images to go along with some of the lessons, which makes it much easier to actually grasp some of the concepts.
If you only buy one photoshop book, this is the one to get. It is great for beginners, intermediate users, and also advanced users as he really does get into the meat of Photoshop without wasting valuable chapters on crap like "how to install Photoshop on a PC or a Mac" or "sytem requirements" etc. - something which 90% of the "bibles" out there waste the first third of their book on (which is entirely useless as installation instructions etc can be easily found in Photoshop's own help files, on the web, etc etc etc).
I have read quite a few Photoshop books and this one by far is the first book that actually leaves you with a feeling that you understand the program.