Rating: 
Summary: Get me something better
Review: Unless you have an idea of what photoshop is all about, then go for some books that emphasize more on the basics. The first two chapters were a complete chore. My recommendations, go get something better, like the classroom in a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic 5
Review: Very lovely and nicely written book on Photoshop. If you are professional or do not know much about Photoshop and its techniques this book is for you.I bought Photoshop 3 WOW book when I did not know simple things in photoshop. Today, I feel I know more than others and I have a command on Photoshop.
Rating: 
Summary: We hope readers will enjoy the completely revised and update
Review: We hope readers will enjoy the completely revised and updated Photoshop 5/5 .5 Wow! Book, which includes tips and techniques for optimizing Web graphics in the Save For Web interface, using ImageReady 2, Layer Effects, the magne tic lasso and pen, the History palette, the Impressionist History and Art Hi story brushes, the Extract command and background eraser. For the first time, in response to readers' requests, the CD-ROM includes "before" and " after" versions of many of the files used in the step-by-step techniques. Yo u can start with a "before" version and follow the step-by-step technique in the book, checking your results as you go. Or you can "dissect" the "after" version to see what makes the file tick. Or copy and paste the Layer Effect s from our files to yours for instant shadows, glows, carving, and other eff ects.The CD-ROM also includes Wow! Actions (automated special effects) that take advantage of the program's new features. We've designed the book s o that if you're new to Photoshop, or"Photoshop Wow," you'll be able to use version 5 or 5.5 efficiently for all kinds of photo retouching and color co rrection, special effects, painting, integration with vector-based Postscript artwork for print projects, and creating art for the Web. On the oth er hand, if you're one of the 700,000-or-so experienced Photoshop users who have already bought and put to use an earlier version of the book, here are some of the similarities and differences you'll find in this new edition. We 've used the same standards as in the earlier books. As always, our top prio rities in presenting techniques have been: choosing practical, real-w orld projects, achieving top-quality results on time and on budget, and providing flexible solutions. That's because we know that Photos hop users at all levels want results that look flawless. They want to achiev e these results quickly and reliably so their efforts are profitable. And th ey want flexibilty in case they need to make changes later when clients change their minds or when an image needs to be repurposed. The Photosh op 5/5.5 Wow! Book includes brand-new techniques for applying the new featur es of versions 5 and 5.5. For instance: We've included several ste p-by-step examples of how the Save For Web interface in Photoshop 5.5 makes it much easier than before to balance image quality and file size, as well a s techniques that take advantage of the animation, rollover, and slicing opt ions provided by ImageReady 2. We've shown how Photoshop's latest selecting tools (magnetic lasso and pen, Extract command and background eras er) fit into the scheme of things when you're trying to decide how to select a particular element. We've shown how to get realistic-looking bru shstrokes from the Impressionist version of the History brush and the Art Hi story brush, in turning a photo into a painting. (Wow! author Jack Davis des igned the new brush tips that Adobe included in version 5.5, so it should co me as no surprise that he knows better than anyone else how to use them.) After months of experimenting with Photoshop 5's new approach to RGB color and reading what color experts had to say about it, we arrived at a si mple approach to avoiding unexpected color change. We've even demon strated a practical application for the less-than-intuitive 3D Transform fil ter as a way to mock up a label design. Every technique that appeared i n the previous edition of the book has been not only "updated" so the click- and-drag directions are correct for versions 5 and 5.5, but has been thought through in light of the changes in the program, and revised, if necessary, to bring you the most efficient and flexible way to get top-quality results. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because the goals haven't changed improving contrast, retouching, compositing, or creating special effects the techniques are still the same as in previous editions of the book. Here are just a few examples: Our photo-retouching technique now makes use of the History brush and History palette, to make it quick and eas y to target repairs, eliminating the "fuzziness" that can be associated with too broad an application of the Dust & Scratches filter. We've us ed Layer Effects and the context-sensitive Free Transform menu to assemble a photos of a variety of objects, showing how to an "environment" with realis tic lighting and shadows that unify the elements. We've shown when it makes sense to take advantage of easy-to-use Layer Effects to produce sha dows, glows, carving, glass, and metal effects; when it's worthwhile to used the more complex but potentially more sophisticated and flexible alpha-chan nel-based methods developed for earlier versions of the program; and how to most effectively combine the two approaches. Enjoy the book!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: When I first purchased Photoshop 5.5, I quickly became frusterated with the product. I knew it was the best graphics program around but as a new user I was finding it very difficult to learn. I bought this WOW book and went through it from cover to cover. I found that it did demand a lot of effort and determination on my part to understand the material. There is a lot of new terminology introduced which is completely foreign to those of us with no background in design arts. I did end up rereading each chapter several times to get the most out of it. I have to give the authors full credit for not what I consider an excellent book. They will not spoon feed you step by step instructions on every detail. They present techniques and sufficient theory to let you work on your own. If you can't handle reading anything semi-technical don't bother with this book. On the other hand if you possess even moderate intelligence you should be able to handle this book with a little bit of effort. It gives you all you need to know to do expert level design work with PhotoShop. The effort was worth it...I LOVE PHOTOSHOP!
Rating:
Summary: This book covers Photoshop versions 5 AND 5.5
Review: Yes, it really is coming this fall. And we apologize profusely for the long wait. The good news is that this title has evolved into "The Photoshop 5/5.5 Wow Book," and will cover the new features of both upgrades, including the History Palette and the Art History brush, the Save to Web feature, and the inclusion of ImageReady 2, in addition to updating information about the features that have previously made Photoshop the most popular image-editing program ever. As always, the Photoshop 5/5.5 Wow Book is loaded with gorgeous full-color art, helpful tips about working with the program, and step-by-step examples of how to create professional-quality visual effects. It includes a cross-platform CD-ROM loaded with Actions, stock photos, tryout software, and tutorial images for many of the step-by-step techniques in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the whines....this is a good book
Review: Yes, this book is very similar to the previous versions. But that simply mirrors the evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes in Photoshop itself. If an application does not change much, what you can do with it won't change much, either. Confusingly, given the minor changes in Photoshop, why would an owner of a previous version need a new book? Anyway....This book has proven to be very helpful to me. It has just enough basics to keep you sharp, as well as a great number of tips, tools, and exercises to help you to get the most out of Photoshop. If you want to be able to do some of the neat things you have seen others do, then this is your book.
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