Rating: 
Summary: 50 Stars
Review: 5 stars doesn't cover it!I've seen Scott teach live and he is absolutely the most knowledgable Photoshop trainer on the planet. This book is the next best thing to seeing him live. In fact, it may be better because the explanations are just as clear as a live class but you get to keep them right by the computer where you need 'em. From the comprehensive explanations of how to perform certain editing functions and new functions in CS, to the first class printing (these pages are as bright and crisp as my studio display LCD) this is easily the best computer book I've ever seen. I have several of Scott's book and the reason they're great is because the approach is NOT like a manual. If you're after a "classroom in a book" you'll be surprised when you get this book. The illustrations are awesome and explanations are concise and step-by-step. There are no assumed steps like lots of books have and the examples cover a wide variety of things digital photographers and retouchers need to know. This book is for beginners and experts alike because the lessons are structured like a recipie book. The steps are easy enough for the novice to understand and advanced enough so even experts applying the techniques look their best and accomplish their retouching even faster. If you're the kind of person who prefers to read a book that gives you a comprehensive variety usable examples and clear detailed explanations and supporting illustrations, this is your book. If you want a manual to tell you all about each feature in a dry, clinical manner, find another Photoshop book.
Rating: 
Summary: Misrepresentation of content
Review: All images of the book's cover as well as any text that represents the title of this book have the characters "CS" in them. This is a misrepresentation. I have the book in front of me at this moment and I can only say nowhere on the cover of this book appears the characters "CS." Nowhere within the body of the book do I find a reference to the current version of Adobe Photoshop CS.
As for content, the book may be of value to a studio photographer or hobbyist dealing with pictures of people. For a serious landscape photographer like myself, the book is all but useless. Furthermore, I find the author's writing style to be less than enjoyable. He tries too hard to be humorous. For a book intended for the serious hobbyist and professional I think this stle of writing is inappropriate.
All in all, I'm being generous with a one-star rating for this book. My suggestion to anyone reading this review is to keep looking, maybe there's a really good book on PS CS - this one is clearly not that.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but not that good if u have the previous edition
Review: As other reviewers have said if you allready own the previous version of this book, then maybe you should think twice before spending money on this edition, some of the techniques are exactly the same. I personally find Kelby's sense of humour a bit irritating, just get on with the techniques and stop pretending being sooooo funny. A little kick here and there is ok, but he spills his "jokes" just about everywhere.
To the person who complaints about all the creen captures being from macs... Photoshop is VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL in both platforms.
To me it seems kelby ran to be the first in publishing a book about Photoshop CS and it clearly shows, less speed and more quality next time. Regards Teco
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book!
Review: Fabulous book. This should be the FIRST Photoshop book you buy, and for many photographers, it may be the only book you will need. He gives very detailed specific steps on how to improve almost every photo ill. Fantastic book! Better than any other Photoshop book I own.
Rating:
Summary: If you do digital photography, this is a GREAT book!
Review: First off the red/black book cover shown (Dec 2003) with this description is wrong. That's the PRIOR edition, for Photoshop 7. The book I have is teal and white, and is most assuredly all Photoshop CS. Okay, now that that's done..... this is a great book for people working with digital photos in Photoshop. I think the thing I liked best is that Kelby is straightforward and approaches it from a perspective of not telling you all about HOW to take the picture, but how to improve it once you've got it in the camera. If you're looking for f-stops, lighting tips and camera tricks, this ain't your book. If, however, you're looking for ways to improve your digital photos in Photoshop; from sharpening without harshness, to great greyscale photos with sizzle, and a thousand other things, then you'll get great tips in this book. In addition to the focus and content in each chapter, he has what he calls "advanced" tips in the book...don't skip over these... they're great and they are often more involved stepwise (nothing that can't be followed!)--but the results are impressive. Yes, Scott has a very informal writing style--if you've read any of his other books, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, be aware that he doesn't preach that he's THE Photoshop guru, he's more than willing to learn from anyone and then shares those tips with everyone. Sometimes his tangents are so funny I have to wonder what WAS in the Mountain Dew he was drinking.
Rating: 
Summary: neat photoshop fixes for photographers
Review: Happily, I found much more in here than I expected. Kelby knows his stuff, has it well organized, explains it in perfect detail. You won't get lost in extracting a subject from a photo or doing a little body work to make a good picture great. We all wanted to know how to do those little tummy tucks . . . Kelby saves us a lot of work by showing how to do it right the first time. You will not waste time digging for the right method, it's right here, and he makes it simple to follow.
One complaint: While he uses nice color photos throughout, the top 1 3/4 inches is devoted to title and a narrow photo strip. A lot of wasted real estate in a book only 375 numbered pages long. While the chapters are started with excellent photos, most the photos highlighting the technics are rather boring, but all are useful to illustrate his point. A few were down right annoying (subjective judgement - but that's my perception). Overall, a highly valued, worthwhile addition to my photoshop library, I'm impressed with the technical information, which is what I bought it for.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for Photoshop CS
Review: Having used Photoshop for a few years I'm familiar with most of the "old methods" for accomplishing digital editing. Copying across channels, rezzing up an image in 5% steps, etc. Kelby's book and his liberal peppering of helpful tips from some noted graphics/photography names help to introduce more advanced methodologies to using Photoshop CS to accomplish all the major digital processing needs. This book is not a comprehensive guide to all the tools or filters that ship with Photoshop CS. It is a great study in workflow for anyone who has spent at least 3-6 months working on digital photos in Photoshop. If you plan on spending more time in Photoshop CS in the future, pickup this copy and as you begin to get used to editing you photos, this volume will become more and more valuable to you. This book is a useful companion to those who are fortunate enough to own Photoshop CS.
Rating:
Summary: A real Gem
Review: I am a Photoshop book junkie. I consider myself an apprentice user of Photoshop with my interest primarily in digital photagraphy. So when I saw this book I did not hesitate to take it home. At first I read through some of the interesting techniques and tips shown throughout the book without actually trying any of them in Photoshop. However, it wasn't until I opened Photoshop and turned to the section on color correction that I realized what a great instructor Scott Kelby is. The short section on Color Correction of your photos was worth the price of the book! I have read several other Photoshop books but none of them have given me the results that I got when I went through the four or five pages Scott devoted to color correction using the "Curves" tool (Page 115). What a difference. When I completed the adjustment of my first photo I placed it along side the same photo I had adjusted using techniques shown in other books. There was no comparison. Scott't technique resulted in much richer and vibrant colors that were true to my recollection of the original scene. Kudos to Scott and his straight forward teaching techniques.
Rating:
Summary: I teach photography and I recommend this book 100%
Review: I don't usually bother w/Amazon reviews but I read the two first comments and had to speak up. I teach a course on digital photography, I've been using the first version of this book (called "The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers") and it's the best book of it's kind I've ever seen. I'll upgrade to using this CS version as soon as the class begins covering CS. The "misrepresentation of content" reviewer seems confused or something--does he have the older version of this book?--because the copy I have clearly has "CS" all over the place: front cover, spine, back cover, all over the inside. I did notice that the image of the cover on the Amazon page is wrong, because the real cover is teal and white, not red and black like the first one was. Not sure what's up with that. At any rate, it's been my experience that once some people get to a certain advanced level of experience, they can be pretty choosy about exactly which details they want out of a book. All I can say is that for 95% of the rest of us, this book teaches digital photography through the lens of Photoshop better than any other. As for his writing style, I've seen Kelby give a seminar on Photoshop, and he writes like he talks... it's hard to fault him for that, and the 400 people in the room that day seemed to especially appreciate his informal teaching demeanor.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the other review seems confused, as well, since both versions of Photoshop (Mac and PC) are identical and have been for some time. I teach using my Apple iBook and a projector, in a lab that uses Dell machines, and this has never been an issue. I mean, on page xvii in the front of the book, Kelby even addresses this, saying "the keyboard on a PC is slightly different from the keyboard on a Mac, so any time I give a keyboard shortcut in the book, I give both the PC and Mac keyboard shortcuts." What more do you want?
As for some of the other snipes about workflow and weak examples, speak for yourself. I happen to agree with what Kelby writes most of the time, and when I don't, it's because at some level we eventually have our own opinions on best practices. Like Kelby writes in the introduction, this is a Photoshop book, not a digital photography book. Every photographer has their own ways of doing things, and this book doesn't try to preach about those issues. That's one of the reasons it's so good.
Anyway, enough of the rant. This book is rock solid, the first two reviews seem more like confused nitpciking (with all due respect to the people who wrote them), and I'd recommend Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers in a heartbeat.
Rating:
Summary: I teach photography and I recommend this book 100%
Review: I don't usually bother w/Amazon reviews but I read the two first comments and had to speak up. I teach a course on digital photography, I've been using the first version of this book (called "The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers") and it's the best book of it's kind I've ever seen. I'll upgrade to using this CS version as soon as the class begins covering CS. The "misrepresentation of content" reviewer seems confused or something--does he have the older version of this book?--because the copy I have clearly has "CS" all over the place: front cover, spine, back cover, all over the inside. I did notice that the image of the cover on the Amazon page is wrong, because the real cover is teal and white, not red and black like the first one was. Not sure what's up with that. At any rate, it's been my experience that once some people get to a certain advanced level of experience, they can be pretty choosy about exactly which details they want out of a book. All I can say is that for 95% of the rest of us, this book teaches digital photography through the lens of Photoshop better than any other. As for his writing style, I've seen Kelby give a seminar on Photoshop, and he writes like he talks... it's hard to fault him for that, and the 400 people in the room that day seemed to especially appreciate his informal teaching demeanor.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the other review seems confused, as well, since both versions of Photoshop (Mac and PC) are identical and have been for some time. I teach using my Apple iBook and a projector, in a lab that uses Dell machines, and this has never been an issue. I mean, on page xvii in the front of the book, Kelby even addresses this, saying "the keyboard on a PC is slightly different from the keyboard on a Mac, so any time I give a keyboard shortcut in the book, I give both the PC and Mac keyboard shortcuts." What more do you want?
As for some of the other snipes about workflow and weak examples, speak for yourself. I happen to agree with what Kelby writes most of the time, and when I don't, it's because at some level we eventually have our own opinions on best practices. Like Kelby writes in the introduction, this is a Photoshop book, not a digital photography book. Every photographer has their own ways of doing things, and this book doesn't try to preach about those issues. That's one of the reasons it's so good.
Anyway, enough of the rant. This book is rock solid, the first two reviews seem more like confused nitpciking (with all due respect to the people who wrote them), and I'd recommend Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers in a heartbeat.
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