Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic book if you understand the purpose of it...
Review: This book is NOT about ...
- how do I scan my pictures in
- how do I use photoshop and all the features in it.This book is about...
- I have some problems with my digital photos
- I need to color correct
- I need to sharpen the image
- I need to reduce red eye
- I need to fix skin tones
- etc The introduction of the book best summarizes his approach..."He does x number of seminars every year for hundreds of professional photographers, they all ask the same questions on how to fix digital photos for the customer." This book summarizes all the tips and tricks to get the job done. I couldn't be happier with the book, it has exactly what I want in it.
Rating: 
Summary: You might get a helpful tip
Review: Scott Kelby's book is a recipe book for certain discrete problems that the Photoshop user may encounter, as well as some little known information about some aspects of Photoshop that you might not otherwise learn. If you find a recipe that fills a need that you have, the book will be a good investment. But if you are looking for an overall approach to using Photoshop this is not the book for you. Right from the first chapter, with his discussion of ways to use the Photoshop browser, you make pick up another way of dealing with a Photoshop function that you didn't know about. On the other hand, some of the material will be old hat to an experienced Photoshop user. Some of the techniques, like color correction of digital images, will appeal to almost any Photoshop user. Those who have philosophical questions about what I call montage may not be interested in chapters on removing the wrinkles in an elderly person's portrait or removing the love handles from a slightly overgrown physique. On the other hand, these certainly are bread and butter issues to some photographers. Kelby's method of holding your attention is by making a number of breezy wise cracks as you go through the book. For example he says in the chapter on masking techniques "If I were elected President, one of my first priorities would be to sign an executive order requiring all registered voters to carry with them a white seamless role at all times" He then goes on to speculate how easy this would make Photoshop selection. That stylistic gadget may make you laugh the first time you encounter it, but after the 50th encounter you want to tell the author to take a break. The title of this book might lead you to believe that this book would start at the beginning of the photographic process, when an image is being captured in a digital camera. If the book didn't intend to cover this, why say it's for "digital photographers"? After all, every picture manipulated in Photoshop is digital - it has to be to get into Photoshop - but it could have come from a photo-cd or a scanner. But this book starts when the photo is already in the camera. I got very interested when I saw that there was a section of the book on Photoshop's Camera RAW plug-in. But all Kelby gives you is a rehash of the information that Adobe provides you with the RAW software with a lower level of detail. You get no help on how to use that software to make a better picture. I occasionally think Kelby takes a more complex approach to a problem than one needs. His section on "Color Correcting Digital Images" advises setting the tonal highlight, shadow and midpoint with the curves function, but most users would probably find it easier to do this with the levels function There is no magic bullet that will help someone learn the fundamentals of Photoshop. The new user is best served by sitting down with a book of tutorials, either like those provided by Adobe or like Photoshop 7 Artistry by Barry Haynes, and working through the exercises. After that you can come back to this book and get a few tips in using the Photoshop functions that you know.
Rating: 
Summary: Looks very nice, but not much substance here.
Review: This is one of two books on Photoshop I've bought by mail-order this year, and I wish I'd looked it over before I paid for it. It looks great, with lots of color pictures on every page, but there's not much of substance here. It's pretty much the same old techniques you can find in dozens of other books, laid out in an interesting and colorful way. Beginners to Photoshop may find something useful here, but if you're a serious digital photographer or veteran Photoshop user, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best how-to-books ever
Review: I have purchased 3 other photoshop guides and manuals and this on is far the best I have ever used. It covers everything one that one would want to fix, eenhance and WOW your photographs. What make this book one of the best is its step-by-step fully illulstrated technique that is easy to understand. Don't buy the other book, just get this one.
Rating:
Summary: Chapter on Color Correction worth the price
Review: I just started using Photoshop 7 about two weeks ago. Scott Kelby's book cuts to the chase with clear and step by step instructions of how to do basic, and not so basic, tasks in PS. The chapter on Color Correction is worth the price of the book. Kelby's explanation of the "Curves" function is incredibly helpful and its use has made a significant improvement in the quality of my printer photos.
Rating:
Summary: A very disappointing book
Review: This book is only for beginners who want to get quick recipes & don't care much to understand what they do. To define the user level as intermediate-advanced is very misleading: Mastering the file browser, cropping & resizing, the show must go on chapters are a complete joke that will only appeal to beginners that never read photoshop documentation. Color me bad, masking techniques, photographic special effects, back in black & sharp-dressed man may be of interest to users with a few week's photoshop experience. Chapter 3, 6 & 7 may be of interest to intermediate user that never had to deals with those kind of problems before. The book also gives bad habits, such as using destructive corrections when a non-destructive one is possible. e.g. in de-emphasizing nostrils, why apply the healing brush directly when you can copy the nostril on a new layer, fix it there & adjust the layer opacity & mode?
Rating:
Summary: The best book EVER!
Review: If you are a PRO with digital imaging, but need some help with getting to know Photoshop 7.0- buy this book! Scott will teach you everything you need to know to make you works look incredible!
If you are pro with digital photography AND photoshop- BUY IT! Because Scott will teach you how you can do things in Photoshop easier!!!!
The best book I've ever read in my life about photoshop. Easy, step by step instructions- and you know something really cool about digital photography!
Hurry up, stop thinking- ORDER it NOW! Just one easy step- and you're getting to be a PRO a+++++ with photoshop! I promise..no, not me- Scott.... ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: I like the book
Review: I found this book very easy to follow and better then many books I have bought previously, one thing I don't like is the images(not all of theme), when the author goes step by step through an example, I can't see any changes in the pictures for each step.
Rating:
Summary: A Model for ALL Software Manuals
Review: I've purchased several other Photoshop manuals over the years before discovering this one. Photoshop is a wonderful product, but the tech manuals associated with it leave a lot to be desired, in terms of what I've been able to get out of them. Some are author-oriented, showing off all stupendous things the author has done with the product. Some are product-oriented, describing all its features. Some are encyclopedic-oriented--expanded glossaries of all the terms and phrases related to the product. Each of these orientations make it tough-going for the user. This manual is different. It's "you" oriented. It simply lists all the things you might want to do with your original photos--individually and collectively--to "make things better," dealing with the tasks in the sequence they would typically be performed. For each task Kelby then describes step-by-step exactly and precisely what to do to accomplish the intended outcome. In short, he provides all you need to know, nothing more, nothing less, in a reasonable sequence. What more could you ask other sprinkles on your ice cream? If all tech manuals were to follow this template, we'd need many fewer manuals, but we'd be much better served.
Rating: 
Summary: For PhotoShop & Digital Photo experts ONLY!
Review: If you are a PhotoShop expert AND a very experienced digital photographer, then you may find this book marginally helpful. It's essentially a cookbook that contains a series of discrete "lessons" that teach "tips" that might (??) be helpful to expert photographers who want to get a few more horsepower from PhotoShop. My doubt about even this potential value arises from the fact that a PhotoShop expert...think about it (an EXPERT)...may not need this help. For the rest of us, this book is a bad choice. Rather than introducing material in a sequential fashion that allows any reader to "climb the hill" to increased knowledge, this author jumps from one topic to another without a moment's regard for whether the reader has been previously introduced to the skills that are needed for the new project. For the reader, this is like taking a hike and discovering that you're confronted by a 500 foot cliff after you've gone 30 yards down the trail. In other respects, too, this is just a bad book, plain and simple. Its index is attrocious...a disqualifying fault for any "book" that purports to educate. The lessons are itsy bitsy, two-page "tips", and even these baby steps are interrupted every paragraph or two by one of the author's lame jokes. By selecting this style, the author is really telling us what he thinks of us. He thinks we are stupid children whose minds will wander if he doesn't "entertain" us with a truly bad "joke" once or twice per lesson. This is insulting. If you want to learn to use PhotoShop to process your digital images, look elsewhere. I wish I had!
| 
