Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Earth Shattering Here
Review: I absolutely LOVED the Photoshop 7 version of this book, but found very little useful information in this newest book. The techniques in this one were not so different from those in the last book - just a different context for much of the same "tricks". I am a huge fan of Scott Kelby, however, I found myself quite disappointed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: ! AMAZING MENTOR !
Review: I am a huge fan of Scott Kelby, he and his creative director Felix Nelson is the one to listen to as far as learning Photoshop goes.I went to the L.A. show and Scott was amazing He puts his heart and soul into teaching this amazing program like no one else. This book is just incredible, all brand new tutorials on the hottest most popular techniques out there. I hesitated in learning Photoshop due to its somewhat difficult learning curve. But when I went to a local bookstore and flipped thru PhotoShop User Magazine, I new this program had the right teacher and mentor to show me. Thank you Scott Kelby and Staff, you guys enrich my creative lifestyle with your knowledge and love for this amazing software.
Rating:
Summary: A bit of jealousy perhaps?
Review: I bought this book for several reasons: I had the previous version and saw that this contained "all new content"; because I have several of Kelby's other books and 'cuz I can never get enough Photoshop books.
Then I read through all the reviews and had to laugh at the people that gave this book 1 -2 stars. What a laugh. Are you perhaps a little jealous of Kelby's success? Comments like didn't live up to the hype, no advanced tricks etc make me wonder if THEY read the book!
To me the point of a book like this is to show me the idea of how a particular look is created and then I run with it and create my own variations. To suggest that I could have got all these fresh ideas from "any" Photoshop book is ridiculous. Most Photoshop books re-hash the manual to teach you how the program works. This is one of the few books that leaves that out and gives me great ideas to work with.
Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of fun for the beginning Photoshop user
Review: I can get around in Photoshop alright. If I already have a graphic and I need to change the color or make the background transparent, then I am okay. But I've always wondered how people can make some of the really creative stuff that Photoshop can do. I've never been able to figure out how to do some of the effects that you see in virtually every advertisement in the Sunday paper. This book goes a long way toward showing you how to do a lot of those really cool effects. It's written for someone with a basic understanding of Photoshop, so you won't have to go through the boring details of what Photoshop is. The book is divided up into different sections, with each chapter in a section being dedicated to a particular "project" (e.g. how to create a DVD package). The great thing about each project is that this book contained step-by-step instructions along with lots and lots of screen captures. Another thing which makes this book really fun to use is that many of the projects involve creating a graphic or logo you see all the time (like the UPN Television logo, a Best Buy advertisement, or an EA Sports game cover). These little added bits of realism help make the book a lot of fun as well as help you see different examples of where you can use your Photoshop skills. If you're like me-a casual Photoshop user who wants to become a lot better-then this might be a fun book to take a look at. It shows how to make really professional looking graphics, and helps you see that it's really not that far out of your reach!
Rating: 
Summary: interesting, but not too relevent for most photographers
Review: I don't mean to complain, but I was very disappointed by this book. first of all, it doens't really "teach" you photoshop -- it provides recipes to do things so you can do them without learning. For example, he doesn't tell you how to make a layer or where the command is, he just gives you the shortcut which is not helpful for a beginner trying to figure out HOW to do basic tasks and where you can find those taks in the menu bar. But then again, I guess this book isn't for beginners. My other grips is that I read through all the tips, but then I realized that for me, a photographer mostly of my own family, I didn't need ANY of these tips -- I'm not creating a magazine, a CD cover, etc.. -- just family pics. So, if you want a quick recipe for doing neat text things and effects, this is the book for you. If you want to LEARN how to use the program or fix your photographs in non-gimmicky ways, you should buy a different book. This book will be great for designers or those who want to see how to produce high tech effects, but for just photographers, it's not the best.
Rating:
Summary: A whole new book!
Review: I have been of fan of Scott Kelby's work for soemtime. I didn't pick up the last version of this book because severl of the techniques had been previously covered in past editions. This one's entirely new with tons of great ideas. Scott's passion and enthusiasm for Photoshop make this a highly enjoyable read. the skills covered are sure to please your clients as well. I bought this book the day it came out and I suggest you pick it up fast!
Rating:
Summary: A great hit the ground running kind of book
Review: I like this book because it caters to the kind of person that likes to just pick something up and go without the need of reading through countless chapters just to create a drop shadow for some text. Down & Dirty is a learn by example book which is the method that I seem to gain the greatest amount of progress from. The techniques used to create the example work can be easily altered and applied to any creations or alterations used in Photoshop, which is what makes it the most useful. Each new version of Photoshop is increasingly more complex than the last so I recommend this book as a companion book for Photoshop, but definately not the only book that should be on your shelf on this subject, else you will miss out on everything else that Photoshop can do!
Rating:
Summary: A great way to learn Photoshop techniques
Review: I saw Scott Kelby demonstrate a number of these techniques at MacWorld in San Francisco. They are quick, easy to learn, and create wonderful results.
After his presentation, I immediately went to booth selling books, and bought this. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Good book... but not perfect
Review: I think most (80-90%) of the effects in this book are worth learning. Some effects, like the "pencil drawing" are downright bad, in my opinion. Doesn't resemble a pencil drawing at all. And this very technique is well documented many times on the web. Just do a Google search and you'll find tutorials on the same bad technique. The beauty of this book is that almost all the effects are VERY easy to create. Just a few minutes and you're done. The bad part is that there are no effects that will knock your socks off. Nice effects, but none (for me) are WOW!! Then again this is not what the book is about. Any WOW effect probably is very complicated to create without any "dirty" tricks. This book is about creating decent things without much fuss. And it does a good job at doing that. Each step in each project is very highly detailed... for me, it's too detailed because i already know the program well. For example, instead of simply saying "in a new layer, create an oval w/ the oval marquee tool and fill it with black", he says the same thing in 10x as many words and a few sentences. This is good if you know nothing about PS, but too wordy if you know it already. Also, most of the tools that he uses, he accesses them with keyboard shortcuts. I personally prefer to use my mouse to click on the palette buttons, or menu items, instead of memorizing keyboard shortcuts. For example, if he fills a selection with black, he first does the keyboard shortcut for making the foreground black and background white. Then he does the shortcut to fill the selection with the foreground color. I prefer to just go to Edit > Fill > black. ... just something to consider before getting this good book. Oh i forgot to mention that every page (front and back) has a good "tip". Some are obvious, but alot are not. For now i'm just reading the tutorials, but i'll be going back later to read up on all the tips. Overall, i am happy i bought this book. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Good book... but not perfect
Review: I think most (80-90%) of the effects in this book are worth learning. Some effects, like the "pencil drawing" are downright bad, in my opinion. Doesn't resemble a pencil drawing at all. And this very technique is well documented many times on the web. Just do a Google search and you'll find tutorials on the same bad technique. The beauty of this book is that almost all the effects are VERY easy to create. Just a few minutes and you're done. The bad part is that there are no effects that will knock your socks off. Nice effects, but none (for me) are WOW!! Then again this is not what the book is about. Any WOW effect probably is very complicated to create without any "dirty" tricks. This book is about creating decent things without much fuss. And it does a good job at doing that. Each step in each project is very highly detailed... for me, it's too detailed because i already know the program well. For example, instead of simply saying "in a new layer, create an oval w/ the oval marquee tool and fill it with black", he says the same thing in 10x as many words and a few sentences. This is good if you know nothing about PS, but too wordy if you know it already. Also, most of the tools that he uses, he accesses them with keyboard shortcuts. I personally prefer to use my mouse to click on the palette buttons, or menu items, instead of memorizing keyboard shortcuts. For example, if he fills a selection with black, he first does the keyboard shortcut for making the foreground black and background white. Then he does the shortcut to fill the selection with the foreground color. I prefer to just go to Edit > Fill > black. ... just something to consider before getting this good book. Oh i forgot to mention that every page (front and back) has a good "tip". Some are obvious, but alot are not. For now i'm just reading the tutorials, but i'll be going back later to read up on all the tips. Overall, i am happy i bought this book. Highly recommended!
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