Rating: 
Summary: Sweet
Review: I know Photoshop, but I wanted to KNOW Photoshop (for I only knew text effects). I wanted to know the filters, how they work, and the works. Now I know all this stuff. For a low price, this is as good as it gets.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely not for beginners.
Review: I tried to use this book as a teaching aid, but it failed on two fronts. First, there are more than a dozen errors in the first 12 chapters, some editorial, some typographic, but all very problematic. Additionally, the examples given do not come as files for download off the net, or on an enclosed CD making it impossible to duplicate in a teaching setting. This also would have pointed out many of the editing errors... since the procedures given are fairly poor.
Previous books by this author were quite good, but I would advise passing on this book for a later edition.
Rating: 
Summary: A non-patronizing book
Review: I'm surprised at the feedback I've seen on this book because I truly enjoy the Quickstart series of computer books. They're informative, detailed and the content is easy to find. In fact, their books were used as my textbooks in college and I liked them so much I continue to use them. But I won't say that these books aren't for a specific type of person. I will explain. If you've ever picked up a Whatever-for-Dummies book, or the Idiot's-Guide-for-something or any kind of Textbooks-for-Morons you either like them or hate them. Why? Because they all seem to be written at the same level meaning they are real beginner books. If you are the type of person who doesn't know how to work a mouse, then I suggest that you stick to Dummy books. The Quickbooks are more geared towards people who like to play with programs to figure them out. They do give brief explanations of the basics, and I mean: "This is a pallet, this is a brush" but they only do it briefly. They are non-patronizing to the people out there who have a knack for figuring programs out. Quickbooks are also informative. If you need information on a specific topic, such as adjusting contrast, you'll usually find it within seconds through the glossary. Not only that, but there are a number of visual aids to reference and shows step-by-step what you're going to do or use. Sometimes, they even include URLs to pages on the web (but that may be aimed towards different topics other than PhotoShop.) The details are also worth their while to read. They give plenty of additional tips to use that you might not think of. It will usually be in a side box with a "did you know" kind of title. These have helped in my work plenty of times and given me ideas. Plus, these books are for Mac or PC which is a plus for me considering sometimes I have to work on one or the other platform and don't always know the keystrokes or commands which can be quite different from each other. Again, these are reference books. They are not tutorial books for the ultimate beginner. I continue to use these books with my work and enjoy them thoroughly. I recommend these books for people who like to play with programs and need something to look back on and research further.
Rating:
Summary: Systematic approach, for reference fine, not to learn PS6
Review: It is a book that explains to you which button to press to achieve something. There is little background information of why or how you can do things. For example layers, they tell you how to cretae, copy etc. layers, but I miss the bigger picture of why to use this, in which cases and what you can achieve supported with examples. I miss the expert tips. Systematicly all program options are described, but there's no coherence. For reference it may be fine, but it is not a book to learn photoshop. I was a little disappointed with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Book Level: Intermediate!
Review: It is the first Photoshop book that I bought. It confused me a lot. There is no learning guide in this book. After I read a true beginner level book, I found it quite useful as a "How-To" book.
Rating:
Summary: Book Level: Intermediate!
Review: It is the first Photoshop book that I bought. It confused me a lot. There is no learning guide in this book. After I read a true beginner level book, I found it quite useful as a "How-To" book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not For Beginners; Black&White, Crowded Format a Problem Too
Review: So far this is the Photoshop book I'd tell you to buy last after my buying 5 different ones. It is the one in use in my college level course and I think they should use just about anything else. Its biggest problem is that it is just too complicated for a beginner to use. It throws an enormous amount of material before you.(That is the effect it has upon you as a student--data being dumped on you en masse) Hours later into reading it, you are no better off than when you started. It is also in black and white and every single page is jam packed with material. This off-putting visual style/format is no aid to learning either. Now that I'm steadily improving in Photoshop, I hope I am able to occasionally open this book and learn something I haven't gleaned elsewhere so as to get my [money] out of it. I have yet to be able to do this though. I can't really recommend buying this book and I think colleges should stop requiring it as the text.
Rating:
Summary: Not For Beginners; Black&White, Crowded Format a Problem Too
Review: So far this is the Photoshop book I'd tell you to buy last after my buying 5 different ones. It is the one in use in my college level course and I think they should use just about anything else. Its biggest problem is that it is just too complicated for a beginner to use. It throws an enormous amount of material before you.(That is the effect it has upon you as a student--data being dumped on you en masse) Hours later into reading it, you are no better off than when you started. It is also in black and white and every single page is jam packed with material. This off-putting visual style/format is no aid to learning either. Now that I'm steadily improving in Photoshop, I hope I am able to occasionally open this book and learn something I haven't gleaned elsewhere so as to get my [money] out of it. I have yet to be able to do this though. I can't really recommend buying this book and I think colleges should stop requiring it as the text.
Rating:
Summary: If You Want to Make Photoshop 6 Work, Here's How
Review: This book is not for the newbie. It does not teach you how to make effects that wow the masses. 17 year old boys will not be able to make flames scorch rubber duckies just by picking up this book, and you will not be able to sleep walk through all of the functions that Photoshop 6 can give you merely by purchasing this volume. However, if you own Photoshop 6, and have some familiarity with the program, and some idea of what you want your image to look like--this is the book for you. It tells you how to make Photoshop do what you want. Its functions are clearly explained, and you don't have to read the whole thing to be able to execute one function flawlessly. I was relieved that this book does not "effect a breezy style" like the Dummies books and most of the computer books out there. You will see one or two "kute as a button" self-references by the authors (on the order of "we tried this function and were awed by it"). Nowadays, that is about as restrained as you get.You will never know about the authors' adorable moppets, how they truely feel about lattes, or that their cell phones eat batteries. You don't care. You want to learn how to use Photoshop, not babysit by proxy some self absorbed yup-geek. Hooray for being relieved of the authors' neurosis so you can get down to business. That is what you are paying for, and that is what you will get. Also, you are relieved of the all but useless "Bonus CD" that comes with most computer books, which greatly reduces its price and annoyance quotient. I am sure you have long ceased to be impressed with the "Bonus CD" chocked full of: demo programs that blow up after 10 days, shareware that ends up costing you ... if you want it (which you weren't counting on when you bought the book), and crippled mini programs that do one thing well once and just end up taking space on your hard drive in perpetutity. If you are a poor lost soul who flaps and flaps and just can't figure out a big image manipulation program, this is not the book for you--and Photoshop 6 is not the program for you. If you are a curious and dedicated user of Photoshop, and you want to get the best out of this huge and grand software, do buy this book and it will be of great help to you. If you lost your manual, this is the best substitute.
Rating:
Summary: Neither "Quick" nor a "Start"
Review: This is the fifth book I've purchased from the Visual QuickStart series. Up until now, these books have made learning CorelDraw 9, JavaScript, DreamWeaver 3, etc. almost too easy. You launch the program, set the book in front of you, and you're off, and more often than not, having fun. This book was vastly different. First, it's over 500 pages of very small text (not quite a "quick" start). It's twice as thick as any other QuickStart book I have. Second, and more importantly, it does a less than adequate job of explaining the terms it uses as it teaches you PhotoShop. Too often it uses terms that it hasn't explained yet (i.e. referring to image layers and shape layers, before explaining the difference), and too many times it references other parts of the book ("To do this, click here, for more on this, turn to page 412"). It gets very frustrating, and often I find myself referring to the index for more explanation. Unfortunately, the index isn't that well organized either. This may wind up being a valuable reference book for me someday but, as a introductory book, it frustrates much more than it helps.
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