Friday, November 11, 2011

Adobe Photoshop CS5 On Demand - Steve Johnson - 9780789744470

[caption id="attachment_716" align="alignnone" width="244" caption="Adobe Photoshop CS5 On Demand - Steve Johnson - 9780789744470"]Adobe Photoshop CS5 On Demand - Steve Johnson - 9780789744470[/caption]


DESCRIPTION

Need answers quickly? Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand provides those answers in a visual step-by-step format. We will show you exactly what to do through lots of full color illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions.

Includes
    Workshops
    ACE Exam Objectives
    More than 600 Essential Photoshop CS5 Tasks

Inside the Book

• Improve productivity with the CS5 interface and templates
• Use automatic layer alignment and blending to work with objects
• Use live filters to view and modify the results of opening files
• Use more precise color correction to enhance a photo
• Use content-aware options for scaling and fill
• Use image trickery to change or enhance an image
• Create eye-catching bevels and special effects
• Transform plain text into a show-stopping image
• Create and manipulate 3D models using presets and custom options
• Use tool presets to construct the right tool for the right job
• Test content on different target devices


REVIEWS

This book has some excellent features to recommend it:

* Excellent organizational structure: a clean and logical grouping of common and related task tutorials in increasing order of complexity.
* An excellent table of contents, tabbed and color-coded to the book's side for quick content location and an excellent and descriptive index that helps you find what you're looking for.
* Good and descriptive section headings and introductions to give you an overview of what will be covered in that section and some idea of key concepts.
* A methodology that is consistent throughout: sequentially number-coded instructions on the left and illustrated and number coded demonstrations on the right, with frequent highlighted text boxes with additional information.
* A good and logical selection of the tasks that most people will need to perform most often.
* Aimed at all of Photoshop's constituencies: the photographer, the print media designer, and the web designer, and all the sub-categories (such as the photographer who doesn't print, just saves for monitor viewing or web).

I would assume the target audience to be current Photoshop users who want to quickly perform certain tasks or make a certain type of adjustment. Since terms are used that would baffle a new user, a certain degree of familiarity is assumed. Another target audience might be people who, like me, are migrating to the CS5 version from a previous version and want to become familiar with newer features.

However, I think that the new, entry level Photoshop user is going to find himself very attracted to the concept of a collection of task-oriented tutorials (which is, basically, what this book is). For that audience, I would say that this book teaches you Photoshop as I learned it: quickly and on a need-to-know basis.

On retrospect, however, I've come to realize that learning while performing tasks by rote is not the best way to learn a complex and multi-track program such as Photoshop. Initially, I learned how to do certain things that I needed to do but I didn't understand what was happening under the hood, why it was happening, how to do it less destructively or what techniques work best with which type of image. I followed a sequence of steps that required minimal judgment on my part. With time, I came to understand and acquired better practices but I'm still amazed at the gaps in my knowledge after 11 years of constant use. I've come to be a pretty competent Photoshopper, but I think the process would have been far more efficient if I'd laid a good groundwork of basic concepts and best practices from the beginning.

If, like me, you need to learn quickly, do get this book and do follow its instructions. However, get other books as well and learn the why's, and the when's, and the consequences of choosing one way over another. Look up any terms used in this book that you don't understand before proceeding with the instructions. (The web is also an excellent source of information). Learn the concepts, not just the steps.

And, learn from my mistakes: save the master (RAW or unprocessed jpg) of every important photo you process now until you feel you are competent. Just burn them to CD's and set them aside for a few years. I very much regret not having done that. I have a lot of over-processed and over-sharpened photos that looked great to my untrained eye back then but I now wish I could start over to get right. (Additional processing now would just further degrade them).


DETAILS

TITLE: Adobe Photoshop CS5 On Demand

Author: Steve Johnson

Language: English

ISBN: 9780789744470

Format: PDF

DRM-free: Without Any Restriction

SKU: 2cs5demandjohnson4



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