Adobe Books

I have partially read so many bad romance novels recently (e.g., boy meets girl & saves the day). The plot of this book was unique and kept me reading straight through. The characters were very likable (the hero was not the overbearing Alpha male so often written into a romance novel). I did not read the other books yet in the trilogy - this was my first Holling book. Not having read the other two was not a problem for me. I hope her other books are as entertaining.

I truly enjoyed this series. There is so much depth and emotion in all three books. My Shadow Warrior concludes the story of the three sisters; Isobel, Gillian and Rose. Rose is a strong heroine, intent on saving her dying father at any cost. She seeks out the Wizard of the North, William in hopes that he will be able to save her father using his powers. After a rocky start he agrees to travel home with Rose to heal her father. The story is romantic and dark with lots of sexual chemistry. Deidra, William's daughter who is the heroine of My Immortal Protector (my favorite Holling book) is introduced in this book.

The fascination with the paranormal implies a big dose of imagination; Jen Holling is creating three heroines of different mystical powers: Isobel, Gillian and Rose MacDonell; in My Shadow Warrior, they merge the powers toward solving the mystery of the illness of Allan MacDonell, their father, and the fate of Lilian MacDonell, their mother.
Must read the entire trilogy

I am a die hard fan of romantic novels. I have all three of the series and I absolutely love them they are all really good.

This is the third installment of The Brides of the Bloodstone trilogy. It's the story of Rose, youngest of the three MacDonell sisters. While they were little girls, their mother, a powerful witch, was burned at the stake. In fear for their lives, their father hid them separately. Now many years later, and on his deathbed from a mysterious illness, the MacDonell has summoned his daughters home.

Their lives are still in danger so he has arranged each of them to be married to men he can entrust with their safety. Rose, the youngest and blessed with the healing touch, is betrothed to Jamie MacPherson, a childhood friend she hasn't seen in years. Her wedding, however, has been postponed so she can devote herself to discovering the source of her father's illness.

Despite her many efforts, her father continues to deteriorate. To Rose's mind, her only hope is William MacKay, a gifted healer also known as the Wizard of the North. Since her many letters to him have gone unanswered, Rose decides to travel to his fortress to see him in person.

William is determined to shun the girl who has traveled many miles to see him, but curiosity forces him to disguise himself and seek her out. What he finds is a beautiful woman who is dedicated to helping others, even at risk to herself.

His fascination with her finally forces him to see her and eventually agree to travel to MacDonell castle to see her father. But in truth there is a sinister plot behind the MacDonell's illness and his wife's death and this mysterious enemy will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

This was such a great ending to a wonderful trilogy. The plot of the MacDonnell's illness and the mother's death at the stake is woven throughout all three books. It is finally resolved in this last tale but what an ending. Jen Holling has done a masterful job weaving several storylines together to create an enchanting tale of love, treachery, and greed.

I have been using GoLive since the Cyberstudio days, and this book STILL florred me on how much useful information it contained. Everything from the "Well duh! I can't believe I didn't know that" to the "WOW" tips are in here.

Simple. Consolidated. Useful.

This book is a great catalyst for experienced as well as new GoLive users. It's great way to learn all those little hidden, new or forgotten goodies in GoLive, whether you want to know how to be a more efficient GoLive user or want to know what you've been missing and don't have the time to learn. This book is a quick, enjoyable, easy read. I'm already looking forward to a "More Tips & Tricks!" book, but it's hard to imagine they've missed any with this one.

Adobe offers GoLive as a powerful tool to build pages in a website. It is complicated enough that the authors of this book present 200 tips, to perform common and useful tasks.

The contents pages show a titular summary of the tips. Given that GoLive is from Adobe, it's no surprise to see an emphasis on the visual presentation of the pages. Typical is a tip about writing links in PDF documents, or another tip about converting an HTML file, and any associated referenced images, into a single PDF document. Of course, there are also several tips involving Adobe's flagship Photoshop.

Overall, the tips seem straightforward to understand and do. This appears to have been a deliberate choice by the authors. The book is most useful if you already have the basics of GoLive. A good companion to a standard text on GoLive.

I recently met the Author Adam Pratt at Mac Designers Conference this year in Chicago and Adam introduced me to GoLive CS, I was hooked within 20 minutes. Reading this book is like speaking to Adam but instead of 20 minutes, it feels like a 6-8 hour training. The book is simple and effective for the beginner and full of tips and tricks for the intermediate user already using GoLive. It covers the basics from setting up the site to advanced features like creating cool Quicktime slideshows with GoLive's impressive QuickTime editor. The book is filled with great resources such as hidden shortcuts (for Mac & PC), detailed descriptions of each object and there's even a resource listing sites that are full of GoLive Tutorials.

Being a Senior Web Developer and College Instructor, I highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars.

One of the best books on software that i ever bought. I've been working with GoLive for quite a while now and just can't believe how many useful things i didn't know about it yet. So many shortcuts that enhance productivity, so many features that i paid too little attention to.
Because of the way it's written - 200 tips, most of them on 1 or 2 pages - it's easy to pick it up at any time, read a minute, learn something valuable and put it down again. And you're almost sure to learn something new with every tip.

I bought a number of digital textile design books. This one is the most updated and simple in terms of the instructions. Also, the author is extremely accessible and available for support, questions and feedback. He was fantastic and very helpful!

As a Graphic Designer, I made a research and bough four products that were supose to solve textil design, and this was the best, It gives you meny alternatives: also the seller stood beside me when nedded.

I love this book! It saved me hours in learning specific aspects of textile design using photoshop - plus the author makes himself available for technical assists. Awesome.

This is an excellent book for textile designers. Easy to follow and Frederick has been a pleasure to work with. Thanks again!

This book took me to an advanced level of textile design! It was like taking a course in textile design in college except you can actually do things when you're finished! I'm ecstatic that I found this book. I have learned many new techniques. The explanations are very clear, precise and complete! I recommend this wonderful book and I fell grateful that Mr. Chipkin generously shared his years of experience. It's a book for professionals, freelancers and an essential book for the students.

I have never used PS before. But with this detailed and step-by-step instructions of this book, I found PS is quite easy to handle. love it, recommended to those who are truly beginners like me!

It sure made it easier to navigate through Photoshop. I still have a lot to learn, but it's easier with Sue and Jack's help.

This book is real helpful. Has some great tips with a number of nice shortcuts

A great resource for those who know, or are just begining to use photoshop. It helps you apply this powerful program to the unique problems of underwater photography, with easy hands on demonstrations. Version differences sometimes get in the way a bit, but the concept is clear and you just have to figure out how a newer version does what they may have done on the version this was written on.

All in all a very helpful book, with many great tips and concepts. I have used photoshop for a while, and been shooting UW for several years, this has already helped me get better photos and I have not hit the water since I got the book. I revisited some shots with specific problems that I learned a fix from in this book. Paid for itself in the first week.

I write this review with one purpose in mind: to affirm the 5-star rating this book has (so far).

As an experienced but not professional Photoshop user, I already had a good set of skills under my belt prior to color correcting underwater shots. I'd also done my internet homework and found plenty of good material out there. (YouTube, for example, has some great tutorials.)

I am cynical about most Photoshop books. Too often the same-old same-old just gets repackaged.

This said, I feel AP4UWP was excellent and well worth the price. In particular, AP4UWP helped me with those shots that really needed help but were worth preserving.

I've already recommended this book to every UW photographer I know.

Dr. Kirtland C Peterson

I was looking to get a quick run on how Adobe Premiere Pro 2 works as I was familiar with other video packages. Not only was this manual easy to use in showing how to utilize many of the features of Adobe Premiere but it gave you ideas on how to set your workspace to maximize your editing efficiency.
I found I was able to skip to some chapters I wanted to learn more about first and ignore others that had characteristics similar to other programs I had used.

This is a good start to using the powerful features of this program. Now all I need is another book to help with the advanced image and sound editing for those videos that look grainy or have sound drops.

Got the program? Need help to use it? This is probably the best reference. I rated it 4 stars because not all of the material is in the lesson. You will have to copy resource material to your computer.

Anyone would easily think that Adobe premiere pro would be such a hard thing to learn how to do. Thanks to Jeff Schell, that problem is over. With easy excercises, this book is the essential tool to help you understand how to use the problem much better. It teaches you the basic tools, guides, and shortcuts that can help you create your own masterpiece (whatever that may be). The book also includes the disc that helps you step by step to create a simple video. I highly recommend this book for those who definitly want to learn Premiere Pro. It's Good Stuff

A book that I can read and understand without breaking into a sweat.
It solved one of my big problems inside five minutes.
You will not regret buying this book.

I would rate myself at the intermediate level when it comes to editing. I was fairly new to Premiere Pro 2 (was using 6.5 before) when I purchased the book. There were some things I knew already that the book described but I didn't know a lot of the shortcuts. It also taught me a great deal about using all of the Audio features, so that was a huge bonus for me. All in all, I thought the book was great. It was easy to work through and follow. It also allows you to skip around throughout chapters easily.

Thank you, Rick Sammon! The photographs are incredible The descriptions of how thy are done makes me feel as though I could run right over and make those pictures, too. He makes it sound so easy to be a world class photographer. Thank you for the information
Gayle Gahn

World famous photographer and Canon Explorer of Light, Rick Sammon, shares the keys to taking great photos of people.

My copy came today from Amazon. I have just begun to dig into this but I can tell already that Face To Face will make me a better photographer. In one night...Face To Face has already changed the way I think about shooting people. Even more brilliant, Sammon has created a guide that allows everyone, including point and shoot photographers, to take better portraits. He shows how to light creatively with given light or how use of fillflash in the sun. He gives the basics of take three (you will need to get the book to find out what that means). Creating great group shots. And most importantly, he gives the basics of working with your subjects. All with a writing style that is warm and easy to read.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking better pictures of people...you know like your family.

I fell in love with Chapter 1 so quickly, that I went online and pre-ordered, Rick's next book...Exploring the Light. The premise is based on taking the best photos with your camera. This is not a photoshop book. I can NOT wait for this one. According to Amazon, my copy is supposed to ship around Oct 1. WHOOOO!

In the meantime, I will be like Linus, carrying around my copy of Face To Face like it's my blankie!

Thanks to Rick for teaching me "how to fall in love with my subject."

this is a great book. its really well written, and the photography is wonderful. I studied photography at the Pratt Institute and I found this book as informative and helpful as my advanced portrait class. Its fun to read, imaginative, and easy to understand. i really recommend it.

In an age where many academic Art historians and studio Art teachers often feel that art is about thought and explanation as opposed to inspiration, revisualization, craft and execution, this exquisitely illustrated book teaches how world-class images are the result of both inspiration careful visualition AND execution.

Rick Sammon shares techniques he uses to make extraordinary and artistic portraits. He reveals important tips and strategies for engaging the subject and setting up the shoot, along with techniques for photographing in a variety of conditions indoors and outdoors.

His side by side comparisons of subtle and sometimes not so subtle changes that make all the difference taking the image from acceptable to meaningful, is one of the most helpful aspects of his book. The book handles sometimes highly technical parameters in a simple and easily understood way. It teaches the value of understanding the craft so that the photographer does not stumble over technique as he/she tries to illustrate and share an important thought.

facetoface is a must study for young working professional portrait photographers but also extremely valuable for those wishing to commit art.. This book helps the artist to deliver on his/her vision. And as any mother knows it is easer to conceive than to deliver. Artists deserve to learn the same.

David A.Page
Fine Arts Photographer (ret.)
Duke University

I'm about to graduate from a digital point-and-shoot to an entry level DSLR camera. In order to create all those images that will wow my friends, I read through the book Face to Face: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Photographing People by Rick Sammon. If you're looking to focus on people and faces, this book puts you in the proper mindset on how best to shoot in a way that captures more than just an image.

Contents:
Introduction - The Camera Looks Both Ways
Part 1 - Cameras Don't Take Pictures, People Do: A Quick Look at Gear
Part 2 - Photo Philosophies: Making Pictures Versus Taking Pictures; From Head to Toe; Creating a Sense of Place; Dead Center Is Deadly; Horizontal and/or Vertical; Silence Is Deadly; Being There and Being Aware; Portraits Versus Environmental Portraits; The All-Important Background; Paying People; Dress for Success; Body Language and Hands; Seeing Eye to Eye; Choose a Location; Adding Props; Seeing Pictures Within a Picture; Adding a Person Adds Scale to a Picture; Thinking Creatively; Taking Fun Shots
Part 3 - Capturing Action; Using Reflectors; The Beauty of Using Diffusers; Garage Glamour; Daylight Fill-in Flash; The Disequilibrium Technique; The Key to a Good Profile; Photographing People in Low Light and at Night; Group Photography; Take Advantage of Backlight; Photographing Festivals; Creating a Sense of Depth
Part 4 - Indoor Photography: Rembrandt Lighting; Shooting Silhouettes; Basic Flash Techniques; Using Lighting Kits; Working with Mirrors; Photographing a Stage Show
Part 5 - Enhancing Your Pictures in Photoshop: Create a Beautiful Black-and-White Image; The Renaissance Painter Effect; Color and Black-and-White in the Same Image; From Snapshot to Artistic Image; Create the Disequilibrium Effect; Change the Shutter Speed and F-Stop; Remove Distracting Elements in a Scene; Brighten a Subject's Eyes and Smile; Basic Skin Coloring; Hand-Color a Picture; Playin' with Plug-ins
Epilog: Your Assignment - On-Location Portraiture
Index

This seems to differ somewhat from other photography books I've read in that he spends more time talking about composition and lighting rather than the technical details of exposure, f-stops, and other nitty-gritty elements. It's not that he ignores those details, but he's more concerned about issues like framing, background, subject interaction, and telling a story. As such, I could implement many of these techniques regardless of what camera I'm using. Yes, there is a limitation when you can't fully control lens selection and such, but you can still using lighting and composition to get memorable pictures. As the title indicates, Sammon is focusing (no pun intended) on the techniques involved in shooting people rather than scenery or special effects. While I don't expect to be an expert a day after the new camera arrives, I now realize that shooting people is something that says as much about you the photographer as it does about the person being shot. I'm looking forward to working through the "lessons", which is how each chapter is laid out. I also got a much better appreciation for the role of Photoshop in getting that image that looks professional. I have so much to learn...

About the only thing I didn't care for in the book is that a significant number of pictures in the book are from a select few photo shoots that he did. For instance, Silence is Deadly introduces an attractive woman with different facial expressions based on how the photographer was talking with her. But she then shows up repeatedly in staged old-time Western shots, and you learn that she's a model. In that case, the photographer definitely has a subject who can provide more than a spur-of-the-moment series of images. The other western shots carried the old-time saloon theme, and they looked more staged than I would have expected. On the other hand, his African tribe shots are very real. I just don't think I would have used them as much or as often as they were used to illustrate the different points.

Even with that minor nit, there's a lot to learn from this book for people like myself who are trying to kick up their skills to a new level.

I have a number of books that attempt to explain Photoshop CS3 and Camera Raw in particular. This book is, far and away, the best I have seen. It is extremely well written, easy to follow, and very comprehensive. I recommend it without qualifications.

How do professional photographers turn RAW data into fine polished results? Photoshop CS3 RAW: Transform your RAW Images into Works of Art explains how to use the Photoshop CS2 tool, surveying the basics of optimizing RAW images and deciding when to shoot RAW, how to organize and automate their processing, how to tweak the images with professional techniques, and more. Neo-pros need this - and any computer or photography library strong in Photoshop techniques will find it popular.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a fine introduction into CS3 RAW. It is very clear and easy to understand and follow. If you shoot in RAW and use ACR, this book should be in your library.

The outstanding thing to note about this book is that is organized very systematically. Instead of being a breathless description of everything you can do with the software, Aaland focuses on why you would do something and how to do it. Its an effort that is fun to read and easy to reference.

'Photoshop CS3 Raw: Get the Most Out of the Raw Format with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge' is a great resource for all levels of digital photographers who want to work with images of the highest quality possible. A regular photo who takes images with their camera probably takes them saved in the JPEG file format that has been so widely known and loved for so many years. The problem with this format is that when JPEG is used their is always data lost in the compression used to save the images. This data usually is minimal and not a big deal but if you need the highest quality pictures without any loss or compression at all, you need to save these in a better format. One of those formats is the Adobe RAW format which is the data saved with no data loss at all. These files will be much bigger in size but they also will guarantee that whatever picture(s) you took, you will see everything that was intended to be seen (and saved).

But simply taking the picture isn't enough, as there is tons of post-processing that goes on to get images looking even better than when they were taken. If you want to learn how to edit, crop, saturate, lighten, darken, whatever your heart desires with RAW imgagery, this is a great resource to have!! With nearly 250 pages spread across 12 chapters, this is a great introduction (in full color on glossy paper) to getting the most out of your camera and taking your images from Bs to As!!

This is a great resource to digital editing, my only caveat is that I feel it could be a bit longer. Another 50 pages or so with another example per chapter could have made things even better. A small complaint (and not enough to hurt my rating for the book) but it's worth noting.

If you take RAW images and want to learn how to get more out of them, this book will get you well on your way!!

***** RECOMMENDED

good book. easy to understand and easy to do the exercises. much easier than the dreamweaver 8 book, this is cs3 and this book works!

The book is awesome. Especially for those who like to learn by doing it. Despite few editing issues like miss typo or calling different functions with the same name, i was able to follow with the content. Higly Recommend.

This is a really good book to learn Dreamweaver. It talks a little about the subject then immediately lets you try it out. Great way to learn.

This is an excellent step by step book on how to create web pages using Dreamweaver. I would highly recommend this book.

My Dreamweaver CS3 class uses this textbook. I am brand new to web site creation and find this book a great place to start. Instructions are for both Mac and Windows, and the files on the included CD are very useful in teaching the student how to actually create and edit content. I am ordering another book from the Revealed series for Flash.

Adobe Houses for Today is a concise discussion of building with adobe. All the house plans are well thought out and enable a core house to be built first. While living in the core house, you can build on additional rooms without making structural changes to the core house. The homes appeal to a variety of builders from southwest flat roof styles to homes with gable roofs. Excellent resource.

If you are looking for old traditional Adobe home plans this is not what you are looking for. Other than, this is a very interesting book, very useful in where to get things done.

I agree with other reviewers that one of the most important features of this book is that in the 12 example plans presented, you can economically plan and build the Basic smaller version of 850 to 1000 sq. ft. and when the need arises, add on to the design. If any design meets your needs, you can purchase a working blueprint for $25 including postage and also included at no extra cost for the more technically minded, are a CD-ROM of a CAD version of the chosen working drawing that you can alter making this one of the most complete and convenient packages I have had the pleasure to use.

The one reviewer who said, "If you are looking for old traditional Adobe home plans this is not what you are looking for." was correct. But, if you are looking for a modern adobe home with passive solar traits that is well thought out and will lead you step-by-step, this is the book/package for you. Covers both traditional "flat roofs" and "gabled roofs".

This is a terrific book to get started thinking about the adobe home you want to build, especially if you're planning on building "green." The floor plans and accompanying CAD generated images are practical and straightforward. The text covers the basics of adobe home building, including the advantages and disadvantages the owner may want to consider first. If you're considering building a modest adobe home, this book is an excellent place to begin. Working blueprints of the floor plans are available for a minimal cost as well should the owner decide to adopt one as is.

this book was very informative, and had mulitple plans with all kinds of potential additions. great book for someone looking for a book that can give them concrete ideas for building an adobe house.

I swear Clarke Snell wrote this book for me - or at least for people like me!! - non construction folks, but handy with a hammer. You won't be able to build your house with only this book, but he presents a very user-friendly introduction to all the requisite concepts, then offers a wonderful reference section for more great info. A very realistic approach, and a very approachable writing style. Other green writers I've found to have a more textbook cadence, but Clarke Snell sounds as if he'd jump right in and help you. Thanks!!

This is a great book to introduce the topic of building strawbale, cob etc. homes. The wonderful point about it is that it details the pros and cons of each building style and lets you compare each method carefully so that you are able to next select a more detailed book about a particular style.
It has beautiful colour photos and lots of information. Highly recommended.

Isn't it nice to dream of being able to build your own home...especially an environmentally "friendly" one!? I am learning so much about houses in general from this book, let alone alternative building. It is well written and has beautiful photography. My husband & I may never get to build our own home (or we may!) but we can sure enjoy the dream in more vivid detail because of this book. I think it should be required reading for politicians, city planners & the like!

Superlative well-balanced, insightful, entertaining, stimulative text, superlative graphics/layout with an abundant and marvelous and beautiful and very effective array of color photographs, superlative resource section, superlative physical book quality including stay-open binding.
If you're thinking of building a house or if you're interested in alternative housing possibilities (solar, etc.) or if you're interested in the topic of housing in general or if you'd like an ideal coffee table book, you will probably find this book a delightful fulfillment.
(Thank you, Amazon, including reviewers, for helping me to discover this book.)

Very comprehensive book which expertly and clearly details the differences between natural/sustainable methods and ideas versus conventional methods. The book makes an incredible cases for natural building and the philosophy of sustainability. After reading this book its hard to understand why you wouldn't want to build a house this way. On a personal note, this book has been inspirational to me as an undergrad student trying to get into an architecture school and train to be a sustainable architect. Also I'm coming from a traditional carpentry background and know that the things Clarke Snell is writing about are right on the money.