Adobe Books

I have many books in my collection that I love. My sole purpose is like many others of you in the choosing of a book, hoping that in some way it will help me learn a bit or two about the program and be worth the money i have spent. So I feel this book is a must have for your collection. Granite, I, like many others, rate my choosing of purchase determine the final idea in mind of the purchase of a book. I went out on a limb and bought it. I have been pleased highly and do feel it deserves five stars. I feel this book is a great reference and read through to help you learn about functions that many other books i have seen so far shy upon or have not seen (book wise). The 500+ pages are designed well, although i have only sceemed read this book, meaning i look at the title and sceem through it to see if i know that function, and reading upon what i dont know. BUT BE WARNED, this book is not a beginner guide to help you learn Photoshop, its a refrence book by all means. If you want a book to help you learn Photoshop, I recommend: Teach yourself visually, top 100 simplfied tips and tricks for CS3, and adobe photoshop one-on-one (which i will be reading and reviewing shortly).

I am sure the authors know Photoshop inside and out - they are just not capable of writing a book that conveys that knowledge. The book has many typos. It has numerous errors and many content-free paragraphs. In many cases the explanation for a feature does not add to what was obvious from its name.

You will get more out of Adobe's manual than you will from this book.

I am the author for this book. Out of respect for Andy Anderson's high level of contribution to the previous versions of this book (for which he was fully compensated), I included his name on this updated title. Future reprints of this title will be changed accordingly with the publisher.

I purchased this book because I have Flash CS3 On Demand and love it (after buying other books and tolerating them). On Demand Photoshop does not let me down. Just the opposite. This whole series delivers the perfect instructional system for me. Unlike other books that wear you down with over-explanation and wordy text, their books are setup in a two-page format. Everything important you need to learn is setup quickly, easy and in a very user-friendly way. The page layout is a perfect learning tool and reference manual system. Their instructions are easy to understand, actually fun to read and written with both the novice and experienced in mind. And, by the way, if you think you know everything about PS, Flash or Dreamweaver, these books will humble you. I have found and learned things I never knew. Things that are valuable and time-saving steps. LOVE these books!!

This book has an easy to follow format to look up things you wish to do in Photoshop CS3. It works quite well either as a reference book or as a book to follow the easy to do exercises to learn a new skill. One of the best Photoshop books I have purchased.

I leave this on my desk as I often go to it as a refrence. The enclosed cd is a big help. When learning a new technique step by step. I would of given this a 5 star, but I would of appreciated if Mr. Andrews organized a seprate chapter on making selections and a seprate chapter on Layers, as these are the really strong aspects that makes Elements a cut above other photo software instead of combining the two into one chapter.

I highly recommend this book with Photoshop elements 6....A great help and easy to understand

Very clear explanations, easy to follow, I'm enjoying learning. I have done some minor things and my confidence is growing. I recommend this book by Philip Andrews strongly.

In college I took a required course to learn what kind of learner I was. I thought it was stupid and didn't want to go. Everyone knows you learn by reading books. What I found out was that I had a much higher retention rate in the visual mode. Made college a lot easier. This book is a good example of a text for the visual learner. Very well laid out and paced.

My one complaint was that it was a bit skimpy on the Organizer. Many of us have a mess of photos that we need to organize. This organizer eliminates the need for sub-folder after sub-folder but the book does not highlight that strength nearly enough.

I highly recommend the book for the new-to-digital-photography set.

***THIS REVEW IS FOR THE CD ONLY***

I really like how the CD explains the PE 6. It shows the entire screen as it helps you through the tutorials. Very helpful to me, one who is new to the PE programs and requires an audio and moving visual way of learning.

The bad part is that the audio on the CD I received was garbled with a distorted sound throughout the disc. Some of the subheadings were worse than others as far as the audio distortion goes.

I contacted Focal Press, talked to a tech guy. He helped me try some things on my computer that did not end up helping with the audio trouble I had with this disc. Later he went over his copy, then emailed me to say that his copy was not effected. I returned my first copy, received a second and it did the same thing in the exact same places. So I returned the second copy as well.

Before returning the second copy, I even tried down loading the free quick time by Apple, which a website for another book had recommended for their audio trouble in hopes it would help this one. It did not help my CD trouble with this book. (I do not have any other trouble with audios with my computer from any other discs. Just the CD that came with this book.)

I then bought the book: How to Cheat in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for it's CD. I was disappointed with the only partial view of the screen. This was very limiting since it doesn't show where to click so you can try it for yourself.

If anyone has a tip on how I can get this CD to work on my PC (A Dell Inspiron 6400 please let me know so I can buy another book and try it again.) I learned several things on PE 6 software from the CD that came with this book but can't remember them all. The garble distortion was so annoying! Hopefully your disc will be fine.

(4 stars is for the CD only and it is missing a star due to the audio garble and distortion.)

This book presents photographic color management in straightforward, understandable terms which any advanced amateur or pro photographer can use to improve the quality of her/his photos. I highly recommend this resource for anyone seeking serious help in managing the color aspects of digital photography.

The only shortcoming, though not yet a serious one, is the shortage of specific tips and techniques using Adobe Lightroom. Judging from the numerous technical postings on Lightroom fora by Andrew Rodney, I assume that producing a new edition that addresses this issue would be no problem at all if he chose to take up the task.

This is the other definitive resource on color management for professional creative communities. (Real World Color Management was the first definitive resource.)

Color management is a complex subject akin to rocket science and brain surgery. When you need to know particular details at a level of depth rarely covered elsewhere, this is the place to go. This is your last stop before dipping into color science textbooks or hiring a consultant to get the job done for you.

You probably want to have an overview of what color management is and why you need it before you buy this book. Once you know you need to know more about color management and you know you need to know how to get the job done exceptionally well, this is the book that will guide you through the process step-by-step with hands-on tutorials.

Andrew possesses an exceptional ability to present a complex subject in well-paced clear language. The back cover promises "less `why' and more `how to'". This is the pragmatists guide to color management. Step-by-step, how-to examples make the information highly practical.

Better graphics than almost any other book of it's kind make this information more compelling, more pleasurable to engage, and easier to adjust. In many cases Andrew tells a story about visual perception visually first with excellent illustrations, which are then supported by commentary. It's an excellent approach.

On the accompanying CD, the test files alone are worth the price of the book.

Despite excellent diction and graphics, you might find the level and breadth of this book daunting. Take it a piece at a time. Given your particular needs, there may be whole sections of this book that you may not need to read. Once you've identified the areas you need to know more about, read those sections. And, put them to use. Your images will be the better for it.

[...]

Get Andrew Rodney's book, and a copy of Real World Color Management, and you'll have the best existing CMS tutorial and the the best reference text.

Edmund Ronald, Ph.D, (...).

Nobody can deny that Mr. Rodney knows how color management works in Photoshop better than most people, but unfortunately, knowledge of a subject doesn't make you a good writer. I find the bulk of Mr. Rodney's ramblings (both those published on his website-that-time-forgot and posted to various discussion groups and mailing lists) to teeter on the verge of complete unreadability most of the time, and while my hopes were high that a good editor might tame his curious linguistic proclivities here, they were quickly dashed upon skimming through the text. What's worse, the illustrations and photos in every single copy of this book I've ever seen have suffered from severe magenta color casts, leading one to wonder why the author and his publishing company failed to practice what they preached in bringing this title to the public. If you didn't know who Andrew Rodney was to begin with, you'd likely think him full of beans based on the appearance of the plates in this volume. After all, why should readers believe consistent, predictable color in print to be a realistically attainable goal when even the guy who wrote the book on the subject can't seem to achieve it?

There's certainly some good information in between these covers, but none of it is groundbreaking in any way. You might learn something interesting about WWII by asking your grandfather to tell you some old war stories, but you'll have to suffer through a lot of pointless rambling to get to it, and that's pretty much what reading this book feels like. About the only thing this book really has going for it that its competitors lack is the nostalgia longtime Photoshop users will likely feel at the sight of the dog image gracing the cover. Since you can see that image right here for free, there's not a lot of point in paying for yet another rehashing of this subject matter, even at amazon's substantially discounted price. I have no doubt that Mr. Rodney is a very technically proficient color management consultant who can deliver $10,000 worth of results to all who can afford his services, but his efforts in the creative fields of writing, illustration and design just ain't worth a plugged nickel.

It may also be worth noting that more than one of the glowing 5-star reviews that have been posted here were planted by friends and associates of Mr. Rodney. How's that for class?

This is a great book on color management. Color management is a oft-misunderstood subject and it is fair to say that there are good reasons for this - mainly that it is complicated.

Andrew Rodney does not simplify the subject, thus the reason I did not give this four stars. However, if you are serious about the subject, this book is a vital tool in trying to understand color management.

Some of the book is tedious and some of it is hard to understand, but there are large parts of the book which offer valuable and understandable information on color management and your quest to achieve this "holy grail."

My suggestion is that if you are casually trying to understand how to calibrate your monitor, this book may not be for you. If you are seriously trying to understand color management and are building a library of useful references and gleaning useful nuggets of information from several different books in your quest to achieve color management nirvana - then this book should be in your library.

If you do not have alot of time in your day and a basic understanding of Illustrator this is perfect. Each tip is just that a tip. Half page explanation, easy way to do things.

Unlike a lot of Illustrator books, this doesn't describe the full range of functionality or offer lesson plans. Instead, it's a compendium of hints and shortcuts, many of which are those niggling little things that you wish you knew how to do, but can never seem to find in the bigger, more complete books.

I've bookmarked a lot of these nifty items: how to align items using one item as the "keystone"; selecting an object "hidden" by another object; and how to get that @&#*!$ knife tool to cut in a straight line. And there are many timesaving techniques and shortcuts, such as averaging and joining two points in one step. Not earthshattering, but a nice way to speed things up so you can spend more time on creative work.

I guess "photoshop Junkie" must be an incredibly experienced Illustrator user to know all the tips in this book. I've used Illustrator for around 5 years and there were lots of tips that I didn't know. Okay, I probably could have found many of them by searching around in the Help Files, but why bother when they're right there in the book?
There were enough tips in there for me to say it was worth the money. Why not 5 stars? Some of the graphics were not the greatest (although that really didn't affect the tips I guess, so I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could)

I do not agree with the 5-star reviewers of this title. If you have used Adobe Illustrator for more than, oh say 15 minutes, you probably know more than this book will teach you, and anything else can be found out by using the pull-down menu system, or the Help button.

Okay, maybe not fifteen minutes, but there is nothing here, no "hidden" tips and tricks. And if the creative value of this title were to be measured from 1 to 10, it would rate a minus 6.

I hear Dave's doing another book for CS2; however, if it's like all the other Kelby-clone titles, it will just be a rehash of this book with a few screen shots from the new application.

Save your money on this title, and treat yourself to a nice dinner.

I bought this book based on the wonderful customer reviews and was very disappointed. Most of the items can be easily found by anyone exploring the menu bar or palette options. In my opinion such things don't qualify as "hidden secrets," as the cover claims.

I did find one tip that I use (a keyboard command to reset the horizontal scale of type to 100%). It saves me, oh, a minute a month or so. At that rate the book will pay for itself in five years!

I was greatly disappointed in this book. While there were a few interesting how-tos, I found most of the exercises mundane and designs mediocre. I would, instead recommend the How-to-Wow InDesign or the InDesign Cookbook if you're looking for a design oriented InDesign book (too true, not very many InDesign graphic design books out there, but plenty others if all you want to do are print/book and text heavy docs). Pass on this and take a looksee at the other two which I found inspiring, beautifully designed and well laid out - worth 5*.

I had no idea that I could do some of these special with InDesign! The book is well written (even entertaining) and the instructions are easy to follow. And... when I had a question, I emailed the author (contact info. provided in the book) and he responded within 2 days!

"The InDesign Effects Book" is a "must have/must read/must follow" book for anyone who is now or wants to become a serious user of Adobe InDesign software. Did you know you can create not just page layouts but graphics in InDesign? Ted LoCasio's book gives easy to follow directions that will bring dazzling effects to your presentations.
Quick aside: The book's instructional sidebars (on almost every page) are worth their weight in gold!

An excellent showcase of InDesign CS 2's power and flexibility; it's not only a great layout application it also possesses other capabilities underneath the hood and Ted demonstrates it's flexibility with ease and a clear writing style.

Well written!

This is my first indesign book and it is one of my favorites now, It is a visual and easy to follow book.

The author knows exactly what we are looking for to make our work better looking and to make it look very professional, you won't believe how easy is to do that, and having this book by your side is a great time saver. Ted Locascio (the author) also offers himself for you to write him for further assistance, but believe me you are not going to have a problem in my point of view it covers most of the great things you can do with indesign. Of coarse this are just ideas and your creativity has no limits.
Oh I also want to say that if you are getting started with indesign CS2 (this book works perfcetly for CS2) that if you want to practice first the author has his webpage where you can download the images.

Believe me this is worth to buy you will be surprised of how much effects with types and paragaraphs you can do.

New Raiders have problem with Flash MX Magic and now there are some problem with Photoshop 7 Magic, too.

Photoshop 7 Magic also have CD problem, I can't open picture in Project1 Folder. So, I can't Follow the book. Further more, Most of all folder contain only Start File.. no psd, no finish file there are only TIF file without layer! oh dear Sherry London, I'm not professional like you but I need some PSD file to see each Layer because sometime I can't follow your instruction. (as I see, 3 folders have finish file.. it's a big mistake)

in page 47 of this book, Phill Williams say only use Retouching tool to move object in TIFF file to other place (this is like a photo retouching) but they give me only 2 picture in that page .. just only original image and finish image.. there are no clue to point me out where I have to rubber stamp nor start to clone! and it's very small .. I do not understand why they left space behind. Maybe this is a MAGIC! So, it's very hard to understand. I need more picture and bigger! I do not know why her left space away like this .. :(

Worst ever, NO FONT!! but in book say include in cd, (lier) .. and many many error i.e. wrong folder name (I read only 3 projects but I found 4 or 5 errors!! it's too much!) and wrong picture in project 4!! you can download fix file from newriders website but it doesn't help anything! because errata still have error itself!! oh no.

Only a few better left is good tech support! but it's useless because this book is .... ok, I can say only don't purchase this book until next edition of this title came out! or try by yourself :) or purchase Photoshop 7 Wow! book instead!

A plethora of new books are arriving on bookshelves thanks to Adobe releasing version 7 of Photoshop, and Photoshop 7 Magic by Sherry London and Rhoda Grossman from New Riders is one of the latest.

I have been using Photoshop 7 for a few months now (and had used a beta version, Liquid Sky, for a few months before that) so I am pretty comfortable with the new version. I was hoping Photoshop 7 Magic would teach me something new, something I did not know I could do with the new version of the program. Alas, that is not what this book is about.

Starting off with some very simple ways to use text, layers, and transparencies, the book moves into many different categories of Photoshop, from Marbled Backgrounds to Satin Beveled Type. The book is broken out into three main segments, Artistic Techniques, Web Techniques, and Image Manipulation Techniques.

The book features some really nice artwork and the accompanying CD-ROM has all the files you need to re-create the projects done in the book.

The book is well written, if somewhat Spartan. There is no sense of who the people are writing the book. It is "I did this, then I did that, etc..." With all the white space in this book, I would have liked to see a little more of the personalities of the writers come through. As it is, it is a boring read. Photoshop 7 Magic is a textbook, not an entertaining read. With the great pictures and examples in this book, it could have been so much more. Perhaps Sherry and Rhoda should take a page from another New Rider writer, Scott Kelby, and liven their work up a bit.

This book is geared to new Photoshop users, or graphic designers just now making the switch from brush and canvas to mouse, stylus pen, and monitor. Experienced graphic artists who have been using Photoshop for a few years will get little from this book they do not already know, or have learned from the countless book already available on the subjects covered in this book. Add to that and the very hefty price tag of the book, a whopping forty-five bucks, and I cannot recommend this book unless you are really lacking in Photoshop skills, unlike the demographic this book seems to be catering to.

Average book at best. Nice paperstock and heft to the book, but price is way too much for the quality of the 275 pages of actual content. The only Magic here is watching [money] disappear from your wallet or purse.

MacMice Rating: 3 out of 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With hundreds of choices out there for the category, this one stands out. Photoshop 7 Magic really enhances the possibilities of the tool. As a user, I want a text that's simple to read and NOT overwritten. Just show me how to do it! I'm a painter who found the chapter on brush techniques and liquid painting to be very helpful. You'll want this book on your shelf.

It seems that most photoshop books simply recycle the same tutorials over and over again. NOT this one! Photoshop 7 magic takes a wonderful approach to not only going over the basics for beginners, but diving into some of the newest features such as the painting engine. The tutorials in the book are easy to follow and duplicate, yet are not long winded with and over abundance of info. I think they did a wonderful job with spreading out the abilities of photoshop without lingering one one feature too much. Whether you are new or a long time user, this is a book worth checking out!

I have a bunch of Photoshop books, and being a digital photographer, I did not find this book helpful at all for my interests. It is a great book for learning how to do artwork with Photoshop but has nothing about photographs. I wanted to write a review so that way the next person looking for a book on messing with your photographs, would not buy this book. I recommend The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby if you are looking for Photoshop methods to play with your pictures.

I'd give it more stars if I were only looking for a good guide to establishing a workflow as a digital photographer. This book contains the essential elements to develop your digital workflow.

If you are a digital photographer and you ask yourself if this book will be good guide for you, then you have 99,9% chance of positive answer. This book is wrote for every photographer as for beginners as for professionals. And in both cases i don't see reason why we shouldn't at least listen to author who have about half century of experience as professional photographer. In this book everybody can find smth for himself, that lays close to your interests.

Even if you already have experience with you using Photoshop, i still would recommend you this book, as it will open for you new perspectives of using this program - photographers perspectives.

As was brilliantly noticed in the beginning of the book: "Where the digital photographer is concerned, Photoshop CS2 is really three applications: Abode Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop". That is exactly the point that gives you right direction for studying Photoshop CS2 as photographer.

In the beginning book prepares you for working with all three-in-one programs and the very first thing you need to do to work properly with them is to configure them.After this you will study to orgazine, manage and rate you photo collections for magic transformations.

When everything ready for creative process, you will make acquainted with curves, gradients, filters, masking and retouching tools that will move you step by step to perfect photography, that after all your affords you can proudly place in frame on the wall near your computer.

This book teaches you not only to make "candies" from your photos, but also how to plan your time with maximal efficiency. I would specially recommend pay attention to "Pro Tips" that was organized in pull-quotes to attract you attention to small but important moments.

Everything that waits you in this book you can see from short or detailed content which is presented to your attention in the beginning. In book itself you will find big amount of different pictures-examples for photographers with different areas of interest and i am sure you will find much of them that you would like.

Personally, I fall into the category of people who like to read book in good quality and believe me, people who are the same as me will not be disappointed, because this book have one of the best paper quality i ever saw. Also a lot of pictures that will make you really happy, pullquottes, very stylish cover. At the end of every chapter you can still have some question about subject you just studied - and even here authors took care - you have FAQ (most frequently question and answers for them). Isn't it amazing?

All information you will see is presented in color and, as promised, visually. At the end of book you can find shortcuts information. Maybe people think that this information is useless, but if you will take a bit of time and effort - i, personally, promise that it will save a hell of a time to you. You work will be more effective and quick than ever before.

This book is really for every taste and age -I strongly recommend it to everybody, who is a bit interested in photography. It will help you to make you own portfolio, to help photomodels to make perfect portfolio and just let you feel inside of Photoshop as in your own house. This book really "speaks to reader".

I am taking digital photography classes, and this book was recommended. You can quickly look up what you are trying to accomplish, and have a step by step guide on how to try to achieve your desired outcome. It seems to be a more simplified book compared to the others ones I have looked at. It has been a good tool, so far.

Being new to photography and using CS2, this has been a great referance guide and learning tool. Easy to follow steps for the novice Photoshop user and photographer. Being a rookie sports shooter, the need of a quick and easy workflow is esential - getting 300-400 photos reviewed, edited and cleaned up to place on website ordering in 24 hours after an event. The steps outline have reduced the time of my workflow in to a quarter of the time before using the steps in the book. Editing tips are fantastic, and have helped me improve the number of "keepers" to have available. It's already paid for itself in editing photos I thought would not be sellable.

This book is for a hobbyist Photographer wanting to learn more or someone that is looking to go Pro.

Chapter 1
One thing that caught my eye is the first chapter was the attention to the "cooler" features, such as: Camera Raw, Adobe Bridge and Actions which all contribute to your overall workflow enhancement.

Chapter 2 and 3
Explaining organization skills which are required to manage your photos from shoot to shoot. Some of these skills consist of Metadata which is for "tagging" your images. Obviously once you have loaded your RAW files you would want to edit/adjust them and after this chapter you will be able to. In the last part of this chapter you are introduced to the DNG format for archiving your Camera RAW files in an easy to transport format that removes all of the inconsistencies in the various RAW file formats. Of course once you have all of these wonderful photos you probably want to show them off and with all the different delivery methods PDF Slideshow, Email, Web etc it is very easy.

Chapter 4
Going back to editing your images you are walked through the process of Fine-Tuning your images with some tips/tricks that you won't find explained in greater detail anywhere else. You can copy settings and modifications with the Bridge to allow bulk updates with only a few clicks.

Chapter 5 and 6
Non-destructive editing is a new feature to Photoshop and harnesses quite a bit of power and prior to reading this book I never really found a good explanation of the various advancements. I know I could read the help file but I find that to be too technical in some cases and occasionally very hard to find the answer I am looking for. One of those "hard to find" features was the Color Range with an adequate description. You will also see ways to use the Pen Tool for selections, thats right it isn't only for paths. Another benefit to non-destructible editing is adjustment layers where you basically make all color, tone, curves and level modifications on a separate layer leaving the original untouched.

Chapter 7 and 8
The final step in your image editing workflow would be fixing camera/light deficiencies. Some of which would be sharpness, lens problems, and shadow issues just to name a few. Not much description needed for these 2 chapters but they are necessary to your final output.

Chapter 9
Building composite images is a powerful way to create a scene that never existed and after reading this chapter you will be able to create those popular images found in so many ads and websites. You will also see how to warp an image to apply it to an article of clothing and create a believable piece.

Chapter 10
No book would be complete without showing you cool ways to dress up your images or create powerful final results and this book is no exception. You will learn how to Blur, Color and apply filters to your images to create unique pieces. The level of detail in this section will not leave you asking questions.

Chapter 11 and 12
Outputting your images to the web and how to create physical prints to show off to your friends or colleagues. The web is a powerful tool and displaying your images online is one way to guarantee exposure. Although in order to truly use this technology to its full potential you need to understand the downsides and best case optimization methods. Another way to distribute your pieces is to print them out and in this chapter you will learn how to choose the specified output for each media, how to preview your work and finally what the ICC Profiles are and how to use them.

Chapter 13
If you go Pro you will want your images printed in larger format and in larger quantities, but to do this you must understand the offset printing process. Of course just like the previous topics this book clearly explains that process without leaving out a single detail, all the way down to the preferred format that should be sent to your service center.

Chapter 14 and 15
Once you have 3500 images from a single shoot you quickly realize how important automation is. You can use actions which work pretty well but take an action into a Batch processor and you will be sipping margaritas on the beach while Photoshop crunches away at your images. The problem is you won't be able to if you don't read these chapters, so you know what to do. Maybe scripting isn't your thing, no problem, you will get a firsthand look at Dr. Russell Brown's *-A-Matic plugins that offer captioning, merging and placing your files quickly and painlessly.

Final Thoughts
After reading through this book I found myself following a more defined workflow that benefitted me in a few ways. The first and most important being organization and the ability to "recover" that really important shoot from 4 months ago. The other was being able to rapidly turn around clients work. Like I said in the beginning this book really is for a hobbyist or a pro, no matter what everyone will learn something.

I should be clear up front - I'm lucky enough to know Ellen and Tim personally but that has no impact on my thoughts about this book.
Ellen and Tim have done a great job of explaining Photoshop from the nature/landscape photographer's point of view. The additional comments from other pro photographer's gives the reader insight into how a working pro uses the software and the included CD with sample files is great for working through the examples on your own.
If you're looking for a book on how to get results from Photoshop you'll have to look long and hard to find one that matches Photoshop for Nature Photographers.

I find "Photoshop ® for Nature Photographers : A Workshop in a Book" to be a great book to add to your PhotoShop library. It adds some great insight by several of the world's best known nature photographers. Any book that has instructional information from John Shaw, Arthur Morris, Charles Glatzer, and Joe McDonald is well worth the investment.

One of the most difficult aspects of PhotoShop for me has been the effective use of curves. Tim and Ellen do a much better job at helping with this complex matter than any other book I have read.

The effective utilization of PhotoShop requires as much of an artistic approach as it does as workflow approach. Tim and Ellen do a very good job of fully developing a great workflow while introducing their own artistic approach.

No one book can every include all the aspects of PhotoShop that you will every need. However, "Photoshop for Nature Photographers : A Workshop in a Book" does a great job of specilizing for nature photographers. As with any workshop, it does require the student to do some work to get the most out of the class.

I recommend this book to any nature photographer who would like to improve their utilization and knowledge of PhotoShop.

I am not sure what part Tim Grey plays in creating this book but if you are purchasing the book do it because of what Ellen Anon is contributing to the book. I Think Tim Grey is a fantastic Photoshop and P.C. Guru - and a great writer in his element. If Tim contributed to the Photoshop techniques of this book that is good. Tim Grey has some great books out - Color Confidence and Photoshop CS2 are two of them. Buy those two books before this one if you want some of Tim's best writings on Photoshop. Photo Finish is another book that Tim Grey co-authored and it also a So-so book. There are tons of good Photoshop books. If you need a starter try the Adobe Photoshop Classroom in A Book series for whichever version of Photoshop you are using. Use the Adobe Photoshop Tutorials on their web site - they are great and free. Print these tutorial out in color and put them in a binder and you have a great Photoshop book with little or no cost to you. John Shaw has an excellent e-book, "John Shaw's Photoshop Field Guide", about 208 pages. A great source for nature photographers with some Photoshop experience. No 'down-&-dirty' tricks in his e-book. It is straight forward Photoshop information for a nature photographer of all levels of experience. It does not cover Photshop CS2 but you can figure everything out. Cost is $30 US. http://www.johnshawphoto.com/ebook.htm. Two other books to consider if you don't already have them are Adobe Photoshop, by David Blatner & Bruce Fraser and Digital Photography, by Eismann (a great photographer & writer), Duggan, and Tim Grey. (since Grey is at the end of the line here I can only assume his part is small in this book). Purchase some of these other books before spending money on Photoshop For Nature Photographers.

Excellent resource. This book should be on everyone's shelf who uses Photoshop for nature photography. Authors (there really are two of them regardless of how it's listed here) know their stuff and explain it very well. CD accompanying the book is very helpful too.

This book is a must have for any digital nature photographer. Great step by step how to's and very well laid out.

Excellent book to learn about all the new features of Dreamweaver CS3. I had the MX 2004 version but just upgraded. The changes are phenomenal. Excellent book in a great line of Sam's books.

I have read quite a few Dreamweaver books and this one by far is the easiest to follow. It has broken down steps in a way that gets straight to the point of what you need to do to build a site.

The back of this book, which arrived today, says "User Level: Beginning" and they are right. Wish Amazon's description of the book would have said that. I can see why the book's style would appeal to beginners, but with much Front Page experience, I needed at least an intermediate text. Less on the basics (like relative vs. absolute paths)and much more on style sheets, tables, etc. Also missing (not even in the Index) was any mention of "Contribute" a new Adobe tool designed to be used by non-programmers to maintain Dreamweaver-built websites.

So the book goes back and I will order something tougher.

I found this book to be very helpful and informative. I'm new to Dreamweaver CS-3 and I found that this book really covers the basics of Dreamweaver and Web design and gets into some of the more advanced features. After reading this book I've really gotten a grasp of Dreamweaver. I find that it is especially a good resource in conjunction with the online seminars from Adobe.

Sam's Teach yourself Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 in 24 hours, is a comprehensive book that covers virtually everything you will need to know about the program. I initially chose this book because I had limited experience with Dreamweaver and wanted to be able to learn the fundamentals very quickly. One quick note about the titles of these books. Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours series is a bit misleading in the sense that it doesn't actually mean you could pick up the book one night and be an expert the next. O.K. well sort of...The Sam's Teach Yourself in 24 hours series of books are composed of 24, one-hour lessons that cumulatively help the user to learn a particular software program.

If you don't like learning theory or "why" something works then Sam's Teach Yourself Dreamweaver CS3 in 24 hours may not be the best kind of book for you. It is not the kind of book you can peruse on the weekend or take on a trip to help ramp up your skills. As an inexperienced Dreamweaver user, I found that I couldn't just go to the table of contents and select a section that sounded interesting. I felt like I had to start at the beginning and work my way through each chapter.

I am a Dreamweaver novice but an intermediate user of html, xhtml, and css so the beginning of this book was not as useful for me as say someone with no experience at all. This book would probably best suit someone without any web development experience at all. A small knowledge is certainly not detrimental but it forced me to skim the beginning and I felt myself wanted to "do" something.

This book doesn't have as many practice exercises as I would prefer. If you are someone who enjoys an included CD/DVD or at least a website with practice files then this book may not be the best for you. The book does suggest that you learn some fundamentals of web design/development by opening a pre-existing website. This task would certainly be helpful for the novice and is a good way to learn many CS3 features.

As someone who has used these type of training manual books before I felt that the greatest assets that this book had several strengths including: 1) Comprehensive and Detailed Explanations, 2) A good amount of screen shots, 3) Content Is Well Organized.

The weaknesses of this particular book include: 1) It is entirely black and white, 2) It is much too comprehensive for an intermediate user, 3) lacks an accompanying exercise files.

I would recommend this book to someone with absolutely NO web design, web development, or Dreamweaver experience. I would also recommend they begin on page 1 and work their way through incrementally as the book is intended. Give yourself 24 Days and do a one hour lesson a day. That would be a great way to get through each of the lessons and thoroughly learn Dreamweaver CS3.

Nate

This is an excellent book for getting up to speed quickly on GL 6. I would not call it for the advanced user, but it's excellent for beginners or intermediates with Golive. The tutorials are clear and concise, and the book is exactly what it advertises itself to be - it gets right to the point.

I wish there was also a good advanced book on GoLive that covered using scripting such as Java and CSS and dynamic content in detail, unfortunately there are none yet that are any good. Maybe Sams can do that too? But for beginners or intermediates with GL 6 who want to start using the software today, this is the book to get!

I found this book to be a very good introduction to Web design using Golive 6. The lessons are short but well presented, they are fast, and they can be used immediately to my own practice projects. Although the GoLive interface seemed so unassuming when you first open the program, it can get filled up quickly once you begin working. The authors made sure that you don't get lost amidst the plethora of palletes. There is also the confidence that I am reading the work of competent Golive designers who can actually communicate what they know and teach an unknown audience cleverly. Sam's formula, if I may venture a guess works well for this book: plain English, competent authors, short but lively presentation and an exciting software. In only a few hours, I was already making my own web pages and amazed my friends. This book is a very good start in Web design using Golive 6. It is one of my best and most useful books!

This was a So so book for the beginner and not as organized as Classroom in a book. I was a bit disappointed as a beginner.

After reading some of the reviews here I was afraid I'd made a poor choice because I had picked up this book in a store, but that couldn't be farther from the truth! The book is really easy to follow, laid out logically and the steps worked perfectly for me. Could it be that maybe some readers are new to computers and just don't understand the basics? Anyway, I created a Website using GoLive templates and couldn't be happier. All I have to do is update the template and Poof! my whole site is updated, too. Thanks to this book I learned this and lots of other great tricks. I especially like some of the tips in the book that relate to the Web in general. I like it. Anyway, that's my input. Hope it helps and thanks for listening.

I had never used GoLive before and was kind of freaked out when I first opened the program. Then I went to an Adobe seminar and one of the authors of this book was a presenter. He was really excellent and knowledgeable, so I decided to buy the book. I'm glad I did! I've now created two Websites and am starting my third. This time I'm getting paid! I know I still have a lot to learn, but this book got me up and running FAST. The best thing about GoLive is the way it works with my Photoshop files. If you haven't used this yet, check out the convert to banner trick!!!! Saves you tons of time!!!!!