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Added 18 Apr 05 Updated 04 Dec 08
Publisher Adobe Press
Publication Date 2004-02-21
Paperback - 720 Pages
ISBN 0321213521
Ben Willmore is the founder of Digital Mastery, a Boulder, Colorado-based training and consulting firm that specializes in Photoshop. Ben has always been known to be a little nutty about all things technical, even as a child. Not long after he traded in his tricycle for training wheels, he started building cameras out of do-it-yourself kits. In 1981, at the tender age of 14, he made his official debut into computer nerd-dom when he attended CompuCamp. That’s where he discovered his first two loves, computers and graphic design, and where he learned how to use a graphics tablet to produce art on an Apple computer-three full years before the Macintosh said its first, "Hello."
Not surprisingly, he went on to become a graphic designer. In those days that meant knowing all about such primitive things as typesetting, keylining, and stat cameras. When the first tools of electronic publishing started showing up, Ben began his trend as an aggressive early adopter of new technologies. While most people in the business were holding back in a wait-and-see attitude, Ben was charging ahead and embracing the new tools like long-lost friends. His first serious push into the new arena was when he helped convert his college’s daily newspaper from traditional techniques to electronic tools in the late 1980s.
Ben became known as someone who likes to push his tools to the limit, causing many printing companies and service bureaus to ask "How’d you do that?" His obsession with the nuts and bolts of electronic publishing turned him into an unwitting one-man customer support center for all his friends and coworkers. It was this, he discovered, that was his third love-helping others truly understand graphics software. And so he decided to go out on his own and teach his favorite program (Photoshop) full time.
In 1994 he created what has become the hugely successful seminar, Photoshop Mastery. Since then he has taught over 30,000 Photoshop users, and travels around the world presenting his seminars and speaking at publishing events such as Photoshop World. He writes a monthly column for Photoshop User Magazine. Ben can be reached at book@digitalmastery.com.
Mark Clarkson-self-described writer, artist, and dilettante-was a great help in reviewing and adding selected Photoshop CS updates and screenshots to five chapters of this edition of Adobe Photoshop CS Studio Techniques. Mark lives in Kansas. He is the author of Photoshop Secrets of the Pros, The Photoshop Tennis Book, BattleBots: The Official Guide, Flash 5 Cartooning, The Guide to Cartooning with Macromedia Flash, and Windows Hothouse. As Mark puts it, "I’m a book author, magazine writer, 3D animator, and Flash cartoonist. Yes, it’s sad, but at 42 I still haven’t decided what I want to do when I grow up." There’s more about Mark at http://www.markclarkson.com.
If you’re ready to go from Photoshop competent to Photoshop enlightened, this is the place to turn. In these pages, revered Photoshop instructor Ben Willmore explains the whys behind the how’s so that you can unleash Photoshop CS’ full creative potential. In a friendly, easy-going style that’s long on information and short on techno-babble, Ben explains the concepts, features, and techniques that promise to make a real difference in the way you use Photoshop CS. Complex concepts like curves and channels are made crystal clear, and features new to Photoshop CS--like the very cool PhotoMerge function for creating panoramic composite images, support for nested layers, and more--are covered in the depth they deserve. After a quick grounding in the tools, palettes, layers, and masks at the program’s core, Ben gets into the real-world production techniques that make up the heart of this volume: sharpening scans, correcting and optimizing images, and more.
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However, this is not to suggest that this is a bad book. This is a very well written book by someone who knows what they’re talking about. The book is broken up into three parts: Working Foundations, Productions Essentials and Creative Explorations. The first part goes through explaining the layout of PS, using the various different tools, making selections of people and objects from backgrounds and working with layers. Part two deals with using Curves, Levels, color correction, channels, etc. The final part gets to the goods stuff where Wilmore shows you how to create some cool effects using the blend modes, layer masks, clone tool and type. To be honest I’m only briefly describing how much is covered in this book. This is so much more.
To get the full benefit of this book you really need lots of time. Wilmore explains not just the how something works or is done in PS, but also the why. If Wilmore doesn’t know something about PS then it really isn’t worth knowing. I’m getting through the book bit by bit. Get yourself up to speed with Photoshop and make some time to read it first. If you don’t you’ll be overwhelmed by all the info. If you’re prepared, though, you will be rewarded.
1. Imageready is not covered at all.
2. Photoshop techniques fro image generation, such as; smoke, rain, wood, metal etc. are not covered.
The book focuses on Photoshop’s core compositing engine, and it covers it really well. This is a great stepping stone to more advanced books by the likes of Eisman etc. Recommended.
My suggestion to you is to as soon as possible by the appropriate studio techniques for the version of Photoshop you are using.
I recommend you read this book along with a tutorial book like Deke McClelland’s Adobe Photoshop CS One-On-One or Jan Kabili’s Photoshop CS Complete Course. After that, you can go on to one of the Photoshop how-I-do-it books like Barry Haynes’ Photoshop CS Artistry, or Real World Photoshop CS by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser. And don’t forget Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers. Skip the Photoshop CS Classroom-in-a-Book, though, unless you’re a glutton for punishment. It’s written by Adobe bureaucrats and reads like it.
If you can afford it, Total Training’s Adobe Photoshop CS video training with Deke McClelland is also excellent. See the Total Training website. After you’ve mastered all these materials, you won’t need my advice anymore.
Other books explain in detail the many features on Photoshop but don’t tell you how to apply the various tools with finesse. Ben’s book is the best of both worlds. I have learned so much in the week since receiving this book from Amazon. It’s money well spent.
Other books explain in detail the many features on Photoshop but don’t tell you how to apply the various tools with finesse. Ben’s book is the best of both worlds. I have learned so much in the week since receiving this book from Amazon. It’s money well spent.
Its not the standard step by step tutorial book telling you to click here and there without explaining why your doing it so you end up leaning nothing after 600 pages! Its explanations and you choose to do it or not, if you feel you understand the section maybe you wont need to go through it.
I found it hard to find a book that wasnt aimed at complete beginners with half the book devoted to opening photoshop. This doesnt mean its no good for beginners as its explained in such a way that anyone can grasp it!
The added bonus is that all the images are on a CD included so you can do exactly as he does. The book is also in full colour unlike the adobe classroom in a book and numerous others i looked at
Its not the standard step by step tutorial book telling you to click here and there without explaining why your doing it so you end up leaning nothing after 600 pages! Its explanations and you choose to do it or not, if you feel you understand the section maybe you wont need to go through it.
I found it hard to find a book that wasnt aimed at complete beginners with half the book devoted to opening photoshop. This doesnt mean its no good for beginners as its explained in such a way that anyone can grasp it!
The added bonus is that all the images are on a CD included so you can do exactly as he does. The book is also in full colour unlike the adobe classroom in a book and numerous others i looked at
The book is printed in full colour, and almost every page has complete photographic examples and screenshots. The accompanying CD also contains a bunch of the stock images used so that you can follow through the given examples, although you’ll probably end up experimenting with the tools rather than following Ben’s exact steps.
Ben concentrates on highlighting the reasons behind each function, filter and tool in Photoshop CS, and at the end you feel like you actually understand what you’re doing rather than just carrying out a series of steps you’ve been taught.
The book is focused on practical Photoshop uses and doesn’t spend time beating around the bush on fancy techniques you’ll never use (although many of the more esoteric features of Photoshop are at least touched upon). If you’re looking for something that tells you how to actually use Photoshop but isn’t written like a software manual or a series of school lessons, this is the perfect book.
The target audience for this book is probably anywhere from beginner to the upper end of intermediate. Ben assumes that you’ve managed to work out how to install the software, but beyond that you’re taken step-by-step through everything. Advanced users will probably find some of the early chapters a little basic, but should still get a lot out of the practical examples and may well learn how to streamline their workflow better.
For a thorough grounding in understanding Photoshop CS, starting at the beginning, you probably can’t do much better than this.
The book is printed in full colour, and almost every page has complete photographic examples and screenshots. The accompanying CD also contains a bunch of the stock images used so that you can follow through the given examples, although you’ll probably end up experimenting with the tools rather than following Ben’s exact steps.
Ben concentrates on highlighting the reasons behind each function, filter and tool in Photoshop CS, and at the end you feel like you actually understand what you’re doing rather than just carrying out a series of steps you’ve been taught.
The book is focused on practical Photoshop uses and doesn’t spend time beating around the bush on fancy techniques you’ll never use (although many of the more esoteric features of Photoshop are at least touched upon). If you’re looking for something that tells you how to actually use Photoshop but isn’t written like a software manual or a series of school lessons, this is the perfect book.
The target audience for this book is probably anywhere from beginner to the upper end of intermediate. Ben assumes that you’ve managed to work out how to install the software, but beyond that you’re taken step-by-step through everything. Advanced users will probably find some of the early chapters a little basic, but should still get a lot out of the practical examples and may well learn how to streamline their workflow better.
For a thorough grounding in understanding Photoshop CS, starting at the beginning, you probably can’t do much better than this.
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