Artistry is the key word here: When competent doesn’t cut it. When what you’re going for is museum-quality art prints, high-end advertising effects, and dizzyingly beautiful digitally manipulated images, this is the place to start. Providing a focused approach to the advanced features of Photoshop CS, this beautiful full-color guide tackles complex yet essential topics like color calibration and correction. Along the way, you’ll learn how Photoshop’s newest features-Photomerge technology (which allows you to create seamless panoramas from multiple images), enhanced Camera Raw support, an improved File Browser, nonsquare pixel support, and more-can aid in your quest for the perfect image. Throughout, the authors emphasize the relationship between Photoshop CS tools and traditional photography to provide essential context for complex tasks. The knowledge is sure to stick as you work your way through the detailed, step-by-step exercises and use the companion CD to view before-and-after images and access masks and tool settings for the book’s tutorials.

Barry Haynes has been involved with photography since he was 14 using a Kodak Instamatic 104 on a trip to England. He later became a U.S. Navy photographer and attended most of the Navy’s advanced photography courses. After getting his BA in computer science from University of California, San Diego, Barry spent 10 years, from 1980 to 1990, doing software development and research at Apple. It was a great time to be at Apple, and Barry was able to be a part of Apple’s growth from 500 employees to over 10,000. He took a leave of absence from Apple in 1990 to set up a darkroom and get back to his photography. He soon found himself teaching Photoshop workshops and the notes for those evolved into Barry’s advanced Photoshop Artistry book series, the latest of these being this Photoshop CS Artistry: Mastering the Digital Image from New Riders. His books are very popular with photographers and artists who are using Photoshop to create their final artwork.

He also teaches in-depth digital printmaking workshops from his studio in Corvallis, Oregon. Barry enjoys using his Photoshop darkroom techniques to print, show, and sell his own photography using Epson 4000 and 7600 printers. Check his image gallery at http://www.barryhaynes.com. He is currently working on a new training DVD and/or book entitled Making the Digital Print, which will cover all aspects of making the best art quality digital prints. Barry has given talks and workshops for Palm Beach Photographic Center, Santa Fe Workshops, Anderson Ranch, International Center of Photography, the Photoshop Conference, Seybold Seminars, MacWorld, the Center for Creative Imaging, advertising agencies, design firms, photography stores, and other organizations. His articles appear in Communication Arts, Camera Arts, and other photography magazines.

Wendy Crumpler has been in advertising and design since 1980. She has worked in print, television, CD-Interactive, interactive television, and computer-based training. Prior to her discovery of the computer in 1981 and the Macintosh in 1986, she was an actress and teacher. She is the author of two versions of her popular Photoshop, Painter, and Illustrator Side-by-Side book from Sybex and also Gateway: A Spritual Journey on the Andean Path. She has done production, illustration, design, and training for a variety of clients using many applications. She has worked for Angotti Thomas Hedge, Boardroom Reports, Deutsch Advertising, J.Walter Thompson, TBWA Advertising, Wechsler Design, Wells Rich Greene, Canon, Parke Davis, and AT&T.

Seán Duggan is a photographer and digital artist who combines a traditional fine art photographic background with extensive real world experience in the field of digital imaging. He is a co-author of Real World Digital Photography (Peachpit Press, 2003) and is an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert. His Photoshop tutorial column can be seen regularly in MacDesign magazine and he also writes articles on Photoshop and digital imaging for PCPhoto, Outdoor Photographer, and Digital Photo Pro magazines. His photographs have been exhibited at the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. He is an instructor in the photography department at University of California, Santa Cruz Extension, where he teaches regular classes on Digital Photography and Digital Imaging for Photographers. Seán provides Photoshop and imaging consulting services for photographers and companies and also teaches custom and private workshops at his studio. Visit his Web site at http://www.seanduggan.com.

There’s no question that Adobe’s Creative Suite includes many new, "must have" features and it’s no wonder that Haynes and Crumpler begin this latest addition to the excellent Photoshop Artistry series with an excited testimony to converting to Mac OS X in order to take advantage of these new goodies. Among the new topics covered in this book: the Camera Raw filter (which processes the Raw data from your digital camera, giving greater detail), support for16-bit mode, the new Layer Comp palette, Shadow/Highlight adjustment, and Color Match tool, improved templates for web galleries and contact sheets, and using the Epson print dialog boxes in the OS X environment.

This series is aimed at professionals who work with digital photographs and graphics, especially those with significant experience in both traditional photography and using Photoshop. The book is set up the same as in earlier editions and with some of the same exercises, now updated to reflect the changes in CS. After an opening section on basics like tools, palettes, actions, and layers, the book discusses more advanced topics in digital imaging, like applying the Zone System, made popular by Ansel Adams, to Photoshop and mastering calibration, color spaces, scanning, resolutions, and histograms (using the new dynamic histogram palette). In hands-on tutorials, readers learn how to use layers and adjustment layers; selections, channels, and layers for compositing; histograms, levels, curves, and Hue/Saturation for color correction; advanced techniques for correcting a bad scan; how to turn yellow flowers orange with Color Range, Replace Color, and Selective Color tools or turn a red car green with Color Match; how to work with duotones; techniques in retouching and restoring; how to combine bracketed captures to increase dynamic range; and much more.

Throughout, the book features text-heavy explanations accompanied by lots of illustrations and screenshots. It’s the sort of image-laden book where you can learn so much just by reading the sidebars. An extensive index makes it ideal for troubleshooting. The sample photographs included on the CD-ROM are excellent quality and well chosen to match situations that occur in professional jobs. This book is rich in information. If you’re a professional photographer or Photoshop power-user, this book and Adobe Photoshop CS are now essential to your studio. --Angelynn Grant

Artistry is the key word here: When competent doesn’t cut it. When what you’re going for is museum-quality art prints, high-end advertising effects, and dizzyingly beautiful digitally manipulated images, this is the place to start. Providing a focused approach to the advanced features of Photoshop CS, this beautiful full-color guide tackles complex yet essential topics like color calibration and correction. Along the way, you’ll learn how Photoshop’s newest features-Photomerge technology (which allows you to create seamless panoramas from multiple images), enhanced Camera Raw support, an improved File Browser, nonsquare pixel support, and more-can aid in your quest for the perfect image. Throughout, the authors emphasize the relationship between Photoshop CS tools and traditional photography to provide essential context for complex tasks. The knowledge is sure to stick as you work your way through the detailed, step-by-step exercises and use the companion CD to view before-and-after images and access masks and tool settings for the book’s tutorials.

Confusing!!
I’m currently using this book for a digital imaging and video class. I agree with others, the writing is not good at all!! Its confusing and the instructions are poorly written. Half of it doesn’t work. Maybe its because I’m using CS2? Who knows but I dont like this book!

Almost Perfect
This is the ONLY one of the four of five different books - all supposed to be functional, easy-to-use, and logically organized - that I have bought and tried to use. Others are either: (1) poorly organized; (2) too technical; (3) too "cutsey" ie the Dummy series; or (4) accompanied by a CD that seems out of synch with text. I struggled to "fill-in the gaps" from courses and workshops I have taken. This book has truly helped me. I would recommend it for intermediate or advanced users. For any user under the age of 50 the print font shouldn’t be a problem. For those of us over 50, the font size is a real struggle for those of us with either aging eyes or extreme nearsightedness. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort.

A. Schwartz

Adobe PhotoShop Cs Artistry
Received the book today, and already I have read countless pages. I have used PS extensively over the years, but this appears to be one of the best books I have used for PS.
They say suitable for beginners up, but I think that a beginner would struggle a little.
Otherwise well written, with lots of colour images giving the reader a point of reference.

Adobe PhotoShop Cs Artistry
Received the book today, and already I have read countless pages. I have used PS extensively over the years, but this appears to be one of the best books I have used for PS.
They say suitable for beginners up, but I think that a beginner would struggle a little.
Otherwise well written, with lots of colour images giving the reader a point of reference.

Wanted: Editor for Photoshop Book
Don’t get me wrong...There is a ton of useful information in this book. The included CD has a great collection of images that really make the lessons work.

But this guy is a horrible writer. That’s not his fault. The floggings should begin with the editors. (Which begs the question: Were there editors? Some are listed, but what did they do?)

I don’t mind dense text, when it knows where it’s going. But being verbose on the excuse of being conversational just doesn’t make it. Also, there are no conventions used in the text to help you navigate. Remember -- the reader will be splitting his/her attention between screen, book, and maybe some scribbled notes. Text conventions like bold-face for commands, different font for filenames, etc., can go a long way.

I’m using it in a university course right now, and the instructor feels compelled to explain what the book is trying to explain. That just aint right.

Dissapointing Version
I continue to find myself disappointed with this "Artistry" version. I read Photoshop 6 Artistry cover to cover and found it very good. All the praise of the other reviews was certainly deserved. I upgraded to CS and felt compelled to buy the new version of "Artistry" primarily to learn about the new features, especially since the Adobe documentation is a bit cryptic in places.

I must say, I’m disappointed. It’s feels like this version was rushed to press. The new features are mentioned but not explained very well at all. In many cases, the explanations are nothing more than a rehash of the Adobe documentation.

For example, the camera raw section doesn’t really give much insight into what you are trying to accomplish through the use of the feature (some, but not much). Nor does it give a very good description of the recommended workflow within the feature or how to incorporate it into your overall workflow. Further, there are no hands-on examples.

The Shadow/Highlight section is similarly lacking. The authors seem to allude to the fact that this may be more of a "simple tool" rather than one for the serious user. But they don’t really come right out and say that. If so, tell us. If not, tell us how to incorporate it into the workflow, especially since it isn’t available as an adjustment layer.

The section on the color replacement tool is as obscure as Adobe’s. I still can’t figure this tool out very well. The descriptions for sampling and limits are extremely confusing. This is a case where the book could have cleared up the mysteries that remain after reading the Adobe documentation several times.

I still think this series is very good and I have learned a great deal from it. I would still recommend it to anyone wanting an in depth understanding of Photoshop. I am simply disappointed that the authors appear to have taken shortcuts with the new features in CS and don’t seem to have carried through with the same quality of the previous editions.

Understand Photoshop - Beginner to Advanced
As a total beginner, I learned Photoshop using the 5.5 version of this book and have bought the corresponding version each time I have upgraded. This book is great for not only intermediate and advanced users but also for beginners who want to understand why and how the program works in depth from the start and don’t mind investing the effort to do so.

If you are looking for a quick reference or "Photoshop basics in 3 hours" DON’T buy this book! You will be better served by something else; BUT, if you are looking to really learn the program and willing to invest the time, your efforts will be richly rewarded using this book. I can’t say enough for it.

If you look through reviews, you will see either love it or hate it. The ones that love it are looking to learn/understand the program. The ones that hate it are most likely looking for a quick reference book or to learn the bare basics quickly which is totally fine as everyone has different needs but this book simply is not designed for that.

I will say that the screen captures are not as good as previous versions but still acceptable. Hopefully future versions will go back to the previous quality.

Thanks to Haynes and Crumpler for their great work!

For people who want to know why not just how
I really enjoyed this book. It taught me more about why behind exposure, color spaces, and image sourcing than any other book I have read. It provides a process for handling photos from the source to output in a variety of different media. The color spaces coverage is excellent. This is the book for those who want to understand the science and the concepts and then learn about the application having built a solid basis of technical understanding.

Adobe Photoshop CS Artistry
I am a Chinese student, I extremely want to study adobe photoshop, therefore I continuously am seeking good teaching material. But, I am all unsatisfied, until saw this book preceding edition Adobe Photoshop 7 Artistry. That is a excited night, also remembered I at that time that kind of happy feeling I to the present.I extremely thank this series author: Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler. May say like this ,they lead me to enter the Adobe Photoshop artistic palace. These cause me without hesitation to prepare to purchase this series the newest edition: Adobe Photoshop CS Artistry. But very is a pity, in my country, the newest this series is the Adobe Photoshop 7 Artistry translation edition, all does not have including the Adobe Photoshop CS Artistry English edition. Also has some other reasons to cause me to be unable to purchase, said to me very regrettably. But I or must produce the five-star appraisal in here, this is not excessive. This is may be called the classics the teaching material, I hoped will be able soon to see it on the bookshelf!