If you?re a photography hobbyist, would you like to brighten up that gloomy island vacation photo? Slim down without going on a diet? See whether white or green shutters look best on the house? Expunge the ex-boyfriend from family photos?

If you?re a pro or semi-pro photographer, would you like to make it snow in that ski resort photo?  Replace the old logo in the glamour shot of the corporate headquarters with the new one?  Grow hair in the CEO?s glaring bald spot?  Freshen up the lettuce in that food shot?

You?ve come to the right place. With Photoshop CS2, you have the tools. With Photoshop CS2 For Dummies, you?ll have the know-how.  In full color, with all kinds of examples, screen shots, step-by-step explanations, tips, and techniques, this guide takes you from the fundamentals to special power-user tricks! Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes:

• The basics of getting around in Photoshop, getting images into and out of Photoshop, choosing the right file formats, and setting your preferences
• Working with Adobe Bridge to organize and manage your images
• Working with tonality, including making easy Auto Repairs, making adjustments with Levels and Curves (and the eyedroppers), and using Shadow/Highlight and the toning tools, Burn and Dodge
• Making color look natural using the color adjustment commands
• Taking advantage of the RAW format for maximum flexibility, including using the Adjust, Detail, Lens, Curve, and Calibrate tabs and the Camera Raw buttons
• Fine-tuning your fixes, including making your selections with tools (four marquee tools, three lasso tools, and the Magic Wand tool) 
• Masking for both layer visibility and for protecting parts of your images
• The most common problems in digital photos?red-eye, wrinkles, unwanted objects and people, and noise?and what to do about them

With Photoshop CS2, you can go beyond enhancing your images to create ?art.? You have a very powerful painting engine, an extremely complex Brushes palette, and all kinds of painting tools. Photoshop CS2 For Dummies walks you though:

• Compositing (combining images into a piece of artwork) and working with layers, including choosing from the almost two dozen blending modes
• Selecting with Extract which is great for making tough selections, such as flyaway hair and various types of fringe
• Using Vanishing Point to ?map? a pattern to angled surfaces
• Creating panoramas with Photomerge
• Creating precision edges with vector paths, including using shape layers and the Custom Shape tool, choosing from more than 300 ready-to-use shapes with the Custom Shape Picker, and using the Pen tool to create paths
• Where to find dozens, or even hundreds, of custom shapes already on your computer ? absolutely free
• Dressing up images with layer styles, including using the Styles palette and creating custom layer styles
• Adding text messages and tweaking your text
• Using the extensive painting tools and the Brushes palette
• Using filters, including sharpening to focus the eye using blur filters or the Unsharp Mask and the new Smart Sharpen filter that give incredible control
• Getting fun effects with the Liquify filter

In a special Power Photoshop section, you?ll learn about streamlining your work, including creating a PDF for both onscreen presentation and for printing. You?ll discover how to spiff up your online images by working with Image Ready to slice, optimize, and otherwise juice up your images for the Web and how to create fancy rollover buttons and fun animations, 

From basic cropping to complex techniques that can turn good photos into great ones, Photoshop CS2 For Dummies is your guide to exploring all the possibilities that await you in Photoshop CS2.

If you’re a photography hobbyist, would you like to brighten up that gloomy island vacation photo? Slim down without going on a diet? See whether white or green shutters look best on the house? Expunge the ex-boyfriend from family photos?

If you’re a pro or semi-pro photographer, would you like to make it snow in that ski resort photo?  Replace the old logo in the glamour shot of the corporate headquarters with the new one?  Grow hair in the CEO’s glaring bald spot?  Freshen up the lettuce in that food shot?

You’ve come to the right place. With Photoshop CS2, you have the tools. With Photoshop CS2 For Dummies, you’ll have the know-how.  In full color, with all kinds of examples, screen shots, step-by-step explanations, tips, and techniques, this guide takes you from the fundamentals to special power-user tricks! Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes:

• The basics of getting around in Photoshop, getting images into and out of Photoshop, choosing the right file formats, and setting your preferences
• Working with Adobe Bridge to organize and manage your images
• Working with tonality, including making easy Auto Repairs, making adjustments with Levels and Curves (and the eyedroppers), and using Shadow/Highlight and the toning tools, Burn and Dodge
• Making color look natural using the color adjustment commands
• Taking advantage of the RAW format for maximum flexibility, including using the Adjust, Detail, Lens, Curve, and Calibrate tabs and the Camera Raw buttons
• Fine-tuning your fixes, including making your selections with tools (four marquee tools, three lasso tools, and the Magic Wand tool) 
• Masking for both layer visibility and for protecting parts of your images
• The most common problems in digital photos—red-eye, wrinkles, unwanted objects and people, and noise—and what to do about them

With Photoshop CS2, you can go beyond enhancing your images to create “art.” You have a very powerful painting engine, an extremely complex Brushes palette, and all kinds of painting tools. Photoshop CS2 For Dummies walks you though:

• Compositing (combining images into a piece of artwork) and working with layers, including choosing from the almost two dozen blending modes
• Selecting with Extract which is great for making tough selections, such as flyaway hair and various types of fringe
• Using Vanishing Point to “map” a pattern to angled surfaces
• Creating panoramas with Photomerge
• Creating precision edges with vector paths, including using shape layers and the Custom Shape tool, choosing from more than 300 ready-to-use shapes with the Custom Shape Picker, and using the Pen tool to create paths
• Where to find dozens, or even hundreds, of custom shapes already on your computer – absolutely free
• Dressing up images with layer styles, including using the Styles palette and creating custom layer styles
• Adding text messages and tweaking your text
• Using the extensive painting tools and the Brushes palette
• Using filters, including sharpening to focus the eye using blur filters or the Unsharp Mask and the new Smart Sharpen filter that give incredible control
• Getting fun effects with the Liquify filter

In a special Power Photoshop section, you’ll learn about streamlining your work, including creating a PDF for both onscreen presentation and for printing. You’ll discover how to spiff up your online images by working with Image Ready to slice, optimize, and otherwise juice up your images for the Web and how to create fancy rollover buttons and fun animations, 

From basic cropping to complex techniques that can turn good photos into great ones, Photoshop CS2 For Dummies is your guide to exploring all the possibilities that await you in Photoshop CS2.

Tame the Photoshop toolkit and get dazzling results Grasp the basics, correct color and tonality, work with Raw files, and more Wait till you see what you can do with Photoshop CS2! You’ll start with the nitty-gritty stuff, like how to get images out of your digital camera and into Photoshop, and go all the way to creating works of art with twisted type and the Photoshop Brush tool. Feeling even more adventurous? Check out Part IV for power-user tricks! Discover how to: Download, scan, crop, and print photos Adjust brightness, correct color, and fix flaws Choose the right file format for your images Understand the Raw file format Turn photos into works of art

* An all-new full-color edition, updated for the latest software release and bargain-priced at under $30
* New author Peter Bauer-a highly regarded Photoshop pro-has rewritten the book from scratch in its entirety
* Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes program basics, working with camera RAW tools, organizing and managing image files, enhancing images, using channels and masks, painting and drawing, adding masks and special effects, creating Web photo galleries, and streamlining workflow

"* An all-new full-color edition, updated for the latest software release and bargain-priced at under $30
* New author Peter Bauer-a highly regarded Photoshop pro-has rewritten the book from scratch in its entirety
* Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes program basics, working with camera RAW tools, organizing and managing image files, enhancing images, using channels and masks, painting and drawing, adding masks and special effects, creating Web photo galleries, and streamlining workflow"

It does what is says on the cover.
Any book with a title stating the content is for "Dummies" is going to attract of the type of purchaser who feels they do not possess whatever technical expertise is required to master the subject. That is why I purchased this book.

Technology may be moving ahead at an incredibly fast pace, but it does not mean we ordinary mortals cannot keep up. I mention this because, when I purchased this book, I had already acquired Adobe Photoshop CS3 but this series of books had not yet produced an updated version for CS3. Nevertheless, I am glad I got this copy because it goes all the way back to basic training before bringing the reader forward - step by step, to an area of expertise.

The very concept of digital imaging is explained in a manner which gives those who are new to the subject a fundamental understanding which will then stand them in good stead for all time. The author then takes the reader through a series of progressively more difficult tasks always building on what has been learned so far. These include enhancing digital images, Creating "Art," Power Photoshop and much more besides.

Having, as I said, already purchased CS3 and attended three days of professionally run courses on the subject, I thought I might be coming to this book as a bit of a "know it all." Not so! There is much to learned from this product and it is always interesting to see another approach to the teaching of the subject. Learning from a book also allows you to go back over the same area again and again until you get it right. You can’t do that in a classroom!

If you really are new to Photoshop and all the complexities that go with it, a copy of this book really should help you provided you are prepared to sit down and study the content - step by step, and put it all into practise.

NM

Photoshop CS2 for Dummies
Fantastic book. Has everything I need to know and items are easy to find. I would recommend it to anybody.

Photoshop cs2 for not so dummies
This is a very well written book. The author knows his material and how to help others use this program. I would recommend this book.

Not for Dummies
I’m sure this is an excellent resource for those who have used Photoshop already. It hits the ground running and assumes a much more significant base of pre-existing knowledge than the other "Dummies" books I’ve read.

My expectations for these Wiley books is that they write for neophytes, taking a step by step approach to understanding a topic without assuming any knowledge. That’s what has made them so effective and so popular.

That is not the case with this book. I consider myself to be of adequate intelligence but I have never used Photoshop and I was counting on this book to introduce the admittedly very complex application in digestible bites. It really doesn’t. It appears to assume the reader already has some knowledge of the program and, moreover, has already used it.

One example I’ll cite is the book’s treatment of the concept of layers, a central concept for how Photoshop works. It is assumed by the writer that the reader already knows what layers are and how the application uses them. It never presents a simple definition of layers. In fact, the author doesn’t even mention them until far along in the text. And, at that stage, the concept just jumps at the reader without any introduction or explanation. I think I know what layers are and how they are used, but it really was a work of interpolation on my part rather than helpful explanation by the author.

Again, it’s a fine work, but it’s not "Photoshop for Dummies," it’s really "Intermediate Photoshop."

Photoshop CS2 for Dummies
I purchased this book after using my local libraries` copy. It is full of information on the basic operational details and procedures of photoshop CS2. It is written in as plain an English as one could expect.

All the "secret" procedures to do various things are explained, things that would take decades of use if you were to try to figure them out without help.

It does not go into the aesthetics of photo editing at all. It only explains the basic procedures of how the various functions work, but it does this well.

It does nothing with the other graphic arts programs that come with CS2 such as In Design, Illustrator, and others. Photo editing is only a small part of the CS2 program.

If you want instruction on how to improve photos, this is not the book. If you want to learn the functions of how photo editing works within CS2, this book does a superb job in easily understood language.

Good product overview BUT
I purchased the subject book in order to edit photos only. The subject CS2 book provides a good overview of CS2 BUT it DOES NOT provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to use all the CS2 tools. I purchased "Photoshop CS2 In Easy Steps" manual ($10) to provide the "how to" part. Between the two publications, a good understanding of CS2 for photo processing was provided. It became clear that CS2 is so robust, and therefore complicated, that a CS2 course would be the next logical step.

A reference book, thats all
Luckily, I checked this book out of the library rather than buying it. I say "luckily" because this book isn’t worth the money. Here’s why...

On the front of the book it says:
Now in FULL COLOR! Loaded with the latest Photoshop tips and techniques"

On the back of the book it says this:
"Wait till you see what you can do with Photoshop CS2"

Photoshop CS2 for Dummies is not about HOW to do it, but about WHAT you can do with it. The cover of this book should have stated that it is a reference book out of fairness, rather than burying that fact in the prelude. Besides, aren’t reference books suitable for people who already know what they are doing and have experience using the program?

This book didn’t come with a CD or a website to go to for graphics and lessons. Words alone do nothing when you have to get your hands dirty. Would a pilots school be useful to you if you just sat in the classroom all day listening to the teacher on theory but not actually applying it by flying?

The first part (chapters 1-3) was way too basic, if not annoying. If you don’t know how to use the mouse or what a menu is, what is color, what is cropping, etc. then you need to go back to Computer 101. 84 pages of material more appropriate for a Windows dummies book, not a Photoshop book.

Part II (chapters 5-9) was not much better. Written in the same "manual-like" style, it lacked techniques and how-to. Its sad when you are reading a computer software book and don’t even lift the mouse or use the program while reading.

Part V consists of Chapters 18 to 20. Three chapters of tips and tricks. Total number of pages? Fourteen. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen out of 400 pages. Here’s the first paragraph of Chapter 18:
"I have literally thousands of Photoshop tips and tricks to share with you but space here allows for only ten."

What a cop out. Wasn’t that what the subtitle of this book was all about? Latest tips and techniques? Further, the tips are very poorly represented and outdated. There are websites that offer more detail and blow by blow description as you apply each step of the tip. Instead, this book shows only the end effect - worthless when there are many steps in between to enforce that the user is doing things right and getting the right results.

Noticed that I didnt discuss Parts III to IV? It was a waste of time.
Reference manuals are suitable for experienced users, not for beginners or people looking to learn from scratch. The best way to learn a creative tool like Photoshop is to experiment and try as everything is a transformation from one rendering to another.

C jones
If your new to photoshop or a Dummie stay from this book !!!

Great help
This is a great reference tool or a textbook depending on how you want to use it. I recommend it highly to anyone who taught themselves how to use Photoshop and who want to solidify their skills. I recommend it ever more to people who are completely new to Photoshop. You couldn’t buy a more helpful book when it comes to learning this software.

Not for beginners
Judging by the number of people who don’t find negative reviews helpful people don’t like to hear the truth - that this book is not for beginners. Its a reference book for intemediate users and above and possibly a reference for beginners who are receiving tuition elsewhere - because theres none to be found here.

Despite the sneering tone of at least one other revewer here it *is* possible to be a newbie and be serious about learning Photoshop - but not with this book. Do yourself a favor and buy Sams’ "Teach yourself Photoshop CS2 in 24 Hours" because that *will* teach you how to get to grips with the basics - and avoid this book.

Not very useful
Let me start by saying that I am a total Photoshop newbie. I have only used Microsoft digital imaging suite.

I have to say, this book is very lacking in useful information.
Basically, this book tells you what things are in Photoshop CS2 but never gives you any useful way to apply it to your images.

1. Basically no tips on how to edit RAW images with Photoshop CS2.

2. Mentions sharpening but doesn’t tell you how best to do it.

3. Talks very superficially about masking but never really tells you how to do it.

4. It’s not until the 5th chapter in the book that you even told anything that would require you to turn on your computer.

If you want to know how to use this to improve your family photos, look elsewhere.

Superb text by master teacher -- aimed at serious users rather than at dummies
Surprise! An incredible "Dummies" book on quality paper, in-text color photos, professional layout, and none of that heavy-handed tiresome ’humor’. The author - Director of the Photoshop Professionals Help desk - must have extracted a lot of concessions (all for the better) from the series publisher before putting his name on the book. Readers are the winners - all the more at Amazon’s incredible price.

This is not a book for "Dummies" [quick-fix users with little time for manuals] but then, neither is the Photoshop software. Snapshooters are well advised to stick with the less demanding, far less expensive, yet still very powerful, Photoshop Elements.

The organization is extremely well thought out - reflecting the author’s vast experience at the Photoshop Help desk - touching on the major tools and commands with more than sufficient insight to get you on the road. Not just that, but the writer has that all-too-rare gift of communicating crisply and clearly, and of holding the reader’s attention without heavy-handed ’humor’. The daunting ’Curves’ dialog, for instance, comes across clearly and understandably. The contrast of this CS2 edition with the previous CS (and earlier) editions is visually striking and, pleasant surprise, will serve CS users as well because CS2-specific operations are clearly marked. Best of all, an entire chapter is devoted to the increasingly popular RAW (’digital negative’) format that really takes advantage of Photoshop’s tremendous power.

This is an outstanding contribution to readers willing to spend some time and effort on a daunting project. It’s NOT for the hurried, instant-fix, faint-of-heart user -- who shouldn’t be starting with Photoshop in the first place. One glaring weakness is the inadequate and incomplete Index; "Color Cast", a perennial camera/scanner problem, has only one reference - and that in the RAW plugin section. In my first read I found at least five more references to ’color cast’ under far more relevant commands. Not the least, this book is so well written that it’s one of the few technical texts that doesn’t suffer from lack of a work-along CD [as many Phototoshop texts are] - a deserving tribute to a superb communicator. Well done!

This Book is not for Dummies or Beginners!
IMO, this is a terrible book for beginners. The structure is non-linear; within the first few pages the author references more advanced Photoshop techniques as if the reader understands what he’s referring to.

Frankly, I’m surprised the "for Dummies" group ever published the book. If you’re new to Photoshop, this book will almost certainly confuse & frustrate.

It simply is not a text that "Dummies" (read beginners) will get much out of. I read the first 3 chapters, and I still had no understanding of Photoshop’s basic features.

Perhaps it will be a good reference book as I become more adept at Photoshop, but I wanted a book that would teach me the basics.

I’ve found both the "Photoshop CS2 for Beginners" DVD and "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom in a Book" to be far superior choices for Photoshop novices.

If I could rate this book a zero rather than a one, I would.

Must Have
This is just a great companion to photoshop if you’re learning it. It covers the basics and gives the reader a basic understanding of what the heck the computer is doing. To get more in depth, get the CS2 Bible, that’s a great book to move up to even though it isn’t as snazy as this new book.

How is it possible we are reading the same book???
I am 100 pages and 5 chapters into the book which I purchased a week ago, mainly based on the glowing reviews that people have left here as well as the esteemed credentials of the author. I have essentially zero Photoshop experience, having only used the photo editing program iPhoto (Mac)--but I have used that to its full extent, including histograms, lighting adjustment and correction, and more.

I was really excited to start learning Photoshop, and only mildly disappointed when I opened the introduction and it said that this was a REFERENCE book and not a step-by-step how-to book. How can you learn Photoshop without a step-by-step? If I had wanted the reference book I would have bought the Dummies Photoshop Reference book.

I was up to the 4th chapter in the book when I realized that I hadn’t even needed to pull out my computer yet to follow along. I was literally learning nothing. Not having experience with Photoshop, I didn’t need any of the keyboard shortcutting tips and palette preference setting that he went over in the first three chapters because I still don’t know what any of those functions even do! And he calls that "Breezing through Basic Training". I don’t see what’s so basic about any of the tips in there. If you don’t know Photoshop, you won’t need anything he writes in the first 4 chapters.

With chapter 5, I officially give up. I’m returning the book. It has been a total waste of time. I started to regain hope with chapter 5, as it started out seeming to be just about the first chapter you could use as hands-on to actually learn functions. I then lost all hope as the explanations are not clear and the color images and screen shots that everyone else is raving about are so teeny that you can’t read any of the type in them even to glance and recognize the same dialog window on your screen--the type appears to be about a font size of 8 or less. In terms of explanations of the functions and tools in Photoshop this wasn’t a help at all. I want to see what the tools look like and how to use them. So far I have gotten way more help from the tutorial that comes with the program.

Obviously the audience for this book will have a wide range of experience with both computers and Photoshop, but in two pages the author goes from saying that it’s important to empty the cache before burning a cd with no further explanation (huh?) to fully explaining why you should not to put periods in the file names unless it precedes an extension (duh). That just doesn’t help me at all. I bought a Dummies book because I am brand new to Photoshop and wanted to start from scratch, but this book assumes that you have an understanding of Photoshop and just need tips.

I’ve used lots of books to learn software before--including dry ones published by Microsoft, Missing Manuals, and Dummies books. Dummies books are usually pretty clear-cut, step-by-step guides that wouldn’t intimidate a beginner, with a couple of jokes thrown in to help move it all along. This book jumps all over the place in terms of teaching tools instead of introducing them one by one, does not have clear graphics and instructions, and isn’t even funny at all. The jokes thrown in don’t even produce an internal snicker. They just made me mad that he had all of these credentials and I still wasn’t learning anything.

I think I’m going to try the Adobe Classroom in a Book instead, after I tackle the tutorial included with Photoshop.

Covers all of the basics of Photoshop
I’ve always been a fan of the "For Dummies" series, especially when it came to computer subjects, and this is one of the best in that series. This book will not teach you advanced techniques, but it will show you what the features and tools do in this latest release of Photoshop. Even if you are already familiar with Photoshop, this book does a good job of introducing the reader to the new features of CS2. The author has plenty of "screen shots" that show the reader exactly what submenu he is referring to when he is discussing how to get to a particular tool, and plenty of clear step-by-step instructions. There are also plenty of before and after images demonstrating what the tool under discussion does. The author even bothers to discuss "big picture" issues such as why you would want to own a digital camera, and the reason for saving image data in RAW format. The one thing that is not really detailed is Photoshop’s catalog of native filters, for the obvious reason that this vast topic could be - and is - the subject of an entire separate book. This book is not recommended for the power user, but it has something to offer everyone else.

Best book for beginners
This book is the best for beginners who just started to work with any version of Photoshop. All (new) major functions of Photoshop (CS2) are covered, so beginners can get familiar with those.

Does it offer anything for advanced or higher level users? No, I couldn’t find anything I didn’t know already, but I couldn’t leave it, because of the very sharp price and the many full colored pages.

Best Dummies Book I’ve Ever Read
I too have no less than 1/2 dozen Dummies book. Most of which I’ve never finished. But this one is the best of the best Photoshop CS2 manuals. It’s easy to read, instructions are clear, and concise, though a few times he forgets to tell you how to access certain menu options. But overall this is a total winner. I love that it is in color, and none of the sometimes lame attempts at humor like some of the other Dummie books where the authors seemed to be more interested in entertaining you than educating you. I read five chapters in one sitting while doing hands on exercises at the same time. Great Book!!!!

Nice book
I’ve used a lot of the Dummies books. At last count I had 7 on my shelf. So I was a little bit surprised when I went looking for a Dummies book on Photoshop and saw this one in color. After using the book and the program, it makes perfect sense. I’m not sure a black and white book would have done the topic justice. So far it’s a good reference on a confusing software.

Beautiful and Useful
Except for the yellow cover, this just doesn’t look like a For Dummies book. As soon as you open it you start to see color printing everywhere. There must be dozens, if not hundreds of four color images, and they are scattered throughout the book. This isn’t at all like a lot of books that only have a few color plates. It also appears to be a higher quality paper that looks brighter than the other books in the series. This makes sense because Photoshop is a highly color oriented software package. The really nice thing about all this is that they didn’t raise the cost significantly. A lot of books printed like this one are twice the price.

Of course the real test of a book is not its appearance, but its content. This book is aimed at the beginner to intermediate level user. It kind of combines a tutorial and a reference approach. The first few chapters are really introductory. It doesn’t make much sense to jump around in them. But after that the chapters are pretty much stand alone. You can use the index or the general chapter heading to find the particular area that interests you and get the information you need.

This is a welcome addition to photoshop literature. While it’s aimed at the beginner, even an expert will find a few points that will help him on his next project. The author runs a help desk in real life. That means he knows what people are going to ask and he included it in his book. Very well done.

A Few Notes from the Author
Hi, I’m Pete Bauer, author of "Photoshop CS2 for Dummies." First I’d like to let you know what an honor it is to follow in the footsteps of Photoshop Hall-of-Famer Deke McClelland! Deke (and his co-authors) did a great job with earlier versions of "Photoshop for Dummies," and I am sure that you’ll find this version a wonderful addition to the series. This is a completely new version of "Photoshop for Dummies," written from scratch, to present you, the reader, with a fresh new look at the software. In addition, this is the first version to use color images throughout the book -- what better subject for a full-color "for Dummies" book than Photoshop?

"Photoshop CS2 for Dummies" should be considered a beginner- to intermediate-level reference book. It’s not lesson-based, and you don’t have to start with Chapter One and work through the book front to back. Instead, take advantage of the Table of Contents and the Index to find topics with which you need help or which sound interesting to you. Flip to those pages and have at it. (Of course if you do start at the front and read to the back, you won’t miss a single tip, technique, or cartoon.)

As the Help Desk Director for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), I answer tens of thousands of Photoshop-related questions every year. That gives me a pretty good idea of what folks want to know. I’ve used that experience (and my experience writing a half-dozen other books on Photoshop and Illustrator) to put together what I think you’ll find to be a great resource. Easy to read, entertaining, yet filled with information you need to become proficient with Photoshop. Have fun & best of luck!