This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Anyone who relies on Photoshop to meet tough production challenges knows that when a new version arrives, especially one as chockfull of enhancements as Photoshop CS3, there's no time to fool around. You need to get up to speed on it, and you need to do so now. This book will get you there. In this copiously illustrated book, best-selling author David Blatner offers shows you how to sharpen your Photoshop production techniques and provides clear explanations of the concepts that drive them. Readers will learn about managing color, correcting colors, capturing images, getting great scans, and more. They'll also find complete coverage of Photoshop CS3's new features: a streamlined interface, nondestructive Smart Filters, a new Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools, improved Curves, automatic layer alignment and blending, and more. Throughout, the emphasis in this book is on efficiency: the timesaving tips and professional shortcuts that will allow readers to solve their everyday production challenges creatively with Photoshop CS3.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Amazing learning! - 2008-06-07
Reviewer Rating:
This book surpassed all my expectations, it was made for serious professionals, and that's what I wanted. Although I'm only an amateur photographer and Photoshop enthusiast, I'm enjoying the book, but because I'm very curious and exactly because I love Photoshop so much I wanted to understand everything about it.

If you are also an enthusiast/amateur but don't care about how this marvelous program works, you better get an easier book with canned "how toos". This book also has step by step guides, but on the top of it they explain every single detail of how everything works.

The authors give very in depth explanations on color theory, color management (I had a hard time on this), color spaces, exactly what is a digital image, etc. Although I found this all fascinating, as I already said I had a hard time trying to understand some concepts about color management, but my guess is that if you are a professional you will understand it better.

They also explain Bridge and Camera Raw. I understand why they included these 2 programs in the book (they work together, although CR is actually a plugin), but I could live without it, mostly because there are more in depth books about CR, like Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Real World), by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (I love this guy, check out his videos on CR at the Luminous Landscape website). If you don't plan on buying a specific book on CR, then the chapter about it is a good introduction.

The most fun part is of course on Photoshop itself, covered in a brilliant, flawless way, with everything you could wish for and more.

The book is massive, more than 700 pages, and is written in a nice, light but serious way. They won't waste your time and patience on endless silly jokes like Scott Kelby. For someone like me, whose mother language isn't English, I could understand everything and the reading flowed smoothly.

Challenging - 2009-02-12
Reviewer Rating:
There are a lot of challenging manuals out there. This one is challenging and well-written. And thorough. I will go back and read it over and over again, not only because there's a wealth of information for the advanced Photoshop user, but because there is more than one can absorb in one reading. Beginning users may be intimidated, but Real World Adobe Photoshop is worth the investment because they will go back to it in the years to come as they get deeper and deeper into it. The one issue I have is that several of the photos they've so carefully demonstrated how to correct don't look significantly better when compared to the original; they may be true examples of retouching in the real world, but more exaggerated corrections would be appreciated.

really "real world" - 2008-05-29
Reviewer Rating:
This book is so much more than a list of Photoshop options. It tells you how to do the things that as a photographer you will probably be doing a lot of, not all kinds of theoretical stuff that you will probably never even think about doing. That said, there's too much pre-press and print industry material for my taste. But the photography-relevant material is first-rate.

Photoshop CS3 Industrial Strength Production Techniques - 2009-05-26
Reviewer Rating:
An outstanding reference for advanced Photoshop users, this manual covers it all. Alternative methods for applying standard tools and detailed explanations for adjusting images using blending modes provide the tools that work for a high volume photographer. Discussions on Camera Raw image management, typographic enhancements and image output were interesting and proved effective. A great handbook.

To the point explanations of PhotoShop CS3 - 2009-02-21
Reviewer Rating:
This is a great book that is both practical and thorough. The illustrations of screen images and the text narratives are concise and essentially easy to follow. The injection of occasional humor makes reading the material enjoyable. And when you can get results, you know the book is worth the money.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Graphics

Sub-Categories:
Graphics > Photoshop