Product Description

This thorough, self-paced guide to Adobe Photoshop CS3--written by the experts at Adobe Systems' is ideal for beginning users who want to learn key Photoshop concepts and techniques, while readers who already have some experience with Photoshop can use this book to learn Photoshop CS3's more advanced features and newest tools. Using clear, step-by-step, project-based lessons, each chapter walks readers through the creation of a specific project, with each chapter building on the reader's growing knowledge of the program, while review questions at the end of each chapter reinforce the skills learned in each lesson. Photoshop CS3, long the industry standard for digital imaging software, offers plenty of new features and enhancements for creative professionals and digital photographers alike. Users can enjoy unrivaled editing with non-destructive Smart Filters, improved curves, and adjustable cloning and healing with Preview Overlay. Increase productivity with Photoshop CS3's streamlined interface and new Photoshop Lightroom " integration. Anyone who wants to create a composite will benefit from the revamped Photomerge® tool, which lets you apply automatic layer alignment and blending to your images, while the new Quick Selection tool lets you select pixels not just by color, but by texture and shape as well. And digital photographers will be pleased to know that they can now process multiple Camera Raw images in a fraction of the time it used to take.


Educational instructor notes—created to help teachers plan, organize, and time their lessons—are available for this book (and for other Classroom in a Book titles) at www.peachpit.com/instructorresources.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4085 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-02
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

From the Back Cover
This thorough, self-paced guide to Adobe Photoshop CS3--written by the experts at Adobe Systems' is ideal for beginning users who want to learn key Photoshop concepts and techniques, while readers who already have some experience with Photoshop can use this book to learn Photoshop CS3's more advanced features and newest tools. Using clear, step-by-step, project-based lessons, each chapter walks readers through the creation of a specific project, with each chapter building on the reader's growing knowledge of the program, while review questions at the end of each chapter reinforce the skills learned in each lesson. Photoshop CS3, long the industry standard for digital imaging software, offers plenty of new features and enhancements for creative professionals and digital photographers alike. Users can enjoy unrivaled editing with non-destructive Smart Filters, improved curves, and adjustable cloning and healing with Preview Overlay. Increase productivity with Photoshop CS3's streamlined interface and new Photoshop Lightroom " integration. Anyone who wants to create a composite will benefit from the revamped Photomerge® tool, which lets you apply automatic layer alignment and blending to your images, while the new Quick Selection tool lets you select pixels not just by color, but by texture and shape as well. And digital photographers will be pleased to know that they can now process multiple Camera Raw images in a fraction of the time it used to take.


Educational instructor notes—created to help teachers plan, organize, and time their lessons—are available for this book (and for other Classroom in a Book titles) at www.peachpit.com/instructorresources.

About the Author
The Adobe Creative Team is made up of designers, writers, and editors who have extensive, real-world knowledge of and expertise in using Adobe products. They work closely with the Adobe product development teams and Adobe's Instructional Communications team to come up with creative, challenging, and visually appealing projects to help both new and more experienced users get up to speed quickly on Adobe software products.

Customer Reviews

Buyer Beware.
I recently attended a two-day course on Adobe Photoshop CS3 as part of my conversion to digital photography and digital imaging. At the end of that course the students were all given a copy of this book which contains a training CD Rom. As I was already booked onto the "advanced course" in 14 days time, I eagerly put the CD into my computer to practise what I had learned. Only then did I discover the CD would not work without my having first purchased and installed the full Adobe Photoshop CS3 software.

In my case, I had already ordered that software so it was only a matter of a few days delay before I could get started. Just be warned that you cannot use this product without having first installed the full software package - and that is a separate purchase altogether.

Once that's done, it's actually great. Anyone who starts at page one - with no previous experience and no knowledge of the difference between a tool bar and a menu bar, will find it all fit slowly into place as the book teaches one step at a time and then builds on each step until you find yourself automatically going back to something already learned as though you have been doing it for years.

My only criticism of the book is some pretty silly typing errors. In one example you are referred back to a previous page only to find they got the page number wrong. In another, a list of tools is incorrect.

I did find such basic errors to be quite surprising (and very annoying at the time) from a team of people who are otherwise so technically competent.

NM

Maybe the Definitive Book
This is the official book for the programme written by Adobe. It takes you through a series of structured lessons with the images from the enclosed CD.
Shows quiet a few tips and shortcuts. In full colour now (about time! this is a manual about colour after all!).
Visual Quickstart Guide is an alternative you might consider, also good, that comes with images but you have to download then from their website. Think the Adobe book has the edge.
It's useful to remember that no book can cover everything and a different way of explaining things might suit you better, so buy two or three.

The very best book for beginners
Being new to Photoshop CS3, having just converted from many years use of Paint Shop Pro, I made the mistake of starting with Martin Evening's book (- although excellent, it is not for beginners). This Classroom in a Book certainly meets the needs of a beginner and is a real pleasure to work through. I would recommend it, without reservation, to anyone starting out on Photoshop CS3.

Two brief comments on the earlier 3-star review. First, although I am not in a position to know what it is like moving up to CS3 from CS2, a better solution might be Ben Willmore's "CS3 Up to Speed", which I have also bought from Amazon UK, as it is "... focused exclusively on the new features in Photoshop CS3". Secondly, although I did have a terrible experience with Adobe's "GoLive Classroom in a Book" about 5 years ago, where there were several errors per page, this CS3 book has relatively few errors - at a rough count, only about one per 10 pages and none too serious to downrate the 5 stars I am giving for an otherwise top rate book.