Product Description

Learn creative, practical, timesaving techniques for Web graphics, illustration, photo manipulation, and special effects with The Photoshop 5/5.5 Wow! Book. This updated edition of the award-winning bestseller features real-world examples from artists and designers of the kind of stunning, professional, full-color artwork you want to produce, and provides clear, step-by-step instructions for applying these techniques to your own projects.

The Photoshop 5/5.5 Wow! Book covers the new Extract command for difficult-to-select subjects and shows you how to use ImageReady 2 to create rollovers, animated GIFs, and sliced images for speedy, high-quality Web graphics. You'll also learn how to apply Layer Effects and get the most from "live" type. The book thoroughly explains the History palette and how to use it to perform multiple undos, new painting techniques with the Impressionist History and Art History brushes, and fast and flexible image-editing. The CD-ROM contains "before and after" tutorial files for the techniques in the book, with all layers and channels intact, as well as copy-and-paste Wow! Layer Effects, custom Actions, filters, and demos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #707965 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Walk into a design studio and you just might see the popular ThePhotoshop 5.0/5.5 Wow! Book on the shelf. If there's a technique or effect that would work perfectly for the job at hand, whether it's adding a chrome or chiselled-in-stone look or simply better understanding the usage of the lasso tool, designers, photographers and illustrators know to reach for this book.

The recent edition incorporates the updated features of Photoshop versions 5 and 5.5, including layer effects, "magnetic" options for many of the selection tools, actions that "record" a sequence of commands and the art history brush that applies textured strokes to an image.

Even with all this great new content, the original organisation mirrors from previous editions. The first two chapters cover fundamentals. Subsequent chapters begin with basics pertinent to the techniques covered but each entry can be read independently. The techniques are shown in step-by-step instructions accompanied by full-colour illustrations and, for many, digital files on the CD-ROM accompanying the book.

It's possible to dive right into the middle and tackle whatever problem is currently facing you. Silhouetting out a person's portrait is always tricky, particularly getting a good selection around hair. With potential time-wasters like this, Photoshop 5.0/5.5 Wow! is a lifesaver. And readers who have put off learning how to make full use of layers will find a whole chapter and a fun set of "dress up" files on the CD-ROM (digital equivalents of paper dolls) that will have you shamelessly proficient in no time.

With hundreds of illustrations, tips for making work quicker and easier, a gallery of work and advice from experienced Photoshop users, illustrated demos for each filter and so much more, it's quite a hefty book. The CD-ROM has stock images, plug-ins, actions and tutorial files. From "Making a Mezzotint" to "Making Buttons from Photos", The Photoshop 5.0/5.5 Wow! book is The Joy of Cooking for digital image-making. It'll have you cooking with Photoshop in no time. --Angelynn Grant, Amazon.com

Topics covered: Step-by-step instructions on tools, techniques and effects in Adobe Photoshop 5.0/5.5, including using layers, masks and channels; enhancing photographic images by solarizing, applying a mezzotint and other effects; making well-executed collages; using filters; painting effects; going from Illustrator to Photoshop and vice versa; adding special effects such as multicolour glow and others; using the new Web tools in version 5.5. CD-ROM contains tutorial files with before-and-after images; try-out applications and plug-ins; actions, gradients, brushes, stock photos and a teacher's guide that outlines course projects using The Photoshop Wow! Book.

From the Back Cover

Photoshop users the world over are awaiting the release of The Photoshop 5/5.5 Wow! Book as eagerly as they awaited the new software release itself. The newest version of the most popular image-editing software ever is packed with the features users want and have asked for, like multiple levels of undo, editable text, enhanced color managements, easy-to-apply special effects,extended automation tools, and more.

The Photoshop Wow! books have set new standards for computer book publishing. Readers find creative techniques and solutions developed by renowned artists and designers, plus no-nonsense practical advice on using the software, and galleries of professional artwork for print, the Web, and video. This combination of time- and work-saving tips and techniques for illustration, photo manipulation, special effects, and painting, all shown in full color, has garnered professional awards for the Most Useful Book, Best Computer Book, and Best Advanced How-To Software Book and has earned praise from readers everywhere.

For the first time, by popular demand, the CD-ROM for this fully updated edition provides the original photos used for many of the book's techniques, so readers can work through the step-by-step instructions as tutorials. There's also an Instructor's Guide that educators can adapt for any course from a weekend workshop to a full-semester class.

• Now cross-platform, with both Windows and Mac in a single volume
• Fully updated with new tips and techniques specific to Adobe Photoshop 5,
• Including an expanded Web graphics section
• Beautifully illustrated throughout with full-color artowrk by top Photoshop
• Professionals, and a bound-in Wow! poster
• Cross-platform CD-ROM contains more custom Actions for automation, stunning
• special effects, tutorial photos, an instructor's guide, valuable filters,
• sample programs, and more treats
• Photoshop Wow! books are indispensable resources in top design studios and
• Corporate art departments and are widely used as textbooks in college and
• University art and design departments and interactive communication classes.

About the Author

Linnea Dayton is a contributing editor to Step-By-Step Electronic Design, a full-color monthly newsletter for graphic designers and illustrators, which she edited for the first five years of its existence. Formerly managing editor of Verbum magazine, she is co-author of the Verbum book series (PostScript Illustration, Electronic Page Design, Digital Painting, Scanned Imagery, and Digital Typography) as well as The Desktop Color Book, The Photo CD Book, The Photoshop Wow! Book (Mac and Windows editions for Photoshop 2.5), Aldus PageMaker: A Visual Guide for the Mac, and Adobe Illustrator: A Visual Guide for the Mac.

Jack Davis is the principal of JHDavis Design and art director of Presto Studios. He founded the Computer Graphics program at Platt College in San Diego, CA. Jack is the former graphics editor of Verbummagazine and has been a contributing author and illustrator for nine books on creative computer imagery and design. Jack resides in the San Diego area.

Customer Reviews

what a awesome book for photoshop users
I can honestly say that this book has put my photoshop skill upto scratch . A highly recommended book, not for beginners though. :)

How this book helped a self taught Photoshop user.
I'm now working as a web designer and have been using Photoshop a lot more heavily than I used to. I've discovered lots of techniques and tricks that I'd not come across before in my previous 5 or so years of general PhotoShop use studying Visualisation (computer graphics) at the University of Teesside. A lot of these techniques and more are in the Photoshop Wow Book. A large part of the book works in a fairly specific way ie. a three page description of a technique for creating a decent chrome effect, this is all good. The added bonus here is that once you've used a few of the techniques you get in my experience a much better overall understanding of the sort of things you can do with filters, layers, channels etc. There are also some more general chapters on layers, channels & creating montages etc that are worth skimming at least to track down the bits and pieces that you've probably missed if your self taught on Photoshop (like me).

Anyway, I've probably not explained it all that well, but I would really recommend it to anyone who is at an intermediate or higher level with Photoshop, and I can personally say that it's come in handy for this web designer.

The BEST book on photoshop techniques
This is an excellent book on photoshop studio techniques. It takes you through examples to show you various techniques you can use in photoshop which you can apply else where. This is simply the BEST photoshop book out there. However the drawback is that quite a lot of stuff in this book is covered in the Photoshop 4.0 Wow! book.