Customer Rating: 
Summary: Another must have for graphic designers
Comment: I needed another refernce book! I don't like to ask for help because I don't learn that way... I would rather try to slove my Photoshop problems myself. This book ROCKS!! It's great for photographers and graphic designers.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource
Comment: As always the "Bibles" are excellent resource material.
I do however miss some more in depth "How to's" like there used to be (Photoshop 5 bible had excellent step by step additional material on the cd).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference guide
Comment:
I have been a photoshop user for a couple of years, but tend to only edit the obvious such as exposure, color balance, maybe the contrast and/or sharpness and then I'm done. It wasn't until recently that I have been using various layers to enhance my images and im finding that I still lack confidence with the abundance of tools and options CS3 has to offer. I relate these inadequacies to sporadic practice. Like anything, practice makes perfect, and if you don't use it... you loose it. Since photoshop isn't my full time job, I find that I forget minor details more often than not. This is where "The Photoshop Bible," comes in as an amazing resource. First of all the table of contents is written very well. Being able to look up a specific tool or scenario, fast (portraiture, architecture) is vital to a 500 page book of information. This book is relatively new to me and I have already used it several times as reference and im happy I did. Each time I have used the book, I start by scanning the index, after finding the page and reading into it I always find additional information that helps me perform the task more effectively. I also find that his dialogue makes for an easy read that's comprehendible the first time read.
I would recommend this book to anyone serious about photoshop, who doesn't have the time to continually practice and learn the new tricks because this author makes it easy! It's easy to find what your looking for and it's easy to read, understand and perform what the author says!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Photoshop CS3 Bible
Comment: The book touches on everything I need to know for working with Photoshop. The authors share tips, tricks, and workarounds. If something works well or does not do what the user would expect, the authors say so. The topics are covered throughout the book in a clear, thoughtful manner. Unlike some other books on Photoshop, and I have several, this one is definetely worth every penny.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best if you know PS already
Comment: I bought this book based on my memorable experience with the Filemaker Bible. I still have a nice warm fuzzy for that book. As a complete neophyte, I jumped into the FM book, and soon found myself creating some fairly complex and useful databases to manage client data for my business. Not exactly the same experience with the CS3 bible.
The best approach, for a newbie, would be to buy a different book with more step-by-step examples, and then reference this book, as needed. I'll definitely be keeping this book, and remain confident that it will rise to the occasion of answering nearly any future question I can concoct.
PROS
- The authors obviously know their stuff.
- The book has a kazillion pages, and it totally packed with information. For me, it will serve as a great reference guide for years to come.
- Seems to be indexed pretty well.
- I like that it comes with a hands-on CD, but frankly, I have not used it yet.
- I have to hand it to the authors, for tackling such a difficult subject to write about.
CONS
- Organization. As you read a chapter, it touches on a subject and then sometimes again on the same subject later. It can be hard to correlate how this fits into the big picture. I found myself turning to the table of contents to figure out what the current paragraph was addressing. The sub-headings in the chapter are not always helpful, and sometimes I found myself having to read a paragraph or two to find out what was being discussed. Paragraphs do not often start with a a transitional sentence, forcing the reader to follow the course of discussion.
- I'm not a big fan of the authors' writing style. In order to comprehend many sentences, I had to read them 2-3x. Often, it can be like reading a patent or a college math textbook. You can't really spring from sentence to sentence. Time consuming to digest. Admittedly, it's difficult subject matter to write about.
- The book is in serious need of more diagrams, indexed by arrows and labels. With much discussion of menus and sub-menus (admittedly necessary, due to the subject matter), it is easy to get lost. What menu are we discussing, and how to I reach this function again? I annotated some diagrams on my own, for example, to label which menu was which. Otherwise, all the menu discussion can get pretty dry, while at the same time disorienting-- a bad combination.
- The book would benefit with some step-by-step examples. Perhaps, addressing some common tasks in PS and how you perform them. Honestly, though, that might not be the proper the role of this reference tome, although some more examples would go a long way.
- The early chapters go into great detail about setting preferences. If you've been using PS for years, this is probably important right off the bat - making the program comfortable to use. But for me, there was much more important subject matter to discuss up front. Perhaps an overview of the some different components, such as color, selections, layers, masks, etc.
- Some foundation concepts (like file format, color, compression, and resolution) appear scattered throughout different chapters, making it hard to assimilate the material quickly. Some of this material is repeated, nearly verbatim, in different places.
- Tiny font. I guess this was a necessary evil, to avoid dividing the book into multiple volumes. But again, it's like reading a patent.
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