Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great hands-on book for learning Photoshop CS3
Comment: I was reluctant to buy this book because the information on-line was pretty thin. There was no listing of the contents, just a few bullet points. The included video tutorials were the nudge I needed, and I'm glad I bought it. They say it's writen by teachers and it feels like I'm in a class as I go through the chapters.
The first chapter warned me that it covered new features, and told me to skip it if I wanted to get into working with the software. I didn't because I've worked with Photoshop before and I wanted to see what was new and I'm glad I didn't have to wait to find out. The second chapter had me doing all sorts of things with Photoshop that I'd never thought possible. It was a quick overview of many ways to use Photoshop - a dive-right-in approach. I liked it.
The next chapter covered how to organize the tools. There are so many tools and little windows (palettes) that I'm glad this was there. Otherwise things would be a mess.
After that it covered something called bridge. I wasn't sure what this was, but I learned that it helps keep track of images and organize them. It's like a filing cabinet for all of your photos, and I now know how to use it.
The next chapter goes into basics of creating selections and saving files.
The chapter called Creating a Good Image is the best I've seen. It's the best explanation I've ever seen of of how to get a good quality image from Photoshop. This chapter was worth the price of the book alone.
I learned lots of ways to select things in the next chapter, and then how to use tools to retouch images, paint, and "heal" things (very cool). I'm in the second chapter on layers right now - there are two back-to-back. They are quite good and cover things like applying filters to layers, using type, and layer styles. Layer styles are a huge time saver, I'm also glad that I learned about them.
Overall I've learned enough to easily justify the cost of the book. The book is step-by-step instructions, and the files used are included on a CD in the back of the book. These instructions are so clear it's like someone is sitting next to you telling you what you need to do. And if you have a question, it's like they've anticipated it. When you receive a warning window, they tell you that it's going to be there and what to do. A very well researched book.
There's also some videos. I had to download an update to Flash to get them to play, but that only took one minute. I played some of them a second or third time as they went a bit fast, but the videos go over some of the points in the chapters so you know what to expect when you do the work yourself.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Horrible CS3 learning guide
Comment: This book is one of the WORST books I have ever had the displeasure of trying to read and learn software from!!! The book is horribly disjointed....topics are not in any logical order to learn CS3 in.....the first several chapters go into advanced topics such as layer masks, merging images and creative 'smart' filters.......
I am not sure who the authors thought they were teaching...but, its surely not a new user to CS3...prior to chapter 1 the book makes no mention of any assumed level of prior photoshop CS or CS2 knowledge........it covers beginning basics later in the book.....but, a new user is already lost and frustrated trying to figure out advanced functions in the first 4 chapters!.......by page 43 (of 339 pages)...the book is teaching editing smart objects and vector shapes and adding layer effects onto artwork!!!......toss this book!!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for Photographers
Comment: Maybe it's because of the split personality that Photoshop has, being designed for use by both graphics professionals and photographers. Maybe a book that explains Photoshop for graphic artists is different from a book for photographers. I don't think so. And this book is not for photographers.
For a while now I've been thinking that there must be a better way to teach beginners how to use Photoshop. This book, part of a new series by the publisher, looked like it might be a better way. It's not.
First the good points. The book is made up of tutorials that require you to load an image file from the CD included with the book and then perform various operations on the file. The book is written in the simplest, easy to understand language and the tutorial instructions are crystal clear. There are videos tied to each chapter that run on a computer.
Now the bad points. The organization of the book is ill considered, placing information in the beginning of the book that is inappropriate for beginners. The book doesn't provide essential information, particularly for photographers. The videos are a mere repetition of material in the text.
Consider the organization. The book starts out explaining the significant differences between Photoshop CS2 and CS3. But if you are a beginner, the differences are irrelevant. The following chapters deal with compositing pictures. That is one of the last things a beginner needs to know. He or she first needs to know how to manipulate a photograph for tone and color correction.
There is nothing that tells a reader how to get a picture from a camera into a computer, which is a major function of Bridge, an essential element of PS CS3. There is nothing that explains the nature of tonality, the manipulation of which has been essential to successful photography almost from photography's beginning. There is scant instruction on any of the basic controls to manipulate the tone and color of an image.
My first instinct was to give this book the poorest rating possible, but I must confess that some of the chapters on more advanced techniques, like the nature of levels, were quite good (although not good enough to make up for the shortcomings, at least as far as a beginner is concerned.)
As far as I can see, there is no magic bullet for photographers who want to learn Photoshop. A serious beginner might want to start his or her Photoshop learning with Barry Haynes "Photoshop Artistry: For Photographers Using Photoshop CS2 and Beyond (Voices That Matter)", following the book's suggested outline for beginners, and as one's skills developed, to return to the intermediate and then advanced outline. It will be slow going but you will learn what you need to process pictures well in Photoshop. If you've mastered Haynes version of Photoshop you can fill in the upgrade to PS CS3 with Ben Willmore's short and concise "Adobe Photoshop CS3: Up to Speed".
By the way, this volume doesn't cover the latest upgrades to PS CS3, but given the cursory treatment of tone and color controls, that scarcely seems to make a difference to an evaluation of this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Practical Beginner Book
Comment: §
Of course, I cannot claim to be an excellent beginner. It will be a while before I emerge from the mediocre stage. This book and accompanying DVD are certainly helping me make progress.
The thirteen lessons are well-paced for the eager beginner and the topics covered are clearly geared to practical value. The lessons are interesting and I am getting in some good practice as I progress through the 340+ pages of content.
Here is what I liked about this book compared to a few other Photoshop CS3 books I have reviewed recently:
1) The new features of CS3 are treated more fully and effort is made to integrate those features into the lessons.
2) Two of the 13 lessons keep the focus on optimizing the use of layers. I think this is really important for the serious beginner.
3) The last lesson concentrates on creating images for the Web. So many new users of Photoshop are people like me, Web professionals.
Quibbles: Although the videos (Flash format) are full of excellent content, the author of the book and narrator, Jennifer Smith, spoke a bit fast. I had to keep hitting pause and backing up. In addition, some steps were not vocalized and this also was cause for a pause. An ad for the book took up the left side of each video, sometimes taking space that could have been better used.
This is an excellent book that I am still working through. I have no hesitation in recommending it to others.
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Dynamic Learning Photoshop CS3
Comment: Dynamic Learning-Photoshop CS3
This new book teaches the workings of Photoshop CS3. The book consists of 13 Lessons (chapters) and an index, in 349 pages. The first lesson describes the new features of Photoshop CS3, of which there are quite a few. Further lessons teach the use of Selections, Layers, Painting and Retouching, Filters, Smart Objects, and creating images for the Web, video, and print.
The book is printed on glossy paper with illustrations and screen captures in color throughout. There are useful tables, such as the one describing all the tools, another on understanding file formats. Lesson 8 has a good Color Primer section which describes the RGB and CMYK color spaces.
The DVD which comes with the book has all the images used the lessons, plus 13 tutorial videos(about five minutes each) corresponding to each of the lessons in the text. This book provides a good working knowledge of the Photoshop CS3 program, for the reader.
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