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Photoshop Classic: The Basic Effects Every New User Needs to Know

By: Scott Kelby
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Peachpit Press
ISBN: 0321272250
ISBN-13: 9780321272256
Released: 01 Jul 2004
RRP: £29.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Comes in handy - By: Radosaw Brzozowski, 10 May 2007
The book is not terribly advanced & doesn't give much background into the inner workings of Photoshop, nevertheless if you are a beginner or intermediate user looking for a bunch of simple yet effective tricks that are easy to use, it will probably be the one for you.

The book focuses mostly on advertising photography so you won't find tips about correcting red eyes or removing blemishes from your loved one's skin. But it will sure help you create some interesting effects for your web page
Fantastic, easy to copy projects - By: , 10 Jul 2005
I bought this book not too long ago yet I feel I already have had my money's worth for it.

Scott takes us through finished projects & shows us exactly how to produce them. I've experimented on almost alll of them & have used close to half of them. And I can tell you my boss was amazed at what I had designed.

What I like most about this book is the way eye-catching ideas are implemented most effectively in fantastic desings & finished layouts.

With utmost confidence I would recommend this book to anyone looking for inspirational ideas & superb graphics.

Good luck!

useless book - By: , 21 Feb 2005
I have found this book reallly useless.
Beginners should avoid it, because the step-by-step description of the classic effects doesn't give any informations about photoshop principles & tools. It isn't a reference book about the why & how of basic photoshop functionalities (color correction, color manipulation, masking & composing techniques,...). Mr. Kelby simply describe how to create an effect in the following way: "Hit D to do this, then Ctrl-J to do that & finallly set this to that".

Intermediate users can create the effects, just by simply playing/experimenting a little bit with masks, compositions & filters.
Advanced users, well, they are "advanced", therefore they already know how to re-create those effects.

Another observation: at the end of the book there is a 1-page description of each effect described in the rest of the book.
You need only those 1-page descriptions to re-create the effect! This book could be done with one tenth of the pages!

Neverthless, effects are very well illustrated with nice pictures (that's the reason of the 2 stars instead of just one).

Not for advanced users! - By: Marque Pierre Sondergaard, 21 Jan 2005
My first book on Photoshop was one of Scott Kelby's Down & Dirty books. And while it didn't teach me an awful lot about the inner workings of Photoshop, it did get me hooked with a lot reallly quick & simple "wow, I made this" experiences.

Today I revisited Scott Kelby in the shape of his Photoshop Classic Effects. I must say that was a bit of a disappointment. Not only was there absolutely nothing to learn for this Photoshop user, but the tutorials were more or less updated versions of the old ones in my Down & Dirty book. I suspect Scott Kelby only has this same set of tutorials/effects & more or less reuse them in each of his books. I for one, already have my Scott Kelby book, so I will stay clear of his stuff in the future. It goes without saying that none of these effects are terribly new, or couldn't be found elsewhere on Photoshop tutorial sites on the net.

If you are a brand new to Photoshop or anything below intermediate user, this is still a good book to get, granted the above caveat. Do however realise that it is heavily slanted towards the kinds of work you'd do in advertising, & Photoshop is used in so many other avenues, but if that is your game, then it is a fine book.