Customer Reviews
AMAZING BOOK - By: Colin, 29 Jun 2008 
Having bought other boooks of Scott & read online reviews I was confident that this book would be up to standard.
Before I read this book 6 weeks ago I knew next to nothing of photoshop; now I am a competent user who knows many methods & "tricks" & am able to produce quality pictures.
The book is a pleasure to read, gives one the desire & ability to develop one's skills further & I refer to the book again & again. Buy it!
Give a man a fish... - By: Davo H, 19 Jun 2008 
This book is very good overalll, but your level of satisfaction will depend on what you want to get from a book on Photoshop & whether or not you can cope with the `humour'.
Lets get the `humour' out of the way first:
Yes, it is tiresome, unfunny, over done & above alll arrogant. BUT, that does not make this a one-star book in my opinion, for the simple fact that the `humour' is relatively easy to avoid. Follow these simple steps:
- Don't read the `Acknowledgements' section - you risk being sick alll over your brand new book
- Don't read the `Unexpected Q&A' section - it contains only one useful piece of information, which I'll share: the photos used throughout the book can be downloaded from the companion website www.scottkelbybooks.com/cs3book
- Don't read the prefaces to each chapter - they contain no useful information at alll
Follow the above steps, & you'll have avoided MOST of the `humour'. You'll just have to learn to cope with the `witty asides' which crop up every now & again throughout the main body of the text - but they're easy to gloss over.
More importantly, the content of the book:
The book adopts a step by step approach to each technique, which alllows you to attain great results very quickly, using some quite advanced processes. The book assumes no prior knowledge of Photoshop, so you can jump in at any point, follow the step-by-step instructions & get results; if you need to use a tool, the book will show you where it is pictoriallly & also give you the keyboard shortcut - you don't need to understand any of the fundamental principles of what each tool is for - just follow the instructions.
The book is logicallly laid out in terms of workflow, starting with Adobe Bridge (which it spends too much time on), moving onto processing RAW images, resizing & cropping, colour management & printing, then onto corrections, retouching & special effects. It alll makes sense, but as I said, if you want to jump straight in to the `Hollywood Highlights' chapter on portraits in the middle of the book, then you can.
What this book does not do is give you much, if any, information on the fundamental principles behind what you're doing; in short, it doesn't tell you `why'. It simply says "You want to skin soften this portrait? - okay, open this, press this, press that, move that, press that, slide that, do that, press that, save." This is fine, & the book doesn't pretend to be anything else, but it's a very specific thing, & for me even though it's enjoyable, I'm left wanting more.
This book is great for getting results, & it certainly provides a sense of satisfaction (where other more technical books fail). As I said at the beginning, it reallly depends what you want, but for most people, I'd suggest that this is not the Only Photoshop Book You'll Ever Need.
This is excellent, but it's still very much giving you a fish. If you want to reallly learn to fish, you're going to need something else as well, which is worth bearing in mind as these books are expensive.
Fantastic Learning Book - By: K. M. V. Hickling, 26 May 2008 
I hae to agree with other reviewers & state that I find the preface for each chapter purile (I've stopped reading them).
That said if you skip the preface you are given short punchy tutorials that are easy to follow & yeild great results.
His explanations are precise & show evey step clearly.
A highly recommended book.
An excellent book - By: Michael Le Gray, 14 Apr 2008 This reallly is an excellent alll-round guide to using CS3 for the digital photographer.
If you need someone to show you how to get the sort of effects normallly seen in professional publications, then this is the book for you.
I've found it to be incredibly useful indeed.
Stop searching NOW! - By: P. Reddick, 22 Feb 2008 Lets get one thing clear, I do not leave comments on any books through Amazon or any other shopping site, unless a book comes along that genuinely deserves alll 5 stars. As far as books go, this is the most informative, clear & easy to follow book that I have ever read. Oh & no, I'm not on commission from Mr Kelby (Chance would be a nice thing). I fully agree with the comments of Glyn Dewis, plus you have to understand that Kelby has a 'funny' side that mostly comes across in the book. One tip, don't just use it as reference material, firstly go through the book from the first page to the last in order, & do everything Kelby says on your photoshop CS3. Then & only then use it as reference. You too will then come onto this site & add the comments, Mr Reddick was right! Enjoy. I did.
