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Reviews (75)

Deke - PhotoShop - McClelland
I am sure there are other books that might be easier to follow and that might offer more than this one for learning all of what PhotoShop has to offer, but I just have not found them yet. Light to read with easy step by step instructions for the beginner as well as the accomplished image processor.
One-on-One -- it's not just another Photoshop book
Deke McClelland knows his subject very well and presents it in a clear and orderly way so new learning rests on a solid foundation. The format works: read the lesson, watch the DVD-ROM video lesson, do the exercises, take the quiz at the end of the chapter. Each lesson is designed to be understandable by those without much Photoshop experience and still include a few techniques that even experienced users probably don't know. And he does it all with good humor. Work files and video lessons are all included on the DVD-ROM in the book, which is bound so it lies open and flat on the desk without any hassle.
The perfect jumpstart for Photoshop newbies
This was the jumpstart I needed to learning photoshop.This is not so much a tutorial as it is a get-up and start-using photoshop one-on-one session, exactly as the title suggests.So instead of learning the interface in text-book procedural fashion, it's kind of like apprenticing for the author Deke (who also wrote the photoshop bible book).BTW, the author is notably an Master at photoshop, as is apparent when he tells you "nobody uses this command, you can do that function with this new command here".There's a lot to be distracted in photoshop, hundreds and hundreds of different functions, and it turns out that many of these functions are obsolete and only left-in to satisfy old users, so having Deke point these things out is fantastic.Eg, unsharpen mask, obsolete.smart sharpen, da-shizzle.
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Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Cinematography & Videography    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computer Graphics - Design    5. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - Desktop Publishing    9. Computers - Other Applications    10. Interactive & Multimedia    11. Operating Systems - Macintosh    12. Adobe Photoshop CS2, digital photography, Deke McClelland, photography    13. Computer programs    14. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    15. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    16. Computers / Desktop Publishing    17. Digital techniques    18. Image processing    19. Photoshop   

Reviews (10)

Teach Yourself, YES! You Can Do It!
I took a Jr. College Class on Final Cut Pro 5 and this was the textbook.The teacher would lecture for an hour and the rest of the time, we worked through the lessons in the book.At the end of the class, we were all able to produce our own short videos.This book is very step-by-step and to be honest, I think that I got more out of going through the lessons than listening to the teacher.I suggest Rick Young's "The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro 5 for new users and professionals" as a companion book.They both say the same thing, but in different ways.The lessons took me a little longer than the time indicated in each lesson frontpiece, but I sure learned a whole lot about making movies and FCP!

Excelent, comprehensive, straightforward
Very powerful hands-on learning tool when combined with the enclosed DVD. Covers all the functions of Final Cut Pro and allows you to neatly learn hands-on.
Certification book

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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Desktop Publishing    5. Data processing    6. Desktop Publishing - General    7. Digital video    8. Editing    9. Interactive & Multimedia    10. Macintosh (Computer)    11. Programming    12. Techniques - Digital    13. Video tapes    14. Computers / Interactive Media    15. Image processing: video   

Reviews (47)

Not what i was hoping for
Well, I was hoping for this book to help me understand special CS2 filters, enhancements, etc....and what I got, was great stuff I cannot redo as shown in the pictures and very short guidelines for the most part of it. One example was the enhancing of the eyes (sometimes the iris turns out too dark, and there are ways of enhancing it to brighten the eyes.) The so called step-by-step guide in the book, I followed it and followed it, even got my husband to take a turn, and neither one of us was able to manage the enhancement, at least not in either of the 2 different versions explained. (We later figured out a different way, but I'm sure it's not as good as the example pictures shown in this book.) Like I said, overall it's a great book, that teaches you tons of neat stuff, but I don't think it's very easy to recreate, not even with the provided CD. You really need to be a very advanced CS2 user to be able to use this book as a tool for it's full potential. I'm hoping that once I've mastered more about CS2, this book will come in handy again. And yes, all the pictures are terrific quality, and it's nice to read and look at, but how much does that really matter, if you can't even recreate the things explained in it?

A tremendous professional resource
I've found this book absolutely invaluable and perhaps the most useful book on Photoshop I've ever read. I agree with all the other reviewers whom endorse it but to those who ask: "who is this book for?" I'd point them in the direction of many other books better suited to their needs. How can you fault a book for not catering to everyone?! However this book was perfect for me - a busy professional photographer. I've been using Photoshop for years but have huge holes in my understanding. I really needed to gain more sophisticated and practical understanding of many fundamental principles and complex procedures as quickly and efficiently as possible. I don't have the time or patience for lessons rarely practical to my needs.
who's it for?
Best suited for someone who has at least a little experience with earlier versions of Photoshop, this text could be better organized.Could also benefit from more detail and better expalnation of how things work. I did find useful the sections on camera quality, historical references, and the author provides links to external websites which this reader found helpful for research.Print and paper quality is very good, but when are we going to see a software book written (or at least containing images) by a non-fashion photographer?The women in ME's photos are merely over-decorated objects, and might as well be artificial mannequins. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    2. Computers - Desktop Publishing    3. Photo Techniques    4. Photography    5. Techniques - Digital    6. Techniques - General    7. Photography / Techniques    8. Photoshop   

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Computer graphics software    7. Computers / Interactive Media    8. Image processing   

Reviews (7)

A Must Have
I have seen some reviews that said this can't be used to learn Photoshop from the ground up, but that is untrue, because I used this book to teach myself Photoshop with absolutely no prior knowledge whatsoever, and it does a wonderful job of explaining everything. It pretty much covers everything, and I consider it a must have. The only reason it may not be for someone is if they don't learn well from just reading; that, I admit, is a downside of this book. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand what they are talking about by just reading the instructions. If you are sitting by the computer though, it's very easy to follow step by step. If you choose to buy a book with lessons, such as classroom in a book, then I definitely recommend this book as a follow-up.

A Really Great Book!!!
I'm a member of an online gaming community and I was wanting to learn how to make my own "Sigs". After a few hours of reading I was able to use layers to make my first kool looking sig. I also was able to use Photoshop for all the graphics on my web site. If you want to learn to use Photoshop, then this book is a MUST have...

The Manual that Should Have Been.
This is the book that should ship with Photoshop CS2. Excellent. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Desktop Publishing    9. Desktop Publishing - General    10. Microcomputer Graphics    11. Operating Systems - Macintosh    12. Operating Systems - Windows    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    14. Photoshop   

Reviews (18)

Heid should have stopped two editions ago . . .
I have been buying this book since its very first edition. Althoughthe ilife suite has added significant new features in version's 5 and 6, they are berely covered here. For example, iMovie's addition of styles, a major new development is covered in just 2 pages - a third of which is text explaining the feature! Also, this book is priced as if it had a DVD (it is the same price as the other editions with the DVD), even though the DVD is missing in action. The author's own 5 star rating is especially pathetic. This book needs a major overhaul to continue to be effective.

Great Price - Wealth of Knowledge
Not having purchased Jim Heid's previous editions of this book, I do not miss an instructional DVD that I never used. But this volume does everything that it portends to do. Along with Heid's constantly updated Web site as an instructive companion, The Macintosh iLife '06 is a joy to have and use while exploring the uses of iLife.

iLife '06 by Jim Heid.....Helpful Tool
I needed to learn how to make a DVD, and Jim's book helped me get the job done.His visual guides coupled with his good sense of humor sprinkled into his writing style made the learning process seem less daunting.I aim to continue on with iMovie and iWeb, but the one application made the purchase of the book worthwhile. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Apple And Macintosh Programming    3. Computer - Apple/Macintosh    4. Computer Animation    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computers    7. Data Processing - Speech & Audio Processing    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Interactive & Multimedia    10. Interactive multimedia    11. Macintosh (Computer)    12. Miscellaneous Software    13. Operating Systems - Macintosh    14. Computers / Operating Systems / Macintosh    15. Multimedia   

Reviews (6)

Great "how to" manual even for a newbie!
I am new to Motion (2) and not a full time video editor or professional.Even so, the tutorial is excellent: well written, logical, easy to follow.If you produce the occasional movie (just for fun) and want to step up to the more sophisticated capabilities of Motion 2, you can't go wrong with this book.

Best of the Training Series (so far)
This is the third of the Pro Training Series books I've used (DVDSP and FCP are the others) and while the others are excellent, this is the best of the bunch. The first chapter alone taught me tricks and shortcuts I hadn't learned through the manual or the DVD training series I used. I've been using Motion practically since day one of its release and it's strength (and weakness) is that it can do just about anything...you just have to figure out what you want done and how to do it. This book has great lessons that expand one's knowledge and outlook on the program.

Excellent!!
As a fellow PeachPit author, I know what it takes to produce a book like this. First off, congrats to Damian for getting this book to market.
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Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Business Software - General    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Computer graphics software    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    10. Image processing: graphics (static images)   

Reviews (4)

REALLY HELPFUL!
I was used to an InDesign software from far ago, the dinosaur era. When got the newest version, was at a complete lost. This book explains in easy words EVERYTHING! Adobe's software is great, but their manuals can be used and understood by those with an IQ of 300 up. Am grateful for this book and fully recommend it.

quite boring
Technically, this will teach you how to use indesign. But it's so boring and repetitive. It's like memorizing a list.

Not as good as it should be
I've used Visual Quickstart books for years, and until this one they've been extremely accurate. This one contains what seem to be screen caps of menus and options from some previous version of InDesign, so you have to look around for the options someplace else if they've moved.
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Subjects:  1. Adobe InDesign    2. Adobe InDesign (Computer software)    3. Apple And Macintosh Programming    4. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Operating Systems - Macintosh    10. Operating Systems - Windows    11. Computers / Desktop Publishing / General    12. Desktop publishing software   

Reviews (4)

Worth buying
Excellant and useful book.My only complaint is the first couple of chapters are basic Mac OS how to stuff and a waste of time/space. Be sure to read the Appendices on the DVD though

Unjust Rip!
Lowering the books rating because the Mac requirements are higher than for FCE 3.0 isn't being very fair.The cover says HD, so it's obviously a new version.The description is certainly enough.I would raise the books rating and lower his.

Only book of its kind right now
To date, this the only book that covers FCE 3.5 HD & I strongly recommend it. The intended audience I think is FCE users who would like to make more professional home videos but I think new filmmakers would also benefit from the lessons. If you're interested in mastering advanced topics like color correction, you'll have to pick up other books in this series. Overall though, this an excellent book for the beginner trying to learn FCE as well as how to craft a cinematic experience.
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Subjects:  1. Cinematography & Videography    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Design    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Digital Image Processing    8. Graphic Design    9. Interactive & Multimedia    10. Techniques - Digital    11. Computers / Interactive Media    12. Image processing: video   

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Flash    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Internet - Web Site Design    7. Computers / Computer Animation    8. Image processing    9. Multimedia   

Reviews (3)

Straightforward Approach to Learning a Simple Software.
I just created a website in Dreamweaver for a client with the end expectation that they would be able to use Contribute to edit their site without a lot of headache. Contribute proved to be absolutely simple to setup and use for this task after I read through this book.
disappointing
I have in the past eagerly bought books from the Visual Quickstart Guide series, but this one is a terrible disappointment. It has all the weaknesses of the series (such as tiny font in the screen snapshots), and none of the strength.
Highly recomended
If you are going to use Contribute for anything more than the very basics, I highly recommend this book.As of this writing it is the only book I know of about Contribute 3 that is really written for version 3 and not a version 2 book with new graphics.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Data Processing - General    6. Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Multi-Media Hardware & Software    10. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    11. Internet languages    12. Publishing on the Internet   

Reviews (2)

A must-have FCP book for Editors, Assistants and Techdorks
I picked up a copy of this book just after Walter Murch and Sean Cullen's appearance at a LAFCPUG meeting last October.At the time I thought I was buying a techdork's guide to FCP that would help me optimize my system and get it flying, but it turned out to be so much more ...
How to cram years of experience in 888 pages
First off, finding everything contained in this book will take you on a
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Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Desktop Publishing    5. Desktop Publishing - General    6. Educational Software    7. General    8. Computer graphics software    9. Computers / Interactive Media    10. Image processing: video    11. Video photography   

Features

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Reviews (14)

The perfect book for beginners
The book is clear, concise and comprehensive. It covers from how toget a domain name to how to accept credit card payments.I like the emphasis in formating using CSS instead html. This was a new concept for me. The author introduces java scripts and dynamic html. I missed a chapter about how to organize, and keep update the whole web site (sometimes with hundreds of web pages, pictures, icons, etc...). It was one of my first book about the topic and I really think that it's a powefull introductory book.

An enjoyable walk through the essential steps in web site creation.
Title:Creating Your Own Websites
Creating Web Sites - The Missing Manual Book Review

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Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Books: Web Programming    3. Computer Graphics - Design    4. Computers    5. Design    6. Desktop Publishing - General    7. Internet - Web Site Design    8. Operating Systems - Macintosh    9. Web site development    10. Web sites    11. Computer / Internet    12. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    13. HTML, Tags, Frames, Tables, Web Graphics, Blogs, web pages, web sites, browser, CSS, JavaScript    14. Internet   

Reviews (16)

Great starter but a little thin
This VQS book gives a great high-level of a broad spectrum of functionality of Flash but does not go into much detail. Good starter book.

A good place to start
Adobe and Macromedia both write excellent software but both have two things in common - the lack of being user friendly and intuitive.
Great Experience
This book arrived on a timely manner and in real good condition. It was exactly what they said it would be in their description. Wouldn't mind doing business with them again in the future! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Computer Animation    3. Computer Books: Operating Systems    4. Computer Graphics - Flash    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Design    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Flash (Computer file)    10. Multimedia    11. Operating Systems - Macintosh    12. Operating Systems - Windows    13. Web sites    14. Computers / Computer Animation    15. Internet languages    16. Macintosh   

Reviews (5)

beginners please
Logically and spaciously designed, well-written and conceived, ilife 06 is the perfect beginner's introduction to creative tools. It allows someone who has net zero experience in visual, audio, or web processing to put something together on the web in a matter of days. The reason ilife 06 is so good is that it limits itself to instructing true beginners and never tries to be an all-in-one manual. Of course that's also the book's downside: it will only take you through the software's most basic uses, even though the ilife suite is a much deeper set of applications. Result: eventually you'll need another instructional guide, but untill then, this is the best start-up on the market.

Perfect for beginners and intermediates alike
Some of the other reviews have dinged this book because of its "beginner" nature, but this is precisely why you are using a training book for beginner to intermediate type software.If you knew how to use the software already, why would you need a book?No program in iLife '06 is professional quality, it was never meant to be.
Book lacks much information.
After glancing through the book I was very disappointed.The introduction told you that this was not a comprehensive guide and it was merely a supplement to other information such as the help and Jim Held's book.This was not stated in the information on the book.If that's the case, why not get Jim Held's book? I was particularly interested in iWeb.The information given for iWeb was sparce.It merely gave information on setting up a page and importing pictures from iPhoto onto the web page.It said nothing about links and other important web information.Perhaps it was on the disk.I dont know. I never opened thedisk because I knew I wanted to return the book. The only reason I gave it two stars at all was because it said that the disk contained turorials. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apple And Macintosh Graphics And Sound    2. Apple And Macintosh Programming    3. Computer - Apple/Macintosh    4. Computer Animation    5. Computer Books: Operating Systems    6. Computers    7. Data Processing - Speech & Audio Processing    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Interactive & Multimedia    10. Miscellaneous Software    11. Operating Systems - Macintosh    12. Computers / Operating Systems / Macintosh    13. Multimedia   

Reviews (4)

Worth the money and your time ...
I have read author David Blatner's book on quark and being very familar with that program, I found his book on moving to indesign immensely helpful. You get great tips on how to do things that you have already established in your quark workflow. The index is well organized and a quick reference.

Not well organized
Hard to find what I wanted. Preferred the Sams All in One for Creative Suite 2. Much easier to navigate. This book was a waste of money.

It Moved Me!
As always with a Blatner book, this guide delivers exactly what it says it will. I was up and running in InDesign in no time and continue to reference its succinct text as I work. I recommend this to anyone who knows Xpress and wants to get InDesign going in a hurry. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    2. Computers    3. Computers - General Information    4. Desktop Publishing    5. Desktop Publishing - General    6. Operating Systems - Macintosh    7. Technical & Manufacturing Trades    8. Computers / Desktop Publishing / General    9. Desktop publishing software   

Reviews (7)

Helps Dreamweaver Live Up To Its Name
I only rated this book a 4 because although I've read dozens of software books, the only other book on Dreamweaver I'd read was a no-frills intro. Tarin's book delves deep into the hard-core details of this annoyingly complex, but increasingly necessary set of tools. This book is actually fun to read - I liked that. It is also irreverent - I REALLY liked that. The examples are crisp and easy to follow, if you think them through. I especially liked Chapter 10 on converting Excel and Word data to HTML, as Dreamweaver has a way of shrinking them to acceptable file sizes - a pain to sort out on your own. Dreamweaver's complexity can give you nightmares. This book, will let you count sheep instead. Good work Tarin.

not very clear, sometimes confusing
Being able to follow directions well is not good enough for this book.This book was recommended to me by teachers, but it is useless and should not be used at all.I don't like that the visuals are old, and it is worse if you are using a MAC because they are mainly for PCs.The instructions are not straight foward - for instance I tried to upload my site images and half way through his instructions I was lost--I coulnd't find the windows he was referring to. I struggled for hours and finally, feeling defeated, I googled what I needed and found a web site that had more straight forward instructions. If I ever wanted to throw your computer or a book out the window, this was the time.Also, he seems to abbreviate his instructions to emcompass all the how to's in short sentences, but it gets too abbreviated that there seems to be steps missing -- he does this through out the book and uses names of windows this way as well. To my opinion this is definitely a waste of money and I regret buying it.

Companion web site not there
The companion web site mentioned in the book is not there. When I typed in that URL, I got redirected to Peachpit's advertising site of this book, but no "links", "tools", nor "examples" mentioned in the book at all! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: Desktop Publish    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Design    7. Desktop Publishing    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Dreamweaver (Computer file)    10. Dreamweaver (Computer software    11. Internet - Web Site Design    12. Multi-Media Hardware & Software    13. Web site development    14. Web sites    15. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    16. Internet languages    17. Macintosh   

Reviews (2)

Good for general Flash skills
This is a PeachPit Press "Visual QuickPro Guide"--similar to their "Visual QuickStart" training book series, but aimed at more experienced users. The series uses a task-based training approach, teaching skills through short step-by-step exercises. This approach has some major drawbacks for me, although this particular book seems to have dealt with some issues fairly well. My first complaint is that task-based training tends to focus too much on quick, "surface" results without really giving an understanding of what is happening and why it works. This makes it difficult to apply skills effectively in future situations, or to know when they ought to be applied. A task-based organization also makes it difficult to use a book as a reference, since information is dispersed throughout the exercises.
A great book for those learning actionscript
I really enjoyed this book. It goes in depth in covering the actionscript language for Flash 8, and starts off at a relatively slow pace so you don't feel overwhelmed. My only complaint is that it relies a lot (at least in the beginning) on using the script assist mode which I think is a waste of time for those trying to LEARN actionscript. In it's defense, the book weans you off it as it goes along, and I can see someone with no actionscript experience finding that extremely helpful. Knowing a decent amount of actionscript before reading this, I found it a bit annoying but like I said, it fades out of that as the book goes on. Great for learning the newer way to code, and gives a good basis to really use Macromedia Flash to it's full potential. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Flash    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Flash (Computer file)    8. Flash (Computer software)    9. Internet - Web Site Design    10. Computers / Computer Animation    11. Image processing    12. Multimedia   

Reviews (2)

My first choice for a manual replacement
The Visual Quickstart series is, in my opinion, the best replacement for a manual, or for those excuses for a manual that appear in software boxes. The Photoshop Elements book fits that need to a T. Good Format, Good Writing, Good Book
I like the format of the Visual QuickStart Guides. Generally speaking, the pages are divided into two columns. The outside column has a headline explaining what the page is about and text to describe how to do it, and perhaps include a bit of explanation or a Tip. The inside column has a screen shot of what the monitor should look like as you do that particular operation. This is combined with an index that directs you to the page based on what you need to do.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Digital techniques    8. Operating Systems - Macintosh    9. Operating Systems - Windows    10. Photography    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    12. Photoshop   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (8)

Photoshop CS2 RAW
I must admit, I took a long time switching to digital for photo work, and then I thought I was set. It appears that not only do a I have to master the camera for settings, but in those instances where the money talks, I have to learn about RAW format rather than the high res JPG format I thought was dealing me a good deal.