Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I had ranked an earlier edition as one of the four best Photoshop books available. With the CS3 edition, Caplin establishes himself in my eyes as one of the best Photoshop authors out there, Katrin Eismann being the other.
"How to Cheat in Photoshop CS3" has grown once again from earlier editions, weighing in with 397 pages of instructional text and two hours of video tutorials. Caplin's facility as a teacher has been apparent since the first edition of this book. His confidence has apparently (and justifiably) grown with his edition. The CS3 volume retains many of the examples from former editions (which are necessary) and adds many new ones, making the book an all-in-one Photoshop training manual.
Caplin has never had to resort to the silly attempts at humor employed by Deke McClelland, Scott Kelby and others. He is more than well equipped with a natural sense of whimsy. Caplin's tutorial on "Combining body parts" at pages 180 - 181 is an absolutely hilarious spoof on Arnold Schwarzenegger's "girly men" comment of some months back. If you can stop laughing long enough, it is also an excellent tutorial.
In all, there are about 170 tutorials in the book and some excursions into related subjects, such as the wisdom of carrying a small digital camera with you at all times to build our own image library. Every subject of importance to using Photoshop (i.e., learning Curves, Layer masks, etc.) and creating effective montages (i.e., creating effective shadows, combining body parts, perspective, etc.) is covered. I think it fair to say that a total Photoshop neophyte could find everything they need to know in "How to Cheat in Photoshop CS3," even if they never intend to create a photorealistic montage, but I would also recommend Katrin Eismann's books on montage and retouching be purchased as well. These three volumes would form a literal encyclopedia of Photoshop.
Finally, you don't need Photoshop CS3 for this book to be useful. Perhaps 97% or more is applicable to any recent version of Photoshop.
As I said, I consider Steve Caplin to be, along with Katrin Eismann, one of the best authors on Photoshop. "How to Cheat in Photoshop CS3" is the biggest and best of the series so far and I am pleased to say that Caplin has maintained his verve, imparting a sense of freshness even to the examples he has picked up from earlier editions.
This book is simply a must-have in any Photoshop library.
Jerry
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