Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts

Illustrator CS3 for Windows and Macintosh Review

Illustrator CS3 for Windows and Macintosh
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Illustrator CS3 for Windows and Macintosh ReviewThis manual provides someone just getting started using Illustrator with clear explanations for each menu option, tool, and function, along with step-by-step instructions on how to use them. All the other manuals inevitably assume that the reader is familiar with earlier versions of Illustrator and take too much for granted. The tool-by-tool organization and step-by-step instructions of this manual are refreshingly clear and specific, and tell the reader exactly how to use this powerful software.Illustrator CS3 for Windows and Macintosh Overview

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How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 8: Discover the magic of Adobe's best kept secret Review

How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 8: Discover the magic of Adobe's best kept secret
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How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 8: Discover the magic of Adobe's best kept secret ReviewHow To Cheat In Photoshop Elements 8, by David Asch and Steve Caplin, is the hidden manual for Adobe Photoshop Elements. Adobe creates some of the most incredibly powerful and versatile software. But where Adobe is long on features, they are often short on instructions. There is context based help, web based help, Adobe tutorials, and the like but they are often too diffuse or too complicated for the casual user. Asch and Caplin, however, have written a book that starts by teaching basic techniques and then goes on to combine these techniques into more advanced degrees of photo manipulation. The result is a book that is incredibly accessible to the beginner to intermediate user of Photoshop Elements. This book will help the user unleash the inner power of Photoshop Elements, really adding value to this powerful tool. I was surprised at just how fast I was able to learn how to do some very impressive things.
Asch and Caplin start with the most basic techniques. At first they introduce selection tools, how to work with layers, and basic blending. They slowly add layer masks, drawing, textures, more advanced image adjustment tools and then move on to more advanced photo manipulation techniques by combining the basic techniques in surprising ways.
What is amazing is simply how painless the whole process is for the novice. Everything is laid out in a stepwise fashion with illustrations for each step. Under each picture they describe how to perform what is shown in clear prose and always add the specific keyboard shortcuts for each manipulation. Although the instructions in the book are clear enough such that the book could stand alone, a CD is included with the exact pictures used for each lesson. To add even more value, there are video tutorials provided for many of the lessons in the book, just in case the written instructions weren't clear enough.
All this care leads to a manual that reveals the simplicity, rather than the complexity, of Photoshop Elements. In spite of being a novice, I was able to master the techniques in this book quickly and use them on my own photos. I was shocked at how simple all this really was. After almost giving up in trying to learn techniques from online tutorials, I had only very basic skills. With this book I was able to learn how to easily leverage the power of Photoshop Elements in a painless way. The instructions are crystal clear and leave little room for error.
Yes, it is possible to learn how to use Photoshop Elements with Adobe's online tutorials, help files, and third party sites. But none of these takes you through a logical, step-by-step tutorial the way Asch and Caplin do. None of these methods employs a stepwise approach to learning how to use Photoshop Elements or teaches complex things in such a simple way.
Asch and Caplin prefer keyboard shortcuts. They highlight Windows shortcuts in blue, Mac shortcuts in red, and those common to both OSs in black. Keyboard shortcuts certainly increase the speed at which you can use the program, but may be hard for some users to remember when Photoshopping on their own. The back flap of the book does provide a summary of the most used shortcuts, but it might have been useful to point out where the tool is on the menu bar and side bars as well.
This is also a book for the person who really wants to learn about Photoshop in more depth. Simple photo retouching is not addressed here. This book is more about photo manipulation than it is about retouching.
All in all, I am very glad I had the opportunity to review this book. Over a two week period, I have really enhanced my skills with Photoshop and would now consider myself to be an intermediate user. Oddly, the online tutorials make a lot more sense to me now that I have a basic understanding of how to really use this program. For the beginner or anyone who has ever been frustrated in attempting to learn how to use Photoshop Elements, this book is a godsend. Highly recommended.How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 8: Discover the magic of Adobe's best kept secret Overview

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Adobe Illustrator CS5 on Demand Review

Adobe Illustrator CS5 on Demand
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Adobe Illustrator CS5 on Demand ReviewI took this out from the local library in hopes it would help me get started with Adobe Illustrator CS5. It turns out, it's not that kind of guide. There are a few hands-on workshops at the very end of this book, but this is not really a tutorial and for the most part what you get is just a comprehensive guide to its many features, that identifies and explains its many options. Still, as a guide it is extremely clear, and comes with helpful illustrations and a clear, easy-to-follow layout. So it wouldn't really be useful for the absolute beginner, and was a bit overwhelming for me, but would be an excellent reference guide for someone who is just passing the beginner's stage and ready to learn the program in more detail. Think of it as a missing manual, that's clearer in its coverage than Adobe's online help section.
I know that the "Missing Manual" series already exists, but there's no "missing manual" to Illustrator CS5. This would fill the bill - and I'm half tempted to say I like the format of the "On Demand" guides better than that of the "Missing Manual" series. For each task they give complete coverage in two facing pages, with a step-by-step guide and illustrations. (I actually own a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand, and found that to be extremely helpful - especially given that I have a basic familiarity with Photoshop that I don't have yet with Illustrator.)
Summing up: I wrote this in hopes of being helpful for readers like me who just want to get started with Illustrator. I would suggest trying Adobe Illustrator CS5 Classroom in a Book first - I have that one and also have a couple of others in the series and have found them to be excellent for learning - and then picking this one up as a reference guide.Adobe Illustrator CS5 on Demand Overview

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand Review

Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand
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Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand ReviewThis book has some excellent features to recommend it:
* Excellent organizational structure: a clean and logical grouping of common and related task tutorials in increasing order of complexity.
* An excellent table of contents, tabbed and color-coded to the book's side for quick content location and an excellent and descriptive index that helps you find what you're looking for.
* Good and descriptive section headings and introductions to give you an overview of what will be covered in that section and some idea of key concepts.
* A methodology that is consistent throughout: sequentially number-coded instructions on the left and illustrated and number coded demonstrations on the right, with frequent highlighted text boxes with additional information.
* A good and logical selection of the tasks that most people will need to perform most often.
* Aimed at all of Photoshop's constituencies: the photographer, the print media designer, and the web designer, and all the sub-categories (such as the photographer who doesn't print, just saves for monitor viewing or web).
I would assume the target audience to be current Photoshop users who want to quickly perform certain tasks or make a certain type of adjustment. Since terms are used that would baffle a new user, a certain degree of familiarity is assumed. Another target audience might be people who, like me, are migrating to the CS5 version from a previous version and want to become familiar with newer features.
However, I think that the new, entry level Photoshop user is going to find himself very attracted to the concept of a collection of task-oriented tutorials (which is, basically, what this book is). For that audience, I would say that this book teaches you Photoshop as I learned it: quickly and on a need-to-know basis.
On retrospect, however, I've come to realize that learning while performing tasks by rote is not the best way to learn a complex and multi-track program such as Photoshop. Initially, I learned how to do certain things that I needed to do but I didn't understand what was happening under the hood, why it was happening, how to do it less destructively or what techniques work best with which type of image. I followed a sequence of steps that required minimal judgment on my part. With time, I came to understand and acquired better practices but I'm still amazed at the gaps in my knowledge after 11 years of constant use. I've come to be a pretty competent Photoshopper, but I think the process would have been far more efficient if I'd laid a good groundwork of basic concepts and best practices from the beginning.
If, like me, you need to learn quickly, do get this book and do follow its instructions. However, get other books as well and learn the why's, and the when's, and the consequences of choosing one way over another. Look up any terms used in this book that you don't understand before proceeding with the instructions. (The web is also an excellent source of information). Learn the concepts, not just the steps.
And, learn from my mistakes: save the master (RAW or unprocessed jpg) of every important photo you process now until you feel you are competent. Just burn them to CD's and set them aside for a few years. I very much regret not having done that. I have a lot of over-processed and over-sharpened photos that looked great to my untrained eye back then but I now wish I could start over to get right. (Additional processing now would just further degrade them).Adobe Photoshop CS5 on Demand Overview

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Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements Review

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements ReviewFirstly I work with the newest version of Photoshop on a near daily basis. I only have elements so I can see the layout to help friends and family accomplish what they want with it. Having recently purchased Elements 10 for a family member and myself, I thought this book might provide a guide to new features so I could get up to speed quickly. What I found was a treasure rather than a guide!
This book has shown me the incredible advances in elements since version 6.0 and I am awestruck by the number of features that are shared between the full version of photoshop and Elements 10.
The book itself is very nice, great color, nice thick pages that don't bleed through, nice tacticle feel. It is written in tutorial format with clear and complete instructions. This is all backed up by HD Movies, all of the images used in the book, full layerd PDS files, selections already made to save you time and to see what you should be doing, actions, in short loads of great goodies.
The book is broken into 3 sections: Optomize, Enhance, and Composites. With a great selection of tutorials with not only step by step instructions on how, but the whys as well. You are shown how to use Adobe Camera Raw. Heck he even shows you a "Secret" workaround to use 16 bit images in Elements! Yep, 16 bit editing in a program that doesn't allow it!
I won't list each tutorial by name and description as one could look at the table of contents online. But I will say that they are all quite nice and you will be able to apply what you learn to your own photos and produce outstanding results!
The author states that many photograhers can get along just fine with Elements and after reading this book I would tend to agree.
I highly recommend this title I think it would be excellent for any photographer that has or is considering Elements 10 and does not have the time or resources to get into the full version of Photoshop. With that said could I stop using Photoshop and use Elements? No, but my uses are beyond just doing the things shown in the tutorials. Further, I think this title would be useful for digital scrapbookers as there are some great image enhancement and compositing tutorials. I am still saying to myself...Wow, you can do that with Elements now!
I will leave you with my thought that this book is worth a lot more than the asking price. Kudos to Mark Galer and Dr. Chattaraj.Adobe Photoshop Elements 10: Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements Overview

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