Review: Photoshop CS2 for Dummies

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A Book Review
by Dave Comeau

CS24D Title: Photoshop CS2 for Dummies
Author: Peter Bauer

Price: $24.99
Publisher: Wiley Publishing, ( www.wiley.com)

ISBN: 0-7645-9571-7
Media: Book, 392 Pages. No CD

Interest Level: Beginner
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

"For Dummies", huh? Well, I'm no dummy. I can turn on my Mac without shocking myself, and I can open up a book and form cohesive thoughts by reading "words" grouped into "sentences". I generally resent these books for fear of being caught in public with one. And it always seems like the authors try to impose their corny sense of humor, like that's going to help Clueless Jack learn to tie his shoes on his own. Yet I'll admit I own the Final Cut Pro for Dummies book. It's a good reference to have hidden on my bookshelf, but neither the writing nor the presentation ever calls out for me to open it back up. Photoshop CS2 for Dummies, on the other hand, is actually inviting to read. The colors are liberally sprinkled throughout; most pages contain full color, and at the very least you'll get three colors per page. The paper stock is nice and glossy, which makes the pages visually appealing before even reading the content. And the content shines; Peter Bauer, director of the Photoshop National Association of Photoshop Professionals, uses real-world examples of how you might use Photoshop to achieve your desired effect. And he doesn't try to be funny, which definitely wins me over. What comes through is a well thought-out breakdown of how to get the most out of Photoshop.

Content:
The book consists of four main parts, and is broken down into 20 chapters. Part I shows you around Photoshop - not the individual functions of each tool, but rather how to adjust print and color settings, how to customize what you see, and how to navigate your way around Photoshop. Part II deals with manipulating digital images, and lets you get into the application and start snazzing up some photos. Part III is where it gets really cool - creating art in Photoshop, including compositing various photos together, playing with layers, and applying filters. Two small sections finish out the book: Part IV is for the power user - automating your tasks through Actions and developing content for the Web - and finally Part V wraps up the book by showing some tips and tricks. There's also a 20-page index for easy feature lookup.

I'll admit I'm not an absolute Photoshop beginner; I've taught myself how to generate rudimentary content for CD/DVD covers, I've used it to design T-shirts, and I can paste someone's head onto a rhino for humorous effect. With this book, I was hoping to sharpen my skills, as well as learn the basics that I skipped. I definitely achieved these goals, and more.

Part I was interesting, theoretically, but you don't actually get to do anything fun until Part II. In Part II, I tweaked the color of my sky using Levels and Curves to bring out the fiery lightning-esque sunset that was quite washed out in the original picture. Part III is what I was more familiar with - adding layers, layer effects, and other things I'd taught myself out of necessity. It also taught me some new tricks, such as using the "Match Color" Image Adjustment to better blend skin together when inserting limbs and heads.

I didn't do much with Part IV, and Part V has some neat tricks that I don't have a use for right now, but could utilize in the future. Actually, that was my overall impression of the book: It's easy to use the powerful features in Photoshop, should I ever need to use them.

Strengths:

Fantastic color
Easy to follow instructions
A lot of interesting tricks and techniques, with full-color "before" and "after" pictures
Author doesn't talk down to readers, or try to be a comedian.

Weaknesses:
Very few, but there were some. First, Bauer doesn't really discuss Layers until halfway through the book, in Chapter 10. For simple changes, I like to copy the background layer and make all of my changes to that copy. This way I can always turn the adjusted layer off and see what the original photo looked like. I'm paranoid that I'm going to end up with something even worse than the original. It seems silly to me to bury this information halfway through the book.

Also, since there is no CD included, you need to provide your own photos and material. However, I assume if you bought Photoshop, you've taken some photos already and want to touch them up. If not, get out there and start building up some material!

Comments:
The "magic" factor: There's a section called "Making people prettier" which shows you tips such as red-eye reduction, and how to edit out wrinkles and double-chins. They also show you how to completely remove someone from an image. These tricks are quite slick. However, they don't explicitly detail how to, say, put your girlfriend's face on an Amish doll's body. I think there's a big call for that sort of thing!

Summary:
Photoshop CS2 for Dummies is well-written, easy to follow, and contains real-world examples of best ways to use Photoshop. The book lists for $24.99, but you can get it for $15.74 right now at Amazon, and it's eligible for free shipping. You can't go wrong at that price. It should be good for beginners, and you'll be well-armed for any upcoming Photoshop projects. This is the first For Dummies book with which I am not ashamed to be seen.

Reviewer: Dave Comeau

Dave is probably best known in the MLMUG world for being the son of Moe, noted curmudgeon and angryman-at-large. Dave has been a Mac user since 1989 when Dad won an SE to replace the family's fleet of Commodore 64's. Dave lives in South Philadelphia, and works at Managing Editor Inc., training and installing (Mac!) newspaper and magazine layout software. He enjoys home automation, stereoscopic video creation, and trying out bizarre contraptions on his cat Professor. Yes, that is Dave's real hair, and no, he is not a Dummy. .

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