Customer Reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Great for several types of users, May 5, 2023
Reviewed by member, J. Rollins
This book is geared towards three audiences: the graphic artist, designer, and photographer. The professional or amateur Photoshop user will like this book also. It is a hands on, go at your own pace kind of book. I am looking at this book from a photographer's point of view. I have yet to find a single book on Photoshop that is all things to all people; but this book comes closer than most!
Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One is organized into twelve sections, each made up of several step-by-step lessons. Each lesson has a corresponding video lesson which helps introduce key concepts needed to complete the exercises.
At first I was a little taken aback when I realized that one must use Deke McClelland's preference settings in order do the lessons. An experienced Photoshop user may be perfectly happy with his or her Photoshop settings. Well don't worry. You can automatically restore your original preferences, if desired, after completing the lessons. Deke's Preferences button automatically backs up your preferences before it installs new ones.
The book is a little overwhelming for the Photoshop beginner. But if you just take it one step at a time your efforts will be rewarded. The keyboard shortcuts are one of Deke's speciatilites and will help speed up your workflow. Even the old time Photoshop users have much to gain. The depth of information in this book is inspiring and will be of help to anyone regardless of your Photoshop skills.
I especially like the way this book explains how to organize the File Browser. The File Browser is a full-blown image manager and Deke offers several valuable suggestions that will help improve your experience using it. It should be noted that the File Browser is not a cataloging utility, so you can't use it to generate independent indexes of vast image libraries. It is possible however to print a catalog of thumbnails after you back up your images to a CD or other media and then put it in a binder or CD sleeve.
The Shadow/Highlight filter makes it worthwhile upgrading to Photoshop CS alone. This is a dream filter for photographers. Again, Deke does an excellent job of explaining how this valuable filter works.
Sharpening an image is probably one of the most confusing issues one faces as a photographer. Deke does a good job in explaining several ways to sharpen an image. Yet, some of his examples are so outside of what the average photographer would encounter that I can't help wonder if what he has accomplished is simply to overwhelm some readers.
The last section of the book is about printing to an inkjet printer. The problem I have is that if one follows Deke's printing steps, you will be telling Photoshop, and the Epson 1280 printer he is using in his example, to also colors manage the printing job. This is often referred to as `double color management'. I have never been able to get a good print using the `double color management' scenario. I am currently the owner of two Epson printers, the 1280 and 2200. Over the years, I have owned seven Epson printers; I know how to get a good print out of an Epson printer. In fact, Russell Brown, the Senior Creative Director at Adobe Systems Inc., specifically warns against the `double color management' scenario on his web site.
Nevertheless, Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One is one heck of a book. There is so much more to this book than was discussed in this very brief review. This is worthwhile reading.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Great beginning to an almost infinite subject, May 2, 2023
I've been a web designer for several years, and having only cursory experience with the print medium, I have stayed with Macromedia Fireworks for my graphics and layout comps. I've always had a deep suspicion that more was to be had with Photoshop, but the expense and deep learning curve held me back. There was a learning curve with Fireworks, to be sure, but not what I had imagined with Photoshop. Nonetheless, when I ordered my most recent workstation, I had Dell add Photoshop CS to the package. As most people proably do, I tried dabbling around to see what PS would/could do, and to my surprise it was not as complex as I had first thought. Instead, it was abstruse beyond reason. I couldn't get the simplest things to work; no buttons, no images, no comps-nothing. And to make matters worse, there is a vast open prairie of PS books out there just waiting to astonish, confuse, and frustrate you. I languished for a while, reading and reselling a number of these books, resigned to using Fireworks and its meager but hopeful set of creative tools till I remembered seeing a TV show some years back hosted by fellow named Deke McClelland. I can't remember the name of the program, but I was amazed with what he could accomplish in Photoshop, not to mention his disarming humor which made watching even the most arcane things fun. I decided to give PS one more go and order this book now under review. I'm glad I did. It does not cover everything PS does-no 465 page book can-but it immerses you in the world of PS, and most importantly conveys the PS 'mindset', which is completely different than anything else with which you may have had experience in what most of us take to be reality. I zoomed through the book in about three weeks, and remember only vague pieces of each exercise, which is ok, since, again, the material is difficult and at times confusing. The important thing is that now I have a general grasp of how to do things in PS, which I didn't have before. I plan to go through the book again and then read his other, more in-depth book, the Photoshop CS Bible, a copy of which I purchased after reading just the first chapter of PS One-On-One. His writing style is easy, amusing in an unforced way, and most of all, fun.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 you can learn alot from this book, Apr 26, 2023
I can go on and on about what this book contains, but others have already done it. I'll just cut straight to what I think of Photoshop CS One-on-One
If you really want to understand how Photoshop works, this is the book for you. It breaks things down to a level I can understand. I personally like the many illustrations provided, so that I can understand and follow along the many different options you can do to an image. I hate it when a book goes on and on about how to do something, and it has no screenshots or pictures to show me what it is I'm reading. This book is quite the contrary. It will guide you along step by step, explaining certain terminology in case the you are a beginners like me, who doesn't understand a lick about photo editing.. I received this book yesterday, and I am still learning new things I can do with Photoshop. Qute frankly, I know a whole lot more right now than I did yesterday, thanks to this book.
I give this 4 stars just because it requires some reading and that I'm a slow reader.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
This is the book to buy!, Mar 27, 2023
I have 4 books on Adobe and almost gave up on the program. This book saved my efforts. This book is clearly written. The illustrations are top notch and most of all, the writer actually knows what he is talking about. Warning,,,, many books written for PS are written by MAC users and their snobbery comes out in their material when they make reference to us Windows users. This guy teaches as if he uses both MAC and Windows. Also, the CD and the hands on lessons are excellent. I really can't say anything bad about the book. Thank you Mr. McClelland for an excellent job in putting together this book. I encourage everyone to buy it first before another book.
3 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
 Learn how to manipulate photo images, Mar 25, 2023
It is probably my fault, but this book will teach you how to manipulate and correct photographic images and nothing about how to use photoshop to create web designs and layouts. I am not talking about HTML. I want to design the comp a website with photoshop. :-(
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