Adobe Photoshop 5.5 for Photographers

Unfortunately, the images printed in the book are not included in the CDROM. The author's excuse is that they are copyright images and therefore can't be included. My view is that he chose the wrong photos, since it is now impossible to follow along with his book in photoshop.

My second beef is that his descriptions are sometimes unnecessarily complex and lack clear direction. Again, I am looking at this book package as a source of learning.

The big shortcoming is the lack of alignment of the CDROM with the book. I felt badly let down. If you forget about the CDROM, you will be much happier and probably give him 5 stars.


Comprehensive!   December 6, 2000
Darren Chong (Singapore)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Excellent book! As the title says so, most of the techniques are inclined towards photography retouching and enhancement, but it will appeal to most photoshop users. The 1st few chapters touch on fundamentals and serves as an instant guide, much better than the user guide. The other all-important criteria that I always look out for: FULL COLOR! I cannot imagine using a book on photos in b&w....how to see instant results to ease following the steps/techniques? The only bad thing is that most photos shown in the book are copyright and you will have to find comparable images yourself to work on.

An excellent companion book would be Photoshop 5 Artistry.


Almost perfect - a great learning tool   November 24, 2000
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

The biggest advantage, and I consider it a must, is the examples are in color, not B&W. Do not waste your money in any Photoshop book printed only in B&W.

Most of the techniques were illustrated in the examples in the color figures (inserts) in the chapters. The advantage of this approach is that you can see the changes and steps as the examples progress. The problem is that there is not enough room in the illustration to fully explain the techniques involved. Sometimes the author assumed that you had the prior knowledge required. There were a few important techniques that I had to go through it a few times before I got it.

The other shortcoming is that most of the pictures used in the important illustrations were not included in the CD. So, I was not able to practice the technique as illustrated.

I love the "Shortcut" chapter, which gave me all the keyboard shortcut keys to all the functions. This is a must when you do some heavy duty editing.

I think any author of Photoshop books should concentrate in the version of Photoshop the book is about. There is no need to go back and forth of any prior version because anyone who purchase a book like this is probably a new learner without any knowledge of prior version.

The CD has great video that outlines some very important techniques. I found it very helpful.

All in all, I rate this book a 8.5 out of 10, which is much better than most of the ones I've seen.