Book Description
If you’re a photography hobbyist, would you like to brighten up that gloomy island vacation photo? Slim down without going on a diet? See whether white or green shutters look best on the house? Expunge the ex-boyfriend from family photos?
If you’re a pro or semi-pro photographer, would you like to make it snow in that ski resort photo? Replace the old logo in the glamour shot of the corporate headquarters with the new one? Grow hair in the CEO’s glaring bald spot? Freshen up the lettuce in that food shot?
You’ve come to the right place. With Photoshop CS2, you have the tools. With Photoshop CS2 For Dummies, you’ll have the know-how. In full color, with all kinds of examples, screen shots, step-by-step explanations, tips, and techniques, this guide takes you from the fundamentals to special power-user tricks! Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes:
- The basics of getting around in Photoshop, getting images into and out of Photoshop, choosing the right file formats, and setting your preferences
- Working with Adobe Bridge to organize and manage your images
- Working with tonality, including making easy Auto Repairs, making adjustments with Levels and Curves (and the eyedroppers), and using Shadow/Highlight and the toning tools, Burn and Dodge
- Making color look natural using the color adjustment commands
- Taking advantage of the RAW format for maximum flexibility, including using the Adjust, Detail, Lens, Curve, and Calibrate tabs and the Camera Raw buttons
- Fine-tuning your fixes, including making your selections with tools (four marquee tools, three lasso tools, and the Magic Wand tool)
- Masking for both layer visibility and for protecting parts of your images
- The most common problems in digital photos—red-eye, wrinkles, unwanted objects and people, and noise—and what to do about them
With Photoshop CS2, you can go beyond enhancing your images to create “art.” You have a very powerful painting engine, an extremely complex Brushes palette, and all kinds of painting tools. Photoshop CS2 For Dummies walks you though:
- Compositing (combining images into a piece of artwork) and working with layers, including choosing from the almost two dozen blending modes
- Selecting with Extract which is great for making tough selections, such as flyaway hair and various types of fringe
- Using Vanishing Point to “map” a pattern to angled surfaces
- Creating panoramas with Photomerge
- Creating precision edges with vector paths, including using shape layers and the Custom Shape tool, choosing from more than 300 ready-to-use shapes with the Custom Shape Picker, and using the Pen tool to create paths
- Where to find dozens, or even hundreds, of custom shapes already on your computer – absolutely free
- Dressing up images with layer styles, including using the Styles palette and creating custom layer styles
- Adding text messages and tweaking your text
- Using the extensive painting tools and the Brushes palette
- Using filters, including sharpening to focus the eye using blur filters or the Unsharp Mask and the new Smart Sharpen filter that give incredible control
- Getting fun effects with the Liquify filter
In a special Power Photoshop section, you’ll learn about streamlining your work, including creating a PDF for both onscreen presentation and for printing. You’ll discover how to spiff up your online images by working with Image Ready to slice, optimize, and otherwise juice up your images for the Web and how to create fancy rollover buttons and fun animations,
From basic cropping to complex techniques that can turn good photos into great ones, Photoshop CS2 For Dummies is your guide to exploring all the possibilities that await you in Photoshop CS2.
Download Description
"* An all-new full-color edition, updated for the latest software release and bargain-priced at under $30
* New author Peter Bauer-a highly regarded Photoshop pro-has rewritten the book from scratch in its entirety
* Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes program basics, working with camera RAW tools, organizing and managing image files, enhancing images, using channels and masks, painting and drawing, adding masks and special effects, creating Web photo galleries, and streamlining workflow"
Customer Reviews:
Not for Dummies.......2007-09-08
I'm sure this is an excellent resource for those who have used Photoshop already. It hits the ground running and assumes a much more significant base of pre-existing knowledge than the other "Dummies" books I've read.
My expectations for these Wiley books is that they write for neophytes, taking a step by step approach to understanding a topic without assuming any knowledge. That's what has made them so effective and so popular.
That is not the case with this book. I consider myself to be of adequate intelligence but I have never used Photoshop and I was counting on this book to introduce the admittedly very complex application in digestible bites. It really doesn't. It appears to assume the reader already has some knowledge of the program and, moreover, has already used it.
One example I'll cite is the book's treatment of the concept of layers, a central concept for how Photoshop works. It is assumed by the writer that the reader already knows what layers are and how the application uses them. It never presents a simple definition of layers. In fact, the author doesn't even mention them until far along in the text. And, at that stage, the concept just jumps at the reader without any introduction or explanation. I think I know what layers are and how they are used, but it really was a work of interpolation on my part rather than helpful explanation by the author.
Again, it's a fine work, but it's not "Photoshop for Dummies," it's really "Intermediate Photoshop."
Photoshop CS2 for Dummies.......2007-01-20
I purchased this book after using my local libraries` copy. It is full of information on the basic operational details and procedures of photoshop CS2. It is written in as plain an English as one could expect.
All the "secret" procedures to do various things are explained, things that would take decades of use if you were to try to figure them out without help.
It does not go into the aesthetics of photo editing at all. It only explains the basic procedures of how the various functions work, but it does this well.
It does nothing with the other graphic arts programs that come with CS2 such as In Design, Illustrator, and others. Photo editing is only a small part of the CS2 program.
If you want instruction on how to improve photos, this is not the book. If you want to learn the functions of how photo editing works within CS2, this book does a superb job in easily understood language.
Good product overview BUT.......2007-01-06
I purchased the subject book in order to edit photos only. The subject CS2 book provides a good overview of CS2 BUT it DOES NOT provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to use all the CS2 tools. I purchased "Photoshop CS2 In Easy Steps" manual ($10) to provide the "how to" part. Between the two publications, a good understanding of CS2 for photo processing was provided. It became clear that CS2 is so robust, and therefore complicated, that a CS2 course would be the next logical step.
A reference book, thats all.......2006-10-21
Luckily, I checked this book out of the library rather than buying it. I say "luckily" because this book isn't worth the money. Here's why...
On the front of the book it says:
Now in FULL COLOR! Loaded with the latest Photoshop tips and techniques"
On the back of the book it says this:
"Wait till you see what you can do with Photoshop CS2"
Photoshop CS2 for Dummies is not about HOW to do it, but about WHAT you can do with it. The cover of this book should have stated that it is a reference book out of fairness, rather than burying that fact in the prelude. Besides, aren't reference books suitable for people who already know what they are doing and have experience using the program?
This book didn't come with a CD or a website to go to for graphics and lessons. Words alone do nothing when you have to get your hands dirty. Would a pilots school be useful to you if you just sat in the classroom all day listening to the teacher on theory but not actually applying it by flying?
The first part (chapters 1-3) was way too basic, if not annoying. If you don't know how to use the mouse or what a menu is, what is color, what is cropping, etc. then you need to go back to Computer 101. 84 pages of material more appropriate for a Windows dummies book, not a Photoshop book.
Part II (chapters 5-9) was not much better. Written in the same "manual-like" style, it lacked techniques and how-to. Its sad when you are reading a computer software book and don't even lift the mouse or use the program while reading.
Part V consists of Chapters 18 to 20. Three chapters of tips and tricks. Total number of pages? Fourteen. Yep, you read that right. Fourteen out of 400 pages. Here's the first paragraph of Chapter 18:
"I have literally thousands of Photoshop tips and tricks to share with you but space here allows for only ten."
What a cop out. Wasn't that what the subtitle of this book was all about? Latest tips and techniques? Further, the tips are very poorly represented and outdated. There are websites that offer more detail and blow by blow description as you apply each step of the tip. Instead, this book shows only the end effect - worthless when there are many steps in between to enforce that the user is doing things right and getting the right results.
Noticed that I didnt discuss Parts III to IV? It was a waste of time.
Reference manuals are suitable for experienced users, not for beginners or people looking to learn from scratch. The best way to learn a creative tool like Photoshop is to experiment and try as everything is a transformation from one rendering to another.
C jones .......2006-09-02
If your new to photoshop or a Dummie stay from this book !!!
Book Description
5 books in 1 -- your key to terrific digital photos
Your one-stop, full-color guide to Photoshop CS2 and your digital SLR
You've just bought a brand-new digital single lens reflex camera and Photoshop CS2. Congratulations! Now the question is, "How do I make great photos?" You're in luck! The first two minibooks cover everything you want to know about using your new camera to capture images. The last three explore the wonders of digital photography using Photoshop CS2.
Discover how to
* Set your camera for the right exposure
* Select the right lens for the job
* Choose the better format--JPEG or RAW
* Tweak exposure and white balance images in Photoshop
* Use layer masks in retouching and special color effects
Customer Reviews:
The best book I have ever read!!!.......2007-07-26
What a wonderful book! Turns out the book goes above and beyond the great description that I read. I'm very happy with my purchase and will purchase 30 more for my photography students! It really breaks down a complicated hobby into easy and understandable information.
A very worthwhile book for both experienced and new digital photographers........2007-01-02
Although not new to digital photography I have found this book reveals many aspects of the subject which in many other books are frequently not explained fully enough to totally grasp the concepts or are explained in such detail that one has to fathom what it's all about.
Explanations are clearly detailed on how to optimize such subjects as exposure, balancing white point, controlling color, archiving images and numerous others aspects of digital photography.
Kevin gives readers the opportunity of trying a number of exercises relating to the contents of the book and even offers images which can be down loaded from his web site.
This book is well illustrated with explicit explanations and the setting out of topics makes for easy understanding. A book well worth reading for both the enthusiast and experienced photographer.
Digital photography newbie.......2006-03-30
After much thought and reluctance I finally have made the transition from film to digital and purchased a DSLR. I needed a book to help me make the transition and decided on Kevin Ames' book. A very fortuitous choice on my part indeed. He writes in a fashion that is interesting, informative, to the point and most importantly easy to understand. As a result of using the book as a guide I have enjoyed the digital transition thoroughly and have come to realize I have made the right decision.
What impressed me the most was when I had a problem registering for downloads from his website and I emailed him. I was expecting an email in return. Got not an email but a personal phone call from Kevin to help me with the problem!! Kevin was extremely helpful. He not only took the time to solve the original problem but gave some very good advice on other issues as well. His enthusiasm for photography and willingness to share with others his knowledge and expertise is evident in the book and was borne out by a personal phone call from him. I am very impressed. Buy the book, you will not be disappointed.
Right on Target.......2006-03-28
I have enjoyed this book which provides a good blend of 'understanding your camera' with 'how to work magic with it' in CS2. I have recommended the book to others; especially those confused with all the camera and CS2 technologies. I refuse to lend it as I'm afraid I won't get it back.
If you are buying only one Digital SLR photo book, get this one!.......2006-03-15
For those not fortunate enough to attend one of Kevin Ames' workshops, as I recently did, this "Dummies" book is the next best thing. Whether you are a beginner to digital photography or a practicing professional, Digital SLR Photography with Photoshop by Kevin Ames is a valuable addition to your "toolbox."
Ames is that rare combination of artist and teacher, and this book is one of the most comprehensive, clearest and easiest to follow "how to" books that I have come across.
I've been a photography hobbyist for more than fifty years and the early chapters on fundamentals were still a worthwhile refresher. As a serious amateur my pictures are important to me, so I found Ames' unique approach to non-destructive image processing, disciplined file organization and foolproof archiving to be extremely valuable and essential information.
Book Description
Brace yourself—this For Dummies guide is in full, dazzling color! That way you can see how you can lighten, brighten, blur, sharpen, or even age your digital images with Photoshop CS2. Chances are you have Photoshop CS2 and have explored it enough to know that you need a good guide to make the most of all its capabilities and get up to speed fast. Odds are you’ve experimented with some photos and spent hours tweaking them. Maybe you’re a veteran and used Photoshop CS2 to turn the gray sky to blue in a resort photo or to brighten the CEO’s smile. Maybe you’re a novice and gleefully extracted your ex from old photos and gave yourself a flattering mini-makeover at the same time. Maybe you used it to remove a scratch from a treasured family photo.
Regardless, you probably haven’t scratched the surface. Photoshop CS2 gives you so many options and tools for digital image creation, correction, and enhancement that even experienced pros can discover new techniques and shortcuts. With explanations for working on a PC or a Mac, Photoshop CS2 All-In-One desk Reference For Dummies is your complete resource that:
- Combines nine minibooks: (1) Photoshop Fundamentals (2) Image Essentials (3) Selections (4) Painting, Drawing, and Typing (5) Working with Layers (6) Channels and Masks (7) Filters and Distortions (8) Retouching and Restoration (9) Photoshop and Print
- Has more than 650 pages of tips, techniques, and plain-English explanations
- Is in glorious, full color, with all kinds of photographs and examples
- Has tons of screen shots so you’ll know exactly what to look for on your screen
- Provides a tear out Cheat Sheet that’s your instant reference for finding your way around Photoshop CS2, accessing the tools palette through shortcuts, and making selections
- Gets you up to speed on the new
Adobe
Bridge that lets you view, search, and organize your files, edit Camera Raw files, search for and purchase royalty-free stock photography, synchronize color settings, and more
- Introduces you to the 58 tools in the Tools palette, from the Pen to the Eraser… the Spot Healing Brush to the Burn…the Clone Stamp to the Red Eye
- Explains how to work with Vanishing Point—the new feature that lets you edit three dimensionally on a two-dimension image
- Features special Putting-It-Together exercises that walk you through numbered steps to show you how to do various tasks such as getting the red out of eyes, making and fine-tuning a collage, and more; images on the book’s companion Web site let you follow along
Download Description
More than 650 pages in full color for less than $40 make this one-stop Photoshop reference an exceptional value Photoshop ranks up right up there as one of the top computer book categories, and sales of Photoshop books are sure to increase with the new software release Thoroughly updated to cover new features and enhancements in the latest release Includes ten self-contained minibooks: Photoshop Fundamentals; Image Essentials; Selections; Painting, Drawing, and Typing; Working with Layers; Channels and Masks; Filters and Distortions; Retouching and Restoration; Photoshop and the Web; and Photoshop and Print
Customer Reviews:
Totally worthless!!!.......2006-08-22
Not only does the book begin to literally fall apart after a few months of use (pages disengage from the binding), the way the book is written is absolutely atrocious.
The author will explain some procedure (step 1,2,3...) as if that's all you need to know to be able to perform that procedure. However, she consistently leaves out a vital step (that she had apparently explained several hundred pages earlier) assuming that you have read and remembered what she said about that vital step. (no doubt the author is thinking "Dummy! I explained that step on page 97.)
Instead of showing you everything (in detail) you need to know about a specific procedure, she simply states it.
The book is totally worthless. Unfortunately, now I know why they name it CS2 Reference for Dummies. If you buy it, you're a dummy.
The Adobe reference manual that came with CS2 is easier to read and provides a better (albeit brief) understanding of the procedures.
(Photoshop CS2 all-in-one Reference for Dummies is probably the worst book I've ever bought from Amazon.)
One Book Short.......2006-03-09
This Photoshop book claims to be 9 books in 1. That may be, but they should have added a tenth to this compilation. There is absolutely nothing in the book about one of Photoshop's most powerful programs: Camera Raw.
I consider this to be a major flaw for this book. There is even a 300 page book on the market that deals just with Camera Raw (Real World Camera Raw with Photoshop CS2 by Bruce Fraser). If you are just using an inexpensive camera that only uses jpeg or perhaps tiff files then you can't use the Raw program. I would assume, however, that if you are shelling out $500+ for Photoshop you are probably using a decent camera that utilizes Raw files. The Raw program is an amazing program within Photoshop that lets you make numerous adjustments and corrections to your pictures before they are opened into the basic Photoshop program. It's a fascinating program, and you are missing an awful lot if you are not incorporating it into your photograph work flow.
So for many enthusiasts this definitely cannot be the only book you buy, unless, of course, you find the Adobe manual a sufficient resource for you.
As other reviewers have indicated the tutorials in the book are generally well written, and the author usually tells you the purpose of each step in a process.
I find one other weakness in the book, and that is a lack of an accompanying CD of pictures used in the text. There are about 5 pictures that can be downloaded from the website, but this is a minimal amount. It has always been most useful to me to learn by working on the exact pictures used in the text instructions. This would seem especially useful to those who are new to photoshop. There are several excellent books on the market that include a CD or have downloadable pics - for example, Katrin Eisman's book Photoshop Restoration and Retouching, 3rd edition, has over 100 megabytes of downloadable pics that are used in the text
A Very Complete Reference Book.......2005-10-19
Except for the yellow cover, this just doesn't look like a For Dummies book. As soon as you open it you start to see color printing everywhere. There must be dozens, if not hundreds of four color images, and they are scattered throughout the book. (Even the usual 'For Dummies' cartoons are in color.) This isn't at all like a lot of books that only have a few color plates. It also appears to be a higher quality paper that looks brighter than the other books in the series. This makes sense because Photoshop is a highly color oriented software package. The really nice thing about all this is that they didn't raise the cost significantly. A lot of books printed like this one are twice the price.
Of course the real test of a book is not its appearance, but its content. This book is aimed at the beginner to intermediate level user. It kind of combines a tutorial and a reference approach. The first few chapters are really introductory. It doesn't make much sense to jump around in them. But after that the chapters are pretty much stand alone. You can use the index or the general chapter heading to find the particular area that interests you and get the information you need.
This is a welcome addition to photoshop literature. While it's aimed at the beginner, even an expert will find a few points that will help him on his next project. The author runs a graphic design studio in Ventura, CA. She has written several other books on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and teaches at local colleges.
Note that this book only covers Photoshop as part of the CS2 package. You may also want to consider 'Adobe Creative Suite 2 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies' to cover the other parts of the suite.
Get Book for both Beginners and More Advanced Users.......2005-10-07
I felt compelled to write this after reading the first review of this book on Amazon. The person found this book very difficult to read. I am utterly amazed by this. I am a heavy Photoshop user now, but two years ago I was an absolute novice. This is a book I would loved to have had for my version of Photoshop then. It is well written, easy to understand, very well organized and even though I am beyond being a beginner now, there are parts of Photoshop I never bothered to learn about or couldn't understand from other books (even now). I flip to that part of the book and I find a well written and very understandable discusion of that topic. I have been able to learn so much from this book because it is so well written and easy to understand. If the person who left the book is looking for an easier to understand book I certainly wish them luck because this book is one of the best for beginners and more advanced users who never understood certain concepts. The book is also beautifully illustrated and for the price, it is printed on very nice paper. I give this book five stars and would give more stars if allowed.
difficult to read not like other dummies series.......2005-09-24
This book is big, is on quality paper with color pictures. It seems to cover a little more than other basic books. These are the good things about it. On the other hand is like a texbook: without any task oriented information, it lists the features and then in each and every paragraph would tell you that you can read more in Book xx, chapter xx, without even a page reference. Very diffficult to read. I'm curious if the bookstore would take it back.
Book Description
Develop a workflow that helps produce perfect pictures
Uncover the secrets of cool camera techniques and making magic with Photoshop
Digital photography is fun, and this book is packed with ways to make it even more so! Find out what equipment you need and how to get the most from it. Then see how to capture exactly the picture you want, get it out of the camera and enhance it with Photoshop CS2, and produce the perfect print.
Discover how to
* Use all your camera's features
* Take sharper pictures
* Match the colors on your screen to those in your printer
* Shoot and work with Raw format
* Fix flaws and enhance your photos
Customer Reviews:
A "For Dummys" book for experts.......2006-02-24
Nicely written, good structure and flow. But lots of books will give you that.
The thing that lets this book down is the examples. The text will be explaining some technique, and there are often "Before and after" photos to illustrate the results - Great, you think. But the photos do not really illustrate what is being demonstrated. Try as I might, I cannot see the differences. In one case where you can actually see a difference, it is so slight and subtle as to be very hard to see.
Maybe the author can see the differences, but a Dummy can't! And that's why we buy a Dummies book. Because we are not experts.
My advice - choose a different book. And check it out first.
One of the best books I've read on Digital Photography.......2005-12-05
Photoshop CS2 and Digital Photography for Dummies is far and away the best book I've read on the use of digital cameras and photo-editing software. The book is well organized and extremely well written. Its conversational and humorous style made even the most technical matters understandable and enjoyable. Numerous pictures, actual screen shots, and concise instructions made the lessons easy to follow. By highlighting important tips and warnings for the beginning or moderately competent digital camera user, and technical information geared to the more advanced reader; the author was able to expand on simple to complex subjects addressed to multiple levels of reader experience. This book has added immeasurably to my understanding and enjoyment of digital photography and photo-editing, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in exploring all the possibilities that this medium has to offer.
Photoshop Veteren - CS2 Newbie.......2005-09-09
I've used Photoshop for several years in all of it's various forms. Recently, over the past few years, Photoshop and I have not crossed paths. A new job has brought me back into Photoshop's arms and I found myself in need of a re-introduction. This book was monumental in helping me hit the ground running without having to re-learn the basics. I found the book's practical application of Photoshop techniques to real-world photo editing very helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone who is familiar with Photoshop and needs to get up to speed with today's digital photography techniques in a hurry.
Average customer rating:
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Photoshop CS2 Fur Dummies
P. Bauer
Manufacturer: Wiley-VCH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Adobe Photoshop
| Digital Photography & Video
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
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| Computers & Internet
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German
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
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Nonfiction
| German
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| Specialty Stores
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| German
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ASIN: 3527702105 |
Average customer rating:
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Photoshop CS2 for Dummies
Manufacturer: HUNGRY MINDS (TWLD)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Adobe Photoshop
| Digital Photography & Video
| Computers & Internet
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ASIN: B000GXIRBK |
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