Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible
reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Authors: Ted Padova and Kelly L. Murdock
Publisher: Wiley Publishing , Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NY 07030
Released: October 1, 2007
Pages: 1296
$45 USA
$54 Canada
ISBN-10: 0470130679
ISBN-13: 978-0470130674

Strengths: Enormous in-depth guide. Screenshots are fairly readable. Introduction to the new application interfaces (except Dreamweaver which did not change) has a good set of toolbox windows. Understanding Version Cue and Adobe Bridge is included.

Weaknesses: Black and white instead of color. Hard to read. Special notes are all rectangular and don’t stand out. Does not talk about MacIntosh users. Mostly text laden. The look of the text is very drab and is some of poorest I have ever seen. The guide structure could use more numbers or something to break up the plethora of text. The Parts of the books (sections) focus on using the Creative Suite tools instead of focusing on the applications.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 3/5

Web creation and publishing has evolved over the years since HTML was once the only way to publish on the internet. Now there are many new programs, applications, software, and other tools that can help web publishers, novice to advanced. In addition new versions of the software are arriving yearly which can make keeping up with web publishing efforts more difficult. Assistance might be needed to start, develop or advance web building skills, especially to speed up your efforts. If so, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, may be a book to answer your learning needs.

Ted Padova, has written Adobe related books while Kelly Murdock has also authored books and worked with web design, graphics and multimedia. They have pooled their efforts to develop a comprehensive huge guide book for computer users who wish to develop graphics and web design while using the six application Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesgn, and Acrobat.

This massive 882 page book includes an introduction, a series of tutorials that span seven sections and a big index. This Black and White tutorials covers nine parts that guide you through 38 chapters. The readings and tutorials are meant for helping to create dynamic websites. Utilizing the latest web design tools, these authors outline a series of tutorials to complete necessary steps to start, develop and finish websites. Along the way, this guide utilizes the six applications, to “ walk “ the web user through the six different applications which most web professionals use on a daily basis. However learning about these applications are scattered throughout the Sections.

Each section of the book is a book in itself. The authors attempt to create an user friendly guide that offers in-depth instruction. But there is much that keeps this from happening for me and possibly others, depending on how you like to learn.

The sections of the book (called Part) are: Getting to know the Creative Suite 3, Getting Started with Design, workflows , working with objects and images, workin with type, Using creative Suite and Microsoft Office, Working in Creative desiggn workflows, Document repurposing, Creative Suite documen delivery workflows and Printing and digital prepress. This method focus is applying skills instead of focusing on the applications themselves. And for the most part, I would applaud this approach but it seems that the way the book is written, make this approach less learnable.

The book is written with a PC computer in mind and includes Microsoft Office. While I use Macintosh that did not bother me. It is the fact that the authors did not include any information about Macintosh users was a little baffling. Screenshots are employed and they are PC oriented. This is fine but there is little or no information by the authors to define how Macintosh users or the PC user who has switched to a Macintosh, can use the book.

Most of the book is text laid out in the paragraphs. Screenshots are readable for the most part with “ Line pointers” used within the screenshots. These help the reader “see” more precisely what the tutorials are targeting during the instruction. But these don’t appear in many sections of the book. This makes the tutorials more difficult to understand, as the reader has to sometimes “fish around”, to find and try to connect between, what the authors are saying and the reader is perceiving. It would have been better if more of the text or information were laid out in Tables and Illustrations form, numbered or something else to cut down all the text.

Conclusions:
While I am sure the authors are very competent, they have created a book that “falls farshort” in many ways. I have designed and created websites for several years. I am always trying to improve my efforts, but when a book makes the job more difficult, instead of assisting how to use the application, there is trouble. When starting out, I found that Dreamweaver was and still is, a very finicky program to understand. In many cases, no matter how much I tried, with the program and using books, I still could not understand and get the job done. It was a combination of the book and the application and perhaps my learning style. Starting out as a novice, at that time, I needed less text, in some cases, better targeted screenshots and better layout of the instruction.
I thought that this book had potential. But the text and how it “looks”, is some of the poorest I have ever seen, for an instructional book. It basically looks, feels and reads like a college textbook instead of a user friendly guide, for website and software application users. Whether you are a PC or MacIntosh user, I feel that you should look elsewhere to find help with the learning and using Creative Suite 3 and its applications.

Photoshop CS2 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide

Photoshop CS2 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide

By Tim Grey
$39.99
pages 352
© 2007
ISBN: 978-0-470-11941-4
Sybex
1151 Marine Village Parkway
Almeda, CA 94501
http://www.sybex.com

Strengths: Includes information on raw format images. An in-depth highlight of curves with the applications, which is a very difficult topic, is applied in an excellent fashion in this book. Information regarding adjustment layers well done.

Weaknesses: Too much verbiage.There is a need for more arrows and pointers to integrate the information laid out in the screenshots and applied to the text and tutorials.

Rating: 4/5

*

Reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS (dreric1kansas@aol.com):

“Workflow” is the latest “buzzword” regarding digital imagery. The word relates to the whole process of taking your images from the beginning to end and all the processes, tasks and management issues that are needed, for making your finished images even better. Photoshop CS3 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide, is the next version of a popular book that takes your through the steps of workflow evolution.

The author, Tim Grey, is a renown Photoshop and digital photographer . He is Microsoft’s Chief ambassador to professional photographers and presents workshops on digital imaging. He is the author of another book Color Confidence. This book is the latest version of this book. I wanted to see whether this book has been updated compared to the previous version which I reviewed.

Within the book, there are many brilliant photographs to illustrate the points the author is trying to show you. Notes are also “peppered” throughout the fourteen chapters. Additional ideas related to the techniques are highlighte. I found these insightful and tied in well with the tutorial type information for the most part. Many screenshots, help illustrate the learning process but I wish some of them were larger. I would have liked to have seen more icons (like more red circles or pointers) that could have served to highlight and focus what the author talking about in the text.

Part 1, points to “getting started” and takes you from the beginning. Chapter 1 talks about workflow foundations. The main focus is the final results you want for your images. Chapter 2, “ downloading and sorting, uses the browser Adobe bridge. On page 28, the “palette set up” is very well written in explaining and using palettes. The tool and palette shortcuts (page 34) are also well done and useful. Chapter 3, “ raw conversion” is well explained in terms of the reasons for using RAW images instead of JPEG or other types of images.

Part 2, works on the basic adjustments that are needed. In Chapter 4, “Basic adjustments” details how to use basic tools as, rotate and crop, using crop tool, using aspect ratio.

Chapter 5 “Basic tone and color “ specifically targets evaluating channels. This written introduction into channels is done very well. In fact, this is some of the best information on the topic that I have seen. The screenshots and the shots of the application windows (example, Curve, levels, etc.) helping with the understanding. However only in a few places (for example in p.101) were additional pointers or guides used in the windows (for example: red enumerated small circles or additional ways) to verify even more explicitly what the author is speaking about. This chapter (p. 110) has a real nice listing of five benefits of adjustment layers but I would have liked to have seen this information earlier in the chapter and focusing specifically on the benefits through the tutorials and screenshots. Levels and problems signs followed with clipping, gaps and posterization with levels adjustment p. 110-113) but I did not feel that the information was cohesive enough. Color balance (p. 108) and (p. 112) basic saturation have well done instructions.

Notes in Chapter 6 are very helpful. Here in Chapter 6, “ Image cleanup” has information concerning healing brush, cloning stamp (copying parts of the text to others to clean up smudges by copying from one part of the image into another – for example sky color).

Now Advanced adjustments come into play on Part 3. Chapter 7, “Advanced tonal adjustments,” covers working with image tones. Shadow highlights (page 138) is an interesting section and nicely done. Curves information and adjusting these (p.143) I fell are the most difficult to understand and master. The author does an exceptional job in explaining this topic done and is some of the best I have ever seen. Ways to use anchor points are excellently written. The curves table (p.159 and throughout this chapter visually nicely done.

Chapter 8 has advanced color adjustments information which includes hue / saturation, color casting and more. Chapter 9 works with the selection tools is not one of the best chapters. There should have been more visuals, many of the screen shots should have been bigger. I wish there was more to show and display how the selection actually work instead of all the verbiage.

Chapter 10. targeting adjustments layered masks I have been a difficult one to accurately portray and teach in many books. Once again there are too many words, not enough visuals and some parts are plain confusing to understand. Chapter 11, creative adjustments talks about filters. The screenshots are small and there aren’t arrows, pointers or circles. Steps to take are created in paragraph form and it “hurts “ when trying to figure out the processes.

Part 4 finishing the workflow (Chapter 12) finishes with saving files while workflow automation (Chapter 13) follow and finally there is (Chapter 14) teaches some of the output processing.

The Appendix has a sample workflow checklist which makes sense. I like that the chapters for target objectives are included here (but I would have been even better if the pages were listed). Finally the index is well done.

Conclusions

Overall the author portrays the PhotoShop tutorials for use of digital photography. The notes throughout the chapter help break up the use of the text but its not enough. There is just too many “words” in the explanation process.

I would have liked to have seen more arrows or pointer to the parts of the histogram that the instructions “talk about.” Sometimes the terms (like posterization on p. 103) are inserted at the end of a paragraph and should have been integrated better instead of making me feel like some of the information is included at the end or the last second.

I “wrestled” with this review. While there is a lot that “hits the mark” in terms of understanding, I feel that style and way much of the instructions are written get in the way of learning. The text feels “too much like a seminar workshop” which the author is noted for. Lectures go too fast at times. Sometimes there is a need for visual pointers for additional guidance so one does not “get lost”. Sometimes with seminars, I say to myself “ stop, hold-it, backup”. The seminar has moved ahead and I am stuck or still digesting what is said. Added visual pointers can help slow down the written workflow when one needs to, to regroup and then forge onward.

But fortunately this is a book and you can go back and try to make sense of the process if you are listening to a presentation/ workshop. I thought about the final “grade” for evaluating this review. Overall this book is solid but it has a lot of gaps mainly because of the multitude of text and not enough visuals. The tutorials are too long and should have been broken up. At times I found it difficult to figure things what the author was trying to “say”. I have seen tutorials in other books. I just did not “get what the author was saying” part of the time. Part of the problem is “too much text”.

I was looking for something a little different to find out more about using Photoshop skills to supplement what I already knew and in some ways I found it in some of the chapters. But much of this book and the way it reads does not suit my “learning style”. For my tastes, I will have to look to my other resources to advance my workflow knowledge. But other Photoshop ( intermediate and advanced) users who want to improve their image production and work on their workflow, may find the book to their liking.