Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: Don't you just love the Peachpit books? From "The Little..." series through the QuickStart Guides, they all seem to be written right at you, not above you and not below you. That's a difficult thing to achieve. Robin Williams' books are spot-on. Alfred Glossbrenner, another Peachpit author, and Mike Banks and Molly Holschlag do a good job, too. And so do Weinmann and Lourekas. It takes a real talent to present a humongous program like Photoshop in bite-sized chunks that feed the need without being overwhelming. Weinmann and Lourekas have pulled it off. You can bring a problem to this book, check the index and look up the answer. You can study a whole area like "Layers" and get your brain around it and then move on to the next thing. But I like to just pick it up from time to time and discover some little tidbit that I didn't know I could do with Photoshop. Lavishly illustrated, and with many color illustrations, if you read this book from cover to cover and practice the techniques on your own, you'll soon be creating those bogus Me-And-Marilyn-Monroe-At-Prom pictures from the old Gateway computer commercials, restoring old family treasures and making great graphics for the web.
Rating:
Summary: Another Time & Bacon Saver from Peachpit Press.
Review: Don't you just love the Peachpit books? From "The Little..." series through the QuickStart Guides, they all seem to be written right at you, not above you and not below you. That's a difficult thing to achieve. Robin Williams' books are spot-on. Alfred Glossbrenner, another Peachpit author, and Mike Banks and Molly Holschlag do a good job, too. And so do Weinmann and Lourekas. It takes a real talent to present a humongous program like Photoshop in bite-sized chunks that feed the need without being overwhelming. Weinmann and Lourekas have pulled it off. You can bring a problem to this book, check the index and look up the answer. You can study a whole area like "Layers" and get your brain around it and then move on to the next thing. But I like to just pick it up from time to time and discover some little tidbit that I didn't know I could do with Photoshop. Lavishly illustrated, and with many color illustrations, if you read this book from cover to cover and practice the techniques on your own, you'll soon be creating those bogus Me-And-Marilyn-Monroe-At-Prom pictures from the old Gateway computer commercials, restoring old family treasures and making great graphics for the web.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good for beginners
Review: I agree with Timothy's review. This book offers few explanations and is of little use to a new user looking for some in-depth guidance. I am also looking for a new book that will clearly teach me how to use and get the most out of this software.
Rating:
Summary: Too Obscure
Review: I am a comparative beginner at graphics. I had previously purchased Elizabeth Castro's book in this series, on HTML4. This was very good introduction for a beginner in HTML, and I expected the same would be true of the Photoshop edition. Unfortunately, it is not an appropriate book for me, as the approach and examples were not clear enough for self study. It is not clear if this is due to the complexity of Photoshop, or the approach adopted by the authors. I am now looking (warily) for an alternative.
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book for beginners? Nonsense!
Review: I am a graphics professional in the online industry, and I constantly recommend Quickstart Guides to anyone just starting out. The books are very concise and informative, but most of all they're very affordable. To say that they're not helpful is to display an unwillingness to experiment. Example: A manual can teach you the controls of a racecar, but how you drive it is up to you. Sure you can go out and spend $60 on the Photoshop "Amazing Tricks, Bells and Whistles" Bible Volume 1 of 4, making lightening effects and balh blah, but learning the basic and essentials is what matters. VQGs deliver and can empower one to know the application!
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book for beginners? Nonsense!
Review: I am a graphics professional in the online industry, and I constantly recommend Quickstart Guides to anyone just starting out. The books are very concise and informative, but most of all they're very affordable. To say that they're not helpful is to display an unwillingness to experiment. Example: A manual can teach you the controls of a racecar, but how you drive it is up to you. Sure you can go out and spend $60 on the Photoshop "Amazing Tricks, Bells and Whistles" Bible Volume 1 of 4, making lightening effects and balh blah, but learning the basic and essentials is what matters. VQGs deliver and can empower one to know the application!
Rating: 
Summary: How I learned Photoshop
Review: I am new to photoshop but I have some experience with graphics editing and creation. I just needed an explanation of each of the tools and a list of shortcuts. This book has these in spades. But if your are looking for something other than a reference (step by step tutorials) this is not your book.
Rating:
Summary: How I learned Photoshop
Review: I am new to photoshop but I have some experience with graphics editing and creation. I just needed an explanation of each of the tools and a list of shortcuts. This book has these in spades. But if your are looking for something other than a reference (step by step tutorials) this is not your book.
Rating:
Summary: Dont even use it that often
Review: I have been using Photoshop about 4+ yeaars and this book I use as just a referance guide for the little things that I don't know how to use. I have also have the Flash 4 Visual Quickstart Guide and it is justas good
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible introduction to Photoshop
Review: I have used three other VQS guides (Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Golive 4) and been very happy with them (writing in Brisbin's Golive 4 not very stylish, but useful enough introduction). This book is the exception to the rule. It is dull, badly written, poorly illustrated and uninspiring. Version 6 and version 5 had more indicative reviews of the contents of this dud. Stay away. Peachpit Press should be embarassed to print such a poor guide to the graphics flagship.
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