How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography

I don't often give 5-star reviews but I think this book deserves one. It is clear and easy to follow, and has lots of good examples to get you going. I have a number of digital photography/Photoshop books and and this one stands out because it is very useful, but without being a 500-page encyclopedic volume on all things digital. I think if you become familiar with only a quarter of the techniques in this book you'll be a much improved digital photographer and photoshop user.

I was looking for a book that concentrated on using Photoshop and digital photography together without getting too wild or too complex in skill level. As a person who has used Photoshop for 5 years, both for work and at home, I still felt like I wasn't getting the most out of it. And after taking 4,600 digital photos last year alone, I decided I wanted to actually do something interesting with them. So I poured over the plethora of books out there on Photoshop: tricks, tips, how-tos, guides, shortcuts, etc. at the bookstore for 2 hours. Some books were too novice, some too difficult - - I really don't need to know how to make a surreal collage of a planet pouring a waterfall into a floating baby's outstretched hand behind a rainbow thank you. What I was searching for was a basic primer on real-world techniques with some fun stuff thrown in to give my images punch and snap, but nothing too involved. I wanted something that would get me results the same evening. "How To Wow" is that book. Having been a photographer for half my life and worked in photo labs for years and then as a digital designer, this book still completely changed the way I see a digital image. I have gone through the book cover to cover and done all the techniques, tips and tricks and THEY WORK. Even the ones I didn't think I would like ended up pleasantly surprising me. Like if you want to convert a color image to black-and-white, don't use MODE-GREYSCALE, use the Channel Mixer instead. You do have to know a little bit of basic Photoshop, but most of the tips are 3-4 steps and the results are great. These guys write well and make it absolutely clear what your result will be and how to get there. I couldn't be happier with this book! The CD that comes with the book contains all the sample images, so you can use those or your own. I found it best to use theirs first, then try it on my own image to really get the feel of the technique. My favorite chapter is "Enhancing & Exaggerating" and using glows and tints. Your digital photos will never look the same! I guarantee you will add new pop and life to your images. The CD also comes with a gaggle of free presets, so you can load those up and do one-click framing styles and other cool stuff. I also liked that this book wasn't cheesy. A lot of Photoshop effects look like obvious filters and give a cheesy result. Not these - these effects are elegant and stylish and often subtle and don't have that "Photoshopped" look. I printed out many of my images and they translate well to paper. I just can't rave enough about this book. It's already dog-eared from me taking it with me everywhere. Get it if you've used Photoshop a bit but feel like you could do more with your images.

This book is the best I have read on Photoshop. It has more practical and useful techniques than any other book, and I have read a bunch of the best known books on this subject. I liked the book so much, I ended up buying Jack Davis' DVD set of the same name from Software Cinema. The DVD's are the movie version of the book and very useful if you are a photographer. Other reviewers have spelled out many features in the book. I particularly found interesting the lucid explanations, for example, of Dodge and Burn with Layer Masks. The book's explanation and practical examples of using the Blend-if options with Layers is the best I have seen anywhere. And the really best way to use the power of Hue & Saturation command - mind-boggling. I used Photoshop Elements for a couple of years and bought Photoshop CS a few months ago and felt lost for a while. Of several books I got on Photoshop Cs, this one has brought me up to speed.

There are a lot of books out there on Photoshop. Why this one? Four Reasons: One, this book is a great introduction to Photoshop. It has a unique indexing system where each heading begins with a picture showing what the about. Each chapter then starts with a sub-index, again illustrated so that you can see what the subject is about without having to know the meaning of the somewhat arcane words that the chapter is talking about. For instance there's a section on watermarking. What's watermarking - well it's a kind of translucent appearance, usually to type that you put on a picture that you want to identify somehow. They have a section on watermarking, but just below it is a picture with a watermark. You may not be familiar with the term, but you probably know the effect you are trying to create. Second, this book is the first I've seen that combines both the software with some hints about how to take pictures that you intend to modify with Photoshop. There are a lot of problems you can repair with photoshop, but if you make a simple adjustment to some of the settings on your camera you may save a lot of time and get a better result. Third is the CD contained with the book. This contains some 250 presets for Photoshop that are both quick and fast to use as well as having everything set so you don't forget to check some box. The results will make your work go a lot faster, at least initially while you are learning what you want. Fourth, as the owner of this book you are invited to watch an hour of video training on Photoshop. What more can I say?

I have purchased every book jack and Ben wrote on Photoshop and have attended a 3-day workshop presented by Jack Davis and will attend his 2-day workshop in Honolulu. When it comes to Photoshop, Jack is the most knowledgeable person in the field. This book covers every trick you can think of and shows you how to solve the same problem with different approaches using Photoshop CS! The book is only 270 pages, easy to read, and with all the images on the CD, you can follow the instructions until you get it. For the beginner, you will be a pro in few weeks, for the advanced user, you will have all the tools you need in a handy concise book for fast reference. This is truly the photographer's Swiss Knife! The best companion for this book is Ben Willmore's: Photoshop CS Studio Techniques, it covers the "why", while the How to Wow book shows you the "How" of Photoshop techniques. Thank you Jack and Ben for these master pieces!