The Designer's Guide to Astounding Photoshop Effects

What a crime that this excellent design book's weakest, tackiest page is the only one that most people will ever see: its cover. I grabbed this book as a joke, because its awful first page promised a Saturday afternoon of unintended laughs and head-shaking at astounding misuses of Photoshop. But the joke was on me--there's a treasure buried under that Photoshop-ravaged front cover. The Designer's Guide to Astounding Photoshop Effects begins with a brief but concise history of photo manipulation, which was first achieved with physical tools like airbrushes and blades. A heroic propaganda poster from the 1950s and a silly, contemporary Weekly World News cover (headlined "LIPOSUCTION FOR WORLD'S BIGGEST BABY" ) invoke completely different psychological responses and seem as though they have nothing in common, but both were achieved by the deliberate manipulation of reality and are landmarks in the evolution of the technique. It was a great idea to include this section, because most Photoshop books show no interest in the historic or psychological relevance of manipulation; they just get right to the showoff stuff. Because, let's face it, that's what most Photoshop users want. The Designer's Guide... is geared more toward people who appreciate photo manipulation when it's done with style, grace and purpose than people who are looking to lens-flare their every document. There are some tips and they're all pretty good, but you have to accept the fact that most Photoshop wizards--like traditional magicians--have no intention of revealing the secrets behind their best tricks. So if you're like me, you'll find yourself doing a lot of backwards engineering to figure out how they created those astonishing effects. But before attempting any of the tricks in this or any other Photoshop book, I think it's important to ask yourself, For what purpose?. A great Photoshop artist should use his skills only when necessary, and always with discipline. Because it's just too easy and tempting to get carried away, and wind up making the kind of mess they made with this cover.