The Hidden Power of Photoshop CS: Advanced Techniques for Smarter, Faster Image Processing [With CDROM]

Since I just reviewed Photoshop CS Complete Course I thought that this book would flow from the basics to the more advanced features in CS, and hopefully give more insight into some of the new tools in Photoshop CS. This book is broken down into six major parts with nine chapters covering: Image Color, Altering Image Objects, Creating Objects, Photo-realism and Illustration. The book also comes with a tutorial CD in the back that corresponds to the different chapters plus is has a bonus selection. Part one; chapters 1 & 2: Covers tone, color correction and separation. You get more in depth knowledge of curves, using channels and correcting specific colors. This may explain why some of your images may not output to your printer in comparison to what you see on the screen. Lesson learned make sure to calibrate your monitor. Chapter two covers color separations. You learn how to adjust each color separately. Being able to adjust each color separately gives you the control over taking your image from flat to it's full dynamic color range. You also learn how to create duo-tones, and how to separate CMYK color both manually and the automated way. Part two; chapters 3 & 4: Covers altering image objects. The cloning tool & I have been friends forever. It's one of the tools that I use extensively with many of my photos with live models to cover blemishes and other unsightly marks on the face and hands area. Ch 3 covers the use of the cloning tool, healing brush and the patch tool. While using masks can be a bit frustrating, using a mask does help with some very time consuming modifications you might need to make to an image. This tweaking can make an otherwise flat image or over saturated image much closer to what you visualized. Ch four covers correction filters. We've all had noise in our images, noise is akin to grain in film sometimes a little bit is acceptable and other times it can really sink an image. In this chapter you learn how to smooth out color noise and tone. Part three; chapters 5 & 6: Covers shaping objects, vectors and illustrations. Ch five deals with shaping objects, like buttons for a website, it shows how light and shadows give these objects depth. I really loved creating the seamless textures and tiling backgrounds segment. In my photography business it's "Senior" time and making my own customized graffiti wall is proving to be a neat choice for some of my clients. I am going to spend more time playing with the jigsaw puzzle component. Making an object from scratch shows why graphic artists get so much money. It's a very time consuming endeavor and you realize that those already designed graphics have a lot involved. Ch six covers vectors and illustrations. I have used Illustrator in the past and I really liked being able to make something small and then blow it up to the size of my desk and not lose any of the quality. You get a practical approach to building your own object, it might make some people want to start using Illus