Jed Clampett

April 1, 2000

This is NOT a beginner's book, rather it is a FUNDAMENTAL book. What is a fundamental book? In Gary's' words, "The quickest way to become proficient with Photoshop and begin to make money. "Fun" is part of "fundamentals" Fundamental often is not basic." For example understanding the power of layers is fundamental but not necessarily basic, but the basics are included as well.

Well I must say after reviewing this book I'm going to sound like a groupie or something. But I really do enjoy his teaching style. What I found particularly useful in this book is the illustrations which are not just screen shots but include detailed callouts that mark everything of importance.

My favorite section is the one on color and tone correction. I actually could begin to understand HOW to read a histogram and use the 'curves and the levels' commands. It was explained what to look for as far as tones, where the areas were and then the results. I could begin to evaluate the problem areas myself.

You will also get into retouching, type and putting it all together. There is excellent coverage provided of Image Ready 2, which will help you put your images on the Web for the world to see.

You may be thinking at this point that a book, which covers levels & curves, must be more advanced. But believe me a beginner can understand because of the simplicity and the logical way in which things are explained. Simplicity does not mean talking to you as if you were a "dummy". Simplicity is the way the author can present a complex subject in a way that everyone can understand.

CD images needed to complete more than 15 real-world Photoshop design assignments. Custom clipart, fonts and textures the groupy's designed, and demos of Photoshop 5.5 and some plugins.

The combination of a logical layout and progression of techniques needed to perform each exercise makes this a winning selection.

Copyright 2000, Joyce Evans, All Rights Reserved