Adobe Photoshop

A clearly written and wonderfully detailed comprehensive view of Photoshop. I found no topic missing in plan to keep this book by my side when I edit photos in Photoshop because it will magnify efficiency and teach me more ways to be creative in my photo editing. This is the Photoshop guide to have.

One of the first photographs in the book compels you to read further and finally to learn about layers: the photo is of an elephant walking through what is clearly a sophisticated library. Great lure!

From the quite detailed table of contents it is clear that Leskovec covers the territory, for which I am grateful. I don’t know about you, but there was always something new for me to learn when using Photoshop. I am glad that I will not be limited in what I can learn here.

One of the introductory chapters, and setting up the Photoshop workspace, is brilliant and I will be implementing it right away. I have been using Photoshop for many years, but did not realize all of the options I had with the workspace itself. The author points out that some features we will need frequently are out of sight and others that are there maybe ones you don’t need. He shows us how to set it up so that the actual tools we need are front and center.

In a chapter not far into the book the author uses a technique I always appreciate: he gives us an actual project and shows us how to use layers to achieve the result we want. He says that the chapters on layers and smart objectsare the ones we will return to most often, and given his clarity in writing in the use of his examples, I think he is right!. His explanation is probably the first time I think I maybe understand smart objects.

One of the first chapters I turned to was his lesson on curves, what he calls “the most powerful adjustment“. What I did not know is that curves can correct color issues as well as tunnel issues. The author goes through the procedure for using curves carefully and in detail sufficient even for a slow learner like me 🙂 I love this book.

Are use the cloning and healing and content aware fill tools often, but still learned much from Laskevitch’s chapter on these aspects of Photoshop. for example, he points out that when using the clone stamp, much depends on where your sample is from in the photo. Something I hadn’t given enough thought to, but will now.

He talks about color adjustments, of course, and, in a really useful manner, explains brushes and tools with brush settings to us in ways easy to reproduce yourself.

I plan to keep this book close to my desktop computer so that I can use Photoshop more effectively and with more room for creative visions. The author not only includes everything you could want to, his language is clear and easily comprehended. This book is a keeper!