Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One

By Deke McClelland
October 2008
Pages: 544
ISBN 10: 0-596-52189-8 | ISBN 13: 9780596521899
Press Release
(5) (Average of 5 Customer Reviews)

Description

How can you master the fundamentals of Photoshop CS4, with all of its incredible features? Deke McClelland's proven One-on-One learning system offers step-by-step tutorials, five hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Read about features such as Photoshop's new Adjustments panels in the book, and see how they're used first-hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective.
Full Description

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Master the fundamentals of Photoshop CS4 and then some with One-on-One, Deke McClelland's unique and effective learning system. Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One includes step-by-step tutorials, more than five hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to help you improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Once you read about a particular technique, you can see how it's done first-hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective.

Whether you're new to Photoshop or a creative professional interested in the groundbreaking features of CS4, Deke's conversational style and carefully structured lessons guide you easily through the program's fundamental and advanced concepts and techniques. More than 850 full-color photos, diagrams, and screen shots illustrate every key step. With this book, you will:

Learn at your own speed with 12 self-paced tutorials
Master Photoshop's workflow and file handling features
Try out techniques and best practices with engaging real-world projects
Discover how Bridge and Camera Raw can help you optimize digital photos
Create beautiful multilayered documents, including posters and flyers
Test your knowledge with multiple-choice quizzes in each chapter

And more. Written and produced by a Photoshop expert with well over 20 years of experience, Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One simulates a classroom environment that provides one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson. You'll learn to use Photoshop faster, more creatively, and more efficiently than you thought possible.

Featured customer reviews

Excellent PSCS4 resource!, June 15 2009

Rating:

Submitted by Abbott_S [Respond | View]

In typical DekeMcClelland style, the step-by-step descriptions are detailed, understandable, and precise. This is not your typical Photoshop manual: it really reads like a well thought-out tutorial on how to use Photoshop CS4 capabilities in the context of a logical image correcting workflow. The prose is almost conversational, as though the reader was sitting in a workshop and the book was doing the talking. I think the procedures described and their order (Deke’s prescribed PSCS4 workflow) is excellent.

The book comes with an excellent disc containing several hours of video tutorials from Lydia.com. These are very well done and complement the book beautifully. These are real, detailed tutorials and not snippets: you’ll learn from them. Between the tutorials and the lessons in the book, I really felt like I’d gotten a “one-on-one” course in Photoshop, and my ability to edit photos was definitely improved. The discussions on masks and the uses of layers were terrific.

One-on-One is more of a series of detailed lessons than a reference book. I appreciated the clear descriptions of how tools worked and why the author chose particular sequences and ways of doing things. A small nit: while all tools and capabilities seem to be represented in the index, some corresponding techniques are not. For example, “free transform” is there, but “transform” is not.

I found many of the “Sidebar” comments—which are often 1-2 pages long—distracting. The problem isn’t the content, which is invariably very useful: the problem is where the sidebars fall. Too often a sidebar will be placed between two pages of a detailed procedure or other discussion. I found this placement distracting. At other times, sidebars are politely placed between logical discussions and their pages referenced in the text. After encountering a number of distractingly placed sidebars, I found myself wishing that they’d been appended to the chapters and referenced appropriately.

As a long-time, “somewhere between beginner and intermediate” Photoshop user, I’d readily recommend this book to people new to image editing and to new PSCS4 users, even if you’ve used earlier versions of Photoshop. The book is written with a friendly, informative, and accessible style and the content should appeal to many beginning and intermediate Photoshop users.

Easy to follow Photoshop CS4 lessons, February 06 2009

Rating:

Submitted by PamHR [Respond | View]

Adobe’s Photoshop has always made me feel a little like Dorothy in Oz. Deke McClelland manages to take the “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” feeling out of it. From the navigation of files with Adobe Bridge to printing, this book walks you easily through the program. It provides an honest look at Photoshop CS4 covering changes from the CS3 release as well as a good general overview of the program.
The book is lesson based and each chapter is prefaced by a video lesson complementing the chapter. The DVD that comes with the book includes both these video tutorials as well as files to complete the lessons. Deke also shares his set up of Photoshop and includes things such as his keystroke shortcuts and custom colors. This insures that your program looks exactly the same as what is in the book. In each lesson you have the choice of working quickly through the highlights of the program or taking your learning experience a step further by working through the “Extra Credit” portions. The explanations not only cover what you are to do but also why. The “Pearls of Wisdom” scattered throughout the book provide information that while not needed to complete a lesson provide a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
This book is well enough organized for a beginner to use yet has enough insight into the program for seasoned photo editors to find it a good learning tool. Deke McClelland certainly shines as a Photoshop expert. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to better their skills.

best tutorial-type book ever, January 21 2009

Rating:

Submitted by deerey [Respond | View]

this book was so good that i had to have the companion book on InDesign, even though i have used indesign regularly for several years.

i really appreciated the explanation that went with the steps so i could understand what i was doing. most step-by-step books just say click here, click there but don't tell you why. this book will serve as a great reference.

my only complaint is all the keyboard shortcuts in the video -- i felt it was redundant to hear them so many times. and beginners don't need to memorize a lot of keyboard shortcuts before they understand the software. i don't use photoshop often enough to memorize the shortcuts. summary - coverage of keyboard shortcuts in the book is fine, but leave out all but the basics in the video.

one more complaint - why doesn't he have a book on dreamweaver!

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A great way to get started and a great refresher too!!!, January 10 2009

Rating:

Submitted by Jeff Kew - Vancouver InDesign User Group [Respond | View]

Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-On-One by Deke McClelland has been revised for CS4 and is an amazing training resource for the new user and still contains info that the experienced user will benefit from.

Written for the new user, it starts with the basics of the PS CS4 user interface and using Adobe Bridge to access your photo files. He moves on to the basics of colour correction before getting into retouching and photo compositioins

"Pearl of Wisdom" are insightful little bits of info found throughout the book, that are like pull out quotes, but are Deke's thoughts about some unique experience that he thinks you should know about to make the project go smoother. He also has similar items called "Further Investigation" which refers you to some online resources to learn more about a specific topic. Kind of like reading the books listed in the footnotes!

The book comes with over 2 hrs of video training that is unique to this book (not extracted from his hundreds of hours of training on lynda.com). It's advised that you watch each video before or after reading the accompanying chapter in the book. The process of Read, Watch, and Do, is one of the most effective ways of learning Photoshop and is unique to Deke's one-on-one series.

This book is complete in that Deke chooses to teach you everything you need to know to get the basics done in Photoshop and do them well. However, features found in Photoshop Extended like 3D and video functions are NOT explored. The book would be too big to carry around if he did.

I recommend this book for all beginning users. Experienced users would still learn some good tips from this book, as I did.

I was impressed with how much I learned!, December 10 2008

Rating:

Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

This book is so good that it was a fight to see who could spend more time with it, and a scheduled had to be agreed on.

Although we have several books about Photoshop, this one got me and my family really interested because it not only gave exercises to follow but it also explained why we were doing this or that and gave really good insights on how some parts of Photoshop work.

I am an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and I learned a lot from this book, from simple things I never thought about to very complex things that I would have never considered without this book.

The Pearls of Wisdom sections are priceless, even if you don't read the entire book you should at least read those.

Media reviews
"This brilliant book [is] written by one of the most award-winning technology writers, who wrote over 80 books (more than 20 on Photoshop.) "
-- Nadia Russ, Wonderpedia

"There is fantastic value in this book because of the way the material is organized and presented. You are definitely going to learn something when you can read the material, watch the material and practice the material as it comes at you in these well-paced lessons...There is incredible content here. The video material does not repeat the written instruction -- it complements it. That is 5 hours of personal class time at your convenience with one of the best instructors out there! "
-- Brett Merkey, Amazon.com

"This book by far is the most easy to understand book I have ever read. The color illustrations and screenshots are beautiful and very helpful, the writing is concise and to the point, and the added 4 HOURS of Lynda.com videos make it perfect. "
-- Frank Stepanski, Amazon.com

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