Product Description

Shows readers how to retouch, color correct, manipulate, and combine images using Photoshop "X." Readers will learn to create cutting-edge special effects for the Web or print. Deke McClelland's easy and approachable writing style demystifies even the most complex Photoshop tasks.
The Photoshop "X" Bible fulfills the promise to the reader of being "100 percent comprehensive, authoritative, and what you need." This classic Bible covers it all, from "Apply Image" command to "ZigZag filter."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79166 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1080 pages

Review
"the colour sections in the whopping 1,049 Photoshop 7 Bible (Eiley) by MacWorld contributing editor Deke McClelland are by far the besta mighty tomeStar Rating ****"(Mac World, December 2002)

From the Back Cover
"I’ve learned more from Deke’s Photoshop Bible than any Photoshop book, ever."
—Scott Kelby, President, National Association of Photoshop Professionals

• Master Photoshop techniques for image-editing, retouching, and color correction
• Harness the file browser, Brushes palette, and healing brush
• Create cutting-edge artistic effects using masks, filters, layers, and distortions

"When someone asks me something I don’t know about Photoshop, I tell them to go read the Photoshop Bible. It does something no other book does – it tells you everything."
—Russell Preston Brown, Senior Creative Director, Adobe Systems

World-renowned Photoshop expert and artist Deke McClelland has earned more than 20 industry awards and written over 60 books on computer graphics and design with more than 3 million copies in print. Now, in this totally revised and updated edition of his international bestseller, McClelland shows you step-by-step how to master every aspect of Photoshop 7 – from image-editing basics to new techniques for working with the Brushes palette, healing tools, file browser, the Liquify filter, color adjustments, layer styles and effects, and much more.

About the Author
In 1985, Deke McClelland oversaw the implementation of the first personal computer-based production department in Boulder, Colorado. He later graduated to be artistic director for Publishing Resources, one of the earliest all-PostScript service bureaus in the United States.
These days, Deke is a well-known expert and lecturer on Adobe Photoshop and the larger realm of computer graphics and design. He serves as host to the interactive "Best of Photoshop 7.His other DVD- and CD-based video series include Digital Photography with Photoshop Elements, Total Training for Adobe Illustrator 10, Total Training for Adobe InDesign 2, and Total Training for PageMaker 7 (all Total Training).
In addition to his videos, Deke is author of the award-winning titles Photoshop 7 Bible and Photoshop 7 Bible, Professional Edition (both Wiley Publishing, Inc.), now in their tenth year with more copies in print than any other guides on computer graphics. Other best-selling titles include Photoshop 7 For Dummies, Photoshop Elements 2 For Dummies, Look & Learn Photoshop, and Web Design Studio Secrets (all Wiley Publishing, Inc.), as well as Real World Illustrator 10, Real World Digital Photography, and Adobe Master Class: Design Invitational (all Peachpit Press).
In 1989, Deke won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Computer Book. Since then, he has received honors from the Society for Technical Communication (once in 1994 and twice in 1999), the American Society of Business Press Editors (1995 and 2000), the Western Publications Association (1999), and the Computer Press Association (1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, and twice in 2000). In 1999, Book Bytes named Deke its Author of the Year.
In addition to his other credits, Deke is an Adobe Certified Expert, a member of the PhotoshopWorld Instructor Dream Team, a featured speaker on the 2002 MacMania cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage, and a contributing editor for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines.

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive, yes - but comprehensible?
After dabbling in Photoshop for a while the thing that has become most clear to me is that it isn't an easy program to learn, and no doubt it isn't an easy one to explain either. So I won't blame Deke McClelland for not turning me into a Photoshop genius overnight (which he didn't) - but even if that is too much to expect of any book, this one is a mixed bag in more ways than that. On the plus side, it certainly is comprehensive. Just about every option available in Photoshop is explained - and that is the major downside at the same time. This book is very much written from the viewpoint of the program, not that of the user. If you want to know how to achieve a particular effect, you will just have to browse the 1000+ pages hoping you will stumble on the right tools. Reversely, you may read many an explanation of a tool without ever getting into the clear why you would want to use it. For instance, the chapters on selections, paths and masks made it abundantly clear to me that there are some 5,000 or so ways of selecting part of an image in Photoshop, but I remained in the dark as to which ones are useful under which circumstances. Much of the text on paths and masks actually seemed highly esoteric to me. I can understand that it is impossible to illustrate each and every option visually, but unfortunately the illustrative examples that are given often don't seem to be very compelling (e.g., the possible use of stroking a path is demonstrated by the creation of a tapering line underneath an image of a planet, an effect that could just as easily have been achieved with a simple paint brush.) In fact (and ironically), the graphics are one of the major weaknesses of the book (just take a peek at the hideous cover!). I found them mostly unimaginative, and often too small and badly printed to show up the differences between several effects they were supposed to demonstrate.
The accessibility of the book is not helped by the fact that after introducing a function, the author stops naming it and reverts to a mere mention of the keyboard shortcut - so when you're new to this, soon enough you no longer know what he is doing (also, I would urge the publisher to please create separate Windows and Mac editions of this book: the ubiquitous additions of the Mac alternative to Windows shortcuts is highly irritating!).
The order of chapters/subjects doesn't seem to be guided by any pedagogical considerations. Layers are not discussed until page 633, even though (as everyone who has ever tried Photoshop or any similar program knows) you really can't do anything at all without an understanding of this function. The style of writing is informal and chatty, and by page 500 or thereabouts the author's facetiousness started to wear thin on me. Maybe after I have gained more experience with Photoshop I will come to appreciate more of McClelland's suggestions. However, as a novice, plowing through this book yielded to me no more than 8 or 9 new insights that I found directly useful.

An amazing tour-de-force
I've been reading Deke's books for years. And frankly, they vary widely, from fair (especially when he leaves the chore to a coauthor) to extremely good. Sure, Deke's a pioneer. If it wasn't for him, computer books would all be about word processors and operating systems. But he doesn't always deliver like he could or should.

This time is different. This book is something special:

First, it's completely different than past Photoshop Bibles. ALL the information is new, which is an astounding achievement for an update to a book this size. (I haven't seen the softbound Photoshop 7 Bible, but according to the foreword, the two books share about 300 pages of content, so it doesn't sound like you should get both.)

Second, it does more with less. No 1,200-page tome this time. The Pro Edition is a lean 650 pages, and it uses its pages wisely.

Third, all 650 pages are printed in full color. The print job and paper quality are very fine, something of a first for the Bible. The figures are exquisitely rendered, so you can see everything Deke is talking about.

Fourth and best, the content is extraordinary. It includes information about blend modes, healing, displacement maps, the liquify tool, and much more that I haven't seen anywhere else. (I have nearly a dozen Photoshop 7 books). I don't think I've come across a single page so far that hasn't taught me something I didn't already know. Can't say that about other books.

The title doesn't lie, it really is for professionals. But Deke delivers his high-end info in a simple and charming way that is always crystal clear. He promises the world, and then remarkably, he delivers. If you're an intermediate or advanced user, then I'm guessing this is the Photoshop Bible you've been waiting for.

Teaches by concepts and examples
I was SO glad I bought this book to supplement our textbook for a PhotoShop 7 class last semester! The text frustrated me because it used the "Do step A, step B, step C" approach. For some of us, that approach does not make it easy to learn WHY we're doing the steps we're doing, so that we could apply the concepts in real life. In contrast, the PhotoShop 7 Bible explains the concepts, shows graphic examples of the differences between features, and shows samples of how a feature is affected by different user-selected values.

The author also does give step-by-step instructions in situations where needed, and explains what each step accomplishes.

Since I didn't have to have the computer in front of me while reading this, it was possible to redeem time spent away from the computer, for instance, in the cafeteria or a waiting room.

In short, for "concept learners" (vs. "rote learners," who like the step-by-step, low explanation approach), this was the book to buy!