Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks for Designers

This book was a quick read, and it follows the clean, concise, visual, to the point pattern set out in other NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) books. There are images to demonstrate practically everything he describes. His instructions are clear, and thankfully lack the ad nauseam detail that bores me to tears. He tells you what he's doing, and shows you, including before and after. That's what I need. While I found the whole book valuable, my two favorite chapters were Chapter 2, the 26 Piece Tool Set, and Chapter 7, A Dream Within a Dream. In Chapter 2 there is a subsection where he takes a plain brown graphic, sort of fleur de lis-ish, and with layer style turns it into a dramatic, metallic, three-dimensional image (without using real 3D techniques for CS5 Extended). It was a very impressive transformation. Chapter 7 is about 3D, which requires Adobe Photoshop Extended CS5 , and given the fact it is written by Corey Barker, the Photoshop TV (podcast) 3D guy of course it's great. He explains in the book that he also has a video demonstrating the topic on-line; I personally like the print version. I've see him demo 3D numerous times on the podcast, and seeing it is print, where I can internalize at my speed what he is doing is more concrete. I can then refer to it when I'm actually in front of the computer, turning my company logo into a cool 3D image. He also utilizes the define brush command, which granted, I've done, but really rarely use. He refers to it a couple of times in the book, to again create these 3D type effects, (again without using real 3D techniques for CS5 Extended) like lightening, or a blood splat, and I think to myself, "Now how can I work in lightening?" Because it looks so great. From the Photoshop 3D guy, 3D effects without CS5 extended.

If you ever watched Photoshop User TV you know who Corey Barker is. He usually gets labeled as the "3D" guy, but he is way more than that. He's actually the one person I've seen use every nook and cranny of Photoshop to create really cool designs. In this book he has taken his years of experience and teaching for Kelby Media and put it into something that is easy to read and laid out . It's labeled "For Designers", but I think it's for any creative person who wants to make their ideas standout. Ask yourself this: Have you ever seen a cool poster and wished you could do that? Want to market an item but your ideas look flat? Want to portray people in cool and visually striking ways? If you said yes to any of these then buy this book! I'm not sure how many tutorials are in here, but there are a lot. The tutorials aren't 20 pages long to show you one thing either. They are to the point and easy to follow. If you're still not sure, click over to PlanetPhotosop and watch some of Corey's lessons. I think you'll be back after that. Enjoy the book & share your work!

loved this book many tricks and lots of picture so this is a book that is easy to follow great

I've been a fan of Corey's website, Planet Photoshop, for years. His video tutorials are some of the best out there. Needless to say, I had very high expectations for this book, and I'm pleased to say that it lived up to all of them. I'm sure if you scour all of his videos online you'll probably find these tricks scattered throughout, but it's great to have a detailed reference like this one to flip through to find exactly what I need. What's also great is how he shows multiple examples of the various techniques, so that you can see many of their different uses and be encouraged to create your own.

Corey covers just about every kind of project you might want to tackle in Photoshop. Along with Matt Kloskowski's book on Compositing Secrets, this book serves up step-by-step Photoshop recipes for compositing Hollywood posters, developing customized brushes--and how to use them--and 3d...it's all in here. If you've ever seen Corey give a presentation, you know how thorough he is, and this book is no exception. Every step, and contingency, is covered in minute detail. Photos are in gorgeous color, and they are given plenty of space so you can really hone in on the details. I would get this book, Matt Kloskowski's Compositing book, as well as one/both of his Layers books, and you will be in Photoshop Nirvana.

I've been working with Photoshop for a while now, but Corey has definitely expanded my abilities and creativity with this book. He's directions are very easy to follow and the free, downloadable files that come with each chapter really helps me to follow along. I have been going through each lesson and making them my own by coming up with similar (but different) designs afterwards. Great book and definitely worth the money!

Perfectly cool book. I'm a graphic designer and I got a kick out of the cool things that I learned in this book. It seems like you go to school and learn all you can, but you always want to keep looking for books that increase your knowledge on the subject that you love, and this is one. I recommend it for professionals and even people that are interested in Photoshop. It helps if you know some of the ground rules in this application before trying the skill set in this book. Have fun. I felt it worked well with CS4 too, since that is what I have.

This book is superb and is written by the well known Corey Barker. It is magnificently printed and well illustrated. Each "trick" has a separate section devoted to it and it has enough detail for even the simplest of us (me) to digest and accomplish the task. Recommended to all users of Photoshop ....... covering the latest version. A must for all. 366 pages, it is a pity there is no CD!

Franchement, j'adore ce bouquin ! J'ai beaucoup appris. Au départ je m'intéressais plus à la photographie en général, et j'ai pris ce livre pour plus exploiter photoshop. Malgré le titre, les photographes y trouverons quelques choses.

as per normal from the writers of most photoshop books, this book shows you some tricks and how to`s but also shows you how things like the fibre filter can transform a pic in a huge way along with ather things that you would proberbly not even think you could do. a welccome addition to the rest of my books. it would be nice if they did not keep using a load of stuff from prevoius books as it mostly seems like im just bying an upgrade book, it has exacly the same pages as the previous book but with only half of the book be ing new

What a great book; easy to follow and the best book I have come across with projects. Unlike other books that miss out "key" information - this book gives great instruction. Corey Barker was great on Layers TV and the book reflects his ability to teach.

Excellent Why? Easy to follow examples. Examples that actually are relevant to photographers. This book could have been a bit messy, but thankfully is written in easy to follow bite sized chunks. Can recommend for people to buy with there hard earned cash Steve

This book is definitely able to take your PS experience to the next level. 4 stars only because the examples are a bit lacking in explaining why you would use certain settings. On the other hand, it makes you experiment more and that's never a bad thing. Highly recommended for experienced and beginner PS users alike.