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by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser Review by Gary Coyne
Real World Adobe Photoshop 6 by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser, Peachpit Press, 787 pages, U.S. $49.99 (Canada $74.95, UK £37.99) This book is more like Ben Wilmore's book than the other two but is very different. For one thing this book is written for either the intermediate or advanced user. It is not really intended for beginners. In fact, there were parts of this book I just didn't understand. But later, after I had read Ben's book, it not only made perfect sense, I learned much more than what was available in Ben's book. If there is any specific problem with this book is that it suffers from technospeak. You are in a better position to get more from this book if you already know Photoshop to some extent. However, if you are a beginner and are willing to work, the work will be well worth the effort. Like all the books from the Real World series, this one admits the yin and yang of Photoshop and where some aspects are rather screwy or hard to deal with. Thus, the writers can easily warn the readers of particular issues to watch out for and how to deal with them. This is another fine book in the Real World series. One side point about the book is that it was written by Mac users and in the early part of the book they just simply say that all screen shots are of Mac windows and all commands given are of Mac commands. Thus, nowhere does it appear "Command -s [Control - s, Windows]." This book simply says "Command - s." As this book is 787 pages, probably 5-6 pages were saved by not including the Windows commands. All that notwithstanding, there is much information for Windows users and how to best deal with the various flavors of Windows and using Photoshop. The book is organized into 5 sections: The World of photoshop; Image correction; Images; Fine tuning; and After photoshop. The typical pattern of how information is transmitted in this book is: Here is some information on how to do something. Here's a tip on how to do that, here's another tip on how to do that, and here's another tip on how to do that. What's good about this technique is that one of the rich aspects of Photoshop is the many ways any particular action can be done, and that there is no correct way. Thus, by presenting a technique and then presenting all the different ways it can be done provide an excellent way to familiarize yourself with many aspects of the program. One pleasant surprise in this book came in the chapter on Levels and Curves. If you look back at my review of Ben Wilmore's book (1st review), you will note that I complained that it would have been great if there were a side by side comparison on what can be done to a photo with Levels and Curves. In this book there are two such comparisons. Heaven. My only complaint is that there is no source for the original photos for home attempts of copying the same commands to see whether it is possible to get the same results. Perhaps in subsequent books such photos could be available on the web. (Hint hint.) The authors have extensive experience in the print world, and the chapter(s) on Color bear that out. More of the explanation is done in CMYK than in RBG. There is extensive information on color correction and how to best deal with many many print media and outlets. If you are just getting into Photoshop and dealing with print companies, either the print companies will help you understand the book or you will be (at least) be able to be aware of the terms of the art from reading the text. The material is technical, and the authors do not do a good job of getting it down to a beginner's level. But I consider this not an error of the book, rather a limitation for the audience--the depth of the materials covered is so great that it may just have to be accepted that this isn't a beginner's book. In short, this is a superb book. Its main failure is that it doesn't break technical terms down and doesn't speak to beginners. That's not to say that beginners can't learn from this book, but that they will have to work a bit harder than they might from (say) Ben's book. The good news it that the work will be well worth the effort. Of all the books, this one has the most to offer.  Adobe Photoshop 6.0, Studio Techniques Photoshop, Photo-retouching Secrets
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