Books Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - It is decent, not essential, but nice to have.
This was a quick read. It covers new features of CS2 and the book is basically all about keyboard shortcuts and few hidden tips. Honestly, most of these "tips" can be found on the internet search engines or tutorial sites but if you need a book that complied it for you in a accessible format, it is a good purchase. I noticed some of the tips came straight from the CS edition and was not updated (not a big deal). It's a nice desktop reference. I like David Blatner's CS/CS2 Breakthroughs because of it's question/answer format but both are very nice addition if you are a power user. The title fits the content of this book, it is all about speeding up your workflow.

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Rating: - Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips
Awesome book. Full of amazing tips-could not
use the program to it's fullest without this book.

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Rating: - For the commited photoshopper! AGAIN!!
Now,this is a book for the ones who already know the basics,then and only then you will truly appreciate what Mr.Kelby is revealing here. Or dont get it and go into hard lobor for years through 'trial and error' techniques of your own invention.Eventually you will find them all out! I mean the 'Killer Tips',but you are risking your life on the way,you will most probably get killed without Kelby's wise shortcuts.That's all Folks!

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Rating: - A Little Something for Everyone From the Novice to the Professional
This book by Scott Kelby and Felix Nelson has a little something for everyone from the novice to the professional. Especially for the novice, each tip is fully illustrated with complete and easy to follow instructions. Also, I especially liked that there was no CD or image downloads. Because the authors did not rely on any sample images, the instructions are general enough to be used in many situations.

As with most books on Adobe Photoshop written by Kelby, Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips has many of the tips and tricks you will need for photo editing and manipulation. However, this book also has some tips for those of us who use Photoshop to create digital art. The authors have divided these tips into logical categories which makes it quick and easy to find the information you need. So, this is a great book to keep close by on your reference shelf. Each chapter covers one category such as Adobe Bridge, essential tips, production, cool tips, camera raw, layers, type, image correction and prepress, advanced tips, troubleshooting and web tips.

Some of the tips that I found to be most helpful were those that I could apply to my digital art. Blending edges of adjacent colors and gradients is one way to prevent that computer generated look in your digital art and I found some nice tips for painting with digital color and gradients. One was a cool tip for achieving a custom gradient and another for softening paint strokes for a more traditional painting style. Another important aspect for creating art digitally is the freedom and flexibility that using Photoshop layers gives you when creating your design. There were several tips for working with layers including dragging layers between images, creating a more realistic drop shadow effect and controlling opacity in only a section of a layer. The book also had many good tips for creating print-ready graphics such as how to set your computer monitor to display print colors correctly and how to get a better drop shadow in print.

Scott Kelby is Editor-in-Chief for Photoshop User magazine, President of NAPP (National Association for Photoshop Professionals) and a popular author and Photoshop seminar instructor.

Felix Nelson is also an author and instructor, the Creative Director for Photoshop User, Senior Art Director for NAPP and Art Director for Layers magazine.