PHOTOSHOP BOOKS WITH A DIFFERENCE
THE PHOTOSHOP E-BOOKS
The Gry Garness Photoshop and Retouching books are published as e-books. We all know there are some truly horrible e-books out there, but these digital PDF books have all the production values of good print books, as well as some great advantages, such as the facility for zooming in to look closer at detail, and a Table of Contents that lets you jump directly to the page you want. You can also search on any word or phrase, and go straight to it. And of course, the PDF document is colour managed. The CS5 version (from 15th Feb 11) is interactive, with before/afters on the images and many of the screenshots, lots of extra info as pop-ups you can mouse over, and many video clips! Download a free sample chapter.
A TWO-TRACK APPROACH TO LEARNING
There are no two people out there with identical abilities and the same level of experience. That's why the books are written so they can be enjoyed by a really great latitude of readers. We have had feedback from seasoned retouching pros and Photoshop trainers who admit to having learned many new details from the books, and enjoyed some Eureka moments. These experienced Photoshop users will skim the bold text to get to the good bits, without having to labour through all the content they already know. When you're really experienced you don't expect to get more than perhaps 10% out of any book, so it's an advantage to be able to skim or simply search for terms of interest to you.
Intermediate learners tend to come from very different Photoshop backgrounds, and we never assume that anyone has completely grasped the basics. That's why the books are written in a very concise way, describing the process quite literally, step-by-step, and with warnings if something looks a little strange along the way. Gry has through her training experience had plenty of opportunity to pick up on the typical stumbling points that tend to flummox her students, and indicates where they can easily go wrong, to help you avoid those tear-your-hair-out moments.
A STRAIGHTFORWARD EASY READ
There aren't any jokes, but it's not dead serious either. You'll be relieved that there's no poetry, no academic rhetoric, nor any evangelistic ramblings. In contrast to other books that claim to be on the subject of digital colour or retouching, these books really get to the point, and stay on the subject throughout. You probably haven't got all the time and money in the world to spend on this, so you should get what you expect, and then some!