An Absolute Must Read if you Love Photoshop

I was a very early adopter of Photoshop and used it extensivly for 10 years until I decided to try something a little different (farming) a couple of years ago. Now I have decided to get back into the game and in preperation I read four of the most current books on Photoshop.

Martin Evenings book is truly incredible for both the level of detail and the breadth of the material presented. I read this book cover to cover and then picked it up a week later and read sections of interest again.

This is not a book for those who want to gloss over the subject, it is a book for serious imagers who want to play at the top of their profession.

Honestly this book put to shame the other books that I read which tended towards little nuggets of information and specific techniques rather then presenting a solid understanding of how Photoshop works and the implication of not only technique but fundamentals like workflow, color management, planning for re-purposing files and so on.

It is a little humbling to know that there are wizards like Martin Evening out in the marketplace. This book is incredible.

Photoshop CS for Photographers is highly inspiring

Photoshop for Photographers is highly inspiring for me. During the four weeks I posess a copy of it I hardly did other things then discovering more and more on Photoshop... It is like discovering the world (which is my second job as a tourleader and travel journalist/photographer, next to my daily work as a photographer and editor/desktoppublisher).

Although I am working with Adobe Photoshop for over ten years as a photographer and desktoppublisher Martin Evening showed me a number of new methods which I could not find in other books on this program. Especially the extensive chapters on Color Correction, Color Management and Output for Print were very interesting to me; but every chapter contains interesting stuff. I am convinced that there is no better book on this subject, with the things together that belong together (for example colorcorrection) and not a full technical description of menu-item by menu-item which in daily practice are used mixed up.

I am sure that Photoshop for Photographers is very close to the way photographers (amateur and pro) think and work. This is not such a dull computerbook, from which there are already too much. Even for a non-native English-speaker as I this book is written in a very clear and understandable language. The fullcolor examples and how to's that are mixed througout the book are very instructive and inviting to try it yourself.
Martin Evening tried to keep a highly complex program simple for his readers. Meanwhile his texts stimulated me to try to understand how Photoshop really works (those technical backgrounds are not inside, to keep the book understandable for starters. And that is how it should be).
I wish you a lot of photo-editing fun!

The 1 Star Ratings are Ridiculous.

This book is not *intended* for inexperienced users, therefore it's not surprise it might also be confusing to the same group. The last reviewer answered his own complaint: if you don't know Photoshop at all, buy a cookie cutter / how-to book like those from Deke McLelland or even Scott Kelby. If you're looking for a comprehensive view of the application from a professional photography perspective, buy this book. You're not likely to be disappointed.

Among all the Photoshop books which attempt to detail all aspects of the digital photography workflow (from hardware to color management to editing techniques), Martin Evening's books are among the very best.

He also does make a habit of updating content wherever practical from edition to edition. Obviously it's silly for an author to change every screenshot and example for every edition. When you find one that works well for illustrating a particular technique, you keep it until the tool in question changes. If it isn't broken....

And to say this is poorly written reflects more on the commentator's reading comprehension ability, than the author's writing ability. Evening's work is very accessible, assuming you already know the basics of Photoshop. The only complain I have about this book is that I would like him to focus a little more on facial retouching aspects, as it's obviously a big part of his business. I'm sure he has more to share on that topic. Hopefully next edition....