The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book: For Digital Photographers

When I bought Photoshop CS2, I wasted a lot of effort with my photos until I bought Kelby's book. Not only did the book describe how to use some of the features in Photoshop that I used every day, but he also taught tricks such as adding twinkles to eyes. When I bought Lightroom, again it was Kelby who taught me how to use the program. In fact, I told all of my friends who used Photoshop that they needed Kelby's books. So when I upgraded to Photoshop CS4, I of course bought Kelby's book. And this time I was disappointed.True to form, Kelby presents to the reader step by step instructions for some of the functions you may want to use in Photoshop CS4. Working with color, black and white and dodging and burning are all included in the book. But, as someone who already knew the basics of CS2, the CS4 book doesn't offer a lot of new information. And as someone who uses Lightroom instead of Bridge, I found the two chapters on Bridge to be interesting, but not so useful. The chapters on HDR images are interesting academically, but then Kelby recommends not using Photoshop for these images. The chapters about printing and showing your work are nice, but I bought the book to learn how to use Photoshop CS4 to improve my photos. These other topics would be better in another book so that Kelby could concentrate on teaching tips and tricks.Missing from the CS4 book are all of the great tips that were in the CS2 book. I find that I actually use the CS2 book a lot when working in CS4 are rarely look at Kelby's Photoshop CS4 book. Also missing is more information about adjustment layers. Maybe I missed something by skipping his CS3 book, but to me, adjustment layers are the most exciting part about Photoshop CS4 and Kelby only devotes a few pages to them.I actually wish that I had saved my money and used it instead for training on Lynda.com or the Lynda CS's (Chris Orwig is very good)  Photoshop CS4 for Photographers . By using the Lynda training, my skills in Photoshop CS4 improved dramatically. Because of the Lynda training, I can use curves and other adjustment layers without reservation. I would recommend Lynda instead or in addition to this book.In Summary, with the chapters on importing photos from your camera, cropping and printing, this book would be very good for someone who is new to Photoshop and needs to know the basics. However, more advanced uses who are familiar with Photoshop might be better served with a different instructional guide (book or DVD). If you already own Kelby's Photoshop CS2 book, you really dont need to buy this one as well.

Not fully utilizing CS4 then buy this! I am an avid photographer. Some location & outdoor but most recently in Studio Mostly Portraits/Glamor/Nude etc. A pro-photog friend suggested getting this to compliment my post processing - so glad I did; thought I was pretty good in Photoshop but having purchased this book my work is so much better. I am still using this edition as reference almost every time I use CS4. I would recommend this if you would like more professionally finished work. If you shoot in RAW this really is super way to improve your finished product. Scott really does give step by step instructions that produce beautiful results...........enjoy.

Updated reviewThis book is an excellent intro to Bridge and ACR, but leaves a big amount of Photoshop tools untouched. This book is not a Photoshop class. It is a detailed step-by-step guide for photography postproduction techniques based on Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw, and Photoshop. If you want to learn everything about Photoshop, this is the wrong book. If you want to tweak your RAW files all day, you will learn hundreds of awesome tricks here.Everything I tried from this book works very well. Unfortunately, I don't know why it works and how it works, because the author does not give a lot of information about the way the tools work, he is using.So after working thorugh this, you won't be the Photoshop expert who understands all tools and knows why one slider works better than another one. But you will be the guy who knows all the tricks to get your pictures look better.

I found this book difficult to follow, it has a lot of good information in there I think it could of been organized a little better but this was because I believe it was written for intermediate level and when he comes to Photoshop I am a novice but once you find the information is very helpful so even though I only gave it 3 stars I do recommend this book I believe if you're an expert or an intermediate this book would probably be more suited for you than if you're a novice like I am but even though I'm a novice I did find the information helpful

I have an older issue of this book for an earlier copy of CS. When I upgraded to CS4, I could no longer get good prints from my printer. I knew that I had to have something set wrong in the printer portion of the program, but didn't know what. I turned to that part of the book explaining how to set photoshop up for printing. First print out was just what I had wanted. If I didn't get anything else out of this book, that one thing was worth the whole price. Thing is there is a lot more to learn and the book explains it all very well. If you have never read any of Scott Kelby's books, you might not know how good a teacher he is. He is able to explain it all very well. Get the book and as newer issues of CS are issued make sure that you pick up the updates. I keep this next to my computer at all times, and refer to it often.

Good clear, concise explanations for beginners and intermediates. The book is logically laid out and the material explanations are complemented with photos. Lastly, the is author's teaching/writing style should appeal to almost everyone, because it's to the point in simple clear terminology. The book is also a great reference source when infrequently used processes are forgotten.

I'll start by saying that this is extremely similar to the CS3 version of the book, but it's still well worth getting hold of. There are some new hints and tips, as well updated parts that cover the new functionality of CS4.He's also now included a chapter on HDR. This includes not only how to process the images in Photoshop, but also how to process them using Photomatix, which pretty much everyone accepts is the best tool to use for tonemapping multiple exposures.This is a well written book and like all of his others that I've bought, has helped to improve not only my Photoshop skills, but also my photography skills. I have come to rely on his easy-going style and very clear steps to help me get the most out of Photoshop and my camera.

This is typical Scott Kelby, very informative but with the typical Kelby humour, which some might find irritating. However the layout is simple, the book is readable, the illustrations are excellent. The book is printed to a very high quality and because the chapters are short it never becomes heavy or indigestible. As an introduction to CS4 it is fine, there may be more detail available in other books but this will get you going and also help in understanding some of the complexity of the program.  The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

I gave up reading computer books years ago, because they're mainly written by illiterate geeks for illiterate geeks. But this one is different. Kelby is a slightly irritating, in-your-face American, but he knows it and very kindly restricts (most of) his irritating comments for short chapter intros that he encourages you to skip. The rest of the book is wonderful, and I've learned something useful on every page; I am now gleefully re-editing lots of my old photos and making them better as I do. It's a book I REALLY wish I'd read years ago.

If you're a digital photographer and you've bought Photoshop CS4 then this book is an absolute must. I bought the previous edition for Photoshop CS3 and was very impressed so I had no hesitation in buying the latest update. I would also recommend Martin Evening's book "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers' as I consider this book to be another essential buy. These two books complement each other very well and contain all that anyone would need to use CS4 successfully.Jack Ryding

Was hoping a lot from this book since it was so well reviewed but the fact is that I feel like the book was not up to my expectations. I was counting that this book would breakdown PS in a way that I could clearly understand it and master it but that did not happen. I still don't understand quite a lot and I feel like the book was insufficient.No doubt that it covers some basics but in terms of layer working (where I have more difficulties) I feel that a lot is lacking.Nevertheless, heplful.