Review: How to Cheat in Photoshop

[Doug Nelson]

View here

An excellent review by Leah Earl of an interesting book about montages.

[DannyRaphael]

Very informative, Leah. Thanks for crafting this terrific contribution.

~Danny~

[chris h]

Adobe were pushing this book at a recent presentation I attended. Interesting but for the UK market overpriced.

[Leah]

I didn't think it was overpriced at £24.99 - possibly though that's because

1. I'm from an IT background and the IT books I buy are WAAAAAY more expensive than this. And less fun.

2. I spent more than that on a registered version of NeatImage. BuzzPro is over four times as much. And I think I'll get as much out of this as out of those (I do more montages than photo art).

3. Come to think of it (does rapid calculations in head), the amount of time I've saved myself from using the tips in this book just over the last month probably comes to more than £24.99 if I reckon my own time at minimum wage rates.

4. I had Amazon vouchers... never feel like real money .

Although you're probably right that £24.99 would be a bit steep for someone who never or rarely does this kind of thing, which is why I tried to give a clear idea of what was and wasn't covered.

Leah

[chris h]

I'm wondering if I've got the right book here the one I looked at was £35. Computer tomes are top end in the pricing stakes although Photoshop orientated stuff ages a little slower than most. I got the Martin Evening Photoshop 7 book a couple of weeks ago and considered that good value.

[CJ Swartz]

He's got tips posted (PDF format) on the book's website -- they're looking good! If this is the info that he gives away for free, the other stuff in the book must be good...

Website for "Cheat" book

[BigAl]

You can also check out some of Steve Caplin's work.

[caplin]

Just to let you all know I'm working on a new edition of the book, which will have loads more stuff in it, including a lot more introductory material on how to use layer masks, Curves and so on. Thanks to all those of you who have bought it - I hope you're enjoying reading it.

Steve

[T Paul]

I've checked out the links provided in this thread and I must say that it looks like a very impressive book with great examples! Guess I will wait on the new edition though. Roughly when is it expected to come out?


~T

[caplin]

Well, I'm still writing it. My deadline for the publisher's the end of September, then I have to do the CD and website again... looks like it'll be published around the end of this year, possibly to coincide with what may or may not be a new release of a popular image editing application made by a company I'm not allowed to mention, if you get my drift.

[Noko]

New adition to your book....cool. I just bought another Photoshop book that Im going though now and was going to buy your book next around November but will wait till the new version comes out. Cant wait the first one looks very interesting from what I saw of the sample pages.

Heres a question for you. Is what I do

here a montage or a collage?

[caplin]

Wow! Nice work! As a matter of fact, I've included a spread on colouring black and white images in the next edition of the book, and it's great to see you using the techniques so effectively. Are you sure you're charging enough? The restoration and collage images look like a hell of a lot of work to me.

...which brings me to your question. Well, I'd call them collages rather than montages, but I don't really know why. It isn't a distinction I've thought of before.

Hope you enjoy the book, whenever you get around to it.

Steve

[chris h]

I have you book Steve and its well thumbed!!

Noko I like your site, the muted graphics take a back seat to the core photographic images making them stand out.

[Noko]

Thank you caplin and chris. I was thinking about charging more for the montages but I don’t want people to say "that’s too much to spend" and not order them. As I do more of these I’m getting better and faster. Hopefully I will be able to get these out in under 3 hours from start to finish.

Oh ya I did some more research on montage and collage today. I think I’m going to stick with montage. I believe a collage is more a collection of different materials brought together and glued on a surface. The definition of a montage is as follows “A single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing many pictures or designs."

Again will be looking for your new book. One can never have enough techniques for working in Photoshop.