Fine introduction to most of Nik's software. It's a shame that it doesn't cover Sharpener 3.0; there have been significant changes in the upgrade.

I have to agree with the other one star reviews. I tried to get through this book but it has very little to do with images other than the samples presented. I've been using photographic software since Photoshop 2 and am currently using Aperture 2 and the entire Nik software collection plug in's. This book covers none of the Aperture plug in functionality and marginally covers the Photoshop version. Nik software's website and tutorials while sometimes tedious do a much better job and for a lot less money. The spelling and grammar errors are painful as well. This one is going back.

Don't waste your time or money. You'll get more from NIK's website and it will be spelled correctly.
Illustrations OK, coverage (filters for example) spotty and incomplete. Personally, I got nothing from it at all.
Want to buy a used copy?

This book is truly awful. First of all, it is unreadable. Almost every illustration is a full screen screen-shot reproduced at 4 1/4" x 3 1/4", two on a page, with plenty of white space. The Nik screens use light gray text on a dark gray background, which is fine on the screen, because it doesn't corrupt your color vision, but it is totally unreadable when printed at such a small size in the book.

The text itself is bad. It is so full of typographical and grammatical errors that it is jarring to read. For instance, on page 106, what does "In steps the Reflector effects, and their ability to bring back an image." mean? Is there a verb in there that I missed? Is "reflector" a proper noun?

If the copy were redeeming, the book might be worth the struggle; but it isn't. I was hoping for a reference book that would help me figure out what the various filters do and how to use them. Instead, the book is a random walk through the filters that the author particularly likes, with a description of how he would apply them to specific images. Color Efex Pro contains 52 filters, with variations on many of the filters. The book covers fewer than 20 filters.

These comments apply only to Color Efex Pro, which is the only product that I own and the only part of the book that I slogged through. By the way, Color Efex Pro is a great program, even though it is not well documented. I bought this book to try to fill that void.

The author too frequently breezes through some of his applications of the Nik filters. In his attempt to cover all the filters and give examples of the use of many of them, he makes his discussion of the applications too brief.

Although he often explains what you're seeing in the accompanying images, the small size of the images makes it difficult to read some of the parameters he's set in the screenshots. There are times when he refers to what are supposed to be obvious parameter differences between screenshots, expecting you to read them from the screenshots, but the size and colors used make it impossible to do so. Both Josh and the publisher should have realized that the light gray-on-gray and white lettering-on-gray UI that Nik insists on using do not improve readability on the scales used in the book.

Very disappointed with this. No real information and so many errors, I imagine it wasn't reviewed. Would have returned it had I not already removed the CD.

I just bought this book and have not fully read it yet, but what I've read is so very usable. I met the author (Josh Bradley) in the San Juan Islands at a Moose Peterson workshop. He gave us hints and tips that made the Nik filters even more usable. Filters can often make or break a photograph and Josh lead us to that end.

Leading By Example.

This is exactly what Josh Bradley does in his new book The Official Nik Software Image Enhancement Guide: The Photographer's Resource for Professional Workflow Techniques. Throughout the book you'll find beautiful and inspiring images shot by Josh and enhanced by Nik Software's five tremendous filters for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements; Dfine 2.0, Viveza, Sharpener Pro 2.0, Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Silver Efex Pro. Josh uses his vast experience in photography to not only teach us about Nik Software's products but also to inspire us to use these products to improve our own images.

Each chapter covers a different filter in detail with real-world examples demonstrating how to use the product to create stunning visual effects in our own work. Josh explains things in simple, down-to-earth language that will resonate with photographers worldwide, whether professional or amateur. It's like you're standing next to Josh and he's explaining it just as he would to a friend or colleague. It's this style of writing along with the incredible images included in the book that make it a winner for me.

Another great feature of this book is that it comes with a CD-ROM that includes trial versions of all Nik Software's products along with the images used in the book. For a photographer, there's nothing better than learning by doing and Josh's book makes it easy.