This is an excellent book for the beginner and pro alike! Scott Kelby wrote the book in a very easy to understand format (with a few jokes thrown in for the fun of it), and everything is demonstrated and explained in a precise step by step format. If you follow the steps you cannot go wrong, and your photos will come out looking like a professional shoot. Also, anything you could think about doing with a photo is covered in this book. Excellent resource for your digital photo processing.

I'm a just learning Photoshop, so this review is from a beginners point of view. Overall I think this is a great book. ; I like it the best compared to the other books I've briefly used.

The author walks you through easy-to-follow steps for each of his sections.

However, I'm still looking for a book that goes into the fine points of Photoshop CS2 functions, and describes each. Just one example would be to have an explanation of all the different "Modes" with-in the "Brush tool" I.e. normal, dissolve, darken, multiply, etc. What does each do, and when is the appropriate time to use each? Is there such a book?

Overall this is a great book if you want to learn great lessons for using PSCS2.

This books covers a lot of ground and is probably very useful to intermediate to advanced photoshop users and intermediate to advanced digital photographers.

But I am a beginning Photoshop user as well as a beginning digital photographer, and I feel that there is a lot of presumed Photoshop and photography knowledge that I don't have.

Hint: The introduction to the book provides a URL where you can download the photos used as examples in the book, so that you can practice the techniques on the same photos as the author.

I rated this book 3 stars as an average. For beginners this book would be 2 stars and for intermediate to advanced users this book would be 4 stars. It's probably a book beginners can grow into.

Like many of Scott Kelby's other books, this is written in plain english and teaches with such ease, I wonder why it's not included with your copy of CS2?

Scott Kelby has a way of teaching you to use this very complicated program that you'll be amazed at how fast you're editing your images like the pro's do.

My edition looks like a tattered mess due to it's use and how many times I've thumbed through it to find a solution to one of my problems.

If you own CS2, than do yourself a favor and buy this book

Yes, that's true!
3 years ago I was a beginner with Photoshop.
I read all the book and learned how to correct all my photos.
People use to say that I take good photos.
You can see some of my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oscarburd/sets/1524858/ .
Hope you enjoy the book and the photos.

This is the best Photoshop book I've ever purchased. It was recommended to me by a fellow photographer. Scott Kelby is very straght forward, he shows you step by step how to do everything. He makes photoshop easy, I was overwhelmed until I read this book, I use it almost daily, I am no longer intimidated by Photoshop!

This book offers the novice and advanced user a non-technical approach without diminishing the important aspects. I am new to Photoshop and within 5 minutes of reading the first chapter, I could make a contact sheet and went forward from there, I'd recommend this book to any one who wants to learn Photoshop without all the technical jargon.

Absolutamente recomendable...
Escrito en un ingles fluido, ameno y agradable de leer, Scott Kelby es capaz de trasladar al lector con enorme claridad y sencillez todo una serie de conocimientos, facil e inmediatamente aplicables.
Libro didactico y practico, muy bien estructurado, con buenas imagenes y explcaciones paso a paso, claras y consisas. Me gusta.
Estoy encantado de haberlo adquirido.

I've used dozens of Photoshop books over the past 15 years and this is the best because it is informative but more importantly it is designed to be easy to read with useful projects dedicated to every page with big color pictures. Tips are good and because of the well-designed layout of the book they are always easy to find. Only bad thing is the intros to each chapter which are moronic and try to be too cool for their own good.

This is a good book for any beginning and intermediate digital photography and Photoshop level. The topics and examples are clear and easily to follow.

this book got me started doing lots of very cool things on CS2. the userinterface on photoshop is NOT userfriendly by any means for the novice. The terminology and the menus hide lots of powerful features. Until they do a major UI overhaul, this book by kelby is a good starting guide.

A good book for beginners, and don't forget to read the introduction, gives good info on sample files and images. Great examples and step by step instructions. I am taking photoshop 101 at a local Community College, my instructor uses this book instead of the college book. You have to put up with the writers sarcasm, but overall a great book for beginners to intermediate users of Adobe Photoshop CS 2. Not too much on Type (Text) manipulation, in a rating of 1 to 5, I give this book a 4.

If you want a "how to" book for Photoshop and not want to get into a technical discussion about the nuances of different slider settings, Buy this book.
Say you want to know how to reduce digital noise from high ISO. 3 steps and you are there.
Wonderful book. Must buy.
This book will not teach you how to shoot. So no discussion on framing, F-Stops, Apperture Priority.
This book will teach you how to post process in PS-CS2.

I am a huge Scott Kelby fan; however, this showed pretty much the same techiques as the first CS book, which I already have. So, if you have the first book ... don't buy the second!

Kudos! The product was in great shape and delivered in a timely manner, which was awesome since I recieved it the day before I had class! Thx!

.The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)


I found the book to be very user friendly, clearly written and put in a methodical order. The chapters are easy and fun to follow.

Although vey funny in the begining, I too found Scott Kelby's humour to be a bit much at times and also a little repetitious, but I guess his aim is to prevent the reader from getting bored with the technical stuff. So I was more than willing to put up with it.

The book is aimed at those with at least a basic knowledge of photography, I have been a profesional film photographer and once having made the move to digital I found the book to be fantastic.
It answered my every need.

A must on the shelf of all photoshop users, unless of course you know your stuff as well as Scott does.

Scott does Photoshop training right - quick, easy tutorials that elevate your abilities to negotiate the steep learning curve of this software. His sense of humor keeps it fun.

This is one of the most user-unnfriendly books I have ever used. The writer sometimes mixes up instructions on Mac versus on PC and that throws you off at every point. Also he is constantly assuming certain windows are already open for you or certain functions have already been activated. So he'll go "Press V" and "Press D" but nothing happens although apparently it was suppossed to make your background white (what does that even means!). So I am not recommending this book to anyone at all.

The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers is exactly what I hoped for when I bought it based upon its many favorable reviews. It always helps me when I read product reviews to know something about the reviewer so that I can determine if his or her review is likely to be helpful to me. As a result, my ideal reviewer is someone who is fairly similar to me as far as my photograpy, carpentry, mechanical, etc. skills are concerned. So here goes. I have been doing basic point and shoot digital photography for a number of years, primarily because point and shoot was about all I had time for. I am now retired and have had the chance to get into photography a bit more. I recently took the plunge and bought a Nikon Digital SLR but found myself again being a somewhat lazy and using a very good camera with a lot of options as just another point and shoot camera. Feeling a little guilty for having shelled out a fairly substantial amount of money and not taking advantage of its capabilities, I started to mess around the camera's various settings and different lenses. The results were interesting, but I certainly didn't feel that I had made much progress. Then I found out about CS2 and a new world opened up to me. Success in that new world was not instantaneous, however. As a rank amateur, I found CS2 daunting and intimidating. As people like me are wont to do, I started looking for guide books. The first CS2 book I bought advertised itself as a very easy to use visually attractive manual. It was neither, so I set it aside and almost set CS2 aside as well. After doing some internet research, I stumbled upon Scott Kelby's CS2 Book for Digital Photographers. What a find it has been. While I still don't understand very much about how CS2 actually works, I am now doing things with my digital photos that I thought were reserved only for pros. I am amazed at how effectively I am able to take some my pretty poor quality digital pictures and make them into very acceptable images. Kelby's writing is very clear, light, and airy and avoids a lot of jargon. I totally agree with the other reviewers who have complimented Kelby for his suggesting actual settings so you can try the same techniques that he used in manipulating his own pictures. It really is one of the best things he does for us beginners. I have used his suggestions to convert some of my color pictures into black and white with truly wondrous results. I look at the pictures and find it hard to believe that I took them. In some reviews I read, the book was criticized as being too basic and not providing enough advanced techniques to meet the needs of pro photographers. That may well be so, but if you are a CS2 beginner or only moderately advanced, I think you will be very happy with this book. And even for you advanced folks, Scott gives enough information that you can take off and delve much more deeply into the world of CS2 possibilities if you so desire and your skill level permits. But for the rest of us, this book is very good one stop shop for getting a lot of bang for the CS2 buck. I recommend it highly. I could probably do with a little less of Scott's efforts at humor. However, I admit to chuckling a little, but it could be used a bit more sparingly.

I would recommend this seller to anyone. I received my book in good condition and it was shipped quickly.

This book is good to have as a learning tool and as a reference. List many tools and tips on how to use photoshop, touching up photos, sharpening and many other techniques. If you are planning on getting cs3 then get the newer version. If not this book is great.

Scott Kelby is the best at explaining shortcuts to photoshop in easy to follow steps. I highly recomend his books.

This is one of the few books on the market that actually takes one through a procedure step-by-step. I'm do not have an in-depth knowledge of Photoshop, so the methodology this book presents is particularly useful. And along the way you get a better understanding of how all the editing pieces actually fit together. Buy this one. It's a keeper.

it's a kind of big-mac meal ... just for the large consumers ... very easy and simple to follow, some nice approchment, but nothing to do with professional retouching. but will surely be a nice help for amateurs to begin to work in a different way with there photoshop

I have to say that I did not buy this book, I read it however. I would everybody advice to first check out the book if possible before actually buying it. Also, if you find the book where the "2" is missing in the title, buy that version because it has for a large part the same content and saves you probable a few dollars.

Scott delivers with this book a collection of tricks which are quick to use and easy to understand with good example images. Even if you have no knowledge of Photoshop this book will give some very easy to understand material to do some basic photo editing tasks.

However it is nothing more than that, and sorry to say if you check some free websites and photoshop forums there is more to find. Furthermore Scott does not explain 'why' it is purely a 'how' book. If you want to learn more about photoshop in relation to photo editing techniques instead of only using them, keep an eye on the books of Martin Evening.

As a final I do want to mention the words 'humor' and 'pro', both have a relation to the text but not to the content of this book.

I have been using Photoshop for 10 years now and I have long since come to the conclusion that "The more I learn, the less I know". I have had interns come to me during an interview and say they know Photoshop because they took a whole semester in collage...Duh!...don't you just have to laugh! Photoshop is such a deep program and I realize that I view it more like a religion, not a imaging program. You can spend the rest of your life learning and still be amaazed. This book is a great companion at the end of a day to sit outside while the sun is setting and read a chapter or two. Even an "expert" can gleen useful information. All of Scott Kelby's books are a great resource to have. I suggest having one of those little yellow sticky pads and when you read a valuable piece of info, write a keyword on the edge of the stick note and let it hang out on that page. If you are like me, you come across a situation where you say, "I remember doing this technique but I don't remember how". My books look like a bible with all those chapter tabs you can put in. It's a shame we have to get old! Great Job Scott!

Very good book it covers all of the need it information to learn most all of CS2

This book is really good, and I can't really understand the lower ratings. I'm not a PS pro by any means. I know, roughly, my way around, and there wasn't anything in his book that I couldn't do. Sure not every single thing you can do in PS is covered in this book, but the vast majority that the average to even professional user would need for working with digital images.

Definitely could do with less cheesiness, but really, who cares as long as I get what I need out of the book. I have, so I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

Quick and really easy to understand directions.
Quick referencing of what you are wanting to do.

Works great for me!!!
Give it a shot!

If you are an old pro or a new person to Photoshop. Scott Kelby makes it so easy to pick up. I used this with a local community college class and still use it today when working with photos from my camera. I am in love with this book. I threw out all the other Photoshop Tech books I owned and have purchased everything Scott has ever written. You should too! Super book. Super content.

I consider myself a reasonably competent amateur/family/Travel photographer and I understand my digital SLR's settings quite well, all of my photo's are in RAW and I use CS2 regularly.

This is a well humoured (making it easily digestible I feel) guide to CS2 with some key guides in it that are well laid out, simple to understand and apply yourself.

I found a lot of value in this book and was pleased with my purchase.

Excellent and very easy book to understand. Scott Kelby goes right to the point so you you know at once how to proceed with the program. I have ordered the CS3 version.

The book could be better if Kelby would do a better job explaining the reasons behind doing certain adjustments. If nothing else, a simple improvement would be to get rid of the interjections of bad humour. Whoever gave Kelby the idea he was funny anyways. Scott, I really don't care about how you arrived at naming a chapter. Your attempts at being funny are annoying at best.

This book was a great help as I was learning the digital editing process and getting my workflow together. I would recommend this book to anyone new to the field or already in it and wants to learn some new editing methods. The author's humor is hilarious. It actually helped me to get through the chapters.

This book is both a resource for using Photoshop and also a very good textbook for learning the considerable ins ond outs of the product. It is written in practical language that most people will not have a problem understanding.

This book shows the every day used functions in detail. You can't go wrong.

Photoshop is a totally overwhelming program when you first start out using it. There are so many things you know it can do, but you just don't know where to start. This book is a great help for that!! It walks you through each step (nice and slow and with lots of fun humor) with great photos of what your screen should look like (it's done with a Mac, but looks almost identical to the PC version). And for most of the projects there is a before and after version.

The book not only address how to repair your photos (and the photographer's mistakes) it also goes into things such as color calibration, printing at home, using the Adobe Bridge, working with the Camera RAW converter and how to make you photos into gallery prints- to name just of a few.

Not only is this book informative, it is fun to read too! You don't get that combo often! I would recommend it for anyone just getting started with Photoshopping their photos. It doesn't tell you all the silly things you can do with Photoshop (you know- morphing your brother's face onto your sister's body, etc...)but it is the perfect reference for those of us who want to learn how to turn a color photo into a striking black and white or how to get rid of the trash you forgot to move out of the way before you took that great picture of the kids on the beach. I use it almost every time I us Photoshop.

An excellent book with step by step instructions - so informative! I would recommend 100%.

I will buy anything Scott Kelby writes. Instructions are short, easy to follow and to the point with illustrations of the PhotoShop screen to follow along. The most book for the money in my opinion.

This book doesn't leave my side. I absolutely love it. Scott Kelby is so funny with his writing. If he ever gets tired of writing, which I hope he doesn't, he can become a comedian, he is so funny. A very talented man along with a very talented team.

This book doesn't leave my side. I absolutely love it. Scott Kelby is so funny with his writing. If he ever gets tired of writing, which I hope he doesn't, he can become a comedian, he is so funny. A very talented man along with a very talented team.

I would like to know the author. He adds so much fun to what could be a dull topic. I find myself chuckling while learning just what I need as an enthusiatic photographer. I have too many books on digital photography so that I nearly did not buy this one. That would have been a great mistake. I received my money's worth in the first 50 pages and the rest is a bonus.

He know photographers and digital photography - but the big suprise is his unboring frivolous style. It is by far the best value book I have seen on this complex topic.

This is not the biggest book on Photoshop, nor is it the most comprehensive. The author makes no pretense that he will cover every feature contained in the massive program known as Photoshop CS2. What he does attempt to do is identify tasks useful to digital photographers (and this includes film shooters who scan) and give step-by-step explanations to get them done. Most of the information is presented in a very task-oriented approach. The emphasis is squarely placed on giving you the tools to get things done quickly and efficiently. I find myself referring to this book often as I edit photos.

On the negative side, I wish that the author did not try to be funny on virtually every page of the book. Humor has gone from being unknown in how-to books to being painfully overused and this book is a prime example. If the "humor" were actually funny it would be one thing but it goes from being mildly cute the first couple of pages to just getting in the way and slowing down the flow of information without providing any real comedic relief.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Mr. Kelby has done an excellent job organizing and presenting a useful guide to Photoshop CS2 and I commend him for that. With CS3 just around the corner, you may want to wait until you upgrade before buying this book, however... no doubt the author will have a new edition ready for sale as soon as CS3 hits the shelves.

This book is excellent. You don't need to have Photoshop skills. Scott gives you a lot of tips that will help you to improve the quality of your photos. If the Digital Photography is your hobby I recommend you this book. You will see the difference.

This book is excellent. You don't need to have Photoshop skills. Scott gives you a lot of tips that will help you to improve the quality of your photos. If the Digital Photography is your hobby I recommend you this book. You will see the difference.

This book comes highly recommended but for myself its a tad disappointing. Kinda breezes through the how to sections often without providing enough detail. I too like the reviewer below didn't care for Scott's attempts at being humorous but that doesn't take way form his knowledge about Photoshop.

Very unhappy with amazons recent attempts with shipping also. Book should have been wrapped to avoid sliding in box as cover is slightly damaged but not worth the hassle of returning. Payed for the Standard Shipping and it didn't arrive on time.

I am a reader of Scott Kelby from Photoshop Elements version 2.0. Scott Kelby does very well in introducing the new features of Photoshop CS2 and he has chapters organized in such a way it will teach the reader how to be organized during his development and workflow process. He shows some great examples all throughtout the book with images you can download from his website for working on the similar assignment. I will recommend this book.

The book is excellent. I've owned CS2 for nearly a year and never used it. The program appeared entirely to complicated and I just didn't have the patience to try and teach myself. I finally broke down and decided I needed to learn the program after a friend showed me some things he did in Photoshop to really enhance his photos. I purchased this book following the advice of some other amateur photographers and I couldn't be happier. First off the credentials of Scott Kelby are remarkable. You'd think the guy designed the program! The instructions are very straightforward and easy to follow. I've been nothing but impressed. Buy this if you want to learn Photoshop, period.

Scott Kelby presents in this volume information not otherwise readily available in an easy to understand format, suitable for the beginner and for the experienced photographer who wants to expand their knowledge. A well recommended tome to have.

First off, I wanted to give this book 5 stars, I really did.. However, Kelby's annoying comedic stand at the beginning of every chapter is extremely, well, annoying.. It's really sort of sad, because I love the rest of the book for the easy to follow, very straightforward directions, and the common fixes for most photo flaws come in very handy. If you don't own this book, and want to learn CS2, it may or may not be for you. This book doesn't teach CS2 but teaches how to do certain tricks in a very straightforward manner. Oftentimes the book doesn't thoroughly explain the options your speeding through, only to just check them and keep speeding through, but this is precisely what I wanted. If only he'd left out the horrible attempts at being a comedian...