Photoshop 5 Web Magic (Magic Series)

Photoshop 5 Web Magic is not so much about using Photoshop for the web as it is a "cook book" with special effects recipes for folks who are already comfortable with the basics of Photoshop and want to expand their repertoire of tricks. It doubles nicely as "eye-candy", or a reference that helps stimulate the creative juices when your graphics muse has taken a coffee break. By flipping through the pages, looking at the different special effects, I often get ideas for whatever project I may be working on. Also, the recipes are good for someone who wants to get a better feel for how to mix and match different Photoshop filters.

On the down side, this book is NOT a good reference for folks who haven't quite figured out what feathering is for, or for those who are still having trouble working with layers.

If you can:

1) work comfortably with ALL the tools on the tool palette, and
2) are familiar with the "multiple-personality" aspects of some of the tools, AND
3) can add, delete, rearrange and use different blending modes for multiple layers,

THEN and ONLY THEN will this book be useful to you. If these tasks are still beyond your comfort zone, get Lynda Weinman's Hands On Training for Photoshop, or one of the Dummies Guides, or take a class before you spend your money.

Once you have mastered the basics of Photoshop and want to move up a rung or two in skill level, buy this book, run through the recipes that interest you and see what new and interesting ideas start to fill your head!

BKA


Nah...   August 10, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

First of all, it was expensive, second, there isn't anything in this book that isn't already easily accessible on the web.

The tutorials did not go as smoothly as planned, even though I've been using PhotoShop for 4 years now. (Important) Steps seemed to be missing, and without them, you may as well not finish the tutorial.

I've had this book for over a year, and to tell you the truth, the tutorials compiled in this book may very well be considered "tacky and overused." I suggest resourcing the web for the latest and greatest in special effects.


Indeed....Very Frustrating   June 21, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I originally found this book to be promising while browsing through it at the local bookstore. However, once I got it home and began to work on the tutorials, I quickly became thoroughly frustrated as key steps were left out and/or most of the initial work was already done for you. I can see where that might be of some help to some people, but for me, it was a disappointment. I am a relative new comer and I had envisioned a book through which I would learn by completing projects in their entirety.

I don't mind too much that this book relied heavily on plug-ins and demo software, but it would have been nice to have, when applicable, provided companion tutorials where all the effects are accomplished using Photoshop alone.

Bottom line: I wish there was a zero star rating as I cannot in good conscience recommend this book to anyone.


Buyer Beware   November 7, 1999
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

If I hadn't gotten this book for free, as a gift, I'd be asking for my money back. Even though it's labeled as a Photoshop 5 book, which implies that it will describe techniques that can be created in PhotoShop, in reality the book relies very heavily on Extensis plug-ins. This is the case even when certain effects (like bevels) CAN be created in PhotoShop if only the author had bothered to describe the method. Of course, the promo descriptions carefully avoid mentioning this fact, which leads me to think the author and/or publishers don't have enough faith in the Extensis software to sell it directly and have decided to hitch a ride on Adobe's reputation instead. And I'm sure it's only a coincidence that the author works for Extensis.

To add insult to injury, the book is poorly copy-edited, with typos that confuse and incorrect procedures that cannot duplicate the illustrated results. And the CD Rom was defective, managing to crash my computer several times when I tried to open certain folders.

Unless you have money to burn in order to pick up a few new fancy tricks, spend your money elsewhere.


Not bad...good for check back   October 16, 1999
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

this is the 2nd book I bought on photoshop (the 1st is the photoshop 3 wow!....alas later versions are not as good anymore). It teaches many techniques you will likely use for wb designing. It's good becauses it helps one to check back if he forgets certain steps or just plain lazy (like me). The Cd-ROM is nothing but tutorial images and useless product demos. The only annoying thing is the tons of missing/wrong steps, even wrong image shown beside the step, for newbies it can be disasterous as errors such as editing rgb channel instead of alpha channel appeared several times. Bottomline, it's good to get this book but watch out for the typo mistakes..