Rating: 

by Lee Donehower, Board Member
Diablo Valley Mac Users Group

It’s an age-old problem with software textbooks: the authors are so married to their projects that they simply can’t fathom how different folks could read their written words and come away with an interpretation completely foreign to what the author was trying to communicate.

Kudos to Jennifer Smith and the AGI Creative Team for restoring my faith in the textbook-creation industry! Dynamic Learning Photoshop CS3 is well thought out, presented, and apparently tested prior to publication. And, just in case they missed something, opposite the Contents page, in the book’s printing history, is this statement: “Please report any errors by sending a message to errata@aquent.com.”

Dynamic Learning: Photoshop CS3 is a great tool whether you’re new to Photoshop or, like me, have been using the software since Version 1 was released. Photoshop is one of those software programs that is so robust that I doubt any one person could ever master every nook and cranny of its potential. Jennifer’s treatment of exploring CS3, the workspace, and the basics, though familiar to me, still offered new tricks.

Moving on to the meat and potatoes of Photoshop, Jennifer was able to unravel the mystery of setting white and black points in an image in such a clear manner that I finally feel comfortable using them as my primary retouching tools.

Her chapter on using smart objects in Photoshop also expanded my understanding of nondestructive editing, and I could easily see where this new Photoshop tool would have come in handy for past projects.

I did come across some errors in the book and took advantage of the errata email address to report them. Voilá! Jennifer herself wrote back and promised to make the necessary changes in the next printing of the book.

Dynamic Learning: Photoshop CS3 is easy to read, easy to follow, and despite its penchant for clarity, does not leave you feeling like the village idiot. Only its last chapter, Creating Images for Web and Video, left me disappointed. Admittedly, this is a very complex topic, but after completing the tutorials I was left wondering where and how to transpose my newfound knowledge into my own projects.

The book comes with a DVD containing flash videos of each chapter as well as lesson files for working the tutorials. Overall, the book is excellent, and I look forward to reading others in the Dynamic Learning series. A tad expensive, but in this case you DO get what you pay for!