Rating: 

Written for the new user, it starts with the basics of the PS CS4 user interface and using Adobe Bridge to access your photo files. He moves on to the basics of colour correction before getting into retouching and photo compositioins

"Pearl of Wisdom" are insightful little bits of info found throughout the book, that are like pull out quotes, but are Deke's thoughts about some unique experience that he thinks you should know about to make the project go smoother. He also has similar items called "Further Investigation" which refers you to some online resources to learn more about a specific topic. Kind of like reading the books listed in the footnotes!

The book comes with over 2 hrs of video training that is unique to this book (not extracted from his hundreds of hours of training on lynda.com). It's advised that you watch each video before or after reading the accompanying chapter in the book. The process of Read, Watch, and Do, is one of the most effective ways of learning Photoshop and is unique to Deke's one-on-one series.

This book is complete in that Deke chooses to teach you everything you need to know to get the basics done in Photoshop and do them well. However, features found in Photoshop Extended like 3D and video functions are NOT explored. The book would be too big to carry around if he did.

I recommend this book for all beginning users. Experienced users would still learn some good tips from this book, as I did.