Customer Reviews
Buyer Beware. - By: Ned Middleton, 28 Mar 2008 
I recently attended a two-day course on Adobe Photoshop CS3 as part of my conversion to digital photography & digital imaging. At the end of that course the students were all given a copy of this book which contains a training CD Rom. As I was already booked onto the "advanced course"in 14 days time, I eagerly put the CD into my computer to practise what I had learned. Only then did I discover the CD would not work without my having first purchased & installed the full Adobe Photoshop CS3 software.
In my case, I had already ordered that software so it was only a matter of a few days delay before I could get started. Just be warned that you cannot use this product without having first installed the full software package - & that is a separate purchase altogether.
Once that's done, it's actually great. Anyone who starts at page one - with no previous experience & no knowledge of the difference between a tool bar & a menu bar, will find it all fit slowly into place as the book teaches one step at a time & then builds on each step until you find yourself automatically going back to something already learned as though you have been doing it for years.
My only criticism of the book is some pretty silly typing errors. In one example you are referred back to a previous page only to find they got the page number wrong. In another, a list of tools is incorrect.
I did find such basic errors to be quite surprising (and very annoying at the time) from a team of people who are otherwise so technically competent.
NM
Maybe the Definitive Book - By: Roger, 27 Mar 2008 
This is the official book for the programme written by Adobe. It takes you through a series of structured lessons with the images from the enclosed CD.
Shows quiet a few tips & shortcuts. In full colour now (about time! this is a manual about colour after all!).
Visual Quickstart Guide is an alternative you might consider, also good, that comes with images but you have to download then from their website. Think the Adobe book has the edge.
It's useful to remember that no book can cover everything & a different way of explaining things might suit you better, so buy two or three.
The very best book for beginners - By: Geoff, 02 Mar 2008 Being new to Photoshop CS3, having just converted from many years use of Paint Shop Pro, I made the mistake of starting with Martin Evening's book (- although excellent, it is not for beginners). This Classroomin a Book certainly meets the needs of a beginner & is a real pleasure to work through. I would recommend it, without reservation, to anyone starting out on Photoshop CS3.
Two brief comments on the earlier 3-star review. First, although I am notin a position to know what it is like moving up to CS3 from CS2, a better solution might be Ben Willmore's "CS3 Up to Speed", which I have also bought from Amazon UK, as it is "... focused exclusively on the new featuresin Photoshop CS3". Secondly, although I did have a terrible experience with Adobe's "GoLive Classroomin a Book" about 5 years ago, where there were several errors per page, this CS3 book has relatively few errors - at a rough count, only about one per 10 pages & none too serious to downrate the 5 stars I am giving for an otherwise top rate book.
Plenty of better books out there - By: M. Wilkinson, 16 Jul 2007 
I bought classroomin a book for CS2 & managed to look through this one at a library - many of the exercises were liftedin their entirety from the last edition including the exercises on basics, layers, filters etc - so if you bought classroomin a book CS2 you'll be very upset with this. Though I did not work through the whole book, I did with the last edition & there were plenty of mistakes, things that if done exactly as instructed would simply not work. The relatively small size of the book & high price are certainly not things that would encourage me to go for it.
There's always a slew of books accompanying adobe's latest so its difficult to know what to go with. Though amazon at the moment is not offering a very good discount on it, Martin Evening's latest book 'CS3 for photographers' stands head & shoulders above the rest. If you can get hold of both books before you make your choice you'll find its no choice at all.
Great book for both beginners and experienced users - By: Benjamin Wuensch, 19 Jun 2007 The last book from the 'Classroomin a Book' series I purchased was a German Edition of Classroomin A Book for Photoshop 6. Because I've found that one quite useful & understandable a few years ago, I decided to buy the current book of that series to get a little fresh information & update my knowledge. Furthermore I wanted a bookin English because I'm working with the English version of Photoshop.
Unfortunately this book was not yet available at Amazon Germany (I'm talking about the original language, not the translated version!), so I ordered it from UK & did not regret this decision.
This book covers the following subjects:
Getting to Know the Work Area
Basic Photo Corrections
Retouching & Repairing
Working with Selections
Layer Basics
Masks & Channels
Correcting & Enhancing Digital Photographs
Typographic Design
Vector Drawing Techniques
Advanced Layering
Advanced Compositing
Preparing Files for the Web
Working with Scientific Images
Producing & Printing Consistent Color
The book is completely printedin color, the example projects help very goodin practising the topics describedin the book. You get both basic information & tips for experienced users. If you want to learn about new CS3 features such as Smart Filters, the Zoomify tool or the Quick Selection Tool you also won't be disappointed.
The attached CD includes the training files which you need for the lessons & also 16 interesting movie tutorials.
In my opinion you get here an interesting Photoshop book for a fair price.
