Book Club

From a first-glance perspective, the image on cover of the book is in no way incredible or eye-popping. It lacks a certain "wow factor" that I look for in a digital image book. Unfortunately, the average-ness of the photo on the cover is indicative of the numerous examples inside the book: most are pretty average and bland.

While the authors are knowledgeable, the book contains a lot of pages but very little substance. Unlike other great reference books (i.e., the Photoshop WOW series or Scott Kelby’s line of books), examples of various techniques seem to be scattered throughout the numerous chapters making it hard to find exactly what you are looking for. I found it difficult to follow along with examples introduced throughout the chapter. While the author may be writing about step 13 in a 27-step article, the image examples may not be discovered until the reader turns the page.

The editing and layout of the book make it difficult to read. The font size is very small. Pictures and examples tend to crowd out the page. Gratuitous use of bold highlighting is littered throughout the paragraphs, making it hard to determine what really deserves emphasis.

That’s not to say that the book is terrible. If you are an expert in Photoshop and want to learn about the nitty gritty and theoretical aspects, this book may have some pertinent information. Realistically, I could probably cut out the two dozen pages that are useful and store the rest in the closet.

I am preparing to move overseas and must determine which of the many reference books in my collection are valuable enough to pack with my belongings. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.

Review by: David Bjorgen
January 28, 2005