Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild | 
 enlarge | Author: Sherry London
Publisher: Visual
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $2.00
You Save: $32.99 (94%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 159059
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 8 x 1
ISBN: 0764598139
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.686
EAN: 9780764598135
ASIN: 0764598139
Publication Date: November 7, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Pap/Cdr. 2005 Paperback.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Travel to a side of Photoshop CS2 you may never have seen before! Here are nearly 50 way-out, advanced effects, colorfully illustrated step by step to show you exactly how to work the magic. Learn to handle some of Photoshop's trickiest commands, including Knockout, Blend-If, and Clipping Masks. Create glass text, submerge a city under water, create mythical creatures, cross-breed your favorite fruits — and that's just for starters. If you have experience using Photoshop, you'll love what you see on this side. Wild! - Unlock the mysteries of Photoshop's new Vanishing Point filter and Smart Objects
- Learn non-destructive editing and compositing methods
- Experiment with aging effects, transform a photo into a woodcut, or multiply an image in different colors
- Build your dream body without diet or exercise, and turn your friend into a superhero
- Create cool reflections and multiple exposures, or recreate a portrait using text patterns
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 So tempting, but fails to teach... April 15, 2008
I looked through this book in the store, thought there were some really neat projects, and decided to buy it.
I should add that I know Photoshop quite well, including layers and such, but I am not a pro, I do mostly photo editing.
I am also very good at following instructions, but right there is where this book fails. Sometimes the instructions are precise, and sometimes they are not, very inconsistent. Sometimes the author will tell you how to achieve something, and then he will say something similar to, "duplicate and rasterize the layer". So does he want me to rasterize the original layer or the duplicate one? And which type of rasterizing would he like me to perform? These sort of little questions creep up several times in a project, and my finished projects never match what he has done.
I have started several of the projects in this book, and have to admit defeat, I have not been able to recreate one of them to exact specifications.
Like someone else mentioned, at least in other books, there is a learning curve, you find a new shortcut, or a neat way of doing something, but I have not had that a-ha effect with this book.
I have to say that I cannot recommend this book, and because it really didn't teach me one new thing about Photoshop, I have to give it one star.
 For those who is not afraid of challenge March 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After reading all reviews (that I find not really fair) I decided to put my opinion on the table.
Before I write my reviews, I'm very curious what other people think about this or other book. And I should say that in this particular case I am not agree with some of them.
I see that many people have chosen this book as a start point for travel inside of Photoshop. And this book (as I see) is often compared to other references. This book is not a reference and if you would visit companion website, you would without any doubt have more information about what you can expect inside of this book.
This book is continuation of "Gone Wild" series. As distinct from "Illustrator CS2 Gone Wild", this book have more interesting tutorials (bigger book - more tutorials) and also CD, where you can find all files for this book and follow every step of tutorials.
From my side I would also like to say that this book is very interesting in that way, that it gives you a look at very unusual tutorials and designs. What I mean by unusual? Let's say that at the end of 19th century nobody understood paintings of Kazimir Malevich. And misunderstanding with this book is related to that fact (I guess) that many people think that all information is too easy or not interesting. But try to do it yourself and you will stuck at some point not knowing what to do or HOW to do.
With this book you get a chance to see unique and inspiring techniques that are very abstract.
That means that you have chance to make acquaintance with new style or start from it. In couple of words, this book dares to show you that side of design that from first look you can find unimportant.
I think many tutorials are great and very good explained. With a bit of fantasy you can always combine different techniques and make your own. It's good way to study, to improve your skills and to take a look in new direction of designing. The one think I agree that this book is not for photographers. For them there're always special series of books with mark "For Digital Photographers Only" (Photoshop CS2 I found very good and really great book for Photographers).
If you're a person that likes theory first, I would suggest that you need to start from Photoshop Bible. Great reference and all information is always within a touch.
Book is printed on good quality paper; it has a lot of tips in places where you would like to do some things in other or your own manner. At the beginning of every tutorial you will find end-plan.
What kind of tutorial can you expect inside? Let's see:
-"Make your ex-partner old" (very funny tutorial if you want to see how looks your partner or ex-partner when he/she is old)
-Atlantis found (one of my favorites - very creative tutorial)
-Photo merge
-The Highway
-Neon signs for bars or cafe (maybe you want to become a marketing executive then this kind of tutorials will be very useful for you)
-It come out of space (make your own alien without any sketches using only Photoshop)
Any person will find his favorite tutorial in this book and don't afraid to take new challenges or extend your designers vision. You should try it or you will never know if it is good for you or not.
 Interesting projects- if the support files would work - they don't. January 27, 2008
Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild
I paid $34.99 for this book- I wasn't impressed with the imagery inside, but the concepts and techniques looked interesting. Boy was I disappointed! Ms. London teases the reader with good ideas, but then holds back critical elements from her lessons. A typical example - in the first chapter on metallics, there is a point where a curves adjustment is required - Ms. London, rather than telling us what settings to use to achieve the effect, instead tells us to use the preset file which is supplied on the CD Rom that accompanies the book. Unfortunately, no version of Photoshop (CS1, CS2, or CS3) on either Mac or PC will recognize the curve preset as a valid file. And since the author didn't see fit to include the settings for the curve, the chapter on metallics and chromicity is worthless. I've found other such problems in the book as well. Perhaps Ms. London's students benefit in classroom from demonstration and clarification, but the book as a stand-alone resource was a waste of time. Ms. London's support website was totally useless as well - there are links that go nowhere, and a contact link that doesn't supply an email contact address. Save your money and subscribe to one of the excellent British trade periodicals like "Advanced Photoshop" or "Digital Camera" - their tips are great, their images are top-notch, and they don't leave out crucial steps in their lessons!
Techniques Only Really Work for their Photos on CD February 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
They only talk about the examples in terms of the example photos they supplied. Sure, they can be adjusted to work for any photos, but their techniques don't fit exact. And little things are annoying like they spend a page on how to remove a stem out of a cherry for a photo they supplied. It doesn't apply to any other photo!
It has some good techniques, but they don't work well with the photos I used. I luckily have some decent Photoshop knowledge and was able to make some work. Others, I was NOT able to make work.
This is useful if you only want to learn things using their photos. If you want to try to use your own photos, you will have a HARD time.
Definately not for someone without a fair amount of Photoshop experience. If you have a decent understanding, you might be able to use some of these ideas.
But overall, the book is wasteful. I don't understand why you wouldn't be more BROAD in your descriptions. Why not take into account the person buying this book might actually use their own photos?
Not for photographers August 12, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Very involved graphic techniques. Probably excellent effects for a graphic artist, but not much value for editing and tweaking photos. Certainly a waste of time and money for those of us just interested in photography.
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