Adobe Photoshop is one of the most actively used programs in order to edit digital images, and these programs are known as graphics editors. Photoshop was developed by Adobe Systems in the 1980s, and its popularity among professional photographers, editors, and designers increases each year. In order to review Adobe Photoshop CC: Classroom in a Book by Andrew Faulkner and Conrad Chavez, which is a detailed guide for working with this graphics editor, it is important to focus on the following aspects: contents of the book, favorite features, and tools, descriptions of some Photoshop techniques that were not covered in the class, and areas for improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the book by Faulkner and Chavez, which explains how to effectively work with Adobe Photoshop.
While focusing on the book’s contents, it is necessary to state that this guide covers all possible aspects of working with Adobe Photoshop, starting with the installation of the program and ending with printing photographs after managing them with the help of different filters and instruments. The book provides helpful information on how to start working with the program even if readers have no experience in this field. Thus, a lot of information on the essentials of editing graphics is provided in the first chapters of the book. From this point, the first chapters provide the introduction to the work with Adobe Photoshop with the focus on the editor’s interface, layout, key functions, navigation, tools, and accessories (Faulkner and Chavez 8). The book provides a step-by-step guide on how to work with different formats of images, what tools to apply, what approaches to sharpening photographs to use, how to edit images using basic and advanced tools, how to work with rulers and grids, and how to change colors among other techniques (Faulkner and Chavez 10-18). All the explanations presented in the book can be understood and applied to practice by both professionals and novices.
The book also provides a detailed explanation of how to work with the Quick Selection tool in order to choose areas for further manipulations and modification. The Quick Selection tool provided by Photoshop can be viewed as the most important instrument which influences the quality of the work with photographs and other types of images. Thus, each user needs to understand how to select objects and parts of photographs in the most efficient manner in order to decrease the time required for working with the program and increase the quality of editing (Faulkner and Chavez 55). Therefore, it is important to learn how to highlight certain parts of photographs, select different objects, and determine texts to change, how to manipulate only a specific area, and how to make the most accurate selections.
Some techniques proposed in Photoshop in order to edit graphics that were covered in the book but not studied in the class include such essential tools as the Custom Shape tool, the Red Eye Removal tool, and the Hand tool, among others. The Custom Shape tool in Photoshop allows users to manipulate different difficult shapes, other than circles and squares, in order to add them to images. The book presents a detailed explanation of how to work with this tool (Faulkner and Chavez 193). While editing photographs that depict people, it is often necessary to remove the effect of red eyes. The Red Eye Removal tool described in the book is useful to work with these photographs to achieve the effect of a natural color applied to the depicted eyes (Faulkner and Chavez 126). Another key tool is the Hand tool which is often used to scroll down images and apply the zoom instrument (Faulkner and Chavez 65).
In spite of the fact that the book provides a range of important details and instructions regarding the effective work with Photoshop, there are also some areas for further improvement. The structure of the book is effective in guiding persons who have different levels of skills in editing various types of images. However, it is possible to add even more photographs and examples in the part of the book which explains essential aspects of editing in order to provide readers with more opportunities to apply the studied knowledge to practice. Thus, it is important to state that technical aspects of working with images are thoroughly described in the book, but some more clarifications can be required for those readers who have no experience in working with Photoshop.
After reviewing the book on the basics of Adobe Photoshop, it is necessary to note that this work provides all the information required for using this editor effectively. The reader has an opportunity to learn how to install the program, what options and tools to use as basic ones, and what features to utilize in order to edit photographs and other types of graphics at the higher level to provide high-quality digital images. Still, in spite of the fact that real-world examples provided in the book are appropriate to demonstrate how to use this or that tool, it is possible to suggest adding more photographs, images, and explanations to guide potential users.
Work Cited
Faulkner, Andrew, and Conrad Chavez. Adobe Photoshop CC: Classroom in a Book. Adobe Press, 2015.