Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Voices)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Scott Kelby, the world's #1 bestselling Photoshop author, and the man who changed the Photoshop and digital photography world with his ground-breaking, award-winning "Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers" unveils a exciting, brand new way of thinking, and working in Adobe Photoshop that will not only change the industry again, but it will change the way we all work in Photoshop forever, so we can finally spend less time fixing our images, and more time finishing them.

You're about to become a Photoshop Shark!
Scott has focused in and really narrowed things down to just exactly which Photoshop tools and techniques we absolutely, positively have to know, and he found that there are just seven major tools, seven major features that we have to master to enhance our images like a pro. But then he took it a step further. Out of those seven major tools, he looked at which parts or sections of those tools do we really need to master, and which parts can we pretty much ignore (in other words, he whittled it down so you're not learning parts of the tools that you're probably never going to need). Then, and perhaps most importantly, he determined exactly when and in which order to apply these seven techniques that make up Scott's amazing "Photoshop Seven Point System."

But the magic of this book, is not just listing the seven tools and showing how they work. It's how they're used together, and how Scott teaches them (and makes it stick), that makes this book so unique. You're not going to just learn one technique for fixing shadows, and another technique for adjusting color (every Photoshop book pretty much does that, right?). Instead, you're going start off at square one, from scratch, as each chapter is just one photo?one project?one challenging lifeless image (you'll follow along using his the same images), and you're going to unleash these seven tools, in a very specific way, and you're going to do it again, and again, and again, in order on different photos, in different situations, until they are absolutely second nature. You're finally going to do the FULL fix?from beginning to end?with nothing left out, and once you learn these seven very specific techniques, and apply them in order, there won't be a an image that appears on your screen that you won't be able to enhance, fix, edit, and finish yourself!

Plus, Scott's techniques work across a wide range of photos, and that's exactly what you'll be working on in the book, from landscapes to portraits, to architectural, to nature, from event photography to everything in between?there isn't a photo you won't be able to beat!

This is the book you've been waiting for, the industry's been waiting for, and Scott's "Adobe Photoshop Seven Point System" is so revolutionary that he's officially applied for a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and this new system is only found in this amazing, ground breaking new book. Once you learn these techniques, and start applying them yourself, you'll be the next one to say?"You can't beat 'The System!'

Customer Reviews: Read 78 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing November 10, 2007
266 out of 283 found this review helpful

This book is Scott Kelby's typical witty and unpresumptuous style. So if the content suits you, it's a good and worthy read. However, you should be aware that it is really a set of recipes for correcting 'problems'. Some of the problems are 'real' problems, like gross underexposure, best handled by better camera work, and some are 'enhancements'. Granted, all photographers, or cameras, make exposure mistakes so the material is valuable. Some of the 'enhancements' are very distinct departures from reality, also OK if that is what you want, but might violate some of the ethical rules held by nature photographers. These are not serious problems, just issues of choice... serious choice.

Bigger issues for me are the inconsistancies of the methods described. Sometimes color balance is achieved in Camera Raw, sometimes in Photoshop; same for contrast, same for sharpening. In most cases there are no explanations about how that decision is made. Recipes, not instruction.

And the largest issue is that of retaining the ability to manage each step of correction so that intermediate changes can be recovered or changed. So while Scott makes a big deal of the fact that a change to LAB mode and back will not 'damage' the pixels, this requires that the image be flattened, which causes a much bigger problem (the need to start over from scratch if subsequent changes are not satisfactory.) In the very first example, Scott shows a very sophisticated approach to using the Shadow/Highlight filter as a smart object that avoids the issue of irreversibly changing the underlying pixels, yet later flattens the image to make the change to LAB mode. In example 1, the image is flattened 4 times! Geesh! Missing is the discussion of the possibility of managing irreversible change, when necessary, through various file and image management techniques.

Overall, this book is written for the beginner, but uses very sohpisticated techniques more suitable to a more experienced user. The steps are demonstrated, but the reasoning is lost; and the advantages of the technique are lost in subsequent steps.

So this book remains just a set of recipes, useful if you have images that correspond to the examples, but less ueful for generalized work.

3 out of 5 stars

May be useful for some; but will drive some users crazy... November 9, 2007
197 out of 206 found this review helpful

This book may be what you need, or it may actually drive you nuts, quite quickly. This depends on your skill level in photoshop, your personality, and your actual needs regarding photos (i.e., what you need them for). Since some of the reviews formerly posted here sound like something a company marketing team may write, a few clarifications may be in order before you purchase this book.

First, the somewhat misleading title: sure, SEVEN is a nice number with lots of ancient tradition (e.g., from seven deadly sins, and seven virtues to seven habits of highly successful people, etc.) Alas, there aren't just seven "points". It's more like SEVENTY.

Scott Kelby (as always very articulate and mercifully NOT trying to be too humorous this time) uses some very wide, general, and often COMPLEX concepts, and treats them as ONE "point" each. So, for example, one such point (among seven) is "use Adobe Camera RAW to make all appropriate / necessary adjustments" (I am paraphrasing here) - but that is hardly ONE point: it includes setting / adjusting white balance, exposure, white / black point, fussing with shadows, initial sharpening, clarity / vibrance, saturation, etc. Another example of such single "point" (among the seven) would be "painting with light": which sounds good and simple, but actually involves working with multiple adjustment layers, and creating numerous, often quite complex, variable density masks for localized adjustments - so much so, that some images wind up being a sandwich of more than four layers, each with its own masks, individual transparency settings, and blending modes - hardly "one simple point" again.

As a result, fixing many example photos turns out to be a LENGTHY process which often involves more than 20 steps, many of which are in turn complex, multi-step procedures that require both practice and skill (e.g., hand painting precise masks with brushes of progressively diminishing opacity, or using selection drawing tools). Needless to say, such level of precision is best implemented working with a tablet / stylus, and is going to be less-than-pleasant (and successful) using a mouse, a point which needs to be made clearly (and the book doesn't do it). If it is to be done right, it will also be time consuming.

Other issues further add to the above problem: some techniques (such as "faking" water reflections by flipping and blending the actual non-reflected image) will be seen as questionable by many serious photographers. If you ethically don't object to doing this type of "deep-pixel editing", then why not just composit-in a sky or other element taken from another, better-exposed photo altogether? Also, as one reviewer has mentioned previously, some procedures use settings that are arbitrary (7-7-7 for defining a black point when working with curves), and do not include a good explanation of the WHY of the processes involved.

Yet another issue is the fact, that such very heavy reliance on aggressive editing in ACR (especially since Kelby sometimes uses 8-bit jpg files in ACR and not 12-bit RAW) often winds up producing images that are "punchy" (or garish, depending on how you see it), but at the expense of unnatural-looking color shifts, posterization, and artefacts visible EVEN at the very small print sizes used in the book (under 2 inches?) - I encourage you to look at the example of a "before and after" on the p. 31. Would you really want your sunset/sunrise photos to look like that? Perhaps this may be acceptable for saving a one-of-a-kind, 4x6 shot for a family album, but I don't see it having much potential for anything else (e.g., 8x10 or a serious print). Yes, there definitely are many example photos that benefit greatly from the procedures outlined in the book, but that's mostly because many were GOOD (reasonably correctly exposed) photos to start with, and simply needed help to get rid of the characteristic "dull" / "flat" look so typical of baseline RAW files. Most also rely of Kelby's experience and intuition in deciding which steps (of the seven) to implement and which to skip in each case.

There is also a more serious, practical issue here: if you are going to spend several HOURS fixing one, not-very-good-quality photo, and repeat that lengthy (and eventually repetitive and boring) process with some frequency, wouldn't you be better off just spending A FEW hours ONCE to take a workshop with a good photographer, so that your BETTER photos do not need such convoluted and extensive "fixing" in post all the time?

To summarize: the book outlines some useful, if excessively complex techniques to fix (smaller) photos. Many of these techniques will not be feasible on photos meant for larger print sizes, unless a stylus, considerable time, patience for trial-and--error, and precision masking skills are used. For remedying of casual snapshots for a family album, many techniques presented here, although potentially useful, will be an overkill for most users. For professional users and serious advanced CS3 photo-amateurs, this book is too formulaic to be useful.

On the plus side, the book is well written, carefully edited, and has a generous amount of well-described screen shots and (small) "before-and-after" photos.

5 out of 5 stars

Best Photoshop Book Ever--The One You'll Actually Use October 25, 2007
103 out of 130 found this review helpful

I have a bunch of Photoshop books on my shelf (including Scott Kelby's excellent Photoshop CS3 book). I've never had the time to read them all. Now I don't need to. The 7-point System is revolutionary. Not the techniques themselves, but the way they're put together and taught in this book. You practice the system, over and over, on the same photos that are in the book. By the end, you thoroughly understand the techniques, and the system is second nature.

But here's my favorite part. The last lesson is a refresher course, for those of us who don't use Photoshop every day. If it's been a few weeks or months, the refresher lesson will get you up to speed again in minutes.

This is not a huge book covering every little bit of Photoshop (I've got those sitting on my shelf). It's a book for most of us, who want to learn how to use Photoshop to make our photos look better. As always with Scott's books, it's well-written, easy to follow and fun.

3 out of 5 stars

Good, but still lacking November 9, 2007
51 out of 54 found this review helpful

I own many of Kelby's books and I was really looking forward to his 7-point system book. It sounded like the target audience was ME. I can tell that a photo needs work but I don't know what to do. I have a fortune invested in Photoshop books and they tell me what all the controls do - but not when to apply them.

I with I could give this book a 5-star, but what's missing for me is the *why* in each step. For example, in the first lesson he says to go to curves and to double click on the shadow eyedropper and enter 7's for the RGB values. Why? At the end of this adjustment he says to flatten the layers. Why?

What would be great would be if the publisher had a forum where people could discuss the book and ask questions.

5 out of 5 stars

THIS Is The Photoshop Book You Need October 26, 2007
42 out of 46 found this review helpful

I've invested a small fortune over the years in Photoshop books, some good...some not so good. Photoshop guru and prolific author Scott Kelby's latest-the 7-Point System-is in a category by itself...absolutely essential. The concept he uses is to guide you in each lesson from original photo to finished using the same adjustments, tools, and techniques...seven points that are easy to learn for a beginner, and already well-known for more experienced Photoshop users. The beauty of the book lies in seeing not just a curves adjustment or a layer mask in use, but actually working on the same photos (downloaded)Scott used and step-by-step bringing it from bland to beautiful.

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about Photoshop techniques, but this book has done more to improve my workflow and overall approach to what to look for in a photo that I'm editing than anything before it. And using only 7-points to boot! Lesson 1 alone is an eye-opener as you take a barely viewable photo and using those 7 points, end up with a photo anyone would be proud of. There is a huge Wow factor at work in each lesson.

Written in Scott's familiar breezy style, this should be on every Photoshop user's holiday wish list...if you can wait that long. Two thumbs up and a pat on the back to Mr. Kelby for delivering the goods with this one.

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