Photoshop 6 –Shop Manual
by Donnie O’Quinn

www.newriders.com

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

I love books. I have loved books since I was old enough to hold one. My mother told me I always took a book to bed with me.  Nothing has changed. The subject matter has evolved as time passed from children’s books, to classics, reference books, poetry, novels, and now to computer books. Graphics has become my computer passion so it would follow that I would naturally become interested in books about graphic applications. There’s probably no other application that has more books written about it then Adobe Photoshop. I know of two companies that have an outstanding selection of Photoshop books and one of them is New Riders.

New Riders has some very serious Photoshop books so that those of us interested in the topic can do some very serious learning. The books also offer those who would like to teach the subject to others tools that will do just that. Those who would like to help others learn more about Photoshop will find information and techniques in these books that will be immensely useful and insightful.  There is a treasure trove of knowledge that is out there dedicated to expanding the Photoshop learning experience, New Riders selections are a perfect place to find what you are looking for. From beginnings to advanced training, I have found incredible information available to anyone who seeks it. Some of these books are so beautiful they could almost pass for a coffee table book!

Photoshop 6, The Shop Manual is beyond anything I could have imagined being put together on Photoshop. It’s not a slick and shiny book but rather one that tries to cover everything you could possibly want to know starting at the beginning and advancing through all levels of the subject matter.  Photoshop is a very complex application. It has vast amounts of tools, capabilities, and methods of working with it. It is so multi-layered that mastering it could take years and retaining all that it can do is nearly an impossible task. This book breaks Photoshop 6 down into chapters and categories and teaches you what each element can do and how to get the most out of it. It’s over a thousand pages of information and offers you the keys to the Photoshop kingdom.

Table of Contents covers:

1. Selection Tools
2. Paint Tools
3. Vector Tools
4. Special Tools
5. Color Controls
6. Quick Mask Tools
7. View Controls
8. The File Menu
9. The Edit Menu
10. The Image Menu
11. The Layer Menu (This chapter alone has 109 items covered in it)
12. The Select Menu
13. The Filter Menu
14. The View Menu
15. The Navigator Palette
16. The Info Palette
17. The Color Palette
18. The Swatches Palette
19. The Styles Palette
20. The History Palette
21. The Actions Palette
22. The Layers Palette
23. The Channels Palette
24. The Paths Palette
25. The Character Palette
26. The Paragraph Palette

It then covers chapters on:

You can see by the contents list, this book it covers everything you want to know about. Remember this book has only reference information – I hope listing the chapters helps you to understand the depth of information contained in this book.  For example, if you were to turn to the page covering the Slice Tool, the book tells you about the Slice Tool, what it can do, how it worked in the previous version of Photoshop compared to this one. It then gives you “Issues to Consider” when using the tool, “Slice Tool Options” and then moves to “Related Topics”.

 In the Filters, Artistic, Watercolor, it explains what watercolor paint looks like and how this filter applies the effect to the image. It shows the dialog box for the filter and explains how adjusting various settings affect the image when it is applied to it. Each section gives you the information you need to understand the item being covered. (The first image is the original and the second has the watercolor effect applied to it - the third is an example of the Palette Knife effect).  By referring to the Filters section of the manual, I was able to find out how to set the effects attributes so that I would retain as much of the original image as possible and still be able to add a noticeable effect to the image. I found the answer quickly. I didn’t have to experiment with the settings to get the results I wanted.

The author has over 10 years of experience and has put his knowledge into this reference book to help Photoshop users get all they can out of the application. There are no tutorials in this book, just facts. It takes you through a thorough understanding of the interface. It points out what a specific function does, what not to do, things to consider…all in a no nonsense format.  When you’re working and need specific answers, you can turn to this book, find what you need, and get back to work in a very short time. You can also use it to help you learn what you need to know about Photoshop in a very detailed format. Take this book and combine it with the many other Photoshop books available from New Riders, it is the perfect stepping stone to the books offering creative techniques and tutorials. This book is the resource manual for (quick) reference that should be the companion for other books used for learning techniques and giving you creative ideas. Don’t pass it up because it says Photoshop 6 – what you learn will carry over to the next version of the application.

If you want to build your Photoshop skills, you need to build a collection/library of materials that will offer you the knowledge you seek. You will find New Riders has books that will increase your skill level, from beginner to advanced user, you will find books that will never go out of date because each one offers you information from different perspectives and each has completely different design style examples. You will see how and why something works along with creative design techniques that will inspire you and encourage you to experiment with your own ideas.  The Photoshop Manual should be a part of this library because it is an excellent reference source for locating precise information and answers and then getting you back to work as quickly as possible. This is also a perfect way to demonstrate to an audience in a learning environment exactly what is what with clear cut information before progressing to all the possibilities of design creations. I was very impressed with what it had to offer.

Please visit the New Riders web site (www.newriders.com) for more information about this book and the other (Photoshop) selections available from them. Also visit our web site (www.njpcug.org), look at the Offers page, to find out how to buy their books at a discount.