Best Adobe Software Guides
Since Lightroom 1.0 first launched, Scott’s Kelby’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers has been the world’s #1 bestselling Lightroom book (it has been translated into a dozen different languages), and in this latest version for Lightroom 6, Scott uses his same award-winning, step-by-step, plain-English style and layout to make learning Lightroom easy and fun. This is where Scott dramatically answers his #1 most-asked Lightroom question, which is: “Exactly what order am I supposed to do things in, and where does Photoshop fit in?” You’ll see Scott’s entire start-to-finish Lightroom 6 workflow and learn how to incorporate it into your own workflow. Scott is a photographer, designer, and award-winning author of more than 60 books, including Photoshop for Lightroom Users, Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers Using Photoshop, Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It: Learn Step by Step How to Go from Empty Studio to Finished Image, The Adobe Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers, and The Digital Photography Book, parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. His books have been translated into dozens of different languages, including Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Taiwanese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Arabic, Swedish, Turkish, Hebrew, and Portuguese, among others, and he is a recipient of the prestigious ASP International Award, presented annually by the American Society of Photographers for “…contributions in a special or significant way to the ideals of Professional Photography as an art and a science.”.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"For example, tonality is one of the key steps in post processing images and the author provides enough detail so that you will not only be able to follow his instructions for dealing with the sample images, but also to understand how the process works. For long-time users of Lightroom, there are a few new functions, and Lightroom is so user friendly that the operation of some of the new functions, like panoramas and HDR, will be intuitive and not require explanation, so that those long-time users might think they don't need this kind of introduction. Experienced users may also find something they didn't know in this book."
"Here's the summary if you're in a hurry: Pros: -Easy to read but very good and detailed information. -Well laid out and organized. -Word searching in the digital version makes finding things a breeze. -A full photo shoot (for the cover of the book) is laid out and described, including the Photoshop editing. It is laid out in the order of things you would encounter if you were a first time user new to the program and to organizing your images. It works for me and I would especially recommend his books to beginners as they have a lot of information in small chunks. The beginning is dedicated to good organizational practices which I partially followed from the last edition. I used to be very casual about my hard drives and use them for a lot of stuff and lost pictures several times. There are a LOT of small tips, which makes reading through the book worthwhile even for those who have used Lightroom before. I found this book full of good ideas and techniques easily explained."
"Lightroom is primarily for professionals who make a lot of photos per day like the author Scott Kelby."
"Very good book for someone who switched from another program to Lightroom 6."
"I cannot find any reference for Window diagrams and this is disappointing as the little blue pull down boxes shown throughout Chapter One do not exist on Windows LR and this would be too confusing to my students."
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop choose Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release) from Adobe Press. Conrad Chavez has provided education, training, and support for digital-media applications for over 20 years, originally contributing countless pages to the user guides for print, Web, and digital video products at Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. Now a freelance writer and editor, Conrad creates books and videos that teach Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud workflows. His work includes the last three editions of Real World Adobe Photoshop for Photographers and the video Color Management for Photographers and Designers .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"how to create bokeh or the appearance of motion in a photo by fine-tuning the various types of "blur" available in the filters menu, (3.). how to combine a photo of a train taken at one angle with a photo of a bridge taken at another angle, and use the perspective tools to make it look like the train is actually coming right over the bridge at you... Believe me, reading about how to use vector-drawing tools to trace a photo and create a reusable logo from it is very different from actually creating the paths, subtracting one path from another, converting the paths into shapes, turning shapes into assets, saving color schemes along with your assets, and all the rest."
"Great asset for anyone rather new at Photoshop."
"If any of you have tried to self learn Photoshop, good luck. I bought because it was like the class I took it first wanted to explain what a pixel was."
"It gets the reader into the program to perform a number of keystrokes on an image file provided from the Peachpit web site. As stated above, the first chapter is intended to familiarize the user with the Photoshop work space and tools. Each chapter ends with some Review questions and answers designed to solidify the user’s grasp of the lesson matter. With this aid, the user just starting out in Photoshop can gain a picture view of a specific tool’s purpose. Going on from this point in the book, the authors take the reader on a learning journey through Photoshop’s other features by providing a project involving that aspect of the program. I have been a Photoshop user for a number of years going back to the early single digit versions. Having a “Classroom in a Book” in my earlier years would have made life and digital photography considerably easier for me. For those fairly familiar with Photoshop, this book will make an excellent refresher and reference volume."
"Sure, considering we live in the digital internet age it was hard at times to concentrate doing lessons in a book, but they do have good source files for you to work on so you can drill the program into your head."
There will be a lot of times when you need to get something done in Lightroom, but you have no idea where Adobe hid that feature, or what the “secret handshake” is to do that thing you need now so you can get back to working on your images. Scott Kelby is the world’s #1 best-selling author of photography technique books, as well as Editor and Publisher of the highly acclaimed Photoshop User magazine.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If I need to know how to do something in Lightroom, I just look it up in the index and it takes me to the page that tells me just what I need to know to accomplish that task. That said, this is not a comprehensive book about Lightroom."
"Well written."
"Really helpful to use Lightroom."
"Came as promised and well written."
"You just go to the section that tells you how to perform the task you want and the answers are there."
Best Adobe After Effects Photo Editing
This Web Edition is available for free with the purchase of the Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release) print book or eBook. Creative professionals who seek the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CC (2015 release) choose this Classroom in a Book® from the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks. Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release) contains 14 lessons that cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. She has also co-written The Photoshop Show Starring Russell Brown ; numerous editions of the Classroom in a Book series on Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, and Acrobat; and several editions of the How to Wow series.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"With a program as big and deep at Photoshop, this book does not attempt to cover every feature, command, filter and technique, but instead covers overall concepts, plus hits on multiple ways to accomplish common tasks and highlights new features. I taught for two years using the earlier edition Adobe Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a Book and noted a significant number of changes, mostly improvements, in the new Creative Cloud 2014 edition of the book. You learn many of the same things as in previous editions, the only real new skills are related to new features of Photoshop but more importantly the lessons themselves are improved. CHAPTER 2. This lesson highlights the photo correction tools that have made Photoshop famous. In previous editions, the lesson had the reader change a photo using several of the same tools, but the before and after in this lesson feels more dramatic. I found this a good chapter to send students down who may already know the basics, while skipping it for the class as a whole."
"Basically you have a paragraph or two explaining what you are about to do and why, then lots of photos showing you what your screen should look like and the steps to take. Each time you need to complete a step, it repeats how to do it so you don't have to look back through the book to remember how something is done."
"I quit at about Chapter 5 as I was starting to feel like a programmed robot listening to the instructor say, "Click on this switch and type 117, then go over to effects and add this effect...Voila!""
"The problem is this book reads like a classroom book of the 50's (and I'm an old guy who remembers such things). About 95% of the things covered here you can learn on your own in a few days -- again, I'm a very old man and I did it, and if you are older than, say, 12 years old you will be able to as well (younger folks might well need the kind of hand-holding going on here). What is missing, though, is all the *really* cool and wonderful things you can do in AE, and luckily there is a terrific source for all of these and it's this thing called the internet."
Best Adobe Dreamweaver Web Design
You’ll also learn to add interactive elements to your sites, such as HTML5-compatible video and animation, get guidance for working with code, and finally publish a finished site to the Web. In September 2012 Adobe released an update to Dreamweaver offering new features for Creative Cloud customers, that give you the ability to easily add HTML5 tags, audio, video and Adobe Edge Animate compositions to your projects, and quickly find files with real-time search results on Mac OS. The Adobe Creative Team of designers, writers, and editors has extensive, real world knowledge of Adobe web design products.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It starts off strong, but in later lessons, thry just instruct you to do things without really explaining what you are doing and why."
"This series (not just for Photoshop but any Adobe product) is the most direct approach to learning Adobe products."
"Now that I have gone through Adobe Photoshop, I can appreciate Adobe Illustrator, although I still find it less practical."
"You will need garamond font for a lesson in the lesson 1 folder.go to google web site and type (garamond font no dowloading) then go to missing garamond font in Macrumors Forums scroll down in the forums until you see the web adressed for the font download and install in your cmputer if you do not have it installed."
"You're not just getting an introduction into Adobe Audition but because this book is written by professionals 'in the business' of sound production it turns out to be a satisfying experience just to read from the professional's standpoint."
"I think you will learn much more following free Youtube tutorials."
"I used this in an university class and wanted to buy the entire book and CD to work through the exercises on my own."
"Wife had never touched a computer with windows 10 and with this book, she was on chapter 6 in the 1st 2 days, excited about what she has learned so far."
Best Adobe Fireworks Web Design
In addition readers will learn how to demo a design for a client in real time, export the design as an interactive PDF, and export vector design elements as CSS3-only markup for use in websites. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.” —Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor, Rocky Mountain Training. Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. The Adobe Creative Team is made up of designers, writers, and editors who have extensive, real-world knowledge of and expertise in using Adobe products.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This was my first Classroom in a Book, so it was a surprise to realize it will only walk you through a group of projects, but there isn't a lot of WHY and explaining that You would use this tool vs. this tool for that. So, this book does walk you through some pretty involved projects step by step, and if you analyze what you are doing, you can learn the concepts. It does have a lot of good knowledge densely packed in the book."
"These lessons are presented in a procedure-like fashion so ultimately the student learns this program with his or her "hands" rather than by verbal instruction or explanation. Each lesson is thorough and complete in teaching the student how to import various formats, manipulate them, animate, transform and composite them into a coherent animation."
"This book probably won't make you the world's greatest SFX artist, but it sure is a solid foundation that will give you a strong basic understanding of the software."
"With that said, I am rather disappointed in this book, and I abandoned it about one quarter of the way through, in favor of a different book. If you already know motion graphics, and are simply learning After Effects, this book may offer an effective means of getting into the swing of things quickly."
"Another puzzling approach is that the steps usually involve the typing of positional and rotational coordinates as opposed to the more intuitive use of visual motion paths to plot the movement of objects."
Best Flash Web Design
Following up on the great success of The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes, legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally takes us on another memorable ride with Sketching Light, another trip into the land of light--but this time running the gamut from small flash to big flash, and everywhere in between. JOE McNALLY is an internationally acclaimed American photographer and longtime photojournalist.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The conversation will wander, stories will be spun, jokes will be told, detailed insights will be shared, advice will be given, and you'll walk away grateful for the opportunity. > 'Sketching Light' is a book about the possibilities of flash and it covers the full spectrum. You'll also find Joe's signature lighting diagrams--drawn by hand on napkins and sketch pads--for nearly every shoot in the book. I recommend keeping a highlighter and a black marker on hand so that you can annotate your "aha!" You've likely grown accustomed to flipping through photo books, pausing at a pic, and having the caption give you the basics so that you can move on. I guarantee you, however, that as you read Joe's narratives and decode his photos, you'll be a stronger photographer for your efforts. > This is not a beginner's book that lays a foundation of basic concepts and then layers new ideas on top. If you've read Joe's blog, watched his videos on Kelby Training, or attended one of his seminars/workshops, then you've likely seen some of these pix and heard some of these stories before."
"Many times things could be explained in simple straightforward terms, but instead you might need to break out a thesaurus to get some of his points (it makes me glad I have the Kindle edition with built in dictionary). For example, many times he puts reflectors on the ground and bounces small flashes into them on low power, just to fill in shadows slightly... or how he uses multiple TTL cords sometimes to stretch his wireless master signal to a place where his other flashes can "see" the master, even if they happen to be outside the house he's shooting in."
"If you're interested in portraiture, photojournalism, or using TTL flash off-camera, and you haven't familiarized yourself with McNally, you're missing an important reference."
Best Adobe FrameMaker Guides
Combining the benefits of video training and book learning, this video book gives you over 12 hours of video and dozens of free presets and raw images to practice with. If you learn better with video, watch the video training and refer to the book for quick reference. You can learn more about Tony by following him on Twitter (@TonyNorthrup) or emailing him at tony@northrup.org.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I watched many YouTube videos and either learn nothing out of it, or learn how to perform very specific tasks. Adobe Photoshop LR 5 by Tony is easy read, takes you through all steps of digitally developing photos, using plain English."
"If you are time compressed, and want to learn light room in two hours, just watch the “development“ video from start to finish. I just pull files from my windows folders, and import them into light room if I want to work on them, then export them as JPEGS or different file types back into my folders ). Tony explains the whole file management system well, and it’s benefits, and I’m probably missing something, but I remain not a fan of it."
"So far, have learned lots about the program thanks to this book."
"This book is a must have for the digital photographer!"
"This book really covers the software in detail i wish i had it the first i open light room really would have saved me hours of time."
"The book is a little short on the library aspect of Lightroom and organizing your photos."
"It is worth buying to support the Northrup's and all of the AMAZING work product they put out for free but I was disappointed in the book as I found it as much more of a reference manual than any sort of tips and tricks and/or step by step manual."
"I can read for a while and then go to the video to see exactly what I am reading about and how it works."
Best Adobe Illustrator Guides
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Illustrator CC (2017 release) choose Adobe Illustrator CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release) from the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks from Adobe Press. In addition to training many clients, including Nordstrom, REI, Boeing, Starbucks, Nintendo, and many others, Brian speaks regularly at national conferences, such as Adobe MAX, HOW Design, and HOW Interactive, as well as events hosted by AIGA and other industry organizations.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Very good learning tool."
"This book seems to be very thorough and easy to understand."
"It's actually a pretty good book though in a few places I got lost."
"Using this for a class right now, and I love it."
"I haven't used Illustrator in a long time."
"This got me up to speed after a long absence from Illustrator."
"A helpful tools for illustrator."
Best Adobe InDesign Guides
This completely revised CS6 edition covers the new tools for adding PDF form fields, linking content, and creating alternative layouts for digital publishing. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.” –Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor, Rocky Mountain Training. The Adobe Creative Team of designers, writers, and editors has extensive, real world knowledge of Adobe products.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"What I don't like about the Classroom in the Book series these days (I have been using Adobe software for over two decades and buy a CIB book every few upgrades when things change drastically) is that they don't treat you like a beginner. I have looked at many other software books over the years and find the Classroom in a Book series to still be the best."
"Great Buy... Will order this item again."
"You can 'work' on the starting point and follow along and perform each task in a particular chapter."
"I have had numerous times when "the stupid instruction didn't work" or "didn't make sense" to me... obviously those instances were just my failure to read carefully or to understand what they were trying to get me to do."
"The course was using the Adobe Indesign CS5 book but, the material covered in the course online was actually Adobe Indesign CS6."
"Definitely be sure you get the CD of lessons included with your copy."
"At first I found the approach taken by the authors very pedantic and slow but things improved with time as I became used to the book and the programme."
Best Adobe Photoshop
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop choose Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2017 release) from Adobe Press. Conrad Chavez has provided education, training, and support for digital-media applications for over 20 years, originally contributing countless pages to the user guides for print, Web, and digital video products at Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. Now a freelance writer and editor, Conrad creates books and videos that teach Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud workflows. His work includes the last three editions of Real World Adobe Photoshop for Photographers and the video Color Management for Photographers and Designers .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"how to create bokeh or the appearance of motion in a photo by fine-tuning the various types of "blur" available in the filters menu, (3.). how to combine a photo of a train taken at one angle with a photo of a bridge taken at another angle, and use the perspective tools to make it look like the train is actually coming right over the bridge at you... Believe me, reading about how to use vector-drawing tools to trace a photo and create a reusable logo from it is very different from actually creating the paths, subtracting one path from another, converting the paths into shapes, turning shapes into assets, saving color schemes along with your assets, and all the rest."
"Arrived as advertised and on time."
"If any of you have tried to self learn Photoshop, good luck. I bought because it was like the class I took it first wanted to explain what a pixel was."
"It gets the reader into the program to perform a number of keystrokes on an image file provided from the Peachpit web site. As stated above, the first chapter is intended to familiarize the user with the Photoshop work space and tools. Each chapter ends with some Review questions and answers designed to solidify the user’s grasp of the lesson matter. With this aid, the user just starting out in Photoshop can gain a picture view of a specific tool’s purpose. Going on from this point in the book, the authors take the reader on a learning journey through Photoshop’s other features by providing a project involving that aspect of the program. I have been a Photoshop user for a number of years going back to the early single digit versions. Having a “Classroom in a Book” in my earlier years would have made life and digital photography considerably easier for me. For those fairly familiar with Photoshop, this book will make an excellent refresher and reference volume."
"Sure, considering we live in the digital internet age it was hard at times to concentrate doing lessons in a book, but they do have good source files for you to work on so you can drill the program into your head."
Best Adobe Premiere
Those creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 choose Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Classroom in a Book from the Adobe Creative Team at Adobe Press. Readers learn the basics on things like using audio, creating transitions, producing titles, and adding effects. Once they have the basics down, they'll learn how to take their projects further by sweetening and mixing sound, compositing the footage, adjusting color, authoring DVDs, and much more. The Adobe Creative Team of designers, writers, and editors has extensive, real world knowledge of Adobe products.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Premiere 4 was the first video editing software that I learned on in the late 1990's."
"Like the preceding Classroom in a Book."
"I use them for my more advanced classes in Graphic Design and Digital Imaging."
"Did a lot of research on which book to buy in order to quickly learn Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. I was in the process of creating my first video for work while still doing the lessons in the book and I was able to immediately apply the the information in the book directly to my first project with no problems."
"I admit that I am impatient learning new programs after having learned so many over the last 20 years. So often when you learn software from books, you do not have the files you need to really learn the material. They are expecting you to remember a previous lesson where you got to the Build Panel by selecting Build from the File menu. There are plenty of books available for those who own these programs."
"I've gone through many iterations of the Classroom in a Book (CiaB) series."
"I quickly learned after purchasing it however the Kindle version doesn't include any access to the media used in the lessons!"