I really wanted to like it but....

books:


	• Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Voices) Scott Kelby Peachpit Press, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It Really Is a Great Book!

I've read the entire book cover to cover, and while it's not the final word on post production, it is so good that anyone who truly follows these points, will have photographs that are "The Best" that they could possibly make.

This is not a beginners book, but if a beginner is very motivated, they could follow the instructions well and be successful.

If you like Scott's approach to technology subjects, this is just one more great book of his that won't disappoint you!!

Enjoy!

I really wanted to like it but....

The book doesn't really explain why Scott makes the adjustments he makes to the photos. That is the biggest flaw with this book.

The adjustments work great on the photos but that doesnt really help when it comes to adjusting your own photos.

I'm sure there are better books than this one

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Valuable Photoshop Tool

As Scott Kelby claims in the introduction, the 7-Point System was designed to turn the "boring to beautiful," the "flat to fantastic," the crappy into the non-crappy. Certainly, there are no shortages of books, blogs, and web-based tutorials that promise to teach you something similar - how to take that lifeless shot from your camera into a rich, vibrant image.
The 7-Point System distinguishes itself from other books in that it is a comprehensive Photoshop workflow disguising itself as a simple, recipe-like type of manual. The name itself, the 7-Point System, is silly and disarming in the way that the 1200-page colossus known as the CS3 Photoshop Bible (Fuller) is not. Sure, there are seven Photoshop features one needs to know well to understand Kelby's rationale for this book, but the constant use of some or all of these tools in the book's twenty-one lessons will make experts of those with a shaky Photoshop foundation. Of course, those with a greater comprehension of layers, masks, channel adjustments, Smart Objects, and Camera Raw adjustments will only benefit in taking the book's underlying principles into their current workflow.
There is a certain criticism that other reviewers have noted about the book's methods of transforming the boring to beautiful. Mainly, when does one say, "This is beautiful enough?" Again, the book is not a simple, for-dummies-like manual. Even within each of the lessons, there are deviations and alterations on the 7-Points that are arbitrary choices made by the author. These are made, as he clearly states, as a matter of personal choice. There is a chapter where he adds a reflection of the sky on a body of water that did not exist in the original. In another image, he uses a composite method to fix an over-exposed image. In both cases, the final images are significantly better than the originals. Whether the final image is true and pure, morally acceptable or not is completely up to you. Of greater importance is learning how these Photoshop tools integrate with one another to create an image that is better in color, contrast and style than the original. After all, if you're worried about preserving the purity and integrity of the original image, why are you using Photoshop?
As good as this book is, truth be told, processing and editing pictures on Photoshop should not be fun; it robs you of valuable shooting time. Once you start applying some of these lessons to your images, and you begin to see where you went wrong on the original capture, you become more critical about your skills as a photographer, about capturing a better original image. For that reason alone, the 7-points system is a highly recommended addition to your digital photography workflow.

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Also for CS2 users with Lightroom

I think of myself as a mid-level Photoshop user - past the beginner stage, but I only use PS every week or two. I use PS CS2 and Adobe Lightroom, which has the same editing capabilities as Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3. During the past 10 days I've completed 15 of the 21 lessons in the 7-Point System. The book is definitely written for CS3 users and makes no mention of alternatives if you're using CS2. I have been able to do 98% of the manipulations in the lessons using Lightroom and CS2. If I had only CS2, I'd have been stuck. Where Scott calls for using a smart filter on a layer copy, I import a 2nd file copy from Lightroom into PS and apply the filter, then "move" it onto the file I've been working on, etc.

The lessons succeed in pounding in certain things through repetition. If you were at all uncomfortable using adjustment layers, masks, blend modes and gradients, you won't be after completing this book. Every lesson has some elements that are unique (obscure/expert?) and I doubt that I'll have them remembered and available in my toolbox. I love to use keyboard shortcuts and Scott uses them to a fault. Some like D for default colors, Ctrl-J for layer copy are learned through repetition - and Scott almost always says what they're for. But he'll occasionally throw in a keyboard shortcut to make something happen and you have no idea what it's "really" doing.

There are a lot of things in the lessons that are recipe-like and beg for further experimentation / learning by the photographer. But, if you go through the lessons, you're almost certain to take your work to a much higher level and be able to work quickly to achieve those results.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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