Book Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild

Filters are what makes Photoshop so much fun. Author Sherry London shows how to use and—in some cases—abuse filters to achieve some wild effects. Whether or not they will be useful to professional designers is debatable.

Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild is a book I picked up on a lark at the local bookstore. I hadn’t heard of the author or the “Gone Wild” series, but I could tell right away that this was a book about Photoshop filters and was a hands-on product (I could tell by the companion CD-ROM). These are usually the books I enjoy the most; however, this one seemed an average experience at best. I hadn’t really thought about it until I finished the book, but those nifty filter tricks that I did years ago to impress my bosses and coworkers just aren’t part of my professional vocabulary anymore—at least, not in the way Sherry London uses them.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: FOR AMATEURS?

I just glanced at London’s previous books and notice a common thread: the use of the word “basics”, “intro” or “absolute beginner” in the title. Obviously for Photoshop newbies, which is okay. But I think the tone and techniques throughout this book also carry that beginner mentality even though the book by its nature should be geared toward more intermediate and advanced users who have experience with extensive use of layers and specific filters. London’s writing style is informal to the point where it seems unpolished and slightly annoying at times. The design of the book is pretty dense and could have used a cleaner, better-designed feel to it. The fake “Wild” rating on the cover—a parody of video game ratings—seems sophomoric and unnecessary. And a big criticism of the book—not just from me but from other readers and reviewers—is that the graphics being created in the exercise themselves are ugly (see Figure 1) and quite worthless to practically any designer out there. One reviewer at Amazon.com put it like this:

I tend to agree—the images in these exercises are filtered so heavily that they look overly Photoshopped and unprofessional. I design to communicate, not to show off my Photoshop skills, and when I do need to use filters for a special effect I do it subtly. Not here. However, the techniques themselves are valuable in that they give you a good idea how far the filters can go to create effects. To most readers the techniques used here will seem gaudy and sometimes hideous and useless, but creative Photoshop users who haven’t used filters much will see better applications than what is done here. Those who follow the procedures step by step, then do the same with pictures of their kids and their dog, will be the equivalent of a digital Bob Ross.

Figure 1: Three examples of Photoshop art from Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild.

THE BOOK IS HARD TO FOLLOW

Earlier I commented that the design seemed dense and somewhat amateurish. The end result is that the book is a slog to read through, and even worse if you’re actually going through the book. The written instructions are packed into paragraphs with little effort to show the important details such as menu commands and values for settings (they are in bold, but the typeface used is Rotis Sans Serif, which doesn’t have much difference between its roman and bold weights). The photography and images aren’t bad and there are several screenshots of dialog boxes and such, so that’s a plus. The biggest factor of all is London’s own techniques, which seem to me to adopt the absolute hardest methods to do anything in Photoshop. Every single command requires a new layer, and without layer management (such as using groups or such) they become overly complex. Experienced Photoshop artists can do the same techniques with half the steps and clutter. I did learn some new tricks in Photoshop because of this book, especially when it comes to using knockout (which London uses frequently in this book). It’s an example of a helpful Photoshop feature that has simply fallen out of favor with most users and forgotten, and the occasional glimpses into a new power within Photoshop is what redeems the book for me.

A BLUNDER

One startling thing I learned while going through the companion CD-ROM for this book: the practice files are stuck in encrypted ZIP files, and unfortunately the readme.txt states the unlock code resides in the file ComstockLicense.html—which doesn’t exist on the disk. It actually ended up residing in the file JupiterImages EULA.doc, which you’ll find in each chapter folder. Readers who don’t know this will basically have no use for the CD-ROM and lose a lot of value from their purchase. In my recent review of InDesign Type, I noted some mistakes in the book—but nothing like this one in Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild. I have also read in other reviews that there are some blatant typos and even an instance or two where a sentence was truncated. I didn’t find these myself, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true.

BUYING ADVICE

I think there are better books out there that will teach you more about Photoshop filters than Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild. Scott Kelby’s Down And Dirty Tricks series always has some exceptional tricks with filters, and there’s a lot more (though they aren’t as involving as London’s own techniques). What’s more, there are plenty of tips and tricks out there on the Internet, including those I publish myself here on Designorati.com. If you’re a hardcore filter junkie who loves everything Photoshop and whose motto is “More is better”, buy this book and you shouldn’t be disappointed. For the rest of us—and this includes most professional everyday designers whose focus is on good communication—you would be better served by a clearer, more professional book.

PHOTOSHOP CS2 GONE WILD
Sherry London
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 0764598139