Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature by Matt Kloskowski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature
Book Review: great resource guide, and also has some awesome photo enhancing pointers on the side
Summary: 5 Stars
i'm new to photoshop and have been actively learning how to use this software for almost a year now. this book is a great resource guide for photoshop! matt is so knowledgeable. there is something soooo awesome to learn in every single lesson of this book. as you're learning about the various capabilities with layers you also get on the side neat pointers on how to better enhance your photos and do other cool stuff to make your work look professional. just going through this superb book has greatly improved the way i work around in photoshop now. i highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting a better handle on photoshop. matt knows what he's talking about. i'm glad there is a book like this that teaches us how to get around in photoshop.Book Review: Laying It On
Summary: 5 Stars
No photographer can unleash the full power of Photoshop to make an image look like the photographer's vision without understanding the power of layers. (At the very least layers allow the Photoshop user to make selective adjustments to an image, without actually changing the underlying data.) Yet many Photoshop books treat layers in bits and pieces rather than as an integrated whole so that the photographer has a hard time grasping the overall concept. That's where a book aimed solely at layers comes in.
Matt Kloskowski's book deals with all the major applications of layers. The subjects include the nature of layers, blending layers, adjustment layers, layer masks, type and shape layers, enhancing and adjusting photos with layers, layer styles and smart layers. It's all here, but in a short simple quick form. (I'm sure there are more esoteric things to learn about layers; at least one pair of authors has a book on layers that is over 750 pages long!) Most photographers will find that this book has all they need to know about the subject.
The author's text takes the form of tutorials. One can either download files for these tutorials or work with one's own pictures. The tutorials are short, well illustrated and have plenty of white space. If you make a mistake at an early step you won't have to backtrack through twenty or thirty steps to find out where you went wrong. Even if you work out each tutorial, this book will not take more than ten or twenty hours to complete, and it will teach you almost everything you need to know about the subject. Along the way, Kloskowski teaches the reader about other Photoshop tools, as when he integrates a discussion of gradients into a lesson on blend modes, or deals with selections in a tutorial on layer masks.
The author has an easy-going, breezy, humorous style, but those put off by the style of his mentor, Scott Kelby, probably will not be offended here.
Normally, as I go through a book, I make notes in the margin when I discover an error. I'm happy to report that I made no notes in the margin of this book.
For experienced Photoshop users this book will contain nothing new. Perhaps they'll have to look at the 750 page tomes. However, for the photographer who doesn't have a firm grip on the use of layers in Photoshop, this book will help him or her to master the subject.
Book Review: What's a Layer? The definitive answer!
Summary: 5 Stars
Love Matt. Love this book.
Straigtfoward and easy to understand while encompassing everything that needs to be said on the topic. Whether you are a beginner or an old hand, there is something in this book for everyone.
He is a wonderful teacher.
Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature
Book Review: Layers is perfect for the beginner and experienced alike
Summary: 5 Stars
As a web designer and photographer, I've always been a big fan of the Layers Magazine and Photoshop User Magazine group. Their training philosophy is primarily about down and dirty tricks that get the job done and this book is a fine example of that approach. I've been using Photoshop since version 4.0, the last PS book I've owned was for version 6.0.
This book is definitely worth the investment. If you are not familiar with blend modes, how to use masks, adjustment layers, or the power of smart objects, you need to pick up this book. As the title says, layers really are Photoshops' most powerful feature.
Matt Kloskowski's book is set up in way that can be read from cover to cover or it can be read like a reference book; in bits and pieces and in any order the reader chooses. It's a very easy-going format with a smart, well done layout that makes you feel like you're using Photoshop while you read it. Kloskowski's writing style is casual and to the point, making this book easy to follow for the beginner while it is quick and painless for the novice.
As a web designer, I tended to prefer getting as much done on pen and paper to save time as I used to find myself playing around too much in Photoshop, wasting precious time. But now with Kloskowski's Layers, I can jump into a design with Photoshop first thing and have a lot more fun doing it!
Book Review: Players' Layers
Summary: 4 Stars
Adobe's PhotoShop is one of those products that changes an industry. It is so powerful and useful that it has taken over much of the post production space between the camera's shutter and the observer's eye. But some of its features can be arcane and intimidating. This is where books like this come in useful.
Matt's focus on the Layers subset of features is appropriate inasmuch as a great deal of PhotoShop's power can be unleashed through judicious use of Layers. It is great to have Matt's guidance through this maze which is a lot friendly with the benefit of his instruction.
Using techniques promoted by this book can save serious photographers and graphic designers hours and hours and is well-worth its price.