Adobe Photoshop CS5 One-On-One

If you’re new to Photoshop, or just starting to get more into it, then this book really is for you. This book does exactly what it promises, which is to take you by the hand and lead you through Photoshop from the very basics to more sophisticated subjects. In fact, one of the first claims the book makes is that it will be like the author is sitting with you, and you may view this with scepticism. It soon becomes apparent however that this is exactly how the book works.

Deke McLelland’s style of writing in this book is very personable, using straightforward language and bite sized pieces of information. Coupled with this, Deke uses personal images scattered throughout the book to illustrate his technique, which only enhances the feeling that this is a very personal experience for the reader and connects you with Deke as a person not just a faceless word machine.

At the end of each chapter the reader is presented with a small quiz. This serves to recap on the previous chapter as well as to reinforce the important details. These quizzes also serve for good refreshers once the reader has completed the book.

Some of the video tutorials that are free to download with the purchase of the book may already be familiar to some readers. With the announcement of Photoshop CS5 Deke, like everyone else, released snippets of tutorials and tasters to an eager audience.

Due to how the book is collated, with each chapter acting as a complete tutorial taking the reader from the very beginnings through to the completion of an image, this logically begs the question as to how useful it is as future reference material. Each chapter is its own  and thus you might imagine that it is difficult to pick up the book and search for what you are after.

This is true, but only to some extent. If you’ve completed the chapter as it’s written then going back to it makes complete sense, but the book doesn’t stand as a reference only publication, and in fairness it’s never claimed to.

Whilst One on One is aimed at a beginner to intermediate Photoshop user, it is still a valuable source of useful nuggets: check out the section on squaring up an image using the rotating view and crop tool to see what I mean. There are also some great explanations of the new functions of CS5, including the amazing content aware fill and much improved HDR capabilities.

In conclusion, I of course recommend this book highly. Deke’s books as well as his courses at Lynda.com, podcasts and blog are always high on my list of recommendations to people new to Photoshop as well as those seeking extra information and this edition of Photoshop One-on-One is no different .