If you were to only buy one book on Photoshop...
595179
If you were to only buy one book on Photoshop this should be it.  This book is clearly written, comprehensive, and well organized.
873425
Does the world really need one more "how-to" book on the digital image editing process...particularly for Adobe Photoshop (still the 800-pound gorilla in this immensely competitive field)?  The answer is "probably not," unless it brings something quite special to the discussion.  Fortunately, in this case there's more than enough to make it highly worthwhile, at least for a somewhat narrow audience.

Printed technical books are increasingly challenged by the monumental changes going on with the distribution and consumption of information.  But generally we still have to read to absorb the data, whatever the delivery system may be, and for some complex topics (with advanced Photoshop a good example), having a real textbook to study and then refer back to on a regular basis is a very good idea.

First, about the authors.  While there are many Photoshop experts with great writing skills, few are as deep inside the business or as directly involved in improving the imaging industry's processes and methods as Martin Evening and Jeff Schewe.  Their credentials are simply of the highest order, and if you're serious about digital imaging you'll pay attention to what they have to say.  That doesn't mean there aren't a host of ways to get to the final product (i.e. to capture, create, produce, and deliver high quality digital images), but learning specialized skills from these pros can't help but advance your cause in this intensely competitive field.

What does The Ultimate Workshop cover?  Think of it as a masters course on using combinations of intricate Photoshop tools to achieve a particular objective, such as compositing, mending & blending, and HDR (to name but a few).  All start with the assumption you pretty well know the basic program.  This is definitely not a beginner's book, though certainly anyone with a serious interest in digital imaging can glean a lot of important and valuable material from it.  But those who will benefit most will have a good mastery of Photoshop fundamentals in order to be able to appreciate the explanations of underlying conceptual and technical foundations of many processes as well as the elaborate interactions of various tools.

And it's not just about using the program.  Since imaging starts well before and ends well after the Photoshop program itself, additional important sections cover preparation prior to capture, automating image editing and optimization processes for efficiency, making the highest quality prints, and dealing with the business of photography.  There's also a DVD containing many of the printed images and a number of PDFs and QuickTime movies containing even more information on selected subjects.  All told, it's a wealth of valuable information.

Recommendation:  Highly recommended for anyone who regularly uses Photoshop to accomplish advanced, complex imaging tasks.  You'll have to really concentrate to absorb it all--it's like getting "the rest of the story."  This is definitely upper-level material.  Those just learning Photoshop would be much better served with any number of more fundamental "how-to" books or video tutorials, but once the basic foundation is established this "workshop" will help you move to the next level in maximizing the capability of this powerful program.
1666505
In my opinion, this book is a total waste of time.  I have been working with Photoshop since version 5 and I have, over the years, purchased at least 40 Photoshop related books.  Of all of the books I have purchased, this one rates as the worst.  It is not poorly written and the photographs are for the most part very professional.  However, it purports to be a book about the particular challenges of night photography and the usefulness of Photoshop CS3 in those circumstances.  After reading this book, I was able to conclude that I can obtain all of the useful information in this book, plus a great deal more, by using either Scott Kelby's book (The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers) or Martin Evening's book (Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers), both of which are aimed at digital photographers.  This is the first review of a book I have done, but I didn't want others to unnecessarily spend money to buy this book, only to find that it has almost nothing to do with night photography.  You don't need to buy this book to know that you need a tripod to take long exposures.  As for the information about cameras and storage media, it is available for free on the internet.  Most of the rest of the book gives very superficial treatment of curves, layers, selections, etc., all of which are covered more succinctly and in more depth in the Kelby and Evening books.  I have never been more disappointed in a Photoshop book than this one.
72415
I titled my review as such to make it clear what the cover of this book does not - this is basically a beginner's guide to Photoshop Elements. Which is fine, but the tiny "Focus on the fundamentals" note under the title should really be, well, more a part of the title.

That said, this book takes you through the basics of using the organizer (again, necessary only for beginners) to the benefits of tagging, sorting and searching, which is helpful even for those of us used to using photo storing and editing software. Though the book ends with another beginner-focused chapter on printing and sharing images, there is a lot of meat in chapters 3 and 4 - chapter 3 for it's step-by-step tips on everything from cropping to over- and underexposure; chapter 4 for those of us with digital SLR cameras who have the opportunity of working with RAW images.

Also helpful are the "post it notes" scattered throughout the pages of this book. Some may be a bit self-explanatory, but many include shortcut options and less obvious information, which is great.

I think of myself as an intermediate Photoshop user at best, so this book was great for me (once I realized I could skip the first and last chapters). I wouldn't suggest it for anyone who is really experienced in Photoshop, but it's definitely worth the price for beginners or not-quite-beginners who would like to know a few of the Photoshop secrets without having to dig through the software itself.
3052263
"Inspiration" would be a good single word title for this review, also.

This book compliments "How to cheat in Photoshop" in its various editions by the same author.  Like "How to Cheat," it is written in short 2-page project episodes with excellent technical instructions, step by step color illustrations, and the author's characteristic artistry, puns, and visual humor.  It also contains good advice on composition and layout for various projects: although you and I have seen the popular artwork he presents, I never appreciated the fine points of composition until I read Mr. Caplin.  The disc supplies useful resources, including some unusual fonts.

Recently re-reading Mr. Caplin's books, I realize how much he has influenced my own Photoshop work.  I wish I could send my work in a fan letter Mr. Caplin, and also attach some to this review to show you!

I also recommend "Adobe Creative Suite" in Software (includes Photoshop).  In 2013  bought [used] CS Version 1 for $20.00, I loaded and run it under MAC Snow Leopard OS 10.6.8 with no problems at all (see my review).  I also bought [used] Version 4 for $167.00, and that also runs fine under the Snow Leopard OS.

Adobe company still supports Version 4 (you can still upgrade from it to CS5 or CS6), but it no longer supports Version 1 (To my knowledge you can't upgrade CS4 from CS1; I am not certain.)

If you are on a budget and interested in Adobe CS, I suggest starting with a used copy of an older version and some used handbooks for it, such as those by Mr. Caplin.  Photoshop is an extremely powerful program- I have used a 1998  version until this year, and I can do almost (but not quite) everything the modern versions can do.  I am just beginning to learn Illustrator.

The "Photoshop CS_ Bible" for your edition is also worthwhile, though most of the pictures are in black and white.
2447164
This book is without a doubt the best.  It actually teaches you why and how Photoshop works.  Rather than tell you what to do to acheive an effect, it explaines why you go through the steps to get the result you want.  This way you actually learn how to manipulate Photoshop on your own.  It speaks to you on a level that almost anyone can learn and comprehend.  I went through this book and CD as if it were a text book and learned more than I have from any other source.  If you want to learn how to use Photoshop, then this is the course I recomend.
4493146
First off the red/black book cover shown (Dec 2003) with this description is wrong.  That's the PRIOR edition, for Photoshop 7.  The book I have is teal and white, and is most assuredly all Photoshop CS.
Okay, now that that's done.....  this is a great book for people working with digital photos in Photoshop.  I think the thing I liked best is that Kelby is straightforward and approaches it from a perspective of not telling you all about HOW to take the picture, but how to improve it once you've got it in the camera.  If you're looking for f-stops, lighting tips and camera tricks, this ain't your book.
If, however, you're looking for ways to improve your digital photos in Photoshop; from sharpening without harshness, to great greyscale photos with sizzle, and a thousand other things, then you'll get great tips in this book.
In addition to the focus and content in each chapter, he has what he calls "advanced" tips in the book...don't skip over these... they're great and they are often more involved stepwise (nothing that can't be followed!)--but the results are impressive.
Yes, Scott has a very informal writing style--if you've read any of his other books, you'll know what I mean.  If you haven't, be aware that he doesn't preach that he's THE Photoshop guru, he's more than willing to learn from anyone and then shares those tips with everyone.  Sometimes his tangents are so funny I have to wonder what WAS in the Mountain Dew he was drinking.
4284673
If you are looking for a good and/or free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is the way to go. And if you are looking for a book that can teach you how to use the software, The Book of GIMP is one of the best I've seen. I highly recommend it no matter if you are just starting out with the software or coming from years of experience with Photoshop--this book covers it all. Not only is it a good book, the price is very good considering the size of the book.
2810317
Photoshop one-on-one is a great place for newcomers to learn Photoshop.  It has easy to follow exercises and good explanatory videos all with Deke McClelland's unique sense of humor, which makes things more fun.  If you're familiar with Photoshop or you want more of a reference manual this may not be the book for you, but if you're just getting started this book is great!
2952049
This was the jumpstart I needed to learning photoshop.  This is not so much a tutorial as it is a get-up and start-using photoshop one-on-one session, exactly as the title suggests.  So instead of learning the interface in text-book procedural fashion, it's kind of like apprenticing for the author Deke (who also wrote the photoshop bible book).  BTW, the author is notably an Master at photoshop, as is apparent when he tells you "nobody uses this command, you can do that function with this new command here".  There's a lot to be distracted in photoshop, hundreds and hundreds of different functions, and it turns out that many of these functions are obsolete and only left-in to satisfy old users, so having Deke point these things out is fantastic.  Eg, unsharpen mask, obsolete.  smart sharpen, da-shizzle.

  I found a lot of the steps to be wordy, and it took me a week to go through the book/lessons, but it was well worth it.  I'm guessing I retained about 60% of what Deke teaches in the book, but the goal was to familiarize myself with how to USE photoshop and even get into the habit of using the shortcut keys, a specialized (and arguably more intuitive) set of shortcuts is provided by the author on the CD-ROM.  This book also goes through steps that will optimize Photoshop, such as reducing and distributing cache files in the settings.  Generally speaking, Deke explains what each command does as you're doing it, but it's obvious that you need experience to know that you should apply certain settings to get the pictures to look right.  So experience begone, it's good to follow the training and see what a professional *would* do to create the compositions.

People are right about the CD-ROM being a lesson in itself.  It's over 2 hours of very high quality video and easy-to-follow instruction.  The CD-ROM's show little introductory movies to each chapter, which show the author completing a mini-project that usese the techniques about to be explained.  Personally I don't think the  videos are totally necessary and I doubt I will go back to them, but they ARE helpful and put things into perspective, and I guess are sort of psychological support so that when you start on a chapter at least you have a very good idea of what you're going to learn...the videos put the book's chapters into perspective.  And yeah, better to watch the videos than to not watch them, I have :-)

My goal in all this was to learn photoshop well enough to put the program into perspective, so that I would better understand web tutorials and the more encyclopediadic how-to books on the program (such as deke's photoshop bible or martin evening's nice photoshop reference).  I've met that goal in this book, I'd say I'm borderline intermediate now save for a bit more experience with the program.

Also a note to those who judge a book by it's pictures...personally, and this is just me, I thought a lot of the pictures/projects in the book looked tacky, and I almost passed on the book because it looked, well, weird.  But the projects have you mess around with layers and filters and in the end, it won't matter that there's a disturbing cartoonish picture of his son with a smushed face in pastel colors, or a football made to look like a mr. potato-head with a fruit bowl as a hat.  gees.  Actually, I wish the author would also write a one-on-one book like this for Adobe Illustrator.
4796466
Every photography book covers many basic topics.  This book is no exception; ISO, shutter exposures, Dof, using flash, rule of third...
2/3 of the book talks about Photoshop to enhance your image.

If you just started learning photography, this is the book you need.  In fact, I will buy it someday.
3588178
If you want a book that takes you through the uses of Photoshop's Layers, this one will do so.  I didn't find anything that I haven't seen before, but it's nice to have it all in one place for reference.
1860647
This is a great book for the beginner in Photoshop.  You will however, need the photoshop program prior to being able to navigate through this book.  You can't get the book and then the program.  You need to go through the book with the aid of the program at the same time.

These are the lessons in the book:
Lesson 1.  Navigating Photoshop CC:  Workspace, Tools and Panels
Lesson 2.  Introduction to Photoshop CC
Lesson 3.  Organizing and Managing Your Files with Adobe Bridge
Lesson 4.  Making Selective Changes in Photoshop CC
Lesson 5.  Painting and Retouching
Lesson 6.  Color Correcting an Image
Lesson 7.  Using Content-Aware Tools in Photoshop
Lesson 8.  Introduction to Photoshop Layers
Lesson 9.  Removing Backgrounds to Create Layered Compositions
Lesson 10. Using Layer Styles and Adjustment Layers
Lesson 11. Working with Pen Tool
Lesson 12. Using Smart Objects in Photoshop
Lesson 13. Creating Images for Web, Video and Interactive Use
Lesson 14. New features in Photoshop
3083475
Take one look at his Damen Station piece... you will agree... Bert is the King of Photoshop.

I found the book wonderfully informative. There is none of the arrogance of other self-proclaimed Photoshop experts. He is simply sharing what he loves doing, and it shows!

Thanks Bert!
2186524
I found Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers, Ultimate Workshop very refreshing a good exercise book, the best since I got out of high school 45 years ago.

I am an architectural Photographer and I deal with Photoshop day in day out, but there are days when there is no action and one becomes bored. During such times I like to read and keep my Photoshop skills
polished up, so I start looking through books to read and believe me after a while they too, become very boring, that's the time to head for Borders and see if they have any thing worth reading. This last time I went to Borders I found  Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers, Ultimate Workshop.
254079
I was pretty good at using layers in Photoshop before buying this book.  Now I'm much better.  It's written in the same style as the Scott Kelby books; simple and straight forward step-by-step showing you how to do things.  I use books like this as references, keeping them on a shelf near my work area and using them to remind me of ways to achieve some effects.  If you're not an Adobe Certified Expert I recommend this book.
4136507
If you're considering doing this, its the only book you'll need.