Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature | Matt Kloskowski | Expect to learn something-I'd buy it again!     books:     Layers: The Comple...   Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop's Most Powerful Feature Matt Kloskowski Peachpit Press, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 91 reviews view larger image  for more information click here        highly recommended Excellent introduction to Photoshop layers There is little that is actually new in this book. Rather what Kloskowski has done is to create a little self-tutoring course in using Photoshop layers - and he has done a good job of it. Photoshop layers is a confusing subject because there are so many different types of layers and so few really good basic introductions to them. Kloskowski, in an act of brilliance, doesn't cover every kind of layer or layer technique. He concentrates on the basics - and that really makes Photoshop layers a lot easier to grasp and learn. In nine chapters, Kloskowski covers Layer Basics, Blending Layers, Adjustment Layers, Layer Masks, Type And Shape Layers, Enhancing Photos With Layers, Retouching With Layers, Layer Styles and Smart Layers. There are lots of examples - though sometimes the accompanying descriptions are rather abbreviated - and you can download the required graphics from the companion website. Overall, this is one of the better books to emerge lately from the Scott Kelby factory. Worth the money it costs and, more importantly, the time it takes to learn what it has to teach. Jerry  for more information click here Expect to learn something-I'd buy it again! There is no shortage of how to Photoshop books out there but this one definitely stands out. So easy to read, so easy to follow. I love how Matt Kloskowski writes. The information that he puts down on paper has personality making a hands on learner like myself be able to get into what he is writing making it easier for me to learn...makes me want to read his book. I am not going to give the book justice as I am no writer; but I would buy any book written by Matt Kloskowski as well as Scott Kelby in reference to photoshop and the like! I have been overwhelmed with other photoshop books with too many words, boring writing, not enough photos to go along with all those words, etc that is was refreshing to fall upon this book. I have incorporated many of his techniques into my own photography and it has really made them pop!  for more information click here Layers: Powerful but accessible. Matt Kloskowski's new book is the most useful Photoshop guide I have ever used. Althought I am a relative newcomer to Ps CS3 I can follow and benefit from every chapter and lesson. I took advantage of Matt's offer to share almost 30 MB of the photos used as examples. This means I can repeat each tutorial until I have mastered the technique and, maybe, mixed and matched up the photos to develop a new slant. I enjoyed, for example, using the photo of a male model holding a pistol to create a new image -- a poster warning against holding a pistol with your finger on the trigger. Herein lies the rub: I can use this masterpiece only to guide myself -- the copyright would prevent resale to the multitudes.  for more information click here Layers is Worth the Time and Money I'm a digital photographer and consider myself to be an intermediate to advanced Photoshop user. I use Photoshop (with Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw) primarily to process my digital photos, but I also use it to restore old or damaged photos. I'm very comfortable with layers, layer masks, and blend modes and use layers frequently in my mostly nondestructive workflow. As my knowledge and experience increase, I find each new Photoshop or photo editing book contains less and less material that is new and interesting to me, i.e., the law of diminishing returns. I've enjoyed Matt Kloskowski and his style in his podcasts and Killer Tips videos, so I decided to give his Layers book a try. The book does contain some basic topics but it also covers some advanced topics, and I definitely learned enough to make this book worth the money and worth the time to work through the exercises in each chapter. The best way to use the book is to download the exercise files and work through them as you read each chapter. I personally got the most benefit from the chapters on Type and Shape Layers and on Layer Styles. You experience will certainly be different. I do, however, have a couple of nits for Matt. In several of the examples throughout the book he specifies an RGB color by giving the numerical values for R, G, and B, but he does not specify the color space as sRGB, Adobe RGB, or ProPhoto RGB. The same numbers define different colors in these color spaces. My other nit is for the examples in Chapter 8 - Some More Layer Style Ideas. Matt presents several interesting effects and gives very specific size and distance pixel values in the dialog boxes, but he doesn't give the pixel dimensions of the object to which he's applying the layer style. This made trying to follow his examples in this chapter very difficult for me. If my guess at the object size was off from his, the effects did not work very well or were very overdone. It would be very helpful to have exercise files for these examples. These are minor nits and do not change my recommendation to buy this book.  for more information click here Layers Review This book is very helpful, it goes into detail about some of Adobe Photoshop's features that my teachers never touch on, like the blending modes and when some are appropriate. reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 products you might be interested in search for books the complete, complete, feature, layers, photoshop, powerful      toavi.com    web randomly chosen book: The Pot of Gold and Other Plays (Classics)