How to Cheat in Photoshop: The Art of Creating Photorealistic Montages [With CD-ROM]

by Steve Caplin

Book Overview

Even more Photoshop time saving tips and tricks are included in this new, expanded edition of Steve Caplin's bestseller. Updates include many new images and techniques which show you how to make the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0240517024
• ISBN13: 9780240517025
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Focal Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.6" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

The very best for those interested in realistic photo montage

Steve Caplin should produce a weekly (or even daily) webcast of his photorealistic montage techniques. Not only is he a master of the art, but he writes wonderfully well. Not for him is the amateurish comedian approach of Deke McClellan and Scott Kelby; both of whose books would be far more informative without their clumsy buffoonery. Instead Caplin writes in a very straight-forward manner. Never dry, never tedious, sometimes with a slight touch of sly British humor, and always informative. Caplin rganizes his book into 151 short sections, each of them a self-contained lesson on some aspect of Photoshop that may be involved in the creation of montages. (This is not, however, a book for total beginners in Photoshop.) Caplin does more to cover the various methods of selection and masking in fewer pages than anyone else I've seen . . . and he does it better. The use of the pen tool, usually the downfall of many, is thoroughly covered in six pages. (Examples are provided on the accompanying CD.) Manipulating lights, shadows, perspective, matching skin tones, combining body parts, simulating glass and metal are just some of the subjects Caplin treats well. I am writing about the third edition of this book, updated to cover Photoshop CS2. I have all three and they just keep getting better. Caplin obviously listens to his readers and incorporates their suggestions. Simply put, Caplin is a master of his craft, a far better writer than many of those covering this subject and one can hope he publishes more books in the future. Jerry

A Great Photoshop Toolkit

One of the best books written on Photoshop to date. I have read many books on Photoshop in the past, and I could never find one piece of material that put together all of the things that I was looking for until I bought this book.It is definitely not a "How-to-use" Photoshop book, which there are numerous to chose from, but an outstanding guide to the techniques used to make great photo montages. These techniques are applicable whether you are actually in the business or just like to explore the depth of Photoshop as a hobby.I consider myself an intermediate user of Photoshop, and I can honestly say that there were many things that I didn't even know that Photoshop could do until I read this book.The examples are detailed enough to easily follow if you know your way around the program. All of the photo files are included with the attached CD along with Quicktime movies of some of the projects.In addition, Steve Caplin provides some of his own insights about Photoshop and the photo montage business between chapters. I agree wholeheartedly on using the Wacom Graphire tablets. They are wonderful and come with some nice software.Overall a great book. I am always going back to reference it.

Why you should buy this book

This is my 24th PS book. I've been through all the page by page manuals from the CIAB books through the Real World types, the Magic Series, WOW Series, etc. I'm at that stage where Photrealism is a challenge I would like to conquer. I have both books by the photorealistic guru Bert Monroy, and they are both excellent. Steve Caplin's book "How to Cheat in Photoshop" is a joy and can proudly sit right next to Berts books. While Mr. Monroy's books go into step by step detail, Steve Caplins book shows the shortcuts that become invaluable time savers when working in this type of medium. And there are serious plusses here. Beside the standard CD with images to use to work through the lessons, some of the more complicated lessons have video instruction that make what he is trying to convey much easier to follow. But my favorite thing about this book is that it is set up as a reference book. If you need to "match the head to the body", there is a heading and a two page "how to". Sections include: Selecting, Hiding and Showing, Composing the Scene, Light and Shade, Heads and Bodies, Shiny Surfaces, Metal, Wood and Stone, Paper and Fabric, The Third Dimension and Hyper Realism. But again, this book is set up like a reference book. It's not really intended to be started on page one and worked through. It's like Scott Kelby's great "Down and Dirty" books. So who should buy this book? If you are not into Photorealism, stay away. And although the lessions are well written and some even have video instruction, I am not sure if I would recommend this book to PS novices. The book is definitely written with the assumption that you have a certain level of knowledge of PS. But I really am enjoying this book. I can't remember thinking a book was this cool since I read Photoshop Channel Chops! This book is going to get used a lot.