Total Training For Adobe Photoshop 7
With the release of new software, hopefully a slew of new features and functions have been added. New functions and features, means it is going to take time to learn them. To help you out there are usually a large number of companies ready to sell you educational materials to help you learn. Unfortunately, after a few of these “new feature” packages, new users may be lost as to what the basic program can do. Fortunately Total Training has taken the time to go back and teach you all the ins and outs from basic to advanced with their latest DVD series Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 7.
I like Deke McClelland. I like his brand of humor, and I like the sound of his voice. Both of these make learning from him a breeze. When he explains something, you comprehend it easily. I why wouldn’t you? With more than 50 books under his belt, Deke has a superb understanding of Photoshop.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
26 hours of training are organized across 8 DVDs and a CD-ROM full of projects and files for you to follow along with and experiment on your own. Set 1 covers the Fundamentals of Photoshop and includes discussions on basic image editing, creating and using selections and using and creating brushes for creating original work, or touching up photographs.Set 2 – Essential Photoshop, covers the “power tools” in Photoshop including some of the newer tools like the Healing Brush, and an extensive look at the History feature. If you want to learn how layers work, how to create really cool masks (not the kind you wear silly), or how to create your own custom shapes and paths, then you will want to spend a great deal of time exploring this series. If you have been following along with David Nagel’s free Photoshop shapes collection, you should be able to begin building your own after this DVD set.
Set 3 – Photoshop at Its Best (the final set) does just as the title suggests, covering how to take Photoshop to its extreme. Color Correction, Creating Type, using Adjustment Layers, and for the print people, how to get the best color and resolution when you are going to press.
While I really enjoyed the collection, it does seem like a great deal of time is spent on some features of Photoshop that you may not use all that often. Spending an hour on the History Brush alone seemed a little excessive. There are also some other things missing that I was hoping would be covered, namely creating graphics for the web, and Image Ready. However, both of those are covered on a different DVD collection.
If you haven’t had much experience with Photoshop, then you will get a lot of great information from this series. This DVD collection is a great addition to your production reference library. The price is great too, coming in at $249.
For more information, visit www.totaltraining.com
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
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