Adobe Photoshop CS – One-on-One, By Deke McClelland, Deke Press - O'Reilly, Cambridge, Ma.

Adobe Photoshop CS (APCS) – One-on-One (OoO) is a hefty, 465 page, soft-cover book ($39.95) written with a two-fold purpose: 1) a detailed explanation of Adobe Photoshop CS; 2) detailed hands-on tutorials for mastering the complex manifold manipulations possible with this software.

First, APCS is Adobe's current version of its evergreen graphic editing software. The CS in the title stands for Complete Suite; APCS comes as a stand-alone package or as part of a suite of Adobe graphic software that includes Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe GoLive CS, etc.

As most who have dabbled in graphic editing software know, Photoshop is the world-wide premier software for professionals because of its versatility and range of graphic manipulations. But also, as most who have tried know, mastering Photoshop is tantamount to winning a wrestling match with an 800 lb. gorilla; one needs a lot of help.

So, there are many books and other types of tutorial material around … most of which, I've found, unhelpful in the end. I do, however, have a few books on Photoshop, Vers. 4-6, which are super excellent. OoO sits on top of the list.

The book contains twelve lessons, each made up of three to six exercises, illustrated with more than 600 photos, diagrams and screen shots. These screen shots, being actual color views of the softwares' monitor outputs, help immensely with an understanding of the topic addressed The step-by-step lessons run through some well-known thorny issues like Highlights, Midtowns and Shadows; Correcting Color Balance; Creating and Applying Masks; Building Layered Compositions; Printing and Output. Both beginners and the most experienced Photoshop Users will find OoO interesting and instructive.

And if this were all there was to the OoO package, it would rate Excellent. OoO, however, also comes with a CD that gives life and sparkle to the overall tutorial impact. The CD contains 12, preparatory, Video Lessons, presented by Deke McClelland. Yes, Mr. McClelland is an Adobe Certified Expert … but the genius of him lies in the insights, and the logiccal sequence and tutorial clarity of his presentations. He is a captivating fellow to listen to.

I don't have APCS, but I do have Adobe Ver. 7. I tried a number of the lessons, and found that I could work through and replicate OoO instruction on most all of the important aspects in the lessons. Of course there were new, useful, APCS features I could not effect, but many of these, which I came upon, had to do with expediting graphic actions.

I would recommend OoO for beneficially studying computer graphics even to those users owning some graphic editor other than Photoshop but interested in graphic editing. As an example, the chapter How to Read and Respond to a Histogram, containing a section Correcting with Curves, is a lucid explanation of these befuddling topics.

To really appreciate OoO, one must experience the Deke McClelland videos. Therefore, I plan to show some at a future BPCA General Meeting.