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Mike Gondek reviews Total Training Photoshop CS

COW Library : Mike Gondek : Mike Gondek reviews Total Training Photoshop CS
Mike Gondek reviews Total Training Photoshop CS
A CreativeCOW Training Product Review
Mike Gondek takes a look at Total Training's AE 6
Mike Gondek Mike Gondek
mikegondek.com
Orland Park, Illinois USA

©2003 by Mike Gondek and CreativeCOW.net. All rights are reserved.


Article Focus:
Adobe has updated Photoshop to version 8, officially known as Photoshop CS. Total Training is on top of the situation bringing what Mike Gondek considers the best Photoshop training resource available.


 

Content

 

PROGRAM 1: Adobe Photoshop Fundamentals
Lesson 1: What Adobe Photoshop Can Do
Lesson 2: Launch & Prep
Lesson 3: The File Browser
Lesson 4: Workspace & Navigation
Lesson 5: Image Resolution
Lesson 6: Rotate & Crop

PROGRAM 2: Color Correction & Camera Raw
Lesson 1: Color Cast & Matching
Lesson 2: Hue Shift & Colorize
Lesson 3: Auto Corrections & Levels
Lesson 4: Curves, Shadows & Highlights
Lesson 5: Adjustment Layers & 16-Bit
Lesson 6: Camera Raw

PROGRAM 3: Select, Paint & Edit
Lesson 1: Selection Basics
Lesson 2: Smart Selections
Lesson 3: Working with Brushes
Lesson 4: Dodge, Burn, Smudge & Sponge
Lesson 5: Clone, Heal & Patch
Lesson 6: Replacing Colors

PROGRAM 4: Layers, Blends & Channels
Lesson 1: Introducing Layers
Lesson 2: Links, Sets & Comps
Lesson 3: Opacity & Blend Mode
Lesson 4: Layer Styles
Lesson 5: Masks & Channels
Lesson 6: Working with Spot Colors

PROGRAM 5: Filters & Distortions
Lesson 1: Filter Basics
Lesson 2: Simulating Sharper Focus
Lesson 3: Blurring & Averaging
Lesson 4: Filters & Masks
Lesson 5: Painting with Filters
Lesson 6: Liquify

PROGRAM 6: Text, Vectors & Output
Lesson 1: Type Basics
Lesson 2: Specialty Type
Lesson 3: Editable Type Effects
Lesson 4: Vector-Based Shapes
Lesson 5: Panoramas & Slideshows
Lesson 6: Printing & Packaging

BONUS DISC
Lesson 1: Fill, Stroke & Color
Lesson 2: Using History
Lesson 3: Advanced Blending
Lesson 4: Knockouts & Dropouts
Lesson 5: Basic Color Theory
Lesson 6: Color Management
Lesson 7: Actions

What You Get

 

  • 6 DVD's of fresh new content on Photoshop CS
  • Bonus DVD with Photoshop 7 content
  • DVD of project files
  • 43 lessons in total organized very well by topics

Deke is back to entertain us with Photoshop training from his casino parlor. His crap table jokes are actually starting to get funny and I even looked forward to many of them. Everyone who uses Photoshop should know how to take advantage of Auto Levels, Color, Contrast. Deke explains very well the difference between them, and how they actually work. His samples are very easy to understand, and he covers most every topic in Photoshop on these DVD's.

To have created Photoshop CS training while it was in beta deserves a huge round of applause for Deke and the team at Total Training. The new features such as Camera Raw, Photo Montage, Shadow Highlight, Layer Comps are all covered here. It takes much effort on the part of Deke to create this content, and to bring it to us so quickly, along with his Illustrator CS training.

If you have been struggling with color management, then Deke will get you set up covering the most fundamental and important issues of color management. That can get to be such a huge topic, and it puzzles and aggravates many of us. Mac OS 10.3 just came out, and they did change much in the display control panel, but total training's coverage of the 10.2 version will help you understand how to get by the new improved 10.3 version.

Who is this for
Everyone from beginner to advanced will find something here. Advanced users might be wanting more projects such as how to create "amazing" liquid type using the Satin (not Satan) layer effect. You will find solutions to the most fundamental issues of video, web, and prepress, but IRE, dot gain, and mac versus pc web issues are not thoroughly covered, because there is so much other content to cover on these 7 DVD's.

I myself have been using Photoshop daily since it was originally barneyscan XP. My girlfriend is new to Photoshop and she said "For never using Photoshop before I found the DVD's very informative". She watched all of them with me so I think that everyone will utilize these DVD's.

Deke is one of the best trainers out there and his content is amazingly road tested and presented because of this. The guy really does not have to improve at all, but if he did would recommend some of the obscure real world a pressman, broadcast editor might encounter. You will learn many new tricks from these DVD's. Deke shows most of the tricks I know, he is amazing.

 

Summary

There is a lot to watch here, but I strongly recommend to get this, if you have not seen a Total Training Photoshop series before.

If you use Photoshop at work, and you want to keep up with everyone else, this is the quickest and best way.

The newer content is even better than the Photoshop 7 series and $299 is not really that bad to invest, if you are working professionally in computer graphics. Deke really shares valuable information and I give 4.5 cows.





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