If you're the kind of person who never takes the stairs (even for one floor) when there's a lift, loves filter coffee, but always makes instant and never eats their crusts, then Photoshop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks is the Photoshop book for you. Scott Kelby shows you how to create all those visually stunning effects you see, get excited about and want to emulate, before coming back down to earth and saying to yourself, "that would take far too long", or "I just don't have the skill/talent/knowledge..." And here's the good bit--it's not difficult or time consuming and anyone can do it, even if the only thing you've ever done in Photoshop 7 is spend 10 minutes making your boss look absurd with the liquefy tool.
The effects are explained in four to six easy-to-follow plain-English steps, accompanied by colour screen grab. If you've been impressed by a particular technique--Apple's Aqua-gel effect buttons and type, distressed type, metal effects, water drops, TV scan lines, texture mapping--there's a good chance you'll find something like it in these pages.
There are a few more involved projects, a single-image montage, movie poster and 3-D packaging and an entire chapter is devoted to producing a high-tech interface of the kind that has proliferated on the Web in the last couple of years.
Scott's boundless Photoshop knowledge, friendly style and an abundance of quick tips--one on every page--keep the pace moving fast. If you want to produce stunning effects such as these, but don't have the time to make a decent cup of coffee Photoshop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks is instant gratification. --Ken McMahon