Listen up Photoshop users. There’s a new book out there for your unanswered artistic questions. Looking for a book to give you step-by-step examples and in-depth uses of your tools? This is it. The Art of Photoshop by Daniel Giordan will give you incredible guidance to your work.
Giordan reviews something like twenty different images he and his team have put together. Count on explicit instruction on every step taken to complete the image. You get a glimpse of so many Photoshop tools and you will discover a wide variety of uses for each tool. You’ll learn about gradient maps and different blending modes. You’ll build custom brushes and enhance your drawing and painting tools. There are many helpful pages scattered throughout this book. For example, in chapter one you’ll find twelve selection shortcut modifiers and what they are best used for. Selection modifiers give you a lot of leeway as to how you want to alter your image.
This book is easy to navigate and a smooth read. As you begin your journey through this book you’ll notice the color-coded chapters and consistent layout throughout the book. If you are out searching Amazon.com for a book and you run across The Art of Photoshop, you will discover you can “look inside” this book. Don’t let Amazon’s selection of pages from this text fool you. The excerpts display almost all text but they fail to display any of the helpful pictures, illustrations and diagrams to guide you through your own work.
In the beginning, The Art of Photoshop displays a mini gallery of all the images Giordan and his team put together. Throughout this book, the images are stripped down and dissected piece-by-piece. When you have finished reading this book you will have no questions as to how any of those images where put together. I have learned that there is no better way to show how Photoshop tools work than to display images and break it down and show step-by-step instruction. It is up to the user to figure out how to apply it their own work. But before you begin, read the Preface and I guarantee you will be inspired to create your own work. Giordan has done a great job of targeting the markets curiosity for an easy understanding for Photoshop.
If you have had your hands on Photoshop before, you will love the guidance this book serves. You will learn the techniques that Giordan uses and learn how to apply them. This book is strongly recommended for those who want to take a new perceptive look at Photoshop.

The Art of Photoshop by Daniel Giordan. Sams Publishing, 2003, 303 pages. $50.