Photoshop Classic Effects: The Essential Effects Every User Needs to Know

During my sophomore year in college, I had an internship opportunity with Trump Marina assisting an in-house graphic designer with various ads. At that time, my Photoshop skills were limited and I did not know how to create those simple yet useful effects to make my graphic design more appealing. As a result, both my internship and my desire to be a graphic designer ended that summer. If I had read Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Classic Effects back then, I wouldn’t have disliked graphic design so much; however, I am still glad that I have focused my energy on the web.

Before delving into each project in the book, I glance at the final piece and use my own methods to see if I can come up with the same result. Of course, there are many different ways to come up with the same effects in Photoshop; however, I find Kelby’s techniques to be more concise, simplier, and faster. Time is money so if I can come up with the same effects in lesser amount of time, why not following his methods?

Kelby has done a great job of keeping his instructions clear, easy, intuitive, and with a sense of humor. Furthermore, he has selected effects that I had always wanted to know when I first stepping into the graphic design era. Although I work mainly on the web and have been using Photoshop for years, I still find Photoshop Classic Effects to be an invaluable resource for quick and simple tasks.

Now that I am looking at my bookshelf, I am surprised that there is no book on Photoshop. Well, Classic Effects will be the first one. So if you’re looking into becoming a graphic designer whether creating magazines, brochures, banners or even web graphics, pick up this book – especially students – to save you the miseries I went through when I first started out. Kelby has written a classic Photoshop book with this one.