Kelby's CS5 book

[Jeremy Roussak]

Or The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter), to give it its full title.

Has anyone looked at this? Is it any good? Should I / would you (a) buy it; (b) wait for the Evening/Schewe magnum opus to arrive and buy that; or (c) do both?

Jeremy

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Personally, I'd wait for the Evening/Schewe book, hoping to see more of The Man in his shirts and on his BMW. But that's just me. 
I haven't actually looked at the Kelby book, so my recommendation is in total, objective ignorance.

Eric

[francois]

I'm with Eric, I'll wait for the "Book" from Jeff Schewe and Martin Evening.

[Josh-H]

+1 - their CS4 book was excellent.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Personally, I'd wait for the Evening/Schewe book, hoping to see more of The Man in his shirts and on his BMW. But that's just me. 
I haven't actually looked at the Kelby book, so my recommendation is in total, objective ignorance.

Eric

I"ve been watching the LR3 videos, Eric. I've seen enough of Jeff's shirts to last me for a considerable while!

Still, it's nice to see someone making an assertion in ignorance and acknowledging the ignorance. There are people around here who could learn from you.

I'll wait. It shouldn't be long now, I hope.

Jeremy

[mas55101]

I use Kelby's books 'til they fall apart.  I can't get through more than a few pages of Evening.

[Paul Sumi]

FWIW, I bought both Evening's and Kelby's books for Photoshop CS.  Since then I got Kelby's book for CS3 and now for CS5. 

There is a certain amount of carried-over information in each of Kelby's editions.  However, IMO, the new information made getting each succeeding version worthwhile for me.

Paul

[jgbowerman]

The two authors, Kelby and Evening, have completely different styles of writing. I definitely prefer Evening. I get tired of Kelby's humor, but others will find his writing style easier to read. Kelby injects more of his methodology whereas Evening provides a more comprehensive explanation allowing the reader to adapt their own methodology. I preferred Kelby when I was first learning Lightroom, but I never cared much for his Photoshop publications.

If you want to brush up on Photoshop and learn what's new at the same time with CS5, by all means, read Evening's publication: Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: a professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC.

I have read it, twice, and it is outstanding. I plan to read his upcoming more advanced book on CS5 co-authored with Schewe. According to Schewe, this edition, unlike the CS4 edition, applies more to Landscape photography. I returned Evenings advanced CS4 edition because it was primarily geared towards studio setups.

Edit clarification: The yet-to-be-released book by Evening and Schewe: Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop

[dgberg]

I use Kelby's books 'til they fall apart.  I can't get through more than a few pages of Evening.

For some reason Kelby seems like he has to sound funny! Martin is an educator without all the side barbs.
In the end they both are good at what they do.

[mistybreeze]

For some reason Kelby seems like he has to sound funny!

It seems Kelby always had a longing to be recognized as an entertainer but, with acne, couldn't go very far. He managed to find a different kind of stage to perform on. Whatever his longings, Kelby is a success. A pamphlet advertising NAPP was included in my Adobe CS5 Design Premium box. Adobe shows Kelby some love.

I joined NAPP in the early days and quickly got turned off by the circus-like effort. I got the impression the "show" was far more important than the learning experience and I eventually let my membership expire.

I'm attracted to teachers who won't let their "schtick" dominate the learning experience. Schewe is the exception because I think his talent as a photographer/artist and his genius mind trump all else.

Evening's beauty images seem to be stuck in the 80's but he's an excellent teacher, an excellent writer, he's an accomplished professional photographer, and he's a hell-of-a nice guy. Evening has personality but it never gets in the way of the learning experience.

My new love is George Jardine. A friend turned me on to his new Lightroom 3 tutorial (http://mulita.com/blog/?page_id=2) and I've never been more impressed. The quality of Jardine's learning experience is far superior to anything I've seen. And his talent as a professional photographer allows us to see our work in his. As George manipulates his images, it's easy to imagine ourselves working on a similar image in our own library. I'm most impressed with the production quality of Jardine's videos. Even on a very large screen, the images are crisp, clear, and his cursor is easy to follow. Jardine's voice is soothing, too. He shows plenty of personality in his voice but it never gets in the way of learning experience. Not a second of schtick. I can't praise Jardine's videos highly enough.