» Total Training Adobe Photoshop CS2 (PC & Mac) (DVD)

Total Training Adobe Photoshop CS2 (PC & Mac) (DVD) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: helpful
Comment: extremely helpful...very user friendly...allowed me to work and learn on my own! I would use this creator again and again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: In a word - excellent!
Comment: I'm completing a Grad. Cert in ICT and needed to learn Photoshop both quickly and easily. Note: I had never used Photoshop before. This training product was exactly what I needed, taking me through the basics to advanced levels step by step.

Benefits
The instructions given were very thorough, detailed and made all the more easier because I was able to see Deke (a Photoshop Hall of Famer) perform every technique before I had to do them myself. The three DVDs cover just about everything and anything you could wish for regarding CS2 - from setting up Photoshop to using layers to using the Vanishing Point Filter. Finally, all of the required photos that I worked on were contained within the DVDs - which was great - meaning I didn't have to search for support files via the internet as you often have to with a book. I will never use another self help book again if I can find a training DVD of the quality of this one!

Costs
A big disadvantage is the cost of this product - around $250-$300 (Australian). Yep, books definately come cheaper, but having said this books cannot explain verbally what you have to do or show you! As one reviewer has already noted - Deke's habit of repeatedly stating the shortcut keys for both the Mac and PC does get annoying!

Overall
AWESOME!!! And ... I really enjoyed Deke's friendly banter, his use Renaissance props and his references to Leonardo De Vinci!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: What's Control on an Apple again please?
Comment: I fully agree with Funbear's review, which is a good one and full of remarks I think Mr McClelland should consider. Including the making of personalised dvds, moduled on different designer's needs.

I teach a number of Adobe programs; I review a lot of materials in order to recommend it to my students. I think Mr McClelland's books and dvds are generally good. I would like to add to Funbear's remarks the following:
1) the obsessive repeat of the difference between the PC and Apple keys is not necessary. For someone who's made it past the first tutorial, that difference is already clear. So no need to repeat it several times per tutorial, up to the last dvd.
2) since most of the material is addressing adults, it can become annoying to hear childish theatrical narration
4) what is obvious visually need not be translated into words. If you chose a red, we can see it's a red and that needs no extra explanation
4) Mr McClelland has a "head/nasal" voice; it can be very tiring to listen to a 30+ minutes tutorial given by such a voice; economy with dubious jokes would be recommended
5) I personally find it bad taste to use family photos and personal information as material for tutorials. I really don't need to see Mr McClelland's kids, nephew, wife, sister in law, garden, house, holidays. There's plenty of stock photography which could be used instead.
6) I really don't like someone I don't know calling me "my friend". I didn't think the tutorials are for children or old beer buddies
7) Most of my students are adults and often with a computer background and certainly an art/visual training. I would like to see tutorials out there that covered an individual's way of working, way of thinking and approaching a graphic subject.
From my 9 years teaching experience (true, part time, the rest is working with these programs) I have learned that students need not only to hear what a button does but how to "think in digital" and how to develop strategies of working in DTP, digital photography and the rest of the jazz.
As an example I could give a British film director which in the 90s was influenced by the language of After FX and Premiere. He attended my private tutorials and used the visual style in some of his following films. I didn't show him how to hold down shift and control (on a PC!) because he was interested in the visual possibilities. Then he hired one of my students.

On the whole, Mr McClelland is doing a good job, I hope our feedback here will be of some help.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very good, thorough training.
Comment: These guys do a great job in all of their videos, and this one is no exception. Highly effective and easy to follow training.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Please be aware
Comment: Before you decide to spend $300 on this training series, please be aware that the pen tool is NOT covered.The instructor mentions it in passing, and then tells you that he went over the pen tool in the Adobe Illustrator course, implying that if you need to learn this tool, you should purchase that course too (another $200). If you need to get precise selections, the pen is the most important tool in this software and should be included. This omission is a major flaw in the course.

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