7-Point System by Scott Kelby

I have bought few more photography books recently, and after reading them, it's time to give my review and share some thoughts, as you consider your Christmas shopping lists or if you're just looking for more ways to improve your photography.

I'll begin with Scott Kelby's "7-point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3". I was a bit skeptical about this book when Scott first announced it, since I feel comfortable with Adobe Photoshop, and with so much information out there about it already, do I really need one more Photoshop book on my shelf? But I am a fan of Scott Kelby, and I decided to get it anyway. You may read what the book is all about on Amazon's page, but I'll share a few thoughts on why you should add the book to your shopping list.

Pros-
Scott's teaching style. I like how Scott teaches. Anybody, including someone who barely started using Adobe Photoshop, can pick up any of his books, and immediately see improvement in his or her images. The 7-point System is written in chronological order, so you really should begin with chapter 1 and proceed accordingly, but his explanations are straightforward from the beginning, and if you already know how to add new layer, well, you'll move faster at the beginning.

Reasons Why. Scott is a excellent teacher when it comes to giving you tips, but what I found is that he doesn't always explain why he uses certain tools, whether he's doing that in his other books or on Photoshop User TV. However, in this book he often pauses and explains why we should use a gradient settings of this kind, or why the layer should be turned off before creating another copy of the background layer. I learn a lot this way.

Lessons You Commit to. I'm about half way through the book, but I'm making constant progress, as it's broken down by lessons and I tackle 1-2 chapters a day. All the images are available for download, and you're working through on them together with Scott. So it's more of a course than it is a book, which is approach I actually prefer.

Variety of Images. Scott takes turns processing all kinds of images, from macros to portraits to landscape, so his System applies to any kind of photography.

His Creative Thinking. Besides reading about Adobe Photoshop technique, I enjoy learning why Scott did what he did on particular image. It gives you a glimpse of his creative process and thinking, a part that is the hardest to develop when it comes to Photography, and to me that's as big of a value than any other aspect of his new book.

Cons-
Incompatibility with other versions of Photoshop. I don't care about this one, since I use Adobe Photoshop CS3, but users of other versions of Photoshop will be disappointed. Scott often uses smart object, smart filters, opens Jpeg's in Adobe RAW, etc., so you won't be able to follow this book unless you have Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Destructive Workflow. Scott flattens his images at least twice before he arrives at a final version. I started doing it more often now, as some changes I don't care about reversing, but I prefer to keep layers in case I want to adjust something later. But this one is easy to overcome - Sft+Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+E and you have the flattened version of the image on top of all you other layers, so this issue is minor.

Using ACR Instead of Lightroom. Scott is a faithful user of Adobe Lightroom, and published a great book about it. However, he uses Adobe Camera RAW for the beginning stages of his 7-steps workflow. Sometimes it creates problems if you're a heavy Lightroom user as I am. For example, it's not as easy to open the same RAW file twice and stack them on top of each other if you're using Lightroom. Others have found a work around it, but it's not as straight forward. Perhaps Scott could have included a chapter on this issue.

Bottom Line-
It’s certainly a great purchase I made, and I highly recommend it. The pros far outweigh the cons. My work flow has improved, and I keep adding knowledge and tools that help my own creative process with each chapter I read.

Finally, here are few examples of before and after images that I processed using Scott's 7-Point System.

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After:

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After:

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