When you buy an expensive, professional program like Photoshop cS6, it is worth the time and expense to learn the ins and outs in an organized fashion. Sure, you can use what is self-evident and intuitive, but you won’t get anywhere near the full value of the product. Also, you will waste lots of time, unnecessarily.

Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS6 book supplies this needed methodical training for digital photographers. The book is well made, with tons of enlightening, beautiful color photos printed on nice, glossy paper. The chapters allow you to pick and choose areas of expertise. You aren’t required to follow the book from A to Z. Instructions are clear and processes are broken down into logical steps that work. The “Photoshop Killer Tips” at the end of each chapter are worth the price of the book.

This book may be overkill for some. Not everyone shoots and edits video clips or creates HDR images (if you don’t know what they are you probably don’t need this chapter). However, the content provides enough valuable instruction to merit the purchase by amateurs, as well as professionals. For example, your female subjects would really appreciate retouching to soften skin and remove blemishes but also to sharpen and add contrast and brightness to eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes. Also, if you don’t know how to use “content-aware fill” you’re missing something very important!

A nice extra is that Kelby has a sense of humor, and incorporates a tough of weirdness in this book. Each Chapter has a short intro that really doesn’t relate to the Chapter. These few paragraphs are a bit of Kelby’s “stream of consciousness.”

Note: the introduction preceding Chapter one entitled, “Seven Things You’ll Wish You Had Known Before Reading This Book,” gives you a link to the Kelby Training website where you can download images allowing you to follow along with the book, at no extra cost, of course. This eliminates the need for including a CD in the book, and vastly improves the instruction. ( )