Down & Dirty Tricks in Photoshop by Scott Kelby is a great book to have on your desk for frequent perusal and use. This is one of the few books out there that you can find that will actually run you through the "real world" tricks that you see in everyday advertisements. At 337 pages it honestly is not that long, but it is packed with super tips that you may have either scratched your head at how to do or, had a much greater/longer workflow to accomplish. This book is full of helpful hints that can get you creating great composite art with the least amount of work.

A great example of this is the lit reflective surface that you see, um, well everywhere in advertising. This tip is advertising chicanery at its best. To be honest, despite my ever expanding knowledge of Photoshop's capabilities, I fully believed that most advertising art was taken on the spot with live props. However, Scott Kelby shows how you can create a very realistic looking reflective table surface to present your product without ever using a table. What's even more interesting is that he does it in four steps. Not only that, by using adjustment layers he provides you with a reflective surface that not only looks great, but also can change colors to suit your need.

I love it when training books provide you with not only fun exercises, but also give you material that has tremendous reuse value. In this sense this book is worth every penny. Another great thing about this book is that it covers an area that is not often broached in Photoshop training books, 3D. Obviously, some this is due to the "newness" factor of 3D in Photoshop. However, the author provides several very real life and useful examples.

This is one book that I will be getting as soon as the next issue of Photoshop does, as with this edition it has proved itself a vital resource.