Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months; beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell; it is essential reading for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delightmdash;always empathizing with his students and urging them onward; provoking emotion; laughter; and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack; director of Out of Africa and Tootsie; who worked with Meisner for five years."This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisners way of teaching; it is the straight goods."mdash;Arthur Miller"If there is a key to good acting; this one is it; above all others. Actors; young and not so young; will find inspiration and excitement in this book."mdash;Gregory Peck
#575549 in eBooks 2012-08-06 2012-08-06File Name: B009P37A4C
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Well written. concise and helpful - but not for the Photoshop newbieBy PaganSpiritThe book description states it is ldquo;the essential reference for photographers of all levels using Photoshop.rdquo; I respectfully disagree. This book is not for people new to Photoshop and newbies will likely get lost and frustrated if this is their first jaunt into figuring out the many amazing facets of PS. and I would hardly call this an essential reference (the crappy index ruins that). Having said that. if you have experience in PS. it offers some great tips and is definitely worth the read. If you are an intermediate (as I am) or advanced user. you likely will find some helpful tools in this large 700+ page book thatrsquo;s well illustrated.Here is my personal opinion after having just finished reading this book. and why I consider it to be average rather than super good or super bad:bull; Index is woefully lacking. which renders this less useful as the resource book it purports to bebull; You MUST have some experience with PS ndash; some concepts are simply mentioned with nothing further. and if you donrsquo;t know what they are you will have to look elsewhere to figure out what the author is talking about ndash; it is written as if the reader has at least an operational knowledge of PS (just as one example. the author briefly mentions alpha channels and how they are similar to mask channels. but does not go into detail on either ndash; if you donrsquo;t know what channels are. you will not get an in-depth explanation of that here)bull; The book contains some great information and tips on structuring workflow from capturing the image all the way to printbull; The writing is concise and in short enough blocks that it is easy to read a while. practice. take a break. then read a little morebull; The images and many of the examples are great. and some of the images are available online to download and practice yourselfbull; There are many points when the author says ldquo;for more information go to the website and read pdf blah blah blahrdquo; ndash; so be prepared to have to use supplemental materials from the web that are not included in the book (not my favorite task)bull; There is a HUGE amount of material and reference for using Camera Raw (in fact a nearly 140-page Chapter 3 is nothing but raw. which is about 20% of the book. and then raw is mentioned sporadically throughout after) ndash; if you only shoot in jpeg or you use some other process and will not use Camera Raw. just know that probably 25% of the book is devoted to raw processing. and the authorrsquo;s thinking seems to be that much of what needs to be done to an image should happen in Camera Raw before it even gets into PS for further editing (a point with which I happen to agree. but only because I shoot raw and use Camera Raw to process my photos)bull; Finally. Irsquo;m both an intermediate user of PS and a fairly adept photographer. and I donrsquo;t believe this is the best that could be created for a photographer ndash; I know in my circle of photographer friends. they are more interested in shooting than photoshopping. and so a book written in the style of a McClelland or Kelby might be more suitable for those individuals who just want to know what settings to use without the why. and without all the history about the evolution of PS and how things came to be as in PS6 this author sprinkles throughout the bookAll in all this is a good book. and a decent read. Irsquo;m glad I read it and I learned several things that I now routinely use. and the workflow information and the raw information (for me. since I always shoot raw and use Camera Raw) were the most helpful.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. My "go to" reference for Photoshop applied to photographyBy GaiasJewelsI have used Classroom in a Book and similar tutorial and reference books for Photoshop and think of myself as being very proficient in using the basic tools Photoshop has to offer but this is by FAR the BEST reference book for Photoshop as applied to working with photographs and feel that reading it has taken my skills to the next level.Mr. Evening explains the "whys" and in many cases the history behind the vast tools and technologies available in Photoshop. He explains the nuances of various approaches available in accomplishing a desired end-result. later allowing me to make much better decisions as to my choice of tools and general approach for my given situation. Very powerful!The book is well-organized so that its easy to find information on the fly. The screen shots are well-done and very useful.I recommend this comprehensive reference for anyone who takes photo editing in Photoshop seriously. The knowledge will probably save you a lot of time in the long run. It has for me! :-)6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Missing FilesBy Scott ODThe book is well written and easy to follow. I got my copy yesterday and wanted to jump right in. The only problem was apparently. previous versions of the book came with a DVD so you could follow along with the lessons using the same photos as the author. Now you have to have a password and log on from the book to access them. The difficulty for me was they are zipped and I get an error 22 when I try to unzip them. Did anyone else have this problem? I wrote to the publisher at the address supplied and my email bounced back. It would be great to have access to these files but probably not completely necessary to get something from reading the book.Edit - The missing file problem seems to be a MAC issue. but the book is geared to those with both MACs and PCs so this issue should be addressed. My friend with a PC was able to download. Publisher never did contact me even though I wrote to them.
