Just bought Photoshop

I just purchased Adobe Creative Suite Premium from the university for a class I'm taking. I won't tell you how much I "didn't" pay for it since I got the student licensing edition for a song.....

But anyway, I'll be using InDesign for my class, but it also has Photoshop in it too.

I'd like to learn to use Photoshop. Can any of you recommend a good instructional/reference book?

Scott Kelby's PSCS2 Book for Digital Photographers

Here is a thread about other resources...

Adobe's "Classroom In a Book" is decent if you have no experience with the program and want to learn it in some depth. It will cover all sorts of things that impatient divers don't want to know however, like using type, vector based tools, pre-press issues,web stuff--like that. Still, it does lay a good foundation for really understanding the software instead of just using it for simple corrections.

The PS "WOW" type books are ok but don't give you as much background or basis for really understanding the software (IMHO). If you just want to make UW pics less blue etc. PS for Dummies (no offense) kinds of books can do that for you.

You mentioned "the university" and a class you are taking. What text is used for PS classes being taught there? Any chance of taking a class, maybe a community ed one? PS can be a bit like learning a musical instrument--lessons help more than books in the begining (that and PRACTICE,PRACTICE,PRACTICE). People can be self-taught of course but you can get farther, faster with some classes or workshops. Other SB'ers will know of books that have helped them, I just happened to get a lot of mileage from the Adobe texts in the classes I taught.

Hi,

I recently bought Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques by Ben Willmore. I highly recommend it, its not like most other photoshop books that tell you everything step by step (it does that too though) and leave it at that, but it really tries to teach you the way photoshop actually works. In short, it teaches you the how but when youre reading it you also understand the "why" behind photoshop. It also comes with a CD that goes along with the book so you can work on the images that are in the book as you go along with it too. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosh...=pd_bbs_1/104-5184185-6005548?ie=UTF8&s=books

Diver Lori:

I just purchased Adobe Creative Suite Premium from the university for a class I'm taking. I won't tell you how much I "didn't" pay for it since I got the student licensing edition for a song.....

But anyway, I'll be using InDesign for my class, but it also has Photoshop in it too.

I'd like to learn to use Photoshop. Can any of you recommend a good instructional/reference book?

Click to expand...

Great info, everyone...this thread has just been added to our ever-growing UW Photo information sticky!

Thanks for all the tips. I'll check out Amazon for the titles. I also took a look at HP's online freebie classes. I may sign up for one of those too since they are free.

Lori:

I own all of the above titles. My "win" vote by three lengths would go to Ben Willmore's "Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques" I had false starts with several books before I got off the ground with Ben's. My "place" vote would go to Kelby's "Photoshop CS2 Book For Digital Photographers." My "show" vote is the "Classroom in a Book" .... frankly, I did not get a lot out of it.

Out of curiosity, I recently bought "Adobe Photoshop For Underwater Photographers" by Jack and Sue Drafahl (August 2006 first release so it is literally hot off the press). This book assumes you already know something about Photoshop and the basic tools and then does a good job of pointing you in the direction of those tools that apply to UW photo issues. I would not start with this book but it is a good buy once you have some basic Photoshop skills and are looking to sharpen your UW work.

Hope this helps.

---Bob

Thanks for the info on the Drafahl book Bob - I've been contemplating buying it.Do they cover things like noisware and other plugins that are available ?

I have Willmore and was a little disappointed for exactly the reasons others liked it. I thought it assumed too much knowledge of actual procedures and went into the why more than I needed. I saw Kelby and should have bought it. It has lots of practical projects that will show you step by step how to do certain operations. For example, if you want to adjust the light levels on different parts of a picture and then put it together again, Kelby goes through it step by step, Willmore just gives you generalities and what tools to use. Go for Kelby first.

AndyT:

Thanks for the info on the Drafahl book Bob - I've been contemplating buying it.Do they cover things like noisware and other plugins that are available ?

Click to expand...

They have a whole section devoted to their favorite plug ins and how they use them on UW shots.

---Bob