Dec 10, 2008, 07:06
1) A good starter: Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=s...int+system It is a great intro for somebody not having a clue how to start with potoshop. It walks you through a workflow and through repetition working on provided images and following the book, you slowly learn some basics steps of a typical workflow. It is not best for situations where you wish to solve a specific problem or when you wish to understand concepts or to understand what individual commands and subcomands do. I agree Jules that this is a good book to start with.
2) Another good book to follow up with is another book by Scott Kelby that I have. I have an old version, this is the new one (The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers www.amazon.ca/Adobe-Photoshop-Book-Digital-Photographers/... ). The strength of this book is that it gives you recipes on how to solve specific problems, but it does not walk you through the workflow and it may be a hard book to start with, if you are a newbie to PS. It does not really explain commands all that well. It is a good book to learn which of the many possible options for solutions to try first when you have a specific problem. The flip side of this book, the weakness, if you like is that it is a recipe, but it does not really give you sufficient insight into what you are doing. Next time when you have similar problem but slightly different, you may not get enough out of it to know how to modify. Unlike the 7 point system, this is a book you may end up revisiting often. It is a good "how to" reference.
3) My current favourite is Photoshop CS3 Bible (Paperback) by Laurie Ulrich Fuller (Author), Robert C. Fuller (Author) www.amazon.ca/Photoshop-Bible-Laurie-Ulrich-Fuller/dp/047.... This is a book I am usingthe most currently. It explains in good level of detail and quite clearly what each command does, what are the options and subcommands and when is each of these commands most useful. It is probably not the best book to start it for those not used to thick instruction manuals, but for those that used to earlier user manuals for software this is a very rewarding book. Suddenly Scott Kelby books make sense - you just look up his strategies, rather than his specific strokes. You can also come up with your own strategies based on conceptual understanding. A similar source is available as a user manual on Adobe website for PS4 and I use that often too instead of the Bible. The Bible is a bit more wordy and seems to contain more advice. The Adobe is a striped down user manual. I think that at least one of these 2 sources are essential for somebody serious about learning photoshop. This is a true reference. As I learn new features of CS4, I read (or at least skim) the relevant chapter in the Bible.
4) Finally, if you wish to learn more on the general imaging theory, this is a good source. www.123di.com/
I hope that this is is useful to somebody out there, although most of you guys on thi site know more than I do.
Pavel
Pavel
2) Another good book to follow up with is another book by Scott Kelby that I have. I have an old version, this is the new one (The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers www.amazon.ca/Adobe-Photoshop-Book-Digital-Photographers/... ). The strength of this book is that it gives you recipes on how to solve specific problems, but it does not walk you through the workflow and it may be a hard book to start with, if you are a newbie to PS. It does not really explain commands all that well. It is a good book to learn which of the many possible options for solutions to try first when you have a specific problem. The flip side of this book, the weakness, if you like is that it is a recipe, but it does not really give you sufficient insight into what you are doing. Next time when you have similar problem but slightly different, you may not get enough out of it to know how to modify. Unlike the 7 point system, this is a book you may end up revisiting often. It is a good "how to" reference.
3) My current favourite is Photoshop CS3 Bible (Paperback) by Laurie Ulrich Fuller (Author), Robert C. Fuller (Author) www.amazon.ca/Photoshop-Bible-Laurie-Ulrich-Fuller/dp/047.... This is a book I am usingthe most currently. It explains in good level of detail and quite clearly what each command does, what are the options and subcommands and when is each of these commands most useful. It is probably not the best book to start it for those not used to thick instruction manuals, but for those that used to earlier user manuals for software this is a very rewarding book. Suddenly Scott Kelby books make sense - you just look up his strategies, rather than his specific strokes. You can also come up with your own strategies based on conceptual understanding. A similar source is available as a user manual on Adobe website for PS4 and I use that often too instead of the Bible. The Bible is a bit more wordy and seems to contain more advice. The Adobe is a striped down user manual. I think that at least one of these 2 sources are essential for somebody serious about learning photoshop. This is a true reference. As I learn new features of CS4, I read (or at least skim) the relevant chapter in the Bible.
4) Finally, if you wish to learn more on the general imaging theory, this is a good source. www.123di.com/
I hope that this is is useful to somebody out there, although most of you guys on thi site know more than I do.
Pavel
Pavel
Please see my photos at http://mullerpavel.smugmug.com (fewer, better image quality, not updated lately)
or at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavel_photophile2008/ (all photos)