Book Recommendations for CS/CS2

I’ve been using PS Elements for a couple of years, off and on, and am just starting with CS (maybe upgrading to CS2, but that’s another post). I’m particularly interested in applications to photography, and especially enhancing / restoring scans of old family photos. So I’m looking for a book to help me up the imposing learning curve, hopefully by focusing on my target application. The following looked interesting on the local bookshelves. Any comments? Further recommendations? Any suggestions for a general Photoshop book?

Adobe Photoshop CS2: Photographer’s Guide, David D. Busch.
The Photoshop CS2 book for digital photographers, Scott Kelby
Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers, Martin Evening

For what it’s worth, the Evening looked most appealing, then the Kelby.

I’m particularly interested in applications to photography

especially enhancing / restoring scans of old family photos.

especially enhancing / restoring scans of old family photos.

By a wide margin the best book I’ve seen for this is Katrin Eismann’s "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching", http://www.digitalretouch.org/ … unfortunately she omits a lot of really important basic stuff on things like color management (which you really need to know) so it’s not as useful overall as the Evening or Haynes books (IMHO), but she covers restoration and retouching extremely well and it’s the perfect complementary book to one of the other two, I feel.

"Bill Hilton" wrote

By a wide margin the best book I’ve seen for this is Katrin Eismann’s "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching", http://www.digitalretouch.org/

I’ve heard of the Eismann book before. Thanks for pointing me to her website. I’ll peruse the sample chapter and the CS update chapter available for download —

"ggull" wrote in

"Bill Hilton" wrote

By a wide margin the best book I’ve seen for this is Katrin Eismann’s "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching", http://www.digitalretouch.org/

I’ve heard of the Eismann book before. Thanks for pointing me to her website. I’ll peruse the sample chapter and the CS update chapter available for download —

I just noticed on Amazon that there is a 3rd edition due out in October. Oddly enough, this time it’s called "*Adobe* Photoshop…" instead of just "Photoshop…"
Different co-author than the 2nd ed, also.
They don’t give any further info, so no idea if goes any further than just having the CS update chapter, but I figure I’ll wait until that comes out. I’ve got plenty to learn about PS in the meanwhile :-).

gull wrote:

Katrin Eismann’s "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching", http://www.digitalretouch.org/

I just noticed on Amazon that there is a 3rd edition due out in October. Oddly enough, this time it’s called "*Adobe* Photoshop…" instead of just
"Photoshop…"
Different co-author than the 2nd ed, also.

I find Photocopy Restoration & Retouching 2nd edition much better than her Masking book. The Masking book tends to be choppy in coverage, some areas are done well but some so so.

These authors tend to rush to print
so they can put the newest PS revision in their title. The revised editions tend to be much better, probably after they have digested the new features in PS. Check how many more pages are added in Restoration’s 3rd edition and you will see what I mean.

ggull wrote …

What’s not clear is if 3rd will just be 2nd with the extra chapter bound in or whether it’s edited throughout to incorporate PS CS

ggull wrote …

What’s not clear is if 3rd will just be 2nd with the extra chapter bound in or whether it’s edited throughout to incorporate PS CS

I’m pretty sure the original book was written when V 7 was out. When CS came out she had some extra download stuff on new features like the healing brush, and then the 2nd edition was for CS, with some other new material added (2nd edition is about 90 pages longer than the first). So it seems reasonable that the 3rd edition will have new stuff on CS2 plus whatever else she’s added. The principles are the same from edition to edition, it’s just that new editions seem to add a few things to take advantage of the latest version of Photoshop.
Anyway if you have CS then the 2nd edition will be perfect for your needs.

wrote in message

gull wrote:

Katrin Eismann’s "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching", http://www.digitalretouch.org/

…

I just noticed on Amazon that there is a 3rd edition due out in October. Oddly enough, this time it’s called "*Adobe* Photoshop…" instead of just
"Photoshop…"
Different co-author than the 2nd ed, also.

I find Photocopy Restoration & Retouching 2nd edition much better than her Masking book. The Masking book tends to be choppy in coverage, some areas are done well but some so so.

? Is this a general comment, or responding to something I said? just confused here.
I think the Masking book is too focussed for my purposes.

These authors tend to rush to print
so they can put the newest PS revision in their title. The revised editions tend to be much better, probably after they have digested the new features in PS. Check how many more pages are added in Restoration’s 3rd edition and you will see what I mean.

If you check the website, there’s a whole new chapter 11 giving new or changed features (relevant to the book) in PS CS. This is presented as an addendum to "PS Restoration and Retouching" 2nd ed. No mention of 3rd ed is on the website.

What’s not clear is if 3rd will just be 2nd with the extra chapter bound in (still worth waiting for unless I find a cutout of 2nd ed) or whether it’s edited throughout to incorporate PS CS