New to Photoshop CS

S
Posted By
sammybee
Apr 26, 2004
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381
Replies
8
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Closed
Hi all-

I just got my Photoshop CS. Are there any CS books out there for a beginner? Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

DP
Daryl_Pritchard
Apr 26, 2004
Sammy,

This answer may sound trite, but why not begin with your User’s Manual? Beyond that, yes, there are many good books available for Photoshop and I’d suggest looking into the Classroom in a Book for PSCS. Deke McClelland is a well-regarded author of several PS books that address both new and advanced users, the Photoshop Bible being one such very comprehensive book catering to everyone. If you live near a local bookstore, I’d highly recommend going in and perusing what books they have on Photoshop, as what one person finds a helpful style of instruction may not go over quite as well with another. I don’t have it, but I believe there is a book called "Photoshop WOW!" that has been given some praise in the forum.

Welcome to the world of Photoshop.

Daryl
CK
Christine_Krof_Shock
Apr 26, 2004
Deke McClelland’s Photoshop CS One on One is excellent (I’m switching from using Classroom in a Book in my Photoshop I class to this book in the fall.) Any of Scott Kelby’s books will give you some really good Photoshop "recipes".

P.S. Pitch the user manuals…there are other books out there that are less intimidating!
MP
Marshall_Ponzi
Apr 27, 2004
If your’re a photographer and after quick results, I suggest Scott Kelby’s "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers." Great "get to the point" source of image correction and effects. I refer to this book all the time. I was looking forward to Scott’s other books, but for photography, I didn’t get too much from them. I think they’re more geared to graphic artists.

I also like Ben Wilmore’s "Photoshop CS Studio Techniques." Much more depth, but very useful.

In third place, I recommend Adobe’s "Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book." This would be a good source after reading the other two, because it digs into some helpful topics. For example, it gives great instruction on how to optimize for limited web color space. But I don’t recommend it as the primary source for learning PS CS.

And for icing on the cake…. Try Peter Cope’s "Secrets of the Digital Darkroom." This is not specifically a PS book, but it draws direct parallels to Photoshop. This book describes how to achieve some unique photo effects. I this is not a basic "how-to" book.

Marshall
CH
Calvin_Hass
Apr 27, 2004
I found the Photoshop CS User Manual to be next to useless in learning CS. It is written more like a reference manual, not a book teaching a progression of skills in the software. To make matters worse, it is seriously lacking inspiring examples (and colour plates).

I then bought several other books, and can recommend the following:

* Adobe’s "Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book" — a reasonable tutorial-based manual. Like the user guide, it isn’t very visual, and therefore more difficult, but it does offer a decent progression.

* Linda Weinmann’s "Adobe Photoshop CS & ImageReady for the Web". For using Photoshop in web-design, this is an excellent read. Although not in colour, it provides a great progression in skill development. It also tackles a number of tool-flow issues, especially when using other tools (such as Dreamweaver) with ImageReady.

* Kelby’s "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers" — not great for learning the basics, but it is visual enough with the recipes that you can learn some more advanced techniques. Scott Kelby’s other books, like "Down and Dirty Tricks" are also great for recipes — allowing you to build on the foundation provided by the other books.

Magazines:

* Photoshop User magazine — some good lessons, but limited coverage per issue.

* Adobe Photoshop FocusGuides — many great recipe-style tutorials, with full colour plates.

Have fun!
Cal.
S
sammybee
Apr 27, 2004
Thanks for all your suggestions. I’ll definitely look at all of them the next time I’m at Barnes and Noble then order at Amazon. Regarding the Adobe Photoshop FocusGuides….I’ve never seen or heard of this one. Is there a link to it so I can preview it?

Again, thanks to you all for taking the time to name some titles and giving your commentary on them. It’s great to hear varied opinions.
CC
Chris_Cox
Apr 30, 2004
Calvin – yes, the Photoshop manual is a manual, not a how-to book.
CH
Calvin_Hass
May 1, 2004
Chris, you’re totally right… To be fair, in the context within which it was intended, it meets its needs. However, as far as a learning tool, I found it insufficient.

I suppose having a colour annotated version of the "Classroom in a Book" included with the software (even in softcopy), would have been great for all those people NEW to Photoshop.

All in all, it doesn’t detract from the fact that I love the software. For a package with such an extensive feature set, it is impressively robust.
FB
Frank_Bright
May 1, 2004
Hi-
You might want to check out Scott Kelby’s book ‘Photoshop CS Down and Dirty Tricks’. I just now checked Amazon.com and it is out (’cause I have the PS 7 version of the book and just wanted to make sure the CS version is out; I’ve seen the CS cover and they seem very similar). Where other books bombard you with tedious info, explaining mostly program details, this book just takes you right into doing stuff you recognize – stuff you’ve seen before and liked.
I’m still a relative beginner, maybe getting closer to intermediate status lately, and I was really glad I bought the PS 7 version of the book. …Frank Bright

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

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