DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> good book?
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 14 of 14, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 11/24/2004 07:05:11 PM · #1
Just curious, and I know it's been discussed before, somewhere...but what is the best book for photoshop in your opinion (something current), and why?
 11/24/2004 07:08:54 PM · #2
I have the "For Dummies" and it hasn't let me down yet.
 11/24/2004 07:18:22 PM · #3
hrmm that's good to know. I'm thinking of asking for an early christmas gift or something as money's kind of tight at the moment and some of those books get pretty expensive.

Any other suggestions to check out while I'm there?
 11/24/2004 07:29:23 PM · #4
I just bought a book (but haven't had time to really look at it very closely) called: "How to cheat in Photoshop" by Steve Caplin.
I like the fact that its full of very concrete examples of things I'm likely to want to do, rather than lots of detailed theory.
I think it is aimed at an intermediate level of skill - the instructions sound like the author expects that you have at least SOME idea about photoshop basics.
 11/24/2004 08:08:55 PM · #5
I purchased Photoshop 7 down and dirty tricks by Scott Shelby. I'm very new at photoshop and photography in general, but I like the book. It goes through all different kinds of effects and then gives you the steps to recreate them.
 11/24/2004 08:14:04 PM · #6
How to cheat in photoshop is AWESOME!

Also Photoshop Bible.
11/24/2004 08:22:55 PM · #7
Originally posted by dsahloff:
I purchased Photoshop 7 down and dirty tricks by Scott Shelby. I'm very new at photoshop and photography in general, but I like the book. It goes through all different kinds of effects and then gives you the steps to recreate them.


Down and Dirty tricks is good but a lot of the techniquies can not be used under editing rules of this site. I suggest Scott Kelbys "the Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers" It covers more basic techniques, and is a better starting point for beginners. It is usually on sale at SAM's Club for $24.

Kelby is the editor of Photoshop User Magazine, and President of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals).

NAPP


11/27/2004 02:51:18 AM · #8
OK so I'm going to the book store tomorrow -- I'm trying to decide and looking for a few more opinions...

I think I've narrowed it down to "The photoshop book for digital photographers" and "The photoshop 7 wow book"...

Which one would be the best in overall image correction and also show you (for example) how to go from this...



to this...



Thanks BradP for the examples :-D

I basically want to learn all those cool effects like dodging/burning the sky or clouds to make the clouds look so close to the ground or whatever.

Thanks!
 11/27/2004 03:28:49 AM · #9
Maybe Brad's got a book... ;)

I've got The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers and it's pretty good. Not a lot of depth on any one subject, but lots of straight-to-the-point techniques to achieve specific goals. I need to go back through it and freshen up. My only "gripes" with it are the binding is really cheapo (the first 90 pages have fallen out), and he puts a lot of cutsie "filler" and white space - the book could easilly have been done with half the pages.
 11/27/2004 06:34:45 AM · #10


One of these might help.
 11/29/2004 10:40:42 PM · #11
Originally posted by deapee:
hrmm that's good to know. I'm thinking of asking for an early christmas gift or something as money's kind of tight at the moment and some of those books get pretty expensive.

Any other suggestions to check out while I'm there?


Well, I know there are a LOT of the good photoshop training books AND CD training on Ebay for a lot less than you would pay for new... I bought one and it was great!
 11/29/2004 10:57:02 PM · #12
Adobe Photoshop Master Class by John Paul Caponigro.

One of the very few that talks about the 'why' of image editing, and not the much simpler 'how' of which button to click in Photoshop.

Not a beginner's book by any means, and glosses over much of the stuff in the 'how to' books in the first few pages but goes a lot further than most.
 11/29/2004 10:58:29 PM · #13
Just wanted to update -- I looked through "How to cheat in photoshop" and it looked pretty good and gave me some great ideas, however that isn't exactly what I'm looking for at this point in time.

What i was looking for was a decent book with all sorts of different skills and quick ways to get things done...and also the information to spend a little more time on that one special photograph if I so desired.

I picked up The Photoshop book for digital photographers and I really like it a lot. There are so many different techniques in there from touching up the average photo in 5 mins to completely retouching an image and could possibly spend 20+ minutes on the one if you wanted.

Very good book and I, personally, highly recommend it. Although, I haven't followed his reccomendations and changed my color profile settings because I read on here that you shouldn't do that somewhere.
 11/29/2004 10:59:48 PM · #14
Originally posted by deapee:
Which one would be the best in overall image correction and also show you (for example) how to go from this...



to this...



Thanks BradP for the examples :-D


Missed this one.
No books, just watching, reading & learning from the users on this site.
Very little done really to go from one to the other:
My typical "receipe" for something like this is to go into curves and give it a gentle "S" curve, then adjust brightness & contrast. USM applied to lightness channel, 150, 0.3 & 0, often fading it to keep it from looking too harsh, then back to RGB.
I'm just now learning a bit about layers myself and am finding them to be an interesting way to make adjustments. 10 different people can get the same basic outcome using 10 different methods.

HTH
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 08/08/2025 11:47:03 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 08/08/2025 11:47:03 PM EDT.