The Book to Buy if You Hate Learning from Books.

wxwax

Actually, not just one book, but any Photoshop book by Scott Kelby. I have a couple. They're filled with great advice, in an easy-to-follow format.

Marc

I'm in 100% agreement with Waxy's comments above. Based on a fellow motorcyclist's recommendation, I sprung for The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby ($27.99 @ Amazon.com with free shipping). In summary, this book is excellent.

I've had Photoshop now since version 6 and really hadn't scratched the surface. Sure, I had automated a bit of my workflow, but not really anything special - mostly due to the intimidating array of options, tools, etc. After reading the excellent introduction (something I usually don't do in most books), I jumped in and tried the "teeth whitening" recipe on p. 208 on a certain family member who shall remain namless. It worked! Now, I know more about the lasso tool, feathering, and the Hue/Saturation menu (something I had never explored in the past). This is exactly what I was looking for; a cookbook of "how-to's" that, once learned, can be a starting point for further exploration.

I give this book my highest recommendation. It's the perfect learning tool for me.

Marc

wxwax

You know, I think your last sentence is an important one. It's perfect for how I like to learn things, too. Whereas I suspect Baldy reads the chunky textbook and crunches the info into practice.

I need to learn Curves. It seems terribly crude to me, at least when I've messed around with it. But I keep reading about how it's the best way to play with the different parts of the image. Gotta learn it.

{JT}

Got it!
I picked up the PSCS for DP book today at Borders - right now they have a 40% off deal that made it better than Amazon deal for me. And so far I am really impressed. Before seeing the book in person, I was worried that it would be heavy on the teaching Photoshop, which I did not need after using it for web stuff for so long. But, after speeding through a few chapters, I was more than satisfied with what I saw. Two big thumbs up!