PS CS3 - Recommended Books

Diff · June 28, 2007

Seeking recommendations for books to help me get going on PS CS3.

I've put it off for years, really getting my feet wet, learning PS. Now, I'm committed to changing this, & need one good book to get me off and running.

So yes, I'm a novice. Up to now, I only use PS for cropping and the clone tool. Anything else I'd think about using would be destructive.

Much thanks!

patch29 · June 28, 2007

I have become a big fan of lynda.com and their online training videos. They have several for PS CS3 and earlier versions, plus a lot of other titles, for the price it is a great deal.

Depending on how you registered your copy of PS CS3, one of the bonus items Adobe was offering was a 30 day free trial. I used that and now I am using the $25/month plan at the moment.

Duffy Pratt · June 28, 2007

If you are interested in color correction, you could do worse than start with the thread here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=18203 It's about Dan Margulis' book The Canyon Conundrum, about the LAB colorspace. The first five chapters of that book have probably the biggest bang for the buck of anything out there.

If you are looking instead for a book about what the actual Photoshop functions and buttons do, there are all sorts of books that will help. Alot of people recommend Scott Kelby, and as a first book that you will grow out of, I suppose his stuff is pretty decent. With his books, you will learn how to do things, but get little guidance about when you would want to do them or why they work. I haven't seen it, but he typically has a new version of his [Photoshop Version X] for Digital Photographer series out with each new release of every version.

Hope this helps.

Duffy

dogwood · June 28, 2007

My fav CS3 book is Martin Evening's, Photoshop CS3 for Photographers. It has just about everything you can imagine in it-- and though it isn't cheap (around $50 US), it's worth it in my opinion.

Rhuarc · June 28, 2007

If you are looking for something covers everything photoshop has in it then I would go for the Photoshop CS3 Bible. It may not be out yet for CS3, but for previous versions I found that this book had everything I ever wanted to know about PS and then some!

arodney · June 28, 2007

Martin's book is excellent if you want to know the skinny about all Photoshop related functions.

The lab book is OK if you want to understand how to fix poor images which I'd submit, you shouldn't have in the first place! If you're working with Raw images, do the heavy lifting in the raw converter and leave the turd polishing to those who have no control over their images from the get go.

For retouching, Katrin Eismann is tops.

jdryan3 · June 28, 2007

arodney wrote:

If you're working with Raw images, do the heavy lifting in the raw converter and leave the turd polishing to those who have no control over their images from the get go.

For RAW, I think no book is better than Bruce Fraser's Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 . Now that he has passed I'm not sure what the series is going to do with ACR 4.1 & CS3.

Another book is Adobe Camera Raw For Digital Photographers Only by Rob Sheppard. Not as good as Bruces', but not a bad book. Has some excellent tips. I did get tired of his rant against books for computer software geeks, while his book is for 'real' photographers. Especially those who must suffer the indignity of moving to <gasp> digital. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/rolleyes1.gif" border="0" alt="" >

jfriend · June 29, 2007

jdryan3 wrote:

For RAW, I think no book is better than Bruce Fraser's Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 . Now that he has passed I'm not sure what the series is going to do with ACR 4.1 & CS3.

Another book is Adobe Camera Raw For Digital Photographers Only by Rob Sheppard. Not as good as Bruces', but not a bad book. Has some excellent tips. I did get tired of his rant against books for computer software geeks, while his book is for 'real' photographers. Especially those who must suffer the indignity of moving to <gasp> digital. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/rolleyes1.gif" border="0" alt="" >

I second the recommendation for Real World Camera RAW. As for ths CS3 version, it's being written now by Jeff Schewe who was a colleague of Bruce's. See http://photoshopnews.com/2007/06/19/book-writing-hiatus-for-photoshopnews/ for a few tidbits about the CS3 edition.

arodney · June 29, 2007

jdryan3 wrote:

For RAW, I think no book is better than Bruce Fraser's Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 . Now that he has passed I'm not sure what the series is going to do with ACR 4.1 & CS3.

Yup, superb book and good news, Jeff Schewe is now working on the update to cover the new versions. In the meantime, you can find out about all the new features at either www.photoshopnews.com or www.lightroomnews.com.

Diff · June 29, 2007

Wow!

Thanks to you all for the great feedback. I'm going to the local books stores to see what's available & find the book that speaks to me.

~ Rick ~

jdryan3 · June 29, 2007

jfriend wrote:

As for ths CS3 version, it's being written now by Jeff Schewe who was a colleague of Bruce's. See http://photoshopnews.com/2007/06/19/book-writing-hiatus-for-photoshopnews/ for a few tidbits about the CS3 edition.

arodney wrote:

Yup, superb book and good news, Jeff Schewe is now working on the update to cover the new versions. In the meantime, you can find out about all the new features at either www.photoshopnews.com or www.lightroomnews.com.

Thanks guys that is good to know. I like Jeff's work, so I will look forward to this edition.

Duffy Pratt · June 30, 2007

arodney wrote:

The lab book is OK if you want to understand how to fix poor images which I'd submit, you shouldn't have in the first place! If you're working with Raw images, do the heavy lifting in the raw converter and leave the turd polishing to those who have no control over their images from the get go.

Check out the many, many examples on the use of LAB, derived from Margulis' book, which are in the thread that I linked above:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=18203

Then say that LAB corrections are just for "turd polishing." I think your dismissal is a gross mischaracterization both of the power of LAB and the usefulness of the book. But you don't need to take my word for it. Just look at the examples on this site.

Duffy

arodney · June 30, 2007

Duffy Pratt wrote:

Check out the many, many examples on the use of LAB, derived from Margulis' book, which are in the thread that I linked above:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=18203

Then say that LAB corrections are just for "turd polishing." I think your dismissal is a gross mischaracterization both of the power of LAB and the usefulness of the book. But you don't need to take my word for it. Just look at the examples on this site.

Duffy

I have the book! I stand by my points, especially when dealing initially with raw data. 90%+ of all such corrections can be accomplished faster, with better quality from the raw converter (assuming a good converter like ACR, LR or Raw Developer, the later which does provide LAB like controls over the raw rendering).

Much of the Lab like work can be done in RGB using Luminosity blend modes without spending the time to convert while throwing away a good deal of data (If you must, at least do it on 16-bit files).

pathfinder · June 30, 2007

jdryan3 wrote:

For RAW, I think no book is better than Bruce Fraser's Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 . Now that he has passed I'm not sure what the series is going to do with ACR 4.1 & CS3.

QUOTE]

I am glad to hear the J Schewe is going to continue this series for CS3.

The National Assoc of Photoshop Professionals Magazine -- Photoshop User --is always excellent also.

jdryan3 · June 30, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

The National Assoc of Photoshop Professionals Magazine -- Photoshop User --is always excellent also.

Plus you can get a discount still on LR ($199) and even more on LR + CS3 if you are a member. I joined about 3 years ago.

Art Scott · June 30, 2007

I also agree about the Frazier book and also a fan of scott kelby's books.....a good place to look for books with less than retail prices is BOOKPOOL.com.

GJMPhoto · June 30, 2007

Books for taking the dive
I took the dive a little over a year ago and have read over 30 books on the subject...both Margulis books (HEAVY reading...both mentally and physically!)

I loved Dan's books...loved them...and got a lot out of them. However, my recommendation is to tackle Margulis after getting your feet wet with some of the less theoretical books. Two of my favorites come from Katrin Eismann (Restoration & Retouching, Masking & Compositing).

Depending on how fast your read, get a smattering of stuff from CS3 classroom in a book, then tackle Eismann's books, THEN go for Margulis. The background you get from the other books is simpler to grasp, more immediately rewarding (although DM's books are VERY rewarding) and easier for your mind. You'll be better prepared to understand Dan's moves having made similar ones for different reasons.

JMHO!
- Gary.

arodney · June 30, 2007

Got to say too, DVD's are interesting these days. I actually saw two this year (my first) and I think its a very good way to learn, depending on what the actual subject was. The Luminous Landscape videos ($14.95, what a deal) on Lightroom are great. You have to download them but at that price, wow.

I got a very good DVD from NAPP on channels by Cory Baker. Not done yet but there's a lot to be said for seeing this stuff happen real time in video. Easy to start and stop.

There area also some really good PDF's for purchase. What's nice, unlike a book, they get updated quickly. Finding items in a PDF is so much faster than an index.

Look, I know about Photoshop and imaging books. Own a lot, wrote one. I'm finding less use for them.

Just got Martin Evening's update to CS3 yesterday. Its real, real heavy! But that would be the one book I'd go to first (now that Fraser is gone) for anything Photoshop.

patch29 · July 3, 2007

arodney wrote:

I got a very good DVD from NAPP on channels by Cory Baker. Not done yet but there's a lot to be said for seeing this stuff happen real time in video. Easy to start and stop.

NAPP also had a lot of tutorials on their site. It requires a membership, but the discounts can easily offset the cost.

patch29 · July 3, 2007

Has anyone tried Safari Books Online? It looks like a great service and you get the most up to date info without ending up with a lot of old useless books sitting around.

GJMPhoto · July 3, 2007

Overstock.com

patch29 wrote:

Has anyone tried Safari Books Online? It looks like a great service and you get the most up to date info without ending up with a lot of old useless books sitting around.

I haven't used Safari...and I like to keep my books around (I go through them several times...sometimes after having read someone elses view of the same subject).

I use Overstock.com to get all my books. Their prices are cheaper than Amazon and their delivery is often free. You kind of have to know the book you're looking for because sometimes the search doesn't turn it up unless you ask for it by name...not a problem for me, I read the reviews, decide what to buy and then go look for it. Also, you can also get coupons for 8-10% off through Spoofee.com (you may have to buy a non-book / audio in order to get the coupon to click in).

rutt · July 3, 2007

I took the liberty of moving the last two posts from this thread into a new thread. I anticipate it they have a life of their own there without complicated the answer to a simple question: Which book should I buy?

FreddyF · July 3, 2007

Hi, first time poster though I've been lurking on and off for a while now.

I'd consider having a look at Barry Haynes' Photoshop Artistry it's much overlooked in my opinion.

rutt · July 3, 2007

I took the liberty of moving even more posts from this thread to the Questions for Andrew Rodney thread in the interest of keeping this one on that target and that one hot.

Really, this guy just asked for some PS book recommendations. It's not the place to delve too deeply into the great (and long lived) Margulis vs Rodney debate. Let's do it where it's most likely to reach the right audience and least likely to overwhelm someone who just wants a simple answer to a straightforward question.

Fair enough? PM me and/or Pathfinder if you don't think so.

PS CS3 - Recommended Books

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