photoshop CS book - any recommendations. . . ?

yeah. . . i know. . . i could easily search the forums and find everything i

need and all that (i know when i used to frequent the leica forum, that was the

first thing it seemed everyone had to say to any "newbie" questions). . . just

pretend i'm too dumb to know that, or just take for granted that i'm lazy.

anyway. . . .

a brief background so you can know where i'm coming from when i ask this question:

i've been shooting film (primarily black and white) for years (since high

school), and i've only just decided to get some decent digital gear. i dumped

the M6 and i think i'm going to try to hold out and get a full frame canon (or

maybe a 30D). . . i worked in a little ritz camera for a bit and know just a

touch about the processes that go into color film processing. . . .

anyway, when it comes down to a lot of things in photoshop CS, i can understand

the general concept behind what i'm doing, but i don't know exactly what the

tools are doing. . . what real world effects they're mimicking, etc (honestly,

i'm using a. . . "borrowed" copy until i can afford to go legit -- or my

concscience gets the best of me).

like. . . the healing brush. i know what it does when i use it, but i don't

know what the hardness of the brush means. . . or what the finer controls do. i

understand changing the contrast/brightness/saturation/hue. . . . that's pretty

general. . . when it comes to curves. . . nope. . . not a real clue regarding

what it's doing (i know what it seems to do visually, but. . . is it working

from film concepts where certain types of film respond to light in different ways?).

hell. . . now that i think of it. . . i only just learned how to use layers the

other day (i was printing the file that i opened as a sort of print that i was

manipulating in a literal digital darkroom -- contrast, brightness, levels,

touching it up, etc. . . all on one layer.

i'm not too clever.

if you can recommend a book that doesn't get too cutesy and basically serves as

a general manual with maybe a bit of how-to in it. . . it'd be much appreciated.

whatever it was that helped you might help me too. . . .

yeah. . . i'll cut it short(er). help me please!

Do the tutorial that comes with the software. To my mind there's no better way to

introduce yourself to Photoshop. I can't recommend it enough. Do this before buying any

book, *then* go and buy a book. You'll gain more ground in a day or two than you will

with a book.

I've been using Photoshop since the olden days, and upon each new release, I'll still find

time to do the tutorial, because it gets me up to speed far quicker than scratching around

in books.

Even good books can tend to leave out the very basic stuff, so you end up trying to figure

that out before you can move on with the good stuff. The tutorial doesn't do that.

Michael- I enjoy all the Scott Kelby PS books. They are easy to understand & fun to read. Available at all book sites.

I also recommend the Lynda.com site. For 25.00 you can spend a month going through the simply explained use of many of the PS tools. Simple, but thought provoking for future play. I'm sure there are other similar sites, I just happened to find this one & tried it, I learned a lot :) Good luck.

If you are wanting to learn the ins and out of Photoshop and not certian techniques you may want to look at "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom in a Book" From Adobe press. It takes through everything and includes a CD with all the image files, fonts, and some Videos taught by Scott Kelby, Dave Cross and Deke McClelland.

If your intested in more techniques than basics then Scott Kelby is one of the best authors for PS books. They are informative and fun to read. the Photoshop CS2 for digital photographers mentioned is a must own.