Photoshop CS4

<p>I have just ordered Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. I have been using Photoshop Elements for sometime and decided to take my serious hobby to the next level. I know that Photoshop can be intimidating at first. Please recommend any good books or online courses that will help me with the basics to get started. I am interseted in bringing out the best of my images and not putting a donkey's head on my boss (<em>advanced course later</em>). Simple to understand is good. Thanks to all.</p>

<p>If Adobe is still including a voucher for a month of Lynda.com then use that - there are some very good online tutorials there (at least for Photoshop, I don't have Lightroom). If you are lucky you will get a month voucher for each product. The month starts from the time you first use the voucher, not from when you bought the product, so you can time it for a period when you have most time available. If no vouchers then still check out Lynda.com, I think it is good value even at full price. And Martin Evening's Photoshop book is considered one of the best (it is a reference book rather than a set of tutorials)</p>

<p>There is a code on the B&H site, NAPPBH I think, it gets you $10 off of membership in NAPP (normally $99 in US) and a free DVD about CS4 for beginners. THe NAPP site has lots of online tutorials, and membership gets a year of Photoshop User magazine as well. </p>

<p>I have also heard good things about Martin Evening and lynda.com, and there are quite a number of experts who write for Photoshop User magazine, including Scott Kelby, Deke McClelland, and Katrin Eismann, who have written a number of full-length books worth reading. The best books, IMHO, are those which introduce techniques and tools as part of a multi-step recipe for achieving a particular result, and those which begin with a discussion of the needs of graphic professionals, proceed to best practices, and then explain how those needs can be met in Photoshop. Of the latter, one of the best was Blatner and Fraser's "Real World Photoshop 7," which has been updated, but may not be current for CS4.<br>

I suggest you go to a good bookstore-cum-coffee-shop, pull a few Photoshop books off its racks, and proceed to the coffee shop for an afternoon of leisurely sipping and browsing.</p>

<p>Second Blatner and Fraser.</p>

<p>Tom,<br>

I was in a similar situation a year ago and looked at several books, among them Evening's book. I bought this book but found that it was to intimidating to learn Photoshop by. After further search I found the best book for my learning purposes, Scott Kelby "7-point system for Adobe Photoshop". This nice book contains about 21 examples of rather drab pictures, which Scott shows you, step by step, how to improve. He does it in a pedagogical manner. So if you follow his steps on your computer, you will have a good grasp of photoshop after having worked through his 21 examples. If you are a practical man like me, who has difficulties with following teaching by video tutorials, this would be the book for you. Permit me to add that Scott uses extensively ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) in his workflow. ACR is very similar to Lightroom, so you learn Lightroom at the same time as Photoshop, if working with his 21 examples.<br>

I hope this helps. </p>