What is the best Photoshop book?

I'm thinking about Martin Evening's Photoshop for

Photographers or the Photoshop book by the Adobe team. I'm a

beginner but I would like a book that covers more than just the

basics.

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I can't say much about Martin Evening's book, but there are many here that think it's the greatest thing since the wheel. I'd guess that it's probably worth checking out.

 

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The book that I've been most impressed with is "Real World Adobe Photoshop 7" by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser. I've also got "Adobe Photoshop 5&5.5 Artistry" by Haynes and Crumpler and it might be a good starting point but doesn't have as much info (especially about Color Management). However it might be easier to understand for a beginner. In addition I bought "Professional Photoshop 5" by Dan Margulis and while he's a no-nonesense writer and Photoshop user and espouses using Photoshop by the numbers, I would avoid the book unless you're going to print to a commercial CMYK press as that's where he spends all/most of his time. He strongly pushes for working in CMYK (rather than RGB) and that's just not too useful if you're going to print photos to a photo inkjet printer or something like a LightJet which are (or fundamentally act like) RGB devices.

Adobe Photoshop for Photographers by Martin Evening and Photoshop Artistry by Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler.

The one *essential* book on Photoshop (IMO) is Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, by Katrin Eismann, Que Books. Martin Evening's book is good for calibration matters and a general orientation, but Eismann's book contains the meat.

Here's another must-read: Dan Margulis' "Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction" (ISBNs: 047132308X (PH5), 0471403997 (PH6), 0764536958 (PH7))

My own Photoshop journey has been a long walk uphill, and I'm still walking. I've been teaching myself PS for two years or so. The most important things I've learned were <b>selections</b> and <b>layers</b>. I think those skills are a must in Photoshop.

<p>What always works best for me is to go to a bookstore and read a couple of pages of any book that looks at all promising. In a how-to book, the author has the role of teacher, and everyone's teaching style (and learning style) are different. Some authors just "click" with me. The two books that have helped me the most are <i>Adobe Photoshop 6 - Classroom in a Book,</i> and <i>Photoshop Restoration and Retouching</i> by K. Eismann.

<p>If you're in a position to spend much, much more money . . . or maybe your employer's money, you could take a Photoshop course. I learned SO MUCH attending a two-day course at the American Graphics Institute in a Photoshop course taught by the wonderful Jennifer Smith (herself an author of PS how-to books). Good luck!

I got Evening's book back for ps 5/5.5 and wasn't happy with it. I

wouldn't recommend it for beginners. However Real World

Photoshop is great - highly recommended. I also liked

Eismann's book. Have a look at

http://www.creativepro.com/author/home/40.html

This has a series of articles (including how tos) by Bruce Fraser

(one of the authors of RWP). This will give you a feel for his style.

i find the articles wver useful

 

Steve

Well, now I'm really confused. I'm looking for a PS book for a friend who is a true beginner. I was about to recommend to her Martin Evening's book until I read Steve's comment above. I myself am pretty proficient on PS having used it since ver. 4.0 and with Real World Photoshop being my fav' but this was after years of PS experience myself and I found it to be a bit intermediate-intermediate/advanced. The one thing I would never do is recommend RWP as a beginner's book by any means. But now Steve above says Evening's book is not good for beginners. I am confused how you feel RWP is for beginner's Steve.

 

Anyone out there who IS a beginner who just learned PS using ANY of the books out there? Which would you recommend?

Their is no "best" Photoshop book. After buying 18 Photoshop books, I could say that a book might be the best for beginners, designers or photographers. For beginners I would recommend the Classroom in a Book. For photographers the recommendation would be Photoshop Artistry by Barry Haynes, for Restoration and Retouching Photoshop Restoration and Retouching by Katrin Eismann would be my choice.

 

Raymond

Check out someone's <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=3206627">summary</a>

Another vote for Barry Hayne's "Photoshop Artistry" if your goal is photographic work.

I am also starting at the bottom of the Photoshop learning curve and have found the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" to be helpful. A graphic designer friend recommended "Traditional Photographic Effects with Adobe Photoshop" by Perkins and Grant, but I haven't had a chance to pick it up and flip through it.