Photo shop help

[CBass]

Okso im a rookie when it comes to using Photoshop and i love how some peoples shots look and im left wondering how they did it. So without having to run to this site and ask questions and have someone walk me through it step by step i have one question. I went to Barnes and Nobles and i found about 15 photoshop Elements 5.0 books. However i wana learn how to do all the neat editing tricks so what book would you suggest? I would love one that walks you though all the steps, any help would be great.

[Daylon]

My suggestion? Start with Adobe Lightroom - not sure what level of expertise you have in photography, but for me Lightroom does about 95% of what I want for a picture, then import into CS2 for filters / actions.

D.

[dtscds]

I bought Scott Kelby's "Photoshop CS2 for digital photgraphers". Anything he does is worth the price (in my seldom humble opinion). He doesn't spend much time explaining the theory behind what each slider does--he is more along the lines of "put this slider on 7 and this one on 50%." In other words, he spends most of his time giving you 'real world' settings and then you can adjust from there.
I don't know if he has anything specifically for Elements. But, most of the basic editing stuff should translate over.

[Duffy Pratt]

If there is a version of Adobe photo editing software, Scott Kelby has a book on it. They typically cover the same type of moves, but the steps are adjusted for the different versions. I don't know if he comes up with new lame jokes at the beginning of each chapter for each book.

He is very good at what he does, but I hate the approach for the same reasons that CD likes it. Lots of how, and not very much on when you would want to use a technique or why it works.

Other books that get good reviews are the one by Martin Evening (don't know the name of it), Katrin Eisman's book on Retouching and Restoration (and her masking book which is more specialized), and Bruce Frazer's Real World Camera Raw if you are doing RAW shooting.

My favorite books are Professional Photoshop and The Canyon Conundrum by Dan Margulis. They are tough going, and I would only recommend them to an adventurous beginner. But if you are willing to spend the time with them, they are tops IMNSHO.

Duffy

[princessmocha]

Yes, i agree with CD, i have a copy of Scott Kelby's book and I have been learning a lot from this book within a few months, I was a computer/photoshop dummy, but this book helps me a lot.Even though I am not a pro in photoshop yet, I am getting there, i think.
And also, I know it's pretty time consuming to do this. There are a lot of helpful post processing posts/threads in this forum.that helps me a lot too!

[SaundraU]

Photoshop for dummies

[Dokk]

I agree with the Scott Kelby suggestion. I also think that Photoshop Elements for Dummies is also a great starting point if you are totally new to this. As far as Lightroom goes, I definately think that you really can't go wrong there and you might find yourself using that more than anything else. The one suggestion that I have that I haven't seen here yet is start picking up copies of Photoshop User Magazine. It's filled with tons of great stuff every month.

[Wes]

If Scott Kelby has a book for Elements that's the one I would go with.

[CBass]

wanted to thank everyone for all your help. I went to B&N and went through the scott kelby book before buying it to make sure it wasnt over my head. I went ahead and picked it up and im going to work with that one for now. At some point i plan to get the lightroom but one step thanks again for the help.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by dtscds

I bought Scott Kelby's "Photoshop CS2 for digital photgraphers". Anything he does is worth the price (in my seldom humble opinion). He doesn't spend much time explaining the theory behind what each slider does--he is more along the lines of "put this slider on 7 and this one on 50%." In other words, he spends most of his time giving you 'real world' settings and then you can adjust from there.
I don't know if he has anything specifically for Elements. But, most of the basic editing stuff should translate over.

You have given the very reason, I don't really like Kelby's books. He just gives you recipes. They are fine for a quick, "How would I do that?" But to understand why you do that so you can grow and develop your own look, I'll take books by the late Bruce Fraser or Dan Dan Margulis. I'm also finding a lot of food for thought in Vincent Versace's "Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop."

[Duffy Pratt]

I was thinking about getting the Versace book, and some of the later examples in the book are pretty great. But I was put off by the portrait in the first chapter. The result looked way to yellow to me, and very fake. Then in the first few pages he makes some bad recommendations about how to go about setting the white point (which he put on a specular highlight in the eye), so I decided against buying it on the spot.

Do you think overall its worthwhile? Have you actually gone to the trouble of writing some of the image maps or plans, or whatever he calls them, for your own work? If so, I might reconsider. It's the kind of book that is up my alley, but I had my doubts about whether its the sort of thing that would really become useful.

Duffy