Ordered PS7 15 min ago, it's on the way.

Meanwhile, please any reccommendations for a good thorough book would be most appreciated.

My main interest is in photo retouching, restoration and painting.

I'm not intersested in a very beginning book like the dummy series, I have some experience with paintshop already, and am familiar with the basic concepts.

I'm really quite excited.

Thank you in advance.

(Iwon't be able to reply for about a day and a half).:bow:

Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (http://www.retouchpro.com/reviews/censura.php?tsid=1&csid=2a89b9662a8c58af26ab24f98b882c6b&cmd=details&itemid=3) by Katrin Eismann is the best photoshop book I've seen so far, it's a really excellent book, I learned a lot from it.

- David :)

David and Chuck have mentioned the best books out there IMHO but I want to mention two more that I find useful.

The first is Photoshop 6 (or 7) in an instant - it's only $15 US and it's all pictures with arrows pointing to what button to push and where to find the particular control - you might dismiss it as a "dummies" book, but I kept it in the "library" for a couple of weeks and scanned through it and learned a lot - photoshop is a lot more fun when you don't have to read EVERY menu every time you want to do something.

The other book that I refer to a lot is the manual that comes with Photoshop (it's in the edu version too).

..... and then after you've spent your children's inheritance on all the books, you'll find out that THIS forum is the best way to learn......

Take care, Margaret

Katrin's restoration book is the best I have found as yet for restoration and retouching.

If you are after something more art orientated then this one might be of interest

The Art of Photoshop by David Giordan

There are some very useful techniques in it that could help with your overall experience of photoshop as well as some good ideas about how far photoshop can be used as an expressive tool.

I am currently reading this book and have found it quite inspiring.
I think amazon gives a sample chapter for this book. (try both the American and the English site as sometimes they give different info about a book)

Hope this helps

Clare

If you order these from the links in retouch pro's review section, then you can support this site :)

I'll agree with Chuck that PS7 Bible is pretty wordy, but for completeness and as a reference, there's nothing like it. While it describes numerous Photoshop techniques, it's definitely not intended to be a "How to learn Photoshop" book.

With regard to "Painting," that's a pretty general term. Do you mean freehand-like (vs. using actions) or what?

Here's a thread in a different venue that might be of interest:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=4300043

~Danny~

"Professional Photoshop"

It's here.

Professional Photoshop (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764536958/qid=1044144166/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-7785510-5700963)



<<My main interest is in photo retouching, restoration and painting.>>

P.P.S. is more for color corection. But there are good techniques for retouching using L*A*B.

Thank you.
I will probably purchase Katrins Book
and Adobes "Photoshop 7 Classroom in a book"
Meanwhile I am finding that online tutorials are the best way to learn the basics

Anyone heard of "Adobe Photoshop 7 For Photographers"?

I have Photoshop 6 Classroom in a Book and I found it very frustrating. I ended up putting it on the shelf and relying on this forum and other tutorials on the 'net for most of the learning I did.

I did learn a lot from Katrin's book and others that are mentioned above although I haven't tried Photoshop for Photographers.

Unless you have a burning need to own books (and there is medication you can take for that :) :) ) I recommend you just stick with the folks here to learn Photoshop.

Take care, Margaret

You know, relying on this forum is probably a great idea when I know a little more.

But it's hard to ask very broad questions like "how do you set up color management"
And people might get tired of me asking every 5 minutes : "where's this tool. what's this for,?" I'll probably end up getting a very pleasant reply like: "We welcome your questions, but you do need to do at least a little research"

But maybe you're right, books might not be the best way to start.
I've seen tutorials all over the place, that might be the best way to go if I can find the right level.

Thank you
feivel

If you make use of the documentation that you receive with PS7, you'll be able to find all the tools.

I can't praise the members of this forum enough. They helped me learn Photoshop from scratch and you need only do a search for "winwintoo" to uncover some of the bonehead questions I asked :) :)

Margaret

I have PS6 for Photographers by Martin Evening. It's a good book for retouching photos. But don't look for restoration tips. It's main thrust is to manipulate digital images.

Tony

thanks all

feivel

Another really good "overall" book is Ben Willmore's Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Studio Techniques. (There are previous versions as well.) Ben does a great job of explaining things in a way that's easy to understand. This is the book that got me started - and then learned almost everything else here. I did purchase Katrin's book as well - after learning about it here. ;)

Jeanie

Please don't misunderstand - I LOVE books and use them for inspiration and often refer to them.

At the same time, I want to stress the valuable asset that RetouchPRO is.

Take care, Margaret

definitely agree with Margaret, for a couple months when I started doing this stuff, I never even bought any books, everything I learned about restoration/retouching etc. was just from here, the forums, tutorials and challenge descriptions are filled with tons of invaluable information. and don't feel bad asking "stupid" questions, we're happy to answer questions or point to another thread where the problem or question was addressed.

- David :)

I just started working with Katrin Eismann's book. It's perfect. I feel like she's standing next to me while I'm working. And I can't, for the life of me, figure out how she does it but she kind of makes photoshop seem simple!

Thank you, this book is more than I was hoping for.

I admit it, my name is Roger, and I am a addicted to books - they give me a rush that no matter what problem I want to solve, the solution is at my fingertips.

I have not read a single one completely, I dive in and through them as needed to solve the inevitable mysteries and such.

I agree, Katrin's book for retouching and Professional Photoshop for color correction are the industry bibles.

The third, and not yet mentioned (that nobody has tried to rewrite because it has been done so well), is Photoshop Channel Chops by Biedny, Monroy, and Moody. This books explains in an easy way how Photosop works at it's core - the result is that I am finding myself "thinking Photoshop" more and more rather than depending on the recipies.

Another cool book is Photoshop, Painter, & Illustrator Side by Side by Wendy Cumpler. The book is filled with tables and examples of side by side how to do each possible function in each program. I now have Photoshop & Painter, but even when I just had Photoshop I could go to the table with the tool, function, layer, mask, etc. that I was looking for and scan down the descriptions of the different things I could do and then over to how to do them. Very quick and easy. An added bonus is that if you ever find yourself thinking that you should get Painter or Illustrator you can check the comparrisons for what you want to do to make sure it is worth it.

Roger

Hopefully, once we start getting some opinions logged in our Reviews section, everyone will be able to find their ideal book(s) very quickly. 122 books listed, but only 11 opinions to date.

My goal is to make it the defacto resource to answer questions just like this one.

Never explored this site fully, didn't realize there was a book review area.

If it is possible to rank the books by rating it would make that area much more useful, there's so many, it's difficult to go through them all.

as long as i'm in suggestion mode, ever consider a newbie forum, where they (we) can be more comfortable asking very basic questions, and where those experienced forum members who enjoy helping newbies would be able to find cries for help in one place?

thank you

I'll let Doug address your first suggestion, but I'll add my $0.02 about the second.

Trust me, everyone who's been here for a while, recognizes when I "newbie" posts and they are quick to answer.

.....and you don't need to be shy about asking anything - I've been on here for several months now and I've never seen a "flame war" such as you might experience on other forums.

.....so start posting those questions, send us some of your work and ask for opinions.....we're waiting for YOU.

:) :) :)

Margaret

You can sort by rating. Also by title, vendor, and number of reviews. Just click the little icon at the top of the listing.

(At least you could sort by ratings until yesterday when I installed a new version, it gets an error now, but it should work again soon. The other 3 work fine).

I'm in a "basic learning-getting up to speed" mode now, but I hope to start posting some work and asking more specific questions in a few weeks.

the encouragement I'm getting here is sure a big help.


feivel

Feivel;

Listen to winwintoo. This is a wonderful group. I do like your idea about a newbie area/forum. The pro's (not me) could drop in from time to time if they want to for a big brother/sister chat.

BTW does anyone know Katrin Easmann?? This is off topic but she has the most unusually (is that a word ) shaped pupil. P 12-13 and other spots in the book. I find myself drawn to them. Maybe this is why she has such an excellent book.

Lacto;

"Sort by rating" is now fixed over in the Reviews section.

Hi all! I agree on the book choices. In particular Katrin's. I have found her vidoe's very helpful also. Katrin is working on an update of her book so it may pay to hold off a little while. I believe this update will include PS7.

Bob

Here's one:

Real World Color mangement (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201773406/qid%3D1046130931/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-2013513-1902434)


It's for different types of output. Inkjets,ect.ect... If one is concerned about their printing.