Compositing for newbies

[Canna W]

Someone has asked me if there are any books or websites for people wanting to learn how to do compositing - and really starting off with the basics.

I was lucky enough to join a forum when I started where I could pick people's brains endlessly for advice - and it helped me enormously. Sadly that forum is now defunct.


It may be that I should suggest she gets a basic book on Photoshop, and then point out a few tools and techniques that are particularly helpful to learn about for compositing. I've got Eismann's book, but at this stage I think she just needs to get a more general picture, and have a bit of fun cutting and pasting and playing with layers.

Any ideas I can pass on re books or forums would be much appreciated (or anything else that might be useful.)

[amica999]

Canna, have a look at Steve Caplin's "How to cheat in Photoshop", there are different versions out for CS2, now CS4 (maybe earlier) . They are fun to workthrough...

[LonK]

In addition to Caplin's book, there is a companion website which includes a forum and his ever popular "Friday Challenge".

[Canna W]

Thank you soooooo much, amica999 and Lonnie.

I've checked out the book/cd and they look fantastic, and I have decided to get a copy for myself as well as recommending it

I checked out the forum too, and that looked great as well - some people were talking about Photoshop Elements, so they obviously cover the whole range of Photoshop, not just CS4.

It looks just right for this person, and I shall pass on the info. Thank you!

[plantphoto]

Another great book for this is

Photoshop Masking & Compositing by Katrin Eismann well worth the money.
Simon

[Canna W]

Hi Simon,

I've got Eismann's book and I think it's very good.

I've also got the Caplin book now too. Re. the latter, I must admit it's great having the back up of the forum to clear up any questions you have after tackling exercises in the book. I inevitably get stuck when I do stuff, and having somewhere to go when you get stuck is incredibly helpful...

I think if you are keen on compositing you will end up getting Eismann's book as well in the end... Both books I think are outstanding.