Which book for learning Photoshop?

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Ferj

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I've used lightroom & Photoshop for a while & while I'm relatively confident & get good results I'm clueless when it comes to layers etc! I'm wanting to improve my work flow too, ie look at shortcuts when saving & other things! I was looking at buying a book but there's 1000's out there, just wondered if there are any recommendations?

I'm using Adobe Photoshop CC :)
 
The Martin Evening books have always been a good series to have.
 
I was going to make the same post myself, personally i need a book that explains why you are using said tool not just the outcome, following online tutorial's are no good for this reason.
 
A lot can depend how quick you pick things up, and how easy a guide you need, if your slow like me, lol, go for the Scott Kelby books, very easy to understand, I've personally not seen any easier. He has quite a few out on PS and LR check out Amazon UK
 
Bassit said:
I was going to make the same post myself, personally i need a book that explains why you are using said tool not just the outcome, following online tutorial's are no good for this reason.
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Agreed completely. People jump in at inappropriate levels. There's no way of controlling that, so you get people working on high end retouching techniques when they haven't even got a basic grasp on RAW workflow etc.
 
+1 Scott Kelby
 
It's not a book, but Creative Live are doing a Photoshop week: http://www.creativelive.com/courses/fundamentals-photoshop-layers-khara-plicanic

Not a fan of Scott Kelby books unless you want a recipe book approach - ie to do this, step one step two. Plus (at least in his Lightroom books) there is a lot of info that could lead to bad habits - eg I think he says something like he almost always adds 50 to 70 on the clarity slider to his shots - but he does not say why and in any case each photo is going to be different and following 'one size fits all' advice like that is only going to ruin some of your photos! I prefer a more in depth and less scattergun approach (eg: Martin Evening) - it may be harder to digest at first, but you actually learn how and why to do things rather than just slavishly following a step by step approach.
 
There was a magazine called Practical Photoshop, no longer exits, but all their issues have been combined into 2 very usable magazine come book type things and they should still be available.They used to cover all and sundry about photoshop techniques and they come with matching DVDs. So what you are reading is also what you are watching. Makes learning so much simpler.
Another useful magazine is Digital Photo. Again this has a matching DVD to follow but not as involved as the Practical Photoshop ones.
I know these are not actually books but I found them to be a lot more user friendly and you will really learn from them.
Hope this helps.
 
Rhodese said:
This is the Adobe book, its free.

http://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/photoshop_reference.pdf

Layers starts on page 245, or on page 3 click on Layer basics.
On the top of page 246 click on understanding layers link.

Rhodese.
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Excellent link, thank you :clap:

Pookeyhead said:
The Martin Evening books have always been a good series to have.
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This is the book I nearly always refer to and the author writes a weekly article in the Amateur Photography magazine.

The other book worth considering is Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Learn by Video by Kelly McCathran. It is a reference book to 14 hours of excellent tutorials on 1 DVD. Sometimes I find it easier to watch rather than read!

Hope this helps you.

Andy
 
"Photoshop CS? For Dummies"

Mine cost pennies, second hand and in good nick, from Amazon. :banana:
 
Pookeyhead said:
Agreed completely. People jump in at inappropriate levels. There's no way of controlling that, so you get people working on high end retouching techniques when they haven't even got a basic grasp on RAW workflow etc.
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I agree also. Was similar in a way when I started learning the guitar (which I sinece packed in :) ). I used to use online video sites to learn different tunes but this was frowned on by my guitar teacher cos all's you are doing is learning that particular tune but you're not having to think for yourself so yeah, you could end up as good as Jimi Hendrix but you'll struggle to recreate that creativity for yourself. Similar for Photoshop in a way.
 
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