Photoshop for beginners .... recommend a book please

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Withers

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After much deliberation and hesitation, I am about to sink a tenner a month on an Adobe CC subscription. I am currently pp’ing on stand alone versions of PS Elements (v15) And Lightroom (LR5) as well as a bit of a mish mash of other stuff, like Nik etc. All’s good with this, however I feel it’s time for an upgrade.

I’m reasonably competent with the stuff I’m already have, but a bit of guidance and a hard copy reference/guide might be useful. Do I need a good book, and if so which one? Thanks for any advice.
 
Not sure a book is the right approach - although some folk do learn better that way. If you are happy to use youtube videos then PixImperfect and PHLearn are both excellent PHLearn also does a subscription based service as well as stand alone courses (their start to finish course on PS is rather good).
 
Agree with Paul here. I’ve learned most of my PS skills from Phlearn and more recently Piximperfect.

If you really want a book then Scott Kelby does quite a few but I don’t think you get as much out of them as YouTube.
 
spark303 said:
Martin Evening's 'Adobe Photoshop for Photographers'
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I would endorse the above if you want to be bang up to date. But many of the basic functions of Photoshop have been in the program over many of its iterations (I started in with v4, long before CS, never mind CC) - so older reference books can still be largely valid. In this light, if you can find a used copy of 'Real World Photoshop CS' by Blatner and Fraser, it would make a fine reference encyclopedia. Those two partnering authors were truly an ace team in breadth and depth of knowledge and a no-messing approach. When I used Quark Xpress in the bad old days their parallel tome on that was my essential standby too.

As an aside, if you sample a range of authors, you might find that you are more in tune with some than with others, and you can only find which by personal experiment.

I do like a good book - far more tactile than the internet!
 
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[QUOTE="
As an aside, if you sample a range of authors, you might find that you are more in tune with some than with others, and you can only find which by personal experiment.

I do like a good book - far more tactile than the internet![/QUOTE]

Thanks all. I do like Scott Kelby’s approach. I learned my LR basics from him, but will definitely try the YouTube approach as well. Both recommended sources are new to me.

Plunge took this afternoon and all software downloaded, so let’s see if I can get to grips with it all. Onwards and upwards.
 
If I can put my two pennoth in.
I tried a book. can't remember which, but I did not get on with it.
What I do ( and I am still learning ) is when I get stuck, google and look on the Adobe site or You Tube.
What I find is invaluable is having a dual monitor set up., then you can have PS open on your main monitor and the tutorial open on the other, for the cost of a cheap second monitor its worth every penny.
 
troutfisher said:
If I can put my two pennoth in.
I tried a book. can't remember which, but I did not get on with it.
What I do ( and I am still learning ) is when I get stuck, google and look on the Adobe site or You Tube.
What I find is invaluable is having a dual monitor set up., then you can have PS open on your main monitor and the tutorial open on the other, for the cost of a cheap second monitor its worth every penny.
Click to expand...
Good idea or a tablet
 
troutfisher said:
If I can put my two pennoth in.
I tried a book. can't remember which, but I did not get on with it.
What I do ( and I am still learning ) is when I get stuck, google and look on the Adobe site or You Tube.
What I find is invaluable is having a dual monitor set up., then you can have PS open on your main monitor and the tutorial open on the other, for the cost of a cheap second monitor its worth every penny.
Click to expand...

Good idea. I do have an iPad, so that seems like the best approach. (I don't have room on my little desk for another monitor, but the iPad can sit in my lap). Had a little play already and getting quite excited at the prospects the new gear opens up. Thanks everyone for the input. ... :ty:
 
Withers said:
Good idea. I do have an iPad, so that seems like the best approach. (I don't have room on my little desk for another monitor, but the iPad can sit in my lap). Had a little play already and getting quite excited at the prospects the new gear opens up. Thanks everyone for the input. ... :ty:
Click to expand...
Pleasure-The things to get your head round are layers and selections, if you can master those it becomes relatively ( sic) straitforward.

Onwards and Upwards!
 
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