Which Photoshop CS4 book to choose

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*kev*

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Kevin
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I'm not sure if this is in the right area, if it isn't please feel free to move it.

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get Photoshop CS4 on a student license due to an evening photography course that I'm completing. I'm just wondering if anyone has any opinions which is the better book from the ones below for a relative photoshop novice such as myself.

CS4 for Photographers by Matin Evening

or

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop by Martin Evening and Jeff Schewe

Are there any other books that any one could recommend too?

Thanks in advance

Kev
 
I have the Martin Evening CS4 for photograpers and consider it well worth the Amazon price. It is good for the new stuff, camera raw and the new adjustment layers etc. If you have Lightroom2 as well, you should not need a separate LR book. The author does assume that you have a reasonable knowlege of the nitty gritty PS: layers, masking, editing and the like so I found this side of things a little wanting. These may be covered in the workshop book. The author does say in the intro that there was not enough room to cover it all so that is why the workshop book has been published. He implies that if you can get (library?) copies of the CS3 book, that covers the simpler stuff in more detail.
Hope that helps.
 
DonnaM said:
I have the Martin Evening CS4 for photograpers and consider it well worth the Amazon price. It is good for the new stuff, camera raw and the new adjustment layers etc. If you have Lightroom2 as well, you should not need a separate LR book. The author does assume that you have a reasonable knowlege of the nitty gritty PS: layers, masking, editing and the like so I found this side of things a little wanting. These may be covered in the workshop book. The author does say in the intro that there was not enough room to cover it all so that is why the workshop book has been published. He implies that if you can get (library?) copies of the CS3 book, that covers the simpler stuff in more detail.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

I have this (amongst other) as well :)
 
The "Ultimate Workshop" looks as though it could be a great book if the authors are anything to go by.

However if you are just starting with Photoshop then I would think Martin Evenings book may be the best direction to go. Also check out some of Scot Kelby's books as well

In the meantime you might like to read some of Juianne Kosts blogs on photoshop. Plus check out the Adobe web site for some tutorials

http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/

http://tv.adobe.com/#pg+1584
 
So would you say go for the CS4 for Photographers by Matin Evening if i can get my hands on the CS3 Martin Evening book, my Dad has the CS3 book so i could borrow it off him.

Does anyone have any reccomendations for a lightroom manual aswell?

Thanks

Kev
 
My first port of call on training on software has been for the last 2 years a great website service called lynda.com.

They have courses on almost anything you can think of, you can view trial lessons, then if you like what you see sign up, its 25$ a month for unlimited access to everything, I'm thinking you could do 1 month intensively to get you started then move onto the books.

Each course is made of of sections and each setion consists of a series of short streamed video clips (3-10 minutes each)

Link here's is what they have for PS CS4
http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=391
 
Thanks for that Blaze away, i'm thinking that that could be £15 well spent. Ive got a basic understanding of Photoshop, i just don't want to buy a book, it be over my head and it be a waste, so your tip of online traing could be a god send.


Thanks


Kev
 
*kev* said:
Thanks for that Blaze away, i'm thinking that that could be £15 well spent. Ive got a basic understanding of Photoshop, i just don't want to buy a book, it be over my head and it be a waste, so your tip of online traing could be a god send.


Thanks


Kev
Click to expand...

Thats the way I look at it, I must be there best salesman.....
 
*kev* said:
I'm not sure if this is in the right area, if it isn't please feel free to move it.

I'm in the fortunate position to be able to get Photoshop CS4 on a student license due to an evening photography course that I'm completing. I'm just wondering if anyone has any opinions which is the better book from the ones below for a relative photoshop novice such as myself.

CS4 for Photographers by Matin Evening

or

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop by Martin Evening and Jeff Schewe
Click to expand...

These books do not have an overlapping content - you should have them both really. Martin Evening explains in the "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers" book that when he was updating the book to CS4 version it was becoming huge and he decided to take some more advanced and walkthrough scenarios from the book into a new extended one. This is how the "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop" was born.

It's really easy to check if you take Martin Evening's older ""Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers" book and compare it by content with the "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers" book you will see that a lot of things and examples are gone. They simply moved to the new workshop book.

If you also use Lightroom and have a Martin Evening's Lightroom 2 book, then you will find a lot of overlapping material with Camera Raw parts of the "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers". I find it a bit of a drawback since it is practically the same as in a Lightroom book and takes up a lot of the "Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers" volume. But what can you do - the rest of the stuff is very useful...
 
Would the Martin Evening book be recommended for a complete noob like me? I have got the slightest clue about CS4 apart from cropping ,tilting and turning the pic b&w!
 
From what has been said here i get the impression that the Martin Evening book assumes that you have a good basic knowledge of Photoshop, and understand layers and masks (which I don't fully). I'm going to go with blaze_away's suggestion of using the Lynda site he mentions, to bring myself up to speed, then use the book afterwards.

Kev
 
I have "The Adobe Photoshop CS3 book for digital photographers" by Scott Kelby and it is excellent. I'm sure it must have been revised for CS4.
 
shooting_stars said:
Would the Martin Evening book be recommended for a complete noob like me? I have got the slightest clue about CS4 apart from cropping ,tilting and turning the pic b&w!
Click to expand...

I have Martin Evenings Book for CS3 and when I purchased it I was a Noob myself, but I found it very useful and detailed. I think it was a good choice and to ensure I didn't get stuck I also got the Adobe Classroom in a book plus Scott Kelbys book, The issues for CS4 I'm sure will be just as informative. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks to everyone for their input with this. I bought a copy of the CS4 for Photographers by Matin Evening book and a copy of the Scott Kelby book to see which one i prefer then I'll get the matching Lightroom book for the author that suits me best.

Thanks

Kev
 
I too have the Scott Kelby "The Adobe Photoshop CS3 book for digital photographers" and think it is great. I'm no expert on layers and the like but woul really recommend this book to anyone including newbies (which is how I consider myself with PS)
If he has done a CS4 version I would think it would be a great investment.
 
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