Good book on photoshop for photographers?

[Norm Buchanan]

Can someone suggest a good, advanced level, book on Photoshop (CS2) geared towards photographers? I have a couple of books at the level of Scott Kelby's Photoshop for digital photography and I am looking for something more in depth, perhaps even written by a photographer.

Thanks,
N.

[Kirk Gittings]

REAL WORLD PHOTOSHOP by Bruce Frazier (who has died and will be replaced by Jeff Schewe on the next version). Very clear, and easy to understand, but more aimed at color as are most of the books are.

[neil poulsen]

For a sort of good nuts and bolts book, check out The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers. S.K. is the editor of the Photoshop User Magazine.

Of course, it's a little dated. But, I imagine he'll have a version for CS3.

[David Rees]

Dan Margulis -- Professional Photoshop.

[Walter Calahan]

Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS2 for Digital Photographers

He also wrote Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers

and Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers

Bruce Frazier and Dan Margulis are also very good.

[akalai]

After looking through many books I found that the best was;

"Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers:
A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative Use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC"
by Martin Evening

Here is a link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosho...0805882&sr=8-1

[darr]

After looking through many books I found that the best was;

"Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers:
A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative Use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC"
by Martin Evening

Here is a link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosho...0805882&sr=8-1

I second this book as well!

[jetcode]

REAL WORLD PHOTOSHOP by Bruce Frazier (who has died and will be replaced by Jeff Schewe on the next version). Very clear, and easy to understand, but more aimed at color as are most of the books are.

This book is a bible filled with large quantities of real working information not arm chair theory.

[Leonard Evens]

Many such books are prescriptions for how to do this or that. I didn't find such books helpful because they didn't help me build a conceptual model of what I was doing.

Those books which explain things in context, including some theory, are much more helpful. The books I found most helpful in this regard were Real Word Photoshop by Bruce Fraser---lots of theory despite jetcode's remark--- and Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis. The latter book is aimed mostly at prepress applications and emphasizes CMYK, which you are unlikely to be doing, but the principles are basically the same for RGB. Margulis's discussion of how you are never going to get all the colors right and how to concentrate on what is most important was worth the price of the book for me.

I actually do most of my photoediting using the Gimp under Linux. The best book I found for understanding the general process of photoediting is Grokking the Gimp by Corey Bunks. I had started off using Photoshop and trying to understand it using a couple of books on the subject, long since discarded, and getting nowhere. Then I switched to the Gimp and found this book, and suddenly everything became clearer. You can't lose anything except some time by looking at it since you can read it for free on the web at

gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html

If you ever get into color management, I think the only book worth its price is Real World Color Management by Bruce Fraser, Chris, Murphy, and Fred Bunting.

Note: All the Photoshop books get updated every time Adobe produces an update, and the authors may change. But the basic principles remain the same. You probably won't miss much if you get one "for CS2" for example, and you might save yourself some money.

[Ron Marshall]

I have read all of the PS books mentioned above, and own most of them. Most are fairly good.

The best I have found, by a photographer and written strictly for photographers, is Photoshop Artistry by Barry Haynes, Wendy Crumpler and Sean Duggan.