Book on scanning and PS

[Jan_6568]

I am looking for a good information and instructions source on scanning negatives and prints. Also, how to use PS to adjust scanned photographs. I am starting working with digital negatives and I feel my scanning and PS skills are... well, I have no skills :(
Any suggestion?

Jan

[Michael Mutmansky]

Jan,

FOr PS, I recommend people get the book titled 'Photoshop XX Artistry' By Barry Hanes and Wendy Crumpler. The 'XX' is specific to the version of Photoshop that is current, so you would probably be looking for CS2.

It is a good book for orienting a person to PS, and is specifically geared toward photography applications.

There are other books out there for sure, but this one is a great overall book on the subject. This one covers scanning a little, but not much.

A good scanning book is 'Real World Scanning and Halftones'.


---Michael

[Ron Marshall]

I strongly recommend Photoshop Artistry, by Barry Haynes, Wendy Crumpler and Sean Duggan. There are a few others that are very good, but this is the best overall, and is oriented specifically towards photography. The included DVD takes has all of the images from the turorials. It is by far the best written, best organised, most comprehensive and easiest to learn from.

[Brian Ellis]

For Photoshop - "Real World Photoshop CS2" by the late Bruce Fraser and David Blatner.

For scanning - "A Few Scanning Tips" by Wayne Fulton, www.scantips.com. I don't know that this is the necessarily the "best" scanning book out there but it's the only one I know of and it was helpful to me. My version is about six years old and so is very dated in terms of the equipment he talks about but the principles remain the same and in any event he's probably updated it. Don't let the title fool you, his "few" scanning tips run about 250 pages. If you use Silverfast the book that explains Silverfast far better than their own manual and tutorials is also useful. "Silverfast: The Official Guide" by Tally, available from Amazon for about $30.

[Jan_6568]

thanks a lot,

Jan

[darrenvena]

Jan,

SilverFast scanning software offers integrated tutorial movies that teach you what to do and how to do it using the tools in SilverFast. It also has a ScanPilot that acts as an on the fly guide to the proper scanning sequence. The SilverFast SE version also has a basic mode that offers just a few main editing tools until you become more comfortable. It then can be toggled over to the regular version which presents a whole set of fantastic features for optmizing your images. The website also offers a tremendous amount of information.You can also download demo versions that are fully functional.

demo link: http://www.silverfast.com/get_demo/en.html

website: www.silverfast.com

Good luck.

Darren
LaserSoft Imaging
darren@silverfast.net

[bobc]

Second the Fulton book on scanning. I just couldn't get a grasp on it until I read that. I still refer to it.

Ditto on the Crumpler/Haynes book.

As for the Fraser/Blatner book. It depends on how much PS knowledge you have... I remember having that book recommended to me when I was just starting out. It's good for a beginner/intermediate on up. But for the rank amateur that I was, it was a hard, frustrating read. They threw terms and commands out that hadn't been previously presented in the book (and that was Chapter 2)...

Have fun!

[JW Dewdney]

I'll definitely second (or third) real world scanning and halftones. I'd pretty much recommend ANYTHING Blatner touches. He's really got his finger on the pulse of technology in a really really deep way - (he was writing some of the very first photoshop and design program books) - much more so than the newest generation of authors... and he's hilarious and makes a great connection with the reader to boot.

[Don Boyd]

Jan, a few of us who share your interests in learning about scanning have signed up for Michael Mutmansky and Ted Harris' scanning workshop in Albuquerque in May. You can find more information about it here:

http://mpex.com/documents/ScanningWorkShop.pdf

[MrTwister]

http://www.marginalsoftware.com/HowtoScan/tutorial_page_1.htm
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints.html