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introductory book to PS7: any recommendations?


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cyberdao

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I know there are many online resources for PS, but I'd prefer a good book to get started. As I am currently living in Korea, I can't just go to the next bookstore to flip through some books. So, I'd really appreciate your recommendations here!

I'm looking for a more practical, real-life introduction to PS7, a book that that tells you why you are doing s.th., not s.th. like the visual quickstart series that just lists every single menu item and command ...

Any idea? Thanks a lot for your time!
 
my very first books that taught me a lot, held my hand through the early walking days and opened my eyes where two books both with CD's........ these were for 6 but they do have them for 7 which I now have these are

Inside Photoshop 6 by Gary Bouton
Adobe Photoshop 6 by Ben Willmore

like I said they both have version 7 out now........ these books have CD's and on these CD's you have extra help as they have the psd files in there for most of the lessons - it helped me to understand by looking at their psd files and then mine, the books are both very easy to understand and they explain things like why your doing this or how this will effect your images etc

If I had learnt nothing from the 6 version I wouldn't have bought the 7 versions - of course not every book is going to cover everything in ps as there are so many things you can do with the program but they cover a pretty large area of what ps can do :perfect:
sfm
 
The Photoshop 6 Wow! book (bestseller)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...f=sr_11_1/103-3154723-2775023#product-details

or the Photoshop 7 Wow! book which will be released in March;
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...023?v=glance&s=books&n=507846#product-details

They both come with a CD filled with actions, presets, color palletes, brushes, shapes, gradients, brushes, styles etc.

You can download a PDF with 27 sample pages here;
http://www.peachpit.com/content/downloads/peachpit/wow_downloads/ps6.wow.book.all.samples.pdf (2,5 MB)

It's not a cheap book, but it's colourful and pleasant to read, contains many short and detailed projects and covers most areas of Photoshop.
 
Along with the great suggestions above, I can't get along without Deke McClellan's Photoshop Bible. It's an excellent mixture of the "basics" and some real-world applications.
 
Thanks a lot for your help!

sfm: Thank you, I read about Gary Bouton's book here at PSG and was not sure, will order it now.

Gaussian: Do you think beginners can benefit from the wow books or are they more for the intermediate - advanced audience?

AppleCider: How do you use the Bible books? As a reference or do you read them from cover to cover? Never tried one ... Are they also ok for beginners?

Thanks again,
Marcus
 
cyberdao said:
Gaussian: Do you think beginners can benefit from the wow books or are they more for the intermediate - advanced audience?
Click to expand...
The Wow! books are focussed on intermediate users, but I don't see any problems for beginners either, since most projects are small and well documented. My experience is that there aren't any real beginners books for Photoshop, since Photoshop is not an easy program to begin with.
 
cyberdao, make sure that you download the PDF that I posted earlier. It will give you a good impression about this book, before rushing into buying it ;)
 
Yes, I had a look at the pdf file, thanks for the link!

I've been working with other graphics programs, but it's really hard to find my way through PS and I think, this book will be a good help for me. Also, the topics covered are what I'm interested in.

Thaks again for your help!
 
cyberdao said:
AppleCider: How do you use the Bible books? As a reference or do you read them from cover to cover? Never tried one ... Are they also ok for beginners?
Click to expand...

The Bible is well, the Bible of Photoshop :) It has loads of information, and the good thing is that it takes you through the basics (for a beginner) and also shows you advanced techniques that you can use as your knowledge grows.

I guess I do a bit of both...I don't read from cover to cover..it's a BIG book! But I do leaf through and peruse stuff, stopping at things I'm interested in or need help in.

One thing you can do at Amazon's site, for this and many other books...they have a "look inside" feature; you can see the Table of Contents and other pages so you can get a feel of what's in the book.
 
A book I almost forgot...

Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Classroom in a Book which really is geared to beginners. The lessons get progressively more challenging. It's written by Adobe's "Creative Team"

I forgot this because I haven't used it in awhile...I think I got the 4.0 version. But I know it really helped me. It comes with a CD with all the image files you need for the tutorials.
 
AppleCider,

thanks a lot for your advice!

I think, I'll start with Inside PS (I had tried one of the classroom books for AI before) and the Wow Book and get the Bible as the 3rd one.
 
I really enjoy ... PhotoShop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks by Scott Kelby.
I quote;
"The killer collection of nothing but eyepoppin', heartstoppin'
PhotoShop special effects that will blow you away!"

I keep it close just for reading and inspiration .... [shhh]
 
Wabbitt, so do I :) I like Scott's style a lot. In fact, my copy of "Down & Dirty" has lots of "stickies" on its pages.

BUT...for a beginner, I'd recommend a fundamental book to get started so you can see what Scott's talking about, and use his stuff in conjunction. And there are lots of good suggestions for fundamental books in this thread. You can start with tutorials, and follow them step by step, but if you don't know the basics, you can't do anything else, but that tutorial.
 
:perfect:
WooHoo .... thanks for your thanks!
and hope you enjoy your PShop discoveries as
much as I continue to do ..... [excited]
 
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