Best PhotoShop guide or manual?

I bougth CS3 (extended) a couple of months ago and I have played around with it but nothing to the extent that a lot of you guys have. I have mainly just done color correction, black/white or faded coloring, and blemish correction. I went to a bookstore to look at a couple of reference guides and these are the ones that I liked the most:


PhotoShop Classroom Book

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780321492029&itm=2

PhotoShop CS3 Bible

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780470115411&itm=13

PhotoShop CS# Essential Skills

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780240520643&itm=30


What can you guys suggest I buy or is there something totally different that I haven't considered or don't know about???



- Joe C.

 

I learned what I know from online tutorials, I have probably done 100 of them easily, try good-tutorials.com they have a lot of good ones and the more and more you do the more you learn to the point where you have a clue as to what you are doing.

 

I learned my self, but i also looked at a few tutorials those helped alot.

 

Thanks guys! I will check out some tutorials on line. I am amazed at some of the things that people create with Photoshop and would love just to be able to do a fraction of what you guys can do.

I am a young guy but I am kinda old school and like to see things on paper so if anyone has a book that helped them out, let me know!

 

From what I have heard the Adobe Classroom in a Book are the best.

 

Online tutorials are great, but it really depends on your learning style and what you wish to accomplish. I typically look through books at the bookstore, figure out which I'd want and either buy onsale or buy online. How you learn is not how others learn. Classroom in a book stuff is great, but I feel that most of these book spend half the time telling me what I already know. But that is the reason why some books work great for me, and some do not. You will probably find out something similar when you thumb through books. Sams, O'Reilly, Wrox, Adobe, etc. they all teach differently. See what works best for you!

Other suggestions to look into: www.lynda.com - try it out, even just for a month to see if it works for you. Walk through each of the tutorials. Works best with a big monitor so you can watch the videos and do the lessons at the same time.

Wanna learn a bit of flash? try www.cartoonsmart.com - cheap tutorials, all complete and very thorough.

Other sites to check out:
http://psdtuts.com/
http://www.photoshoptopsecret.com/
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/

 

Great post! Exactly what I was looking for! I went to the bookstore because I wanted to see the different style of books. In one of the books I had to turn to page 90 (!) to see something I didn't know how to do! that is why I think the classroom one is a good one because it showed a good amount of stuff that I already knew in a way that I think but had a ton of stuff that I didn't know just yet.

Another thing I want to learn is WHAT everything does. I don't want to learn just how certain effects change a picture but what it actually does to a picture so I can start combining things together. I remember there was a post (don't have time to look it up right now) in the random thread that had a yellow Gallardo and some guy decided to play in PS for a while and made the shot look ABSOLUTELY amazing compared to the original. The guy gave step by step instructions on how to do it but I never would have looked at the picture and thought, man, change this and that and that and this and DONE!

Anyway, I will check out some of those sites once I get back from chores and dinner! And hopefully I have a big enough screen, it is 22 inches! lol

Thanks again!

 

I am probably mistaken but from what I remember don't the Classroom in a Books have different levels so you can get one of stuff you don't know any of?, so that could be very helpful.

 

I've done a handful of tutorials, here are a few:
http://bennettua.deviantart.com/art/quot-I-am-woman-quot-walkthrough-12031161
http://bennettua.deviantart.com/art/taste-walkthrough-22431058
http://bennettua.deviantart.com/art/Raised-Grid-Tutorial-14708170

I learned by practice practice practice, but a few online tutorials did help. I have no idea where I found them though, but a google search should give some good sites for PS tutorials.
Depends on what you want to do, also. Do you use PS for photo editing? Web content development? Do you have a tablet? Have you ever used a tablet?

Here are a couple examples of some of the crap I've done over the years. I mostly use PS for digital painting, but I do the occasional photo collage/ retouching. All of these are from scratch.
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Interesting thread, I'm still trying to figure out CS2. #%$ layers....

 

Awesome pictures! My favorites are the face shot of the girl and then the moon one.

Right now I am using PS for photo editing but hopefully soon I will use it for making drafts for flyers and other marketing materials along with Illistrator. I am applying for a new job (actually writing out my own job description for the company) and I even though PS wouldn't be required, it certainly would help out with what I am trying to do!

Lately I have been busy trying to get things together but certainly but take a look at the tutorials.

Thanks guys!

 

I have been using Photoshop for a very long time now...Just acquired all the CS3 Programs..The best way to learn CS3 is to explore the programs yourself. I went to school for it for 1 year at Katharine Gibbs here in NJ...Waste of 18k..An hour drive to go to this school and all I got was a certificate..I thought I would learn alot more, but what a waste. I love the programs...I taught my girlfriend the ins and outs and shes out winning contests online and doing great work for our company..We specialize in it. Every now and then I will look at tips n tricks aka tutorials , or a few books, but for the most, I learn it on my own.