Outstanding books on Photoshop and Photography
One of the most frequent questions asked by newcomers in on-line forums is, "There are so many Photoshop books out there. Which are the best?" Everyone who uses the program has a different answer, of course, but those listed below are my favorites.
Categories |
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| General Photoshop | Camera Raw | Sharpening |
| Color Management | Adobe Photoshop Lightroom | General & Digital Photography |
General Photoshop
Photoshop Masking & Compositing (VOICES)
by Katrin Eismann
Like Katrin's classic Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, you will find this book of value even if you never intend to combine separate images into one. The selections section alone is worth the price—Katrin says the book should really be called "Photoshop Selections, Masking, and Compositing—as she shows you how to evaluate an image to determine what tool or combination of tools will best get the job done. Her section on using the pen tool will get you to explore this neglected tool. And if you find masks and layer masks daunting, this book will make everything perfectly clear.
Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition) (Voices That Matter)
by Katrin Eismann, Wayne Palmer
This book, now in its third edition, is the best practical guide to Photoshop around. Its over 250 pages, most with color examples, over functional approaches to color correction, correcting exposure problems, selections, masks, sharpening, and repairing damage to old images. Even if you never intend to restore an old photograph (and I predict you will after you read this book), the Photo Diva's guide belongs on everyone's shelf. I am now on my third version of this book. Whenever I am asked to recommend ONE book on Photoshop, this is the one I put forward.
Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2 (Outdoor Photographers)
by Rob Sheppard
This is an important addition to the bookshelf of any photographer who uses digital imaging in nature and landscape work. Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer. takes an iconoclastic approach in this book, which is aimed squarely at the nature or landscape photographer, breaking long-held conventions and ignoring tools that he finds of limited use to the landscape photographer.
Borrowing from the techniques of darkroom masters like Ansel Adams, Sheppard employs a step-by-step approach to digital image development that can best be summarized as fixing one problem at a time rather than trying to solve all at one. The tutorials will walk you through most of the situations you are likely to encounter. Highly recommended. Read more.
Photoshop for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a Book
This new entry in the Tim Grey Guides is a guide to Photoshop CS3 written from the standpoint of nature and landscape photography. It ranges from initial decision such as the shooting format used to color management and the use of CS3 tools specific to nature photography. There are sections on creating panoramas, output from web to finished prints to promotional materials, and a section on actions and batch processes. A companion CD contains how-tos.
Real World Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Real World)
by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser
This 800 lb. brick is one of the best manuals ever written for Photoshop. It book covers everything, from building your digital darkroom to making complex selections by combining channels. It may provide all the information you ever need on color correction and sharpening, a subject about which the late Bruce Fraser was particularly knowledgeable, having co-authored the PhotoKit Sharpener with Jeff Schewe. Read more.
The Photoshop Channels Book
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by Scott Kelby
Like all books by Scott Kelby, editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine, Scott Kelby, the style is light and approachable and the illustrations are lavish. This primer begins by assuming you know nothing about channels and ends up teach you about all there is to know. Channels are a very powerful way to get things done, yet the questions we see in forums suggest that many users neglect them. There are better books on masks and selections. There are better books on color correction. There are more complete treatments on sharpening. But if you want to learn your way around channels, this is your guide.
For those who do, the best sections will be several techniques Kelby borrowed from Dan Margulis, the guru of curves and the LAB color space. It alone is not worth the price of admission, but the refresher in all things Channel will keep this volume nearby in my bookcase and often on my desk. Read more.
Camera RAW
Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Real World)
by Bruce Fraser
An expanded version of the original volume published with Photoshop CS, this is an indispensable guide to the newest tools under the Photoshop hood, Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Bridge, the new file management tool in CS2. Bruce shows you what all those tools in Camera Raw do, when it's best to use ACR instead of Photoshop to accomplish something, and when Photoshop offers better correction tools. There's an entire section on how to automate procedures in RAW and a complete examination of Adobe DNG, the universal RAW standard Adobe has established to provide permanent digital negatives. If you shoot RAW and use Photoshop, this guide will pay for itself in pulling more quality from your RAW images and in speeding up the workflow, even within Photoshop. Bruce's long-time collaborator Jeff Schewe is currently revising this book, but if you can't wait, buy this volume.
Sharpening
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Real World)
by Bruce Fraser
The late Bruce Fraser "wrote the book" on Photoshop sharpening with his PhotoKit Sharpener tools. Here, he literally writes the book. This fairly technical tome is not about PhotoKit, and you can pit it to use without the product. But if you do own PhotoKit, which I recommend, this amounts to a technical support manual that opens the hood to show you how the product works and then, perhaps, roll your own improvements.
Color management and color spaces
Color Confidence: The Digital Photographer's Guide to Color Management (Tim Grey Guides)
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by Tim Grey
Are you confused about color? Are you unsure about why or how to profile a monitor? Are you dissatisfied with the results you're getting from image brought into Photoshop through your scanner or with what you see on the printed page? Not certain which color space to use or why? Mostly, do you wish someone would explain all this in easily understood terms? You've come to the right place. Tim Grey addresses a difficult subject in his usual straightforward style.
Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition)
Dan, one of the first three individuals inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame, is the acknowledged guru of color correction. If you're among those who keep avoiding that funny little command called Curves, or think that a Channel is a body of water that lies between England and France, this book is for you. Nearly 400 pp. with many color illustrations and a CD containing examples. The book is directed at pre-press work for professional retouchers, so many of Dan's examples are in CMYK. Still, the book has plenty of meat for those of us whose work is simply headed for an inkjet printer.
Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful
Color space
by Dan Margulis
This book has been the subject of more discussion since its publication than any other. Dan takes us through the mysteries of that other color space—the one that's neither RGB nor CMYK. I've used LAB for years since Dan introduced me to it in a seminar he conducted at Photoshop World a few years ago. It has solved many a problem for me ... and it's caused a few. Photoshop LAB Color explains how and why to use LAB and when not to. This is not for beginners, but for those with some knowledge of Photoshop, it will help take you to a new level.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide (Tim Grey Guides)
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by Tim Grey
The first third party Lightroom book to be published is invaluable. Tim follows the logical organization of Lightroom, providing an overview of each of the five modules, and a step-by-step workflow within each module. He provides recommendations on which options to use and which to avoid.
The book is generously illustrated and concludes with a one-page recommended workflow for operating through and within the modules. For those seeking a guide to the complexity behind the deceptively simple Lightroom interface, this book is the ticket. (Read more.)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers Only by Rob Sheppard
I had used Lightroom from the first publicly released beta and thought I knew it, but this guide from Rob Sheppard, editor of Outdoor Photographer, taught me new tricks. Particularly valuable is his section on black and white conversion, which alone is worth the price of the book. If you use Lightroom, you need this book.
General Photography and Digital Photography
Real World Digital Photography, Second Edition
This is the book I wish I'd had when I was starting out in digital photography. Katrin, Seán, and Tim are three of the best teachers around, and this nearly 700 page brick teaches it all, from theory through image capture, from special exposure considerations in digital to the finished print — and even beyond to displaying images on line and archiving techniques.
This book is not just for Photoshop users—in fact "only" three hundred of its information packed pages deal with digital darkroom techniques. It is for anyone contemplating or already in the world of digital photography.
Photographing the Landscape: The Art of Seeing
A lavishly illustrated 200 pp. tour-de-force from one of the world's leading landscape photographers. A large format trade paperback that succeeds as both a book of stunning photographs and a course on landscape photography. Includes sections on color, form, movement, perspective, view, composition, light, DOF, Exposure, equipment, and film. Although this was written from a pre-digital perspective, there is abundant information here for all photographers. This remains one of my favorites and has been on the list from the day I put this site together.
Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories
A complete guide to the art, craft, technique, and business considerations of wedding photography using the latest digital techniques. From what the shoot, how to shoot it, how to package the final product, and what to charge, Johnson's book is must-reading for anyone contemplating entering this difficult, competitive field.