Best PhotoShop CS self-teach book?

[SolidGun]

Can someone recommend a thorough yet easy to learn self-teach book for PhotoShop CS? I have been looking at PhotoShop CS Classroom in a book as my first choice. Any other recommendations?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Emerson]

Best book I bought

I would recommend this one:

Photoshop CS Techniques by Ben Willmore

It has a ton of information and some incredible color picture examples that really show you what Photoshop CS can do.

 

[SolidGun]

Thx for your recommendation on that book, I think I will get it....but I have one more question, is this book right for a beginner? I have never used PhotoShop and I am getting a free copy of PhotoShop CS through school and wanted to learn it in a month I have left before school starts so I can be ahead of some others.

 

[TreeHugger]

Thx for your recommendation on that book, I think I will get it....but I have one more question, is this book right for a beginner? I have never used PhotoShop and I am getting a free copy of PhotoShop CS through school and wanted to learn it in a month I have left before school starts so I can be ahead of some others.

What school is that??? I hope my school gives me PS CS for free!

You can also try the Photoshop for dummy series. Only thing that bothered me about that book, is that it was a bit too basic (might not be bad if your a beginner) and that it was a bit thin on the color illustrations.

I would also recommend checking out some photoshop web sites. There are a gazillion web sites with awesome tutorials. Do a google search for photoshop+tutorials.

To start you off here are a few:
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/tutorials.html
http://tutorialman.com/
http://www.tutorialcollection.com/photoshop/
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/

Personally web sites have helped me more than books, but you have to see what works best for yourself.

 

[Emerson]

Has everything

The book does a great job of explaining every single tool and option in Photoshop CS. It give some examples of ways how to use the tools, and the author does goes in extensive detail about when to use the tool and so on. The book is as much as reference manual as it is a teaching tool. What to book is not is a step by step of how to do "tricks" or something you might see in a magazine, however it is my belief that the best way to learn Photoshop is to play with it, and not copy someone elses work. This book will give you all the information that you need to learn the many features of Photoshop.

If you are looking for tutorials I suggest saving your money and looking online there are a bunch of free places where you can do tutorials, but like I said I think you will learn better by first understanding the tools of Photoshop and then playing around with them.

 

[Vanilla]

I personally started learning PhotoShop through the book by Scott Kelby called "Photoshop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks" and there is now a CS version available.

CAVEAT
It does NOT give you a detailed rundown of each and every function/key
It does NOT provide you with in-depth analysis of Photoshop CS

What it DOES do is provide a list of tutorials described in detail with full colour step-by-step photos. Tutorials cover a range of subjects such as how to create Apple gel-like buttons, how to create a metal finish, how to apply tattoos on to a persons arm, how to create chrome type effects, mirror effects, how to blend two pictures, how to create a TV lines effect etc. etc.

I loved it because I could get results immediately, which maintained my interest rather than getting bogged down in the detailed minutie of each functions attributes. Also, after you have done a few tutorials you find yourself repeating keystrokes etc. and through this process you begin to develop an understanding of how each function works.

Of course you will also need a good Photoshop manual to go alongside this, such as the "Bible" series & there are also a whole host of great photoshop resources available on the net.

However I found Scott Kelby's approach really suited my needs and got me off the ground very quickly and I still refer back to it now and again when I need a quick reminder how to do something.

Vanilla

 

[SolidGun]

Thank you all for your recommendation. I have found out that the books recommended are available at the library and I will be checking them out. But I ordered PhotoShop CS Studio Techniques to use it for reference in the future.

The school isn't giving me a free copy, but a station that has a copy of it. I guess I was just lazy in describing that. But I can get a license for full version for $99 through school store.