Photoshop Learning Source

[kitjv]

Operating System:10.13.1
Exact Lightroom Version (Help menu > System Info): 6

I anticipate upgrading from the standalone LR6 version to LR7 Photography Plan. Since this subscription plan includes Photoshop, I figured that it might be time to learn the essentials of Photoshop.

So, I am looking for recommendations of hardcopy sources to help me climb the learning curve. I am a fairly quick learner, but want to avoid buying several books unnecessarily.

I would appreciate your learned recommendations. Thank you kindly.

 

[johnbeardy]

For a starter, I would recommend either Scott Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CC Book for Digital Photographers or Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book by Faulkner and Chavez. I think they're both good to get you going, practical rather than theoretical. Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers is very good indeed but I feel it's best once you have some confidence.

Photoshop is an extensive program with many alternative ways to achieve the same final result, and it's not always easy to distinguish an obsolete method, which may still work, from the newer technique that is actually the best way to do the job. Books find it difficult to keep up, so I would also watch more recent material on Julieanne Kost's site Photoshop Training Videos and try to develop your awareness of what's new.

I'd also suggest deciding early on what you want to do in Photoshop that you can't do in Lightroom, and concentrating on that area. So you don't learn Photoshop, you learn "how to select subjects out of backgrounds in Photoshop", or "how to paint with realistic brushes and draw in Photoshop", "how to create posters with text in Photoshop", "how to edit video in Photoshop" etc. Photoshop as a whole is too big to learn!

Hope that helps

John

 

[kitjv]

Thank you, John, for the suggestions. I concur with your idea about deciding beforehand what I want to do in PS. Mainly, I would use it as an extension of Lightroom. Also, as I understand, some post processing task are more effectively done in PS. I don't plan to do any work in graphic arts or any extreme manipulation in image processing.

 

[johnbeardy]

Then take a good look at the Content Aware features. CA Fill is like using LR's dust spotting tool on steroids, but there are other CA tools like CA Transform which can intelligently crop an image. Patch tool and the spot healing brush are also great. I suspect that I am using this range of tools much of time when I can't do something in LR. Find an image with some junk that you just can't clear in LR and it'll force you to investigate these tools.

Learning how to work in layers should also be a high priority.

 

[Conrad Chavez]

For a starter, I would recommend either Scott Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CC Book for Digital Photographers or Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book by Faulkner and Chavez. I think they're both good to get you going, practical rather than theoretical...it's not always easy to distinguish an obsolete method, which may still work, from the newer technique that is actually the best way to do the job. Books find it difficult to keep up...

Since John recommended a book I work on (thanks!), I thought I'd mention that the CC 2018 edition of the Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book is not out yet, but will be soon. Other Photoshop books out there might also still be in the process of being updated for the new CC 2018 version, since print has a long lead time. There isn't that much difference between CC 2017 and 2018, but since books aren't cheap it's nice to have the latest.

…Mainly, I would use it as an extension of Lightroom…I don't plan to do any work in graphic arts or any extreme manipulation in image processing.

While the Classroom in a Book does cover common photo adjustments, as it is a general overview a number of lessons are focused on using Photoshop for graphic arts, typography, web design, video, and so on. That might be fine to get you oriented in Photoshop, but since you said you were interested mainly in straight photography, I agree with John that you should eventually check out Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers: 2018 edition. It will probably be of more long-term value to you as a deep reference for using Photoshop primarily for photography.

 

[kitjv]

John: Thank you for the suggestion on the CA features. That will certainly give me a focused headstart.

Conrad: Thank you for your candid suggestion. It will be awhile before I dive into the bowels of Photoshop since I currently use LR6 (standalone version). I will start on Photoshop when I switch to Lightroom CC Classic since that subscription includes Photoshop.