There are hundreds if not thousands of Adobe Photoshop books on the market. This is what I call third party support and one reason I recommend Adobe Photoshop for image editing over almost all other programs. But, all of this third party support can have a downside too. With so many books to choose from how do you decided which one or which ones are right for you? Well, for me I always look at the number of sample images and screen shots. This tells me that I will be able to read and visually see what is being talked about. The second thing I look at is the author's writing style. If it is easy to read and understand that is a plus. Finally I look at what's covered, I like the basics and the more advanced stuff especially if I am going to be using the book to learn a new program, if the book covers a wide range of program features and topics that is a big plus it means I am less likely to have to buy another book.

 

Understanding Adobe Photoshop: Digital Imaging Concepts and Techniques is an Adobe Photoshop book that gets pluses for all of these requirements. This full color book has tons of screen shots and sample images which makes following the text instructions easier. The text instructions are clear and easy to read and there are lots of step-by-step instructions included which makes things all that much easier. Finally, the book covers a wide range of topics from Digital Imaging Fundamentals and Photoshop's Interface to Painting and Drawing tools and Compositing with Layers and Using Blending modes and more.

 

There are sidebar articles like Tips for Creating Better Actions. There are sidebars on Third-Party Filters and even Tip sidebars. One of the most exciting thing about Understand Adobe Photoshop is that it comes with a DVD that has nearly 5 hours of video training on it. This DVD covers topics like Setting Preferences, Channels Palette, Power Crop, Perspective Cropping, Layer Masking, Layer Comps and more. So besides being able to read about Adobe Photoshop features you get to see it done in living video.

 

Chapters:

Chapter 1: Digital Imaging Fundamentals
Chapter 2: Photoshop's Interface
Chapter 3: Acquiring Digital Images
Chapter 4: Sizing Digital Images
Chapter 5: Selection Tools and Techniques
Chapter 6: Painting and Drawing Tools
Chapter 7: Layer Masking
Chapter 8: Compositing with Layers
Chapter 9: Using Blending Modes
Chapter 10: Color Correction and Enhancement
Chapter 11: Repairing and Improving Photos
Chapter 12: Using the Type Tool
Chapter 13: Layer Styles
Chapter 14: Maximizing Filters
Chapter 15: Actions and Automation
Chapter 16: Printing and PDF Essentials
Chapter 17: Outputting Specialized File Types
Chapter 18: Building a Portfolio

This is an excellent book. It is easy to read, loaded with full color sample images and screen shots. It covers everything a new user of Adobe Photoshop needs in order to get the most from Adobe Photoshop. You get the DVD with almost 5 hours of training videos along with the images used in the book and Flash based quizzes to help reinforce what has been learned this is a great book choice for any novice Adobe Photoshop User.