Expert: LizaL - 12/20/2004

Question
I am a Designer returning to work after a 5 year break. I know I really need to kick up my Photoshop skills. I barely remember the basics. I refuse to pay $350-500 per credit hour to attend the local art school. Which Books/DVD's/Tutorials/Etc. would you recommend that I use to get up and running again with Photoshop?

Answer
Wow, that's one expensive school! I wouldn't pay that much, either, if I were you. Here are some suggestions:

1. If you prefer the school environment, but don't want to shell out the bucks (and those are some major bucks), check out your area's local community college or technical school. Most community colleges offer one-year certificate programs, as well as two-year degrees, in commercial art and graphic design -- at a fraction of the cost you'd pay for even a university or local college. Also, most community colleges offer night courses, so you could still work during the day if you wanted or needed to. And some even have classes on Saturdays.

2. For books, it really all depends on what you're planning to do with your Photoshop background.

For general Photoshop knowledge, try this one:
Adobe Photoshop One-on-One, by Deke McClelland. Anything by Deke McClelland tends to be good, BTW.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596006187/qid=1103582359/sr=1-2/r...

Real World Photoshop is also good, and so is David Blatner.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321245784/qid=1103582432/sr=1-11/...

(I've bought books by David Blatner and Deke McClelland for years, and have always found them to be easy to follow, and very informative.)

If you're looking for top-notch instruction on retouching, Katrin Eismann's books are great:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735713502/qid=1103582432/sr=1-12/...


A good book for working with digital photography in Photoshop is Adobe Photoshop for Photographers, by Martin Evening. This link is for a book on Photoshop CS, but I bought the one for Photoshop 7, and it's really good:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0240519426/qid=1103582359/sr=1-7/r...


And Adobe publishes their own instructional books, including one on Photoshop:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/032119375X/qid=1103582359/sr=1-6/r...


Until you refresh your memory and get your skills cranked up, I'd hold off on buying books like the "Down and Dirty Tricks" and "Quick Start" series. Those are good, but tend to gloss over important details you should be aware of while you're brushing back up.


This Ecletic Academy looks like they offer Photoshop, and if I read it right, it's $20 for an online course. I think they only offer Photoshop 7 as an intro class -- but you could contact them, as I might have misread the info:
http://www.eclecticacademy.com/curriculum.htm

And this looks like a good resource for DVD training in Photoshop CS:
http://www.youlearn.com/products/lk-products/A/adobe/adobe.html


Bottom line is, I think you have a bunch of options, and I hope one (or a combination) of these will work for you!

Please let me know how it goes!

Lisa