The Photographer's Photoshop Library

     There are dozens of books on Photoshop. Unfortunately, most of them are filled with nothing more than long winded re-hashes of the manual, or dozens of "effects" that are merely variations on a single idea. Even many of the better books are oriented to the illustrator or graphic designer and have little for the photographer. Many have long sections on "pre-press", a subject most amateur photographers can safely ignore. What follows is a list of books I have found to be truly useful for producing superior results with photographs via Photoshop.

Real World Photoshop by Bruce Frasier and David Blatner
This is required reading. I buy the latest version as soon as it comes out. This is THE book for colour management, as well as colour correction. BruceRGB, and the improvements to Adobe Gamma are worth more than twenty times the price.

Photoshop Artistry by Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler
Most of this book is about using Photoshop to improve photographs. The exercises are clearly illustrated, including very subtle moves in the Curves. Being able to compare your work to the author's will quickly drive home all the points made in "Real World". There is even a basic explanation of the Zone System.

Inside Photoshop By Gary David Bouton and Barbara Bouton
This is a beginner's book which covers almost all aspects of Photoshop. It's a good place to start. All the exercises are also on the CD so you can work along.

Photoshop Retouching Handbook by Carol Braverman
This is the book every photographer has to read. There is no such thing as a perfect negative, or slide, and time is the enemy of film. This book will show you the basic and advanced techniques for restoring those old pictures - seamlessly. Expect to spend a lot of time with this book.

Photoshop Channel Chops
Much of this book is annoyingly chatty and quite redundant but... The key to complex masking lies in the colour channels, and buried in the multitudes of sidebars you will find the answers to making difficult selections without wasting time. Read it once marking the real instruction. Read it again ignoring all the chatty filler. This time you will find the heart of Photoshop and the masking tool you thought you were going to have to buy.