Raw Photography with Photoshop Book

[aliscrapper]

Hi

I was due to go on a college course that taught you how to convert raw images with photoshop. Unfortunately the course was cancelled with not enough people signing up for the course.

Can anyone recommend a user friendly book that teachs you how to convert raw images using photoshop?? Thanks

 

[photo_chick]

Processing RAW images isn't really a difficult process. You basically open the image (it will open in the Camera RAW window), then adjust the sliders and curves how you want. It's knowing how to set those sliders and curves that is the trick. And that comes from learning about contrast, white balance, color correction, etc.

If you don't know photoshop at all start with Adobe Classroom in a Book. It will teach you general photoshop tools that you need. THe lessons may seem boring but the things you learn in there will help you with both RAW and jpeg images. Then look at Photoshop for Photographers by Martin Evening. It focuses on image editing and gets into how to determine good contrast, color, and all that good stuff.

 

[aliscrapper]

Processing RAW images isn't really a difficult process. You basically open the image (it will open in the Camera RAW window), then adjust the sliders and curves how you want. It's knowing how to set those sliders and curves that is the trick. And that comes from learning about contrast, white balance, color correction, etc.

If you don't know photoshop at all start with Adobe Classroom in a Book. It will teach you general photoshop tools that you need. THe lessons may seem boring but the things you learn in there will help you with both RAW and jpeg images. Then look at Photoshop for Photographers by Martin Evening. It focuses on image editing and gets into how to determine good contrast, color, and all that good stuff.

Thanks, off to have a look

 

[cisobe]

Thanks, off to have a look

Check out YouTube as well. Adorama and Scott Kelby have great tutorials online.

 

[DoDaLeCa]

Evening and Kelby books are very good, the "PS for Dummies" or "The Missing Manual" series are good for beginners with lots of examples to work through.

 

[aliscrapper]

Check out YouTube as well. Adorama and Scott Kelby have great tutorials online.

Oooh thanks! Love the Scott Kelby's books I have so a you tube tutorial would be amazing! Thanks

 

[aliscrapper]

Evening and Kelby books are very good, the "PS for Dummies" or "The Missing Manual" series are good for beginners with lots of examples to work through.

Just what I'm after - working thru examples is something I like to do as it helps me digest the information and Scott Kelby books are always great - thanks

 

[Boo Bear]

I second the Adobe Photoshop in A Classroom book.

Also, if you ever edit, resize, etc. be sure NOT to do any of that in .jpg. You always want to edit your images using a lossless file format, like .PSD or .TIFF if you're editing directly in photoshop. When you edit in jpg, you lose information and your image quality decreases. Only save to jpg once you're finished with your edits and crops. I hope this helps.

You can PM me any time if you ever have any questions.

 

[fabulousfive]

If you're just starting out with raw images, I would highly recommend getting Lightroom & focusing on learning that program. Have fun!!! And, I find most of my editing help with googling it.

 

[aliscrapper]

I second the Adobe Photoshop in A Classroom book.

Also, if you ever edit, resize, etc. be sure NOT to do any of that in .jpg. You always want to edit your images using a lossless file format, like .PSD or .TIFF if you're editing directly in photoshop. When you edit in jpg, you lose information and your image quality decreases. Only save to jpg once you're finished with your edits and crops. I hope this helps.

You can PM me any time if you ever have any questions.

Thank you so much - that's really kind of you.

I've done a couple of basic photography courses but last year some of my photo's came out really bad when I had got things like the white balance wrong and I got really annoyed with myself but with burning the candles at both ends when at Disneyland Paris I'm not always as on the ball as I should be; so taking photo's in RAW format means I safeguard my precious photo's.

Off to go track down the Adobe Photoshop in a Classroom

 

[Boo Bear]

Keep in mind that the Adobe Photoshop in a Classroom is time consuming. There are exercises that go along with the book. It is so much fun! When I was in my first semester of art school, that's how we learned but with the CS1 version.

If you ever want to learn more in depth tricks in photoshop once you become more familiar with the toolbar and menu... and you can afford it, try subscribing to lynda.com. It's my #1 professional resource for ANYTHING software related for just about ANY software. BUT it's a couple hundred $$$ a year to subscribe.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Consider a kelbytraining.com subscription for a wealth of videos on photoshop. If you want to try a month, it's only $25. A full year is usually $200, but you can get $30 off with the code ANJULY13.