best book/site to learn about photoshop

[shinobitoshi]

Ok. so I'm pretty much a photoshop newb and I want to find a good book or website I can go to to learn about the various features the photoshop has and how to use them. I looked at some of the free training resources that came with my purchase of CS3 but the were all geared toward photo editing. I also ordered a download about speed painting in photoshop from the Workshop, which helped me tremendously with creating and using custom brushes, but left me wondering how to use effects and layers, etc... effectively.

can anyone recommend something that would be really beneficial to me?

[AdamR]

www.lynda.com

$25 a month to watch their entire training library. You'll learn more here than you could possibly imagine. I still learn stuff I didn't know about when I skim through the movies here and there (and I've been using Photoshop for a very long time).

When you learn the generic "Photoshop CS3 Training blahblah", it's still very useful to go through the photography editing series, even if that isn't where your jive is at, because they'll teach you a lot of extra knowledge on some of the tools, a heap of info on adjustment layers, adjusting colors properly, etc etc; so don't pass up on that knowledge just because they are focusing on photos.

As for books, the Bible series usually does a good job with teaching software (i.e. The Photoshop CS3 Bible).

www.thegnomonworkshop.com Is also a great resource for when you actually understand the software and can work in it comfortably to learn techniques that these people use with their paintings and various artworks. I have a number of their DVDs (both traditional and digital demos) and they give you some amazing info and insight on their workflow and mindset when they are doing their work (all of the authors who make the DVDs/demos are seasoned and respected professionals in their respective fields).

And the Massive Black DVD Downloadable Content downloads give kind of the same as the Workshop for a fraction of the price, while still maintaining a very high quality in their presentation. I've got 3 of them and recommend them all.

Hope it helped.

- Adam

[popeslattz]

If you're still looking for help you might want to try the tips section at graphics.com. They also have some tutorials in the Photoshop forum there. Hope this helps.