The best Adobe Photoshop books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Cool. It's a huge learning curve..processing alone..just takes time.

Get this book.. This is VERY IMPORTANT..

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0999470906/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

Software while not cheap is wayy cheaper than gear and so very key in results. You can get some trials and some free..

Pixinsight is the cats meow but, not cheap and hard to learn..

Astro Pixel Processor is less expensive but, so much easier and does a good job. I am buying.

They both have trials and I started with PI but, really like that APP is so much more friendly for beginners.

Computer for processing etc.

Equitorial mount for guiding and longer exposures.

PHD2

NINA

Sharpcap

The book is some dry hard reading but, is amazing.

Nice image OP!

In general it's advised to shoot at 1600 ISO with most DSLR and Mirrorless cams. With anything higher than 1600, the camera is adding gain to the same signal, so you end up boosting noise (including read noise) just as much as data, and likely adding noise from the gain circuit. Anything lower than 1600 and usually the camera is reducing the signal (and the noise) leading to lower dynamic range.

In my experience it doesn't seem to matter THAT much, but some astrophotographers swear by it. If curious for a more detailed explanation see this book, it's highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-sky-Imaging-Primer-Second/dp/0999470906/

The book The Deep-sky Imaging Primer, Second Edition by Charles Bracken thoroughly covers what you need to know. Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0999470906/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You watch a ton of videos on YouTube, and practice a lot.

Astrobackyard has made a ton of tutorials on Photoshop processing for astrophotography. He also has a paid guide which I assume goes much more in-depth than his YouTube tutorials, although I haven't looked at it so I can't tell you if it's good.

There's also a lot of books dedicated to image processing on Amazon, like this one by Charles Bracken: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0999470906/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I own it and can recommend it. He does a basic rundown of how to process images in PixInsight and Photoshop.

PixInsight is the single best thing you could purchase to improve your images. Once you feel comfortable with PS, download the PixInsight 45 day trial and start practicing it a lot. There are so many tools in PixInsight like deconvolution that don't have an equivalent in Photoshop.

Also, if you share your Pleiades data with me I can do a quick process in PixInsight and point out any problems in your imaging train / acquisition.

4-5 minute exposures is fantastic, especially with a Star Adventurer. Especially in the light pollution, odds are good that you probably don't need to go longer than 120s or so anyway. When you're capturing data, it's less about what the images actually look like and more about maximizing signal and minimizing noise. All of the balance and brightness is a post-processing exercise.

I recently picked up this book after seeing it recommended everywhere, and really wish I had bought it earlier. Tons of detail on how to capture and process.

I had decently good results with Deep Sky Stacker, but I failed hard at processing in Photoshop. I did the 7 day trial for PixInsight. The learning curve is steep, but it honestly felt a lot more intuitive for me, and I've done all my processing there since.

I've got:

• Canon 7d2 that I had around already
• EQ6-R Pro
• William Optics GTF102
• ZWO ASI120mm for guiding

I decided to jump right in to intermediate/advanced gear but it did present a pretty big learning curve. The longer focal length (784mm) is great, but it means that everything from focus to tracking to guiding to navigation is that much more unforgiving. I'd spent entire evenings failing to focus or find my target, or troubleshooting sync errors between software and mount. Polar alignment was a constant battle. Even when it worked well, I could only really push 120-180s exposures without trailing.

Define "good".

But yeah, there would be a crap ton to be said in terms of proper workflow such that you get the prints you expected to get at the end of the pipeline.

If you're into books, this would be a good reference.

I guess they should call it “hard proof profile” then eh?

In case you want to come better prepared next time, this is a great resource for learning how printing works and how to prepare your file for print https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Print-Preparing-Lightroom-Photoshop/dp/0321908457

This. Are you soft proofing? What color space are you working in? What is your sharpening process like (at least capture+output)?

Images need to be prepared differently depending on their output, as different print mediums require different sharpening, have different color gamut’s, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Print-Preparing-Lightroom-Photoshop/dp/0321908457

^ find a used copy of this book

You're welcome. BTW I sort of glossed over a bunch of details with my comment "applying curves in Lab mode", and in fact, there's at least <em>one</em> entire book written on the topic, and although the concepts are a little abstruse, actually applying them is generally quite simple. You can probably find enough information to get started by plugging the phrase into Google.

Good luck, and please post your results if you like how they turned out.

No, the LAB color space. This book is a good introduction to the powerful things you can do in LAB that you can't easily do in RGB or CMYK because luminosity is separate from color

Buy this book, she has excellent lessons, the exercise pictures are all online, and she covers an amazing variety of ways to fix pictures.

Not a tutorial, I know, but some of the books by Katrin Eismann, helped me a TON. They're really good, all the pictures she uses as examples in the book are online so you can follow exactly what she does and also learn by doing. The one of hers I've used the most is Restoration and Retouching, b/c I restore a lot of old family pictures and this book helped a lot.

Use your own face as a starting point. Make emotions, snap a picture. Study real life. I'd also recommend the book Character Mentor by Tom Bancroft. It's awesome. :D

https://www.amazon.com/Character-Mentor-Example-Expressions-Characters/dp/0240820711/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1465668987&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=character+mentor

I'd personally recommend this book on Lightroom by Scott Kelby: http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Lightroom-Digital-Photographers-Voices-ebook/dp/B00WOMDB1C/

It's got a 4.5 star rating for a reason- I read the version of the book he had for LightRoom 5, and I'm sure this one is mostly copy/pasted from there but with a couple here and there updates.

This guy knows what he's talking about when it comes to making pictures that 'pop' without going overboard, and talks about the order he adjusts sliders in, why he does it, and what to do what depending on the look you're going for.

In my experience, this is the best book to get you started.

As for video training, go to Youtube and look for phlearn (though he does more Photoshop than LR tuts).

I'm a reader, so I prefer books, but I've found the Kelby books incredibly helpful....as well as the Adobe Lightroom video tutorials.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Book for Digital Photographers (Scott Kelby)

Learn Lightroom with Julianne Kost

Congratulations on finding the issue and stating the solution. Interesting that one was reading somewhat correctly. Btw, now would be a good time to backup everything, including the lightroom catalog. I read about a Lightroom catalog file becoming corrupted, happened to the author.

Everybody likes the Scott Kelby books, but allow me to vote for the Martin Evening books.

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-Book-Photographers/dp/0133929191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1430226678&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=lightroom+6

Many of these kinds of adjustments are most easily achieved in L*a*b color mode - which gives me a chance to plug one of my favorite photography/post-processing workflow books.

So I've got $300 of Amazon credit (yay credit card rewards) and I have no clue what to buy.

I mostly shoot Micro 4/3 (Olympus OM-D E-M5) and I've got ~300GB of SD cards, 17mm, 45mm primes and a couple of zoom lenses I never use, a decent tripod, a polarizing filter and a ColorChecker Passport.

Usually I shoot when I'm out with my friends or with my girlfriend so mostly portraits and street photography but occasionally city/landscapes as well.

I haven't really done much with lighting so far but I'm thinking of learning so would it be a good idea to buy some lighting equipment? I've played with Photoshop and DxO 10 quite a bit so that's another idea and my home server is running a rather volatile set of hard drives so that's the last idea I had in mind.

I even had a look at switching to a Nikon D5200 for the extra 2 stops of dynamic range but decided it wasn't worth it since I don't find myself needing it that often.

Honestly I think I should have cashed in my credit card rewards for cash and taken some lessons instead but it's a bit late for that.

To sum up, these are the ideas I currently have:

• Hard drives for NAS
• Lighting equipment
• DxO Optics Pro
• Photoshop CC subscription
• Fisheye or wider angle lens (can anyone recommend a good landscape lens on M4/3?)
• Books? Online courses or other educational materials? (this has seemed interesting)

If you were in my place what would you choose?

So I've got $300 of Amazon credit (yay credit card rewards) and I have no clue what to buy.

I mostly shoot Micro 4/3 (Olympus OM-D E-M5) and I've got ~300GB of SD cards, 17mm, 45mm primes and a couple of zoom lenses I never use, a decent tripod, a polarizing filter and a ColorChecker Passport.

Usually I shoot when I'm out with my friends or with my girlfriend so mostly portraits and street photography but occasionally city/landscapes as well.

I haven't really done much with lighting so far but I'm thinking of learning so would it be a good idea to buy some lighting equipment? I've played with Photoshop and DxO 10 quite a bit so that's another idea and my home server is running a rather volatile set of hard drives so that's the last idea I had in mind.

I even had a look at switching to a Nikon D5200 for the extra 2 stops of dynamic range but decided it wasn't worth it since I don't find myself needing it that often.

Honestly I think I should have cashed in my credit card rewards for cash and taken some lessons instead but it's a bit late for that.

To sum up, these are the ideas I currently have:

• Hard drives for NAS
• Lighting equipment
• DxO Optics Pro
• Photoshop CC subscription
• Fisheye or wider angle lens (can anyone recommend a good landscape lens on M4/3?)
• Books? Online courses or other educational materials? (this has seemed interesting)

If you were in my place what would you choose?

Online tutorials are ok but, like you said, are very specific. Books are tedious and long but, in the absence of formal training are a great way to learn from the basics up. The best ones i know of are the "Classroom in a book" series.

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-CS6-Classroom-Book/dp/0321827333