Martin Freeman / Scott Kelby

Hi,

I am wanting to buy a book about CS2. I've come across these two books but would like to know which one is possibly the better of the two? I would like it to have alot of detail in it, everything from brushes/layers to more advanced material. I'm also not too keen on authors who try to make their books 'witty', like Bryan Peterson (although good, sometimes it just kinda loses the point). At the moment I am swaying towards the Freeman book from what I have heard so far.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

Which titles are you looking at. I know that Scott Kelby and many books on photoshop in print right now. Not so sure about Freeman.

Check out Martin Evening's books....they are very good. If you think Bryan Peterson is too whitty, you probably wont like Scott Kelby.

Kelby's humor does fall a bit flat at times, doesn't it? Still, I like the way he lays everything out, step by step.

I have Kelby's book and will attest like the others that his humor is, well, not very humorous. However his book is well layed out as Liza said and he makes it easy to comprehend his methods. As far as being an advanced book I would say it is more beginner to intermediate. There are tips for more advanced methods but not as advanced as I would like it to be. I will be purchasing some more books sometime in the near future.

Woops sorry I meant Martin Evening, not sure how I managed that!!

The two books i'm refering to are:

- The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Scott Kelby)
- Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative Use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC (Martin Evening)

I think the latter may be the better of the two?

The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Scott Kelby) is the book I got
and I've learned alot of little things. I also have his first book, and I liked that one so much I bought the second one. Its really easy to comprehend it. Great book Teacher

I've got Scott Kelby's Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers. I like his step by step approach.

I prefer the Martin Evening book but it's not really aimed at the complete newbie. Kelby's book does a better job of handholding but doesn't go into as much depth or cover some of the more advanced topics.

In a nutshell, if you already know Photoshop basics, go with Martin Evening's book. He covers a lot of ground with lots of detail but keeps coverage of basic topics to a minimum.

Edit: forgot to mention that I have read both books.

Cheers for the info guys.

I'm not sure exactly what level I would say I am at with photoshop, I fully understand levels, USM, cloning and alot of simple stuff like that but theres always little niggly things that annoy me like when brushes change shape and I can't work out why they did it!

I'm still not entirely sure which I'll buy, perhaps I'll read one- sell it and then read the other!

At your level, I'd go with Evening's book.

OK, think I'll order it today.

Thanks for all the advice!

I was wondering the same thing ... both get good reviews but I came down on the Evening side, but haven't ordered yet. Too busy to even think about trying to learn more book based stuff. I think you made the best choice. He's a member of the PixelGenius group and also clearly has a huge amount of real world shooting and PS experience day in day out ... and is from London

BTW, isn't Martin Freeman the guy from 'The Office'

I bought Kelby's book on CS2 for Digital Photographers about a week ago and it had me completely captured cause it shows things so easy to do while yielding huge results. I highly recommend it.

AA

Yes condy, that's who I must have been thinking off! I will be ordering the book once I'm sure my birthday cheques have cleared. I'll let you all know what I think about it.