Laura Balsam
Classes Outlines

There are many books out on Photoshop of varying quality and price.

I am going to mention a a few specialty books here that you ought to be aware of.

Real World Color Management

The first and classic book on color theory and management. Unfortunately one of the authors died, so it is unclear if there will be a next version.

The basics don't change and this is still the book to get.

This is a great book for anyone serious about color. It is through but understandable, and very interesting.

Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS4

There are also a CS3 and CS2. versions of this book.

Taking pictures in the RAW format allows you tremendous latitude when processing those images.

These books are the classics on using the RAW file converter built into Photoshop. They go into the theory and details of recovering blown highlights and blocked up shadow. Basically how to get the best pictures out of the image you camera recorded.

Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition)

The standard work on photo retouching and restoration.

Photoshop Masking & Compositing

You select a portion of the image to affect. You save the selection as an alpha channel, when you use the channel it becomes a mask.

This most critical part of Photoshop is incredibly confusing. This book teaches you how to create and use selections/masks/alpha channels.

Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop

How sharpening works, a 3 step sharpening workflow and how to sharpen.

If sharpening is critical to you, this is the book.