If you want to master color in Photoshop, Dan Margulis is the best of the best. He is one of the first three persons to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. And the book to get is Professional Photoshop 6: The Classic Guide to Color Correction. It is well worth finding on the used market (which you can do via my photography store). What Margulis teaches you to do with color is amazing. The before and after images will make your jaw drop.
Scott Kelby, President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, says “Dan Margulis is the world’s leading expert on Photoshop Color. Professional Photoshop is considered to be the bible on color correction and prepress.”
David Biedney, author of Photoshop Channel Chops (another book you should own if you don’t already), says “Dan Margulis is simply the best writer in the computer graphics field today, and his staggering knowledge of working with imagery in Photoshop and getting the results onto paper is unmatched by any self proclaimed ‘Photoshop Guru.’ He has an amazing sense of humor, arrives to the point in the most entertaining and comprehensive ways, yet never wavers from the task of teaching you how to think better.”
Color, contrast, channels, curves, RGB, LAB color, CMYK, overlays, masking, Highlight/Shadow, and a whole lot more, it’s all in this book. You will learn ways to control color that you didn’t even know existed. If you have been playing in the hue-saturation kindergarten, it is time to graduate. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
If you can’t find the current edition, look for a used copy of Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition).
Links
You can buy these books in the Digital Photography Books section of my photography store and get Amazon.com’s great prices, fast delivery, and excellent service.
Mastering Photoshop Series
The “Mastering Photoshop†Series
Mastering Photoshop & Lightroom: Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)
Mastering Photoshop: Advanced Color Correction, Part One
Mastering Photoshop: Advanced Color Correction, Part Two
Mastering Photoshop: Retouching, Part One
Mastering Photoshop: Retouching, Part Two
Buyer’s Guide Series
The Mastering Photoshop Series is part of a larger series of over 60 articles that guide you to the best of all things photographic. The rest of the series is here: Buyer’s Guide: Recommendations For The Best Photography Equipment, Software, Books, Magazines, DVDs, Online Photo Labs and More.