best chance with P/shop...?

[viewfinder]

I suddenly have access to a computer with CS2 loaded.   I was wondering what might be the best way forward towards a basic use in editing my RAW files,...so far I can't even get it to recognise them!

I am aware of the 150 + book titles all offering P/shop mastery in various degrees but my previous attempts to get into PS 5  via a book ended in tears.....

I have generally found Adobe software to be excrable in it's poor design for purpose but am assured that it has a reformed character in the CS series.

In a previous life I was a trained and qualified technical/industrial photog and understand image contrast and DlogE curves etc......

How might I proceed?,.......thank you for any help.

[Lisa Nikodym]

"Real World Adobe Photoshop CS2" by Fraser & Blatner is far and away the best introduction to using photoshop I've ever seen.  They really know what they're talking about, and it's presented in a way that's easy to learn.

Lisa

[mahleu]

You need to download Camera Raw which is a little plugin allowing PS to recognise the various raw formats. You can get it from the adobe site.

[KeithR]

I suddenly have access to a computer with CS2 loaded.   I was wondering what might be the best way forward towards a basic use in editing my RAW files,...so far I can't even get it to recognise them!

I am aware of the 150 + book titles all offering P/shop mastery in various degrees but my previous attempts to get into PS 5  via a book ended in tears.....

I have generally found Adobe software to be excrable in it's poor design for purpose but am assured that it has a reformed character in the CS series.

In a previous life I was a trained and qualified technical/industrial photog and understand image contrast and DlogE curves etc......

How might I proceed?,.......thank you for any help.
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Since you state that you want to work with Raw Files, I would recommend "Adobe Camera Raw with Photoshop CS2" by Bruce Fraser. This will give you a good basis to begin understanding ACR(Adobe Camera Raw) and in turn get you into photoshop. And Camera Raw has been included as part of Photoshop since version CS, so you have it in the version you have. However, depending on which camera you have, you may have to download the latest version(update)that supports your camera. Some of the newer cameras will require an upgrade to CS3 to obtain ACR v 4.x(currently that would be 4.3.1). If you have one of the newer cameras that your version of PSCS does not support and you aren't able to upgrade, you can alway convert them to DNG and still be able to process your raw files. A qiuck check on the Adobe site will give you all the info you'll need to know.

[Don Libby]

go to Lynda.com where you'll find more information about working with CS2 or 3 than you can shake a stick at.

don

[walter.sk]

I have generally found Adobe software to be excrable in it's poor design for purpose but am assured that it has a reformed character in the CS series.
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Execrable is a strong word when applied to Photoshop, as it has been the standard program used by pros since its inception.  I'm a relative newcomer to it, having started with Photoshop V3.5.  My experience has been that almost every upgrade has refined earlier features, and that Adobe has been responsive to photographers' wish lists for features that would make PS more useful for our images processing needs.  Even new features that I saw no need for at first have found their way into my workflow and I now see as indispensable.  

I second the above recommendations for Real World Photoshop and Real World Camera RAW for CS2.