Videos seal the deal.

I’m finding the help files in my recent upgrade to Photoshop CS5 frustrating to use. Often the chronology of steps to get to the point at which the Help file is invoked is missing, so you don’t know how to first get to where you are. So that got me searching for a better guide and, of course, there are so many books out there that it’s hard to know where to start.

So I resorted to looking at on line video tutorials among the many Photoshop podcasts on AppleTV. That was an even worse experience. Many podcasts do not cover CS5 and of those that do you are often stuck with someone who thinks he’s funny and spends endless time sharing his sense of humor with you at the start of the video. Frustrating. Then I chanced upon a teacher named Richard Harrington and found his narrative professional, correctly paced and on point. So I bought his book for some $35.

Click to see the book at Amazon.

The book itself is slim as these things go, at 300 pages, but the included DVD contains no fewer than 72 videos illustrating key techniques. These could be higher definition but they are well done otherwise. Additionally, there are quizzes on each of the sixteen chapters, reflecting the serious, academically-oriented thrust of this production. Further, there are many TIF files to allow the in book examples to be replicated hands-on. This is an excellent method of learning the essentials of this massively complex application.

I’m adopting the Pareto Principle, reckoning that I can get 80% of the power of CS5 by learning 20% of its content. Right now I’m at something like 10/2!

Harrington’s book and tutorials are recommended if you value your time and prefer professional tuition; you can get a sense of his teaching style by looking up his video podcasts online using iTunes. The definition of these is the same as that of the ones on the DVD, which is to say not great, but you can make things out.