Image editing software??

[GRASSHOPPER]

I am looking for a program that will make it easier to take a scanned image or a photo and make edits like erasing the background. The computer I inherited when the daughter got married has Adobe Photoshop CS2 already installed. I know how to use a computer but have never messed with graphic stuff so I will have to get a book and start learning. I know the help pages are there but you have to know the term for what you want.

My questions are;
1 Is this a good program to do what I want? And
2 what is a good book for a beginner on the program? Are those Photo Shop for dummies any good?

It seems that the program may be a real overkill but that is better than not having what you need.

Thanks.

[bobreda]

Bruce
Adobe Photoshop 2 is a good program, there are a lot of free tutorials out there to begin reading. Just type in removing background in the help section and it will give you a couple of ways to do it.

Bob

[BobHill]

Bob,
Adobe's PhotoShop 2 is long gone from anywhere but someones top or bottom shelf somewhere. The newest versions is now CS3 ($649 and is equivilent to version 10) and is quite expensive. However, PhotoShop Elements 5.0 ($99)is great for our purposes on the CarveWright and is far, far less expensive.

Bob

[GRASSHOPPER]

Bobs,

So I guess this CS2 should be good if I can get it figured out. What about the book question?

[BobHill]

Bruce,
I'd guess that my eyes weren't working right. I didn't see that you said you had CS2 ... and there is nothing wrong with that, espeically since you don't have to buy it. If you have a good bookstore handy (Borders or
Barnes and Noble, for example) you should be able to find all sorts of books available for it. You shouldn't need to start out with anything expensive, since the stuff we normally do in PhotoShop isn't all that sophticated compared with the extreme stuff the program will do. Even one of the Dummy books (which normally I'm not all that fond of) should do you. The only thing to remember if you wish to eliminate the background (the easy way) and it's pretty much the same color is to double click the "Background" layer in it's window and when the opening option is to "name" it .. just click OK. Now you can use the Magic color wand and click on the background which should Select it, then hit the Delete button. The area that's the same color as the where you clicked the want will now turn to a checkerboard design. This indicates that that area is now transparent.
Bob