Teaching myself Photoshop...

Zxyton

So I plan on teaching myself photoshop, probably using a guide book. Does this sound like a doable task? Would I be better off investing in a course? Any hints, tips or otherwise? All advise welcome!

Fighting Irish

learn one thing at a time, youtube has tons of videos showing you how to do stuff

Masada

check out some of the photography magazines available in the shops, they often come with photoshop tutorial CDs for all different types of effects and styles,.:)

Zxyton

Great, thanks for the tips

ThOnda

Youtube and google are your best friends. I am serius and not sarcastic,

mobileblog

Get yourself over to Itunes podcast section and search for Michael Rathers -Photoshop for digital photographers. You'll find a wealth of video's and some great tips

kjt

Youtube has lots on there, along with that there's also lynda. Brilliant tutorials!

Good luck with it

Danbo!

Zxyton wrote: »

So I plan on teaching myself photoshop...... Does this sound like a doable task?

In my opinion, this is the only way to learn photoshop! A book and maybe a few tutorials to familiarise yourself with the program itself, and then just spend as much time as you can using it and you'll learn a lot. I've done a few courses on software but I really only learnt the 'nitty gritty' as they say, by playing with the software myself.

The only advantage a classroom based course has over web tutorials is feedback from the instructor. A lot of tutorials on the web now have comments sections beneath though, so if there is a step missing that wouldn't be so obvious to a novice, someone (or lots of people) will say it in the comments and the author will usually respond through that.

Morrisseeee

So I plan on teaching myself photoshop...... Does this sound like a doable task?

.........YES YOU CAN ! (for the day thats in it !)

jackdaw

If you want to get a book I HIGHLY recommend Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS(version) for digital photographers....

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0321501918


excellent...

elven

If you look at the top of the photography forum there's a whole other forum dedicated to it... spewing forth tutorials and tips for one such as yourself.

Beware of getting confused when trying to find a way to do something and you see conflicting advice - there are 5 ways to do everything in photoshop...

Danbo!

elven wrote: »

conflicting advice - there are 5 ways to do everything in photoshop...

:rolleyes: Ignore this advice. There is at least 10 ways

Pinarello

jackdaw wrote: »

If you want to get a book I HIGHLY recommend Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS(version) for digital photographers....

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/WEBSITE/WWW/WEBPAGES/showbook.php?id=0321501918


excellent...

Many thank's for the information about the Scott Kelby's book.I've just bought it from the bookdepository.I'm in the same boat as the op.I have found a course on the internet,it's just that i don't have the €650 lying around for it...:o

WheresMyCamera?

mobileblog wrote: »

Get yourself over to Itunes podcast section and search for Michael Rathers -Photoshop for digital photographers. You'll find a wealth of video's and some great tips

+1 for this advice. Michael Rathers also has a podcast on Lightroom too.

5uspect

The NAPP video podcasts (PhotoShop TV or whatever they're called now) are also great.
Scott Kelby and co make a very helpful (and humerous) tutorials.

Linky:
http://www.photoshopusertv.com/

Dragan

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-websites-to-make-you-a-photoshop-ninja/

Exactly what it says on the tin.

enzyme

lynda.com are the business. They have online video tutorials for pretty much any software. They are really easy to understand. If you miss something you just go back and press play. They cost about $30 per month but if you stuck at it you could learn a lot in one month. If you want I think they do annual membership but it costs a couple of 100.

Calaido

Here is the best and easiest way to get familar with this big dream monster Photoshop!

1) Don't read that big depressing book ( :

2) google things like that and study them upfront!
-Filetype (what is the difference between jpg, tiff, psd)
-colour profiles ( why CP, what is sRGB, Adobe RGB, when using them)
-8 bit 16 bit, 32 bit
-resolution (what is inch, when to use 72 dpi when 300....)

3) now use one of your images and press EVERY button in Photoshop, try out the effect of filters, contrast, colour saturation..... IT'S PLAYTIME.

4) think about and archive system.
-whenever you play around, you will have some progress and realisations / name the files in a special way, include info ...that you will remember)

5) time to get serious
- what are adjustment layers
- monitor profiles
- difference between working with RAW files or JPGS


GOOD LUCK.
When you passion is big enough, you will make progress very easily and you will spend maaany nights in front of your loved computer.

Cheers
Madeleine


or www.calaido.blogspot.com (my blog)

Blisterman

There's a book called "How to Cheat at Photoshop" which is good for beginners. It teaches you how to do things, like stick someone's head on a different body, and changing people's hair colour, which is a bit of fun, and you get to learn how you can use all the different tools.

enzyme

Should that not be called the ugly persons guide to photoshop.:P