Photoshop Tutorials

Don Pedro Golf

Hi guys, I recently got a Mac Book Pro and have installed Photoshop CS4 on it. I used photoshop when I was back in college, but I have not done anything with it in quite some time. I am looking for online tutorials that will be able to bring me back up to speed. I am now back in college with a view to getting a creative role within an ad agency so I need to be proficient enough with the software. Can you advise any good tutorials?

EvolutionNights

Try Adobe TV or You Tube.
If you can be specific about what you need to brush up on then your searches will be more precise.

raglinroad

Well don't forget for an ad agency you'll also need to know InDesign and Illustrator, as Photoshop is not a page layout tool.

I highly recommend not following online Photoshop tutorials as they practice many many bad habits in regards to preparing artwork for both print and online.

I do recommend that you also acquire Illustrator and/or InDesign as Illustrator is better suited to one page designs, and InDesign for multiple page booklets and single page layouts.

Online tutorials are fine for learning general usage of the tools at hand, but I strongly suggest you do courses on Graphic Design that engage the full Adobe Suite, and also engages principles that are necessary from design to print.

Remember, Photoshop is not a general tool for designing, it's for editing and correcting photographs.

Zhora

I don't agree. I've been working with photoshop professionally for 13 years, and it's by far the most versatile program for design and photo/image manipulation. Yes you do need to know all the other design programs, InDesign for layout and Illustrator for graphics but photoshop is the best place to start. Once you get up to speed with it the rest aren't that difficult.

If you wish to learn at your own pace, I suggest a very useful site called Lynda.com. It's an online tutorial for learning programs. They have all the current design/imaging software. It's eay to follow, subscription based, but not pricey.

The only issue I can see is that photoshop CS4 is not the most up to date version and things do change between updates. There was a bit of a jump in advancements from CS4 to CS5 and currently CS6 has just come out. Start with what you have but you'll need to know/learn the most up to date versions if you are to go into the design industry.

Hope that helps.

Zascar

The Lynda ones are great if you know where to find them. A few free teasers on www.lynda.com

raglinroad

Yeh photoshop is great for photo manipulation and it's as a good a place as any to start.

But it is not a page layout program. You will incur extra costs sending a file to a printers in a photoshop format, as they will have to work at the file to break it up for printing. And I'm only talking about page layout, things you do in InDesign and Illustrator.

Again, Photoshop is perfectly fine, but the online tutorials teach very bad habits from a printing perspective.

I worked in a printers for 8 years dealing with this type of thing. It's sound advice from someone who has been there and seen it all.

I once got a 120 page magazine sent to me to prepare for plates in individual PSD files.

It's the wrong way to do it. And designing page layouts in photoshop is the wrong way to do it.

Photoshop, as we agree, is great for photo manipulation. But it's not the be all and end all of design, graphic design, photo manipulation, and it is in no means ever designed to be a page layout tool.

Everyone falls into a niche depending on what job they get. Some end up working with Illustration tools, some end up with page layout tools, some end up with needing photo tools.

But if you want to be successful in the business you need to be well rounded in all 3 softwares and principles, and it doesn't end there, in the aspect of typography, and colour theory, you need to be well rounded in these.

Yeh you can fly off and brilliant in photoshop, or illustrator, or indesign, or quark, or corel, or Xara, or a plethora of other pieces of software. But software is only tool - understanding how to implement them correctly should be the aim of the game.

Far too many people out there with a copy of photoshop calling themselves a designer and they are costing their "clients" extra charges incurred because some in a prepress situation, or perhaps web development situation, has to tear apart what they did in Illustrator, Photoshop, or Indesign or a plethora of other software, and correct all the imperfections simply because the designer hadn't got enough knowledge to prepare it correctly.

Ultimate Warrior

Hi Guys,

Just reading this thread, it is sort of what I am looking for.
I have being trying to follow some youtube photoshop tutorials.
I am looking to create 1 or 2 flyers per month for my dance classes / events. Currently I have a friend in italy I send the information off to so he does them, but i really would like to know how to do them myself.

If anyone has time to show me I can pay them for a few hours of their time.
I am using CS3 at the moment on my PC

Don Pedro Golf

Thanks for the advice guys. I have since subscribed to Lynda. I have a fairly good knowledge of InDesign from my design classes in college but Illustrator - I definatly need to check out a few tutorials.

tricky D

Zascar wrote: »

The Lynda ones are great if you know where to find them. A few free teasers on www.lynda.com

This fellas PhotoShop ones are good.

http://www.lynda.com/Deke-McClelland/98-1.html

myshadowie

Don Pedro Golf wrote: »

Hi guys, I recently got a Mac Book Pro and have installed Photoshop CS4 on it. I used photoshop when I was back in college, but I have not done anything with it in quite some time. I am looking for online tutorials that will be able to bring me back up to speed. I am now back in college with a view to getting a creative role within an ad agency so I need to be proficient enough with the software. Can you advise any good tutorials?

don just started photoshop and found utube to be brilliant especially a guy called gavin howey ,so get cracking