Beginners photoshop class

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Hi hi, does anyone know how I could find a short intro class to Photoshop in the West Midlands? I've obviously done a Google but I'm getting long classes that cost hundreds of pounds. I only really need someone, not a Photoshop pro, for a couple of hours. I prefer a face to face class rather than online.
 
It depends on what you want to do, the way I learnt what I know about photoshop is, by having to do certain tasks, and setting goals to achieve.
.if your ever in the Manchester area , I would be more than happy to help you.
 
I ran a 1 day (10am - 4pm with lunch) Photoshop class at our local college but knocked it on the head after just two or three sessions. By the time you've done introductions your time is very limtied. I got the same feedback from both sessions I ran and the only way to fix it was to run a longer course.

1. Photoshop is huge. It's impossible to cover everything in a few hours so you end up skimming stuff by trying to cover everything and raising more questions than you can answer.
2. There are always one or two people who don't read the course info and simply cannot operate the computer. Do a course with windows PCs and everyone has a mac at home. And vice versa. This just sucks time up.
3. You get one person there to learn layers, and another person there to learn how to cut things out, and another person who wants to learn how to retouch old family negatives. Again, despite course info saying it's a very basic introduction, people expect that their specific needs will be met and are dissappointed when they're not.

I can see how short photoshop courses don't exist. I went on to run a 6 week (2 hrs/week evening class) course which was very popular but still suffered from the three issues above - just less so. I've since stopped teaching any courses on a computer. There are always people who expect you to include "operating a computer" in the couse too... A 16 week course would defintiely weed out those people and would be able to cover everything. However, as you say, much more expensive. It's likely to be the best face to face way though aside from private tuition.

My suggestion would be YouTube in bite sized sessions as and when you can. Layers? Cutting stuff out? Retouching? Compositing? Excellend videos online, and all can be done at your own pace.
 
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I had to pretty much teach myself from scratch. I still don't consider myself an expert, but I know my way around the basic controls. The book I found most helpful was "The Ultimate Guide to Fundamental Editing" from Photzy. At $19 you can't go far wrong. I can provide the link if you need it, otherwise it's very Googleable.
 
I don't use Photoshop very often (I use lightroom more often than not), but if I need Photoshop for some thing and don't know how to do it, I just go onto YouTube, find a video that takes me through the process step by step. That will usually be a video by phlearn or more often PIXimperfect.
 
I will go along with online tutorials but the most useful thing I found was a second monitor or a tablet.
Put the tutorial on that and PS on the other then you can watch and do at the same size.
Its easier to do it in bite size chunks, find the answer to what you want to do rather than try and learn it all.
 
Hey thanks for replying. I can see why classes aren't great. I know I can use books/youtube/other online courses and that's a good option. But my first choice would be something face to face if i'm honest.

Thanks for the offer steve_lyt but i've got no plans to visit Manchester in the forseeable future i'm afraid.
 
Hah. I just thought i'd look on the lessons part of craigslist UK, just in case there was anything there and maybe i'd post a wanted ad. Yeah don't do that. Unless you're looking for a very specific type of service.
 
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