Beginner Photoshop Suite

Applemuncher

Applemuncher

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Justine
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Hi everyone!

I have the Photoshop Suite and just use the most basic elements of Lightroom, nothing else.

I've tried to look at Photoshop YouTube tutorials but I can't really grasp it and the next time I come to use it I've more or less forgotten what I've learned.

How did you learn Photoshop (for those that use it), did you learn on a course at college or online or all you all self-taught?
 
Self-taught with occasional reference to Youtube and other resources.
 
self taught for me, recently started getting into lightroom as previously i was always a camera raw user. Need to get my head around the database side of it now as i have just reformatted my pc and am starting my library from scratch in order to do it properly. Takes time to learn these things but the trick i find most handy is that if you are doing something and think to yourself "there must be a quicker way of doing this" then generally there is
 
Applemuncher said:
I've tried to look at Photoshop YouTube tutorials but I can't really grasp it
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To say I taught myself would be an exaggeration because I had the help of a deeply-grounded but user-friendly reference book, 'Real World Photoshop' (Blatner / Fraser). When I began with PS, on-line wasn't an option, and LR didn't exist.

PS can do things that LR can't. Layers, selections, text ...

It could be that you hardly need it. But read about what it can do and ask yourself whether you need to do any of those things.

My approach to learning anything has usually been that I've wanted to do something (follow an interest or solve a problem), so have sought a method. That way, the motivation to learn is rooted in.
 
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YouTube. There's a guy called Terry White, he's the lead Adobe guy who works for them. He has a series of videos showing you new features or his favourite features.
Look at the features what appeal to you then look for tutorials on how to use them.
 
Largely self taught but a friend who is an retired pro showed me how to use layers and that is the key.
Once you master that it becomes a lot easier
 
Thanks everyone, really helpful advice as usual. Perhaps I might benefit from learning to use Lightroom to its fullest and then maybe I can move on to Photoshop after that.

I always want to run before I can walk.:(
 
Applemuncher said:
Thanks everyone, really helpful advice as usual. Perhaps I might benefit from learning to use Lightroom to its fullest and then maybe I can move on to Photoshop after that.

I always want to run before I can walk.:(
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That's good thinking.

Worth considering that Lightroom is image development (and management) software for general processing of images, while Photoshop is a pixel-level editor designed to make very specific and fundamental changes to images. Not that you can't image process with Photoshop, but it's not the easiest tool for routine image processing.

I watched the Anthony Morganti lightroom videos and then just got on with it.
 
ancient_mariner said:
That's good thinking.

Worth considering that Lightroom is image development (and management) software for general processing of images, while Photoshop is a pixel-level editor designed to make very specific and fundamental changes to images. Not that you can't image process with Photoshop, but it's not the easiest tool for routine image processing.

I watched the Anthony Morganti lightroom videos and then just got on with it.
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I'll do that, thanks :)
 
Applemuncher said:
Hi everyone!

I have the Photoshop Suite and just use the most basic elements of Lightroom, nothing else.

I've tried to look at Photoshop YouTube tutorials but I can't really grasp it and the next time I come to use it I've more or less forgotten what I've learned.

How did you learn Photoshop (for those that use it), did you learn on a course at college or online or all you all self-taught?
Click to expand...
Pretty much started from books then went to YouTube videos, the only problem not learning from scratch is you can tend to do things back to front or certainly the long winded way, if you get hold of a start to advanced course you learn things in order, just like anything else I guess. I now have several excellent courses I purchased for lightroom and Photoshop which start from beginning to advanced and beyond. PM me if you would like details.
 
Applemuncher said:
Thanks everyone, really helpful advice as usual. Perhaps I might benefit from learning to use Lightroom to its fullest and then maybe I can move on to Photoshop after that.

I always want to run before I can walk.:(
Click to expand...


That's the secret. Lightroom is far more intuitive. In fact, my guess is that as you get more proficient with Lightroom, you'll find there is very little need to go into photoshop. Even LR involves a learning process that can take 5 years or more. There's loads of little features that are hidden away in there which can improve your photographs.
 
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Photoshop is too big to learn all of it methodically.

One in is to search for a tutorial for a particular task you want to do, e.g. change colour of something or enhance backlit image
Not all tutorials demonstrate very good techniques - but they do give you a step-by-step way in.

Once you've started to find your way around then tutorials like Phlearn will make more sense.
 
I started by doing Adult Learning courses, which was good because the person teaching the course was coming from an Art background so learned things like brushes and layers rather than just picture editing. Everything learned was useful because the shortcuts are still the same, and slowly moved on to editing images during the course. This was before the Camera Raw plugin made image editing so much easier, but I am glad I have a pretty good understanding of Layers because of it. Once the bug had bit though I was seeking out tutorials to do specific things.

Over the years I have found Creativelive to be very good for online tutorials. They have new online classes every so often, but also repeat a lot of courses every day, so you may catch something interesting every couple of days.

Not sure if you need to be registered to watch now. You don't have to pay to watch, only if you want to download and keep a copy of the course. Just looked and coincidently there is a Practical Photoshop Basics course streaming at the moment.
 
Self taught, with the help of the Adobe Lightroom book right at the start (v1 of Lightroom).

What is it you want to achieve with Lightroom/Photoshop?
 
Craikeybaby said:
Self taught, with the help of the Adobe Lightroom book right at the start (v1 of Lightroom).

What is it you want to achieve with Lightroom/Photoshop?
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I don't want to do a lot to be honest, I only really take Landscapes and I try to do everything in camera so there's not a lot to alter. Sometimes it would be handy to be able to clone something out etc.

Also, I've done a couple of star trail shots, which I loved doing but I felt as bit out of my depth stacking the images and cloning the aeroplanes out.
 
Self taught - problem with photoshop, if you don't use it all the time, it's a learning process each time!! Lightroom is more instinctive and a lot easier to use (but more limited in scope!).
 
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