teach yourself photoshop ?

L

lazaroonie

Suspended / Banned
Messages
179
Name
Patrick
Edit My Images
Yes
I am coming to the conclusion that to be any kind of decent digital photographer these days that a decent understanding of photoshop is essential. with this is mind i have decided to teach myself..

I am extremely computer and IT literate (20 years in the business), so new software etc holds no fears.

Just really trying to get an idea of books, courses (online), instructional websites people recommend...
 
If your that computer literate you should have no problems with the basics, I'm not at all, and most things are a struggle for this ageing brain, but I still managed to grasp the simple stuff, there are plenty of online tutorials just a google away if I get stuck, there are plenty of very helpful people on here. If you want a more formal method I'm sure you'll get plenty of suggestions.
 
Two authors to look for , Martin Evening, and Scott Kelby. Check out Amazon for Photoshop books by these two authors. Both are excellent teachers and it is really who's style you prefer. I have books by both, and if I had to choose I think I'd go for Martin Evening.

However , you should male up your own mind.

Also check out Photoshopuser tv. Its a weekly US podcast hosted by Scott Kelby Sign up via iTunes, or Photoshopusertv.com
 
my nephew has been watching clips on youtube and has come on leaps and bounds
 
I cannot totally agree with your premise I have Photoshop CS2 but all I really use are Curves,Levels a bit of Layers that I learned off here and Unsharp mask,probably only 5% of what PS can really do but I get by with that
 
It really does depend on what you're trying to achieve, some of the materials / people I reference are

Compositing - Steve Caplin - How to Cheat in Photoshop
Beauty or Fashion retouching - Katrin Eissman / Gry Garness
Colour correction - Skin by Lee Varis
RAW Workflow - Mikkel Aaland

All of the above should be in Amazon, except maybe Gry who focusses on ebooks.

Kelby's a good starting point, and I would recommend starting with his Photoshop for Photographers and 7 Points books, this gives a lot of material to get you started, but you may find that after a while you move away from those techniques. A bit like moving from P to Av to M...

With Photoshop, there's no one way to ahieve anything either, so it may be worth trying a few online tutorials etc first.

And buy a tablet, best thing you can do as far as Photoshop is concerned....
 
Maybe take out a subscription to Digital Photo magazine. Each month you get a CD with loads of video tutorials covering everything from the basics through to some quite advanced stuff
 
lazaroonie said:
I am coming to the conclusion that to be any kind of decent digital photographer these days that a decent understanding of photoshop is essential. with this is mind i have decided to teach myself..

I am extremely computer and IT literate (20 years in the business), so new software etc holds no fears.

Just really trying to get an idea of books, courses (online), instructional websites people recommend...
Click to expand...

Check out Youtube you find a lot of good stuff there
ALso check out Russell Brown he is top man at Adobe talking them they have Adobe TV as well
 
lazaroonie said:
Just really trying to get an idea of books, courses (online), instructional websites people recommend...
Click to expand...

Ive used VTC training cd's for several software packages and found them very good. They have several titles for Photoshop.
They are essentially bite sized quicktime movies that let you watch and practise functions at the same time, allowing you to concentrate on specific tasks without having to listen to long drawn out overviews.
They are £80, but you will always have it to refer to.

http://www.softwaretrainingtutorials.com/
 
Grendel said:
Maybe take out a subscription to Digital Photo magazine. Each month you get a CD with loads of video tutorials covering everything from the basics through to some quite advanced stuff
Click to expand...

:agree:

I've been a subscriber for a while now, and have learnt an awful lot. I archive the good tutorials off to my D drive for reference. The freebie textures and frames are also handy to have around.

Can't comment on Scott Kelby, but the Martin Evening book is an excellent reference once you have a basic understanding. I wouldn't want to start with those books from scratch, but that's just me.

DP magazine is quite good in that each tutorial is a "this is how you get this effect" and as you learn the basics, you can develop your own style.

-H
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top