Learning Photoshop

[radhak]

After years of lurking on the fringes of Photoshop (using it for just resizing and cropping images), I am hooked into diving slightly deeper because of one book : "Layers" by Matt Kloskowski.

The book is written for the likes of me : who know computers and graphics in general, and wish to know the specifics of a powerful program. I don't need to learn, but just am interested.

I used CS2 (on a friend's machine) for working alongwith the book, and am amazed how much a single program can possibly enable! The ability to blend multiple pictures - and non-destructively - and making ordinary looking pictures pop out is thrilling.

And before anybody points out, I also realize how much more there is to PS. It's like I'm standing on the cusp of a huge ocean, wondering if I want to plunge in at all.

Funnily, I got hold of an evaluation copy of CS4, but am unable to install it, because of all sorts of problems (hangs, gives cryptic error messages, etc). I see a lot of that reported online, so it's not isolated. Adobe seems to have made the program so big and heavy that installing it needs some expertise !

[Garasaki]

I've been using Photoshop for several years now (probably like 7 or 8) as a hobbiest.

Although I'm mostly self taught, it is amazing how much there is to know. I've done a number of things thru tutorials - and oftentimes after a few weeks, I do not recall the specifics of a tutorial, but the processes stick with me and that's really the important part.

I'm often tempted to pick up a photoshop book from the book store - maybe I'll make this my first one. Best case scenerio would be to find it at the library!

[dbhost]

Congrats. Photoshop is a great program. I used it for a long time, but gave it up in favor of The GIMP. (Runs on all the platforms I use, Photoshop doesn't).

There are a lot of similar programs out there that are well worth exploring. Photoshop is just the best known one...

[poolhound]

I am also a big PS user and have CS3 Design premium and I use most elements every week.

If you need any help just holler.

[Tom Slick]

I tinker with photoshop also. Right now I am trying to learn a little more in depth using Lightroom.

The official Adobe "Classroom in a Book" are also good. They have projects that you go through and samples for you to compare your work to, making sure you did the lesson correctly. Those styles of books always work well for my style of "hands-on" learning.

[cabinetman]

I'm by far no geek. I also use PS for minimal stuff. It is amazing what can be done. I've tried to just 'experiment' with the images, which for me is easier than following tutorials. There are a few real experts on this forum that have been a big help, and Bruce Cohen is one of them. But you gotta catch him when he's in a stable mood, which is pretty rare.
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[headhunter636]

If you like Matt, you will probably like the rest of the Photoshop TV folks as well: http://www.photoshopusertv.com/. This is a series of video podcasts made by the Photoshop Users, Scott Kelby, Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski. They show some very useful stuff on the show and I like Scott's books as well. In addition to this, you can also check out Kelby Training. They feature a lot of tutorials on other Adobe software as well as Photoshop.

Photoshop is great and I think you can accomplish anything you can imaging with it.

Enjoy it.

[Ed62]

Just a word of caution. You can get stuck on Photoshop for the rest of your life, if you're not careful. It's another slippery slope.

Ed

[leehljp]

After the first upgrade, I paid more for EACH of the successive upgrades over the years - than I did for my original purchase in 1993.

But I wouldn't change it. I haven't kept up with the latest and greatest features, but it is much more instinctive to me than others. I would hate to have to learn this from the beginning.

[Norm in Fujino]

If you're using it mostly for photography (as opposed to other design tasks), the Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers series by Scott Kelby is excellent. I use CS3 just about daily, but pretty much only the basics; I wish I had more time to learn it really well.

Speaking of which (and sorry for the self-promotion ), I'm having an exhibit of concert photos beginning this weekend, at a local restaurant-pub. Here's a couple of shots of pop singer UA (pronounced ooh-ahh):