How did you learn photoshop?
Lessons. school. on the job, self taught et cetera.
How did you find it? How long before you felt you had a handle on it?
Many thanks.
I appreciate Mere Mortal’s mention of my online tutorial. Here’s the address:
http://www.jimsdigitaldiary.com/photoshop.html
But please note: It’s a very basic intro to PS for photographers.
How did I learn? Self taught for a couple of years before I took every course I could find at the local college. Then I was invited to teach it at the University – which I did for four years.
After that, continuing to learn, I began teaching to private seminars and individual students.
In other words, I’ve learned what I know by teaching … and – MOST IMPORTANT! – by doing!
I read the current literature. I discuss various processes with other photographers. And I do both photo restorations and custom imaging professionally.
I never expect to learn even half of what can be done with Photoshop. But that’s okay. I don’t need to. I only need to understand the basic premises as they apply to photography (since I have no interest in graphic design or photo manipulation), know the tools … and practice, practice, practice.
I don’t think anyone has a handle on it. It’s huge. Huge.
Adobe’s Classroom in a Book is a worthy investment, or Bruce Fraser’s Real World Photoshop.
But there are also a ton of free tutorials on the Web. Many are excellent quality.
Me, I just played around with it for hours and hours … back when it was vers. 3 or 4. I’ve kept using it, but really only scratch the surface of the capabilities. I use PS Elements much more, and have taken up Paint Shop Pro X1 and Nikon’s Capture NX, as they do most of what I need.
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I attended a broadcasting school where they taught me some of the very, very basics.
Then I got hired into a post house and they had their graphics guy train me a bit. I also studied some free tutorials online to help with my technique.
I do have a "handle on it," however, I am still always learning.
You might like this blog:
http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/
It is hilarious, they take horrible photoshop jobs from magazines, posters, online, etc. and post them for the world to laugh at. And these a supposed professionals, so as you can see, you need to constantly learn.
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Jim McDade online tutorials.
I still have a LONG way to go.
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Self taught. I really don’t think Photoshop is hard to learn.
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dunno
self tought
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I am mostly self taught, though I have learned a lot from online tutorials. I don’t think I’ll ever get a full handle on it unless I take some classes and even then, the full CS has many uses that I will likely not need. I do well for the parts of it that are of use to me.
References :
I have found the books by Scott Kelby to be the most helpful to me. He has books on each version of Photoshop. He gives very easy to follow steps with color illustrations for various procedures. However, you are not leaning how to do just one thing. The techniques taught can be used in many ways, not just for the one procedure that he is demonstrating.
I find online tutorials difficult to follow unless I print them out. I need hardcopy stuff right in my hand that I can follow while in Photoshop. Watching someone do something in photoshop at some website just seldom works for me later when *I* am in Photoshop.
Different people learn in different ways though. There IS lots of great info out there, you just have to seek it out and pretty much teach yourself. You CAN take classes and courses, but even then, you will NEVER learn it all there, so in effect you will ALWAYS be self teaching.
steve
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School, books, and online tutorials… mostly, practice!
I learned about it in school. I can handle it to the point where I’m happy with it… it’s only difficult when you make it difficult.
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self taught. Just use it. It’s not that hard, but you keep learning every time you want to do something different.
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I still don’t have a handle on it. I just keep reading answers here to learn more.
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Initially I was self taught. I played around with it, asked questions of friends who used it, and just tinkered, really. Then, I started attending professional photography events like Imaging USA and other seminars, and I started taking notes from some really great instructors like Jim DiVitale and Julieanne Kost. I didn’t understand half of what they were saying, but I took tedious notes.
After that, I went back and took a college course in Photoshop, and it all began to make sense. I was doing everything the hard way, and not using the right tools or keyboard shortcuts. Through the course, we were given links to many excellent tutorials. I purchased CS3 and Lightroom, and I sped up my photoshop work exponentially.
After the course, I went back and studied the notes from Jim DiVitale, Julieanne Kost, and other speakers I had heard. It all clicked, and I understood the techniques they had been teaching.
I think it took about a year of true study to get to a point that I felt like I had a good command of the program, and actually started using many of the capabilities.
I liked the textbook from my college course – Martin Evening’s book:
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-CS3-Photographers-Professional/dp/0240520289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225394418&sr=8-1
I’m sure there is plenty more to learn, but I’m able to do pretty much anything I need to in the program quickly and efficiently.
References :
I appreciate Mere Mortal’s mention of my online tutorial. Here’s the address:
http://www.jimsdigitaldiary.com/photoshop.html
But please note: It’s a very basic intro to PS for photographers.
How did I learn? Self taught for a couple of years before I took every course I could find at the local college. Then I was invited to teach it at the University – which I did for four years.
After that, continuing to learn, I began teaching to private seminars and individual students.
In other words, I’ve learned what I know by teaching … and – MOST IMPORTANT! – by doing!
I read the current literature. I discuss various processes with other photographers. And I do both photo restorations and custom imaging professionally.
I never expect to learn even half of what can be done with Photoshop. But that’s okay. I don’t need to. I only need to understand the basic premises as they apply to photography (since I have no interest in graphic design or photo manipulation), know the tools … and practice, practice, practice.
References :
http://www.jimsdigitaldiary.com
http://www.cafepress.com/jimmcdadephoto
I started with Photoshop Elements 2.0 about 6 years ago. It was not very complicated and I didn’t want to do too much with it, so it suited me fine. I learned how to crop, dodge and burn, and eventually adjust levels and that was about it. I moved up to PE 3.0 when it came out and it was much more powerful than 2.0, so I wanted to learn. They had tutorials on the help pages which were actually helpful. I got some tips from PopPhoto and also from my sister, who is a graphic arts pro. My brother taught me some stuff also, but this was limited to e-mail help. As each version came out, I just upgraded and learned more. I’d say that most of my refinement came from contact with friends on-line who told me what was possible in conversation and by example and I just took it from there. I don’t know how I’d do with real Photoshop. I’d probably be lost pretty soon.
I just read an article in Outdoor Photographer that suggests you could do very well combining Photoshop Elements with Adobe Lightroom. My sister told me that, if Elements was as powerful as it is now, she may never have purchased real Photoshop.
I’m still learning, of course, but I think I had stepped up bit by bit for about 4 years before I felt I could either do anything I want or learn how to do it by asking some questions. My on-line friends have been the most help and you know all of them.
Here are some sample articles from Outdoor Photographer, which (ironically?) has been more helpful for learning Photoshop than the "technical" magazines.
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/photoshop-and-other-software.html
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