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How did you learn Photoshop?

thanks

Thanks for all the good links guys - I think this will go a long way to expose me to some of the tools out there.

Another sort of unrelated question - and this may be very remedial - do you heavy users use a mouse or a pen/tablet (not sure for the technical name for this?)?

Thanks again,
Chris
 
I just used it as I had a necessity for it. I can't learn any way else.
 
Started with PS 3

I got started with PS when I bought the first Microtek Scanner for the museum I work for. Version 3 was bundled with it. At work I have we run Windows, and 1 week before CS4 was announced i boutght 4 copies of PS CS3 for the shop. Last month I just bought CS3 extended for home use on my MBP. Oh well. As for how I learned the program...
1. A lot of trial and error.
2. Several versions of PhotoShop for Dummies books
3. One workshop.
4. A 3-credit University of Alaska course.
5. More trial and error.
6. PhotoshopUser TV podcast from NAPP
7. Understanding Adobe Photoshop HD -pocast by Richard Harrington – RHED Pixel
8. Bert Monroy tutorials
9. This Week in Photography (TWIP) Podcast
10. More trial and error
11. More Error and trial.

I use a mouse on all machines, 4x6" pen partner, 7 x 8" Artz II tablet, and a USB Intuos3 6x8 with the mac.

There is just no better way to restore photos than with a pen and tablet.

But it is still having fun learning some 15 years later...:)
 
A combination of trial-and-error, books, and tutorials. Lynda.com and kelbytraining.com are great video resources. They're both cheap for what they offer.
 
I have tought myself over the last 16 years or so. Basically since version 4. Lots of books and magazines and once the internet came into it's own, I used the internet. There are so many tips and hints that you can pretty much find anything you really need.

I still have my books and I still pretty much keep all my magazines. I have been a member of NAPP for the past 8 years or so and I have been to numerous training seminars.
 
i did a ritual and sacrificed a nvidia graphics card to the photoshop GOD!!

lol kidding, i did it all though self teaching and reference from friends who are expirenced with photoshoping. but basically its all trial and error. practice makes perfect!! (well not really but you know what i mean)
 
Taught myself.
Its the only way really, to jump in and get stuck in.
Talking with friends who use it as well helps alot.
 
i think it's the obsession that keeps you in challenge haha
i could not be more obsessive when i got a report card with horrible grades from my classes and my mom was willing to see it..whew
i think books are like dictionary...just looking up when you need something specific ones
 
Thanks

Just the ??? I needed an answer to . My other prob is this . When i am done in PS what do I do next ? Where and how do I save stuff ? Also , must I convert my photo to a jpeg or can I work it in psd . My tools would not do anything while I was in psd . Thanks for any help .
 
DELINDA said:
Just the ??? I needed an answer to. My other prob is this. When i am done in PS what do I do next? Where and how do I save stuff? Also, must I convert my photo to a jpeg or can I work it in psd. My tools would not do anything while I was in psd. Thanks for any help .
Click to expand...

When done with a file you were working on, and you want to save it, File>Save As...

This saves your current document to anywhere you would like, a local disc [hard drive, or optical, or Server]. The feature File> Save; Saves any changes, to an already saved document, saving changes made since opening the existing document.


JPEG/TIFF:

You can use JPEGs in PS, it just depends on the way you intend to use it/them. Since I mostly use JPEGs received from customers at work, we tend to mostly use Hi-Res JPGs or Tiff images. JPEG is a generic file format, meaning it is a Lossy Format; it throws out pixels when it can to conserve a small file size. TIFF, on the other hand is a Lossless Format type of file. Tiffs file sizes are bigger, since they tend to not throw out pixels, it replicates pixels when it can [AKA - ReSampling an image].


You don't have to convert a JPEG, to anything else, in order to use it in PS. However, if you are working with a PSD file, and wanted to send it to a Printer [Offset Press Printer] then most people would Merge Layers, or anything else in that PSD to a One Layer Image [one flattened layer], before printing it. In our office the designers are the only ones with the editable working PSD documents, the designers would output either TIFF images, or PS files.
 
Blood, sweat, tears. Taught myself, grabbed a whole bunch of tuts online and went to town.

It helped that a college friend of mine was able to grab it for me free... but that's going back several years and I own a license now.
 
I learned the basics from an old CD set of tutorials called "Learning Photoshop 7" by Bruce Heavin. There was also a book by Scott Kelby called "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers" which I found in a local library. Once I got faster at editing images I worked freelance for a while and met a bunch of retouchers in different places who showed me a lot of cool stuff.

I use a Wacom Graphire 4 tablet for pretty much everything and retired the mouse to a drawer. It did take about a week getting used to navigating files and surfing webpages with the pen, but now I'd never go back.
Have fun learning Photoshop, it's a wonderful program.
 
I don't know how to use Photoshop. I rarely do graphics so I guess it's oK but there are times when I wish I knew the basics. I'll be keeping tabs on this thread for some good tutorial recommendations.
 
Taught myself while in the military. We used it along with Adobe Pagemaker for the newspaper and magazine we published. Lots of trial and error, lots of discovery and guess work.
 
Learned the basics the day before a job interview. Surprisingly, it worked. Basically, the most important aspect of working with Photoshop was using layers and that book made it really clear from the start. The rest of the book was very well structured too. I wish all books were like that instead of showing you how to go through menus and describing the different bundled filters.
 
I started building websites for my band back in 1997 or so. So it was then that i started teaching myself graphic programs and html. Read books. Read tutorials. Really, anything I could get my hands on to learn all about Photoshop, coding, etc etc etc.

In 2004 I took a web design class that included a working knowledge of Photoshop.

In 2007 I taught a college course on Photoshop for photographers.

So I've never really taken a course on the subject. Mainly, I just dove in years ago to teach myself as much as I could.
 
I learned a little bit in a Photography class in highschool. Now I'm taking a class on Photoshop CS3, following along the Photoshop In A Classroom book. Otherwise, the "You Suck At Photoshop" tutorials are a hilarious way to learn PS.

Did anyone try CS4 yet?
 
I had one class in high school of my senior year... before that I dabbled around with it, and still do. I first used Illustrator in high school, and I am still learning a lot in I.

I make banners mostly for a website, here is an example.

:apple:Austin

PS, I still am using a Dell Latitude 131L for all my Adobe works.
 
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