Those of you that use photoshop- how did you start teaching yourself? I'd like to become more proficient in photo editing, but easily get frustrated!! I'd love to hear helpful tips!
Also- Don't forget, two great giveaways are ending today and tomorrow! Dont forget to enter (check the side of the blog for photo links!)
Monday, June 6, 2011
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9 comments:
Doing tutorials although not always fun is a good way to learn. You might see if Kevin still has his Photoshop book from college and borrow it.
If there's something specific you want to do to your photos you might Google something like "Photoshop tutorial picture editing". Then you can kill two birds with one stone: edit your own picture (rather than one that the tutorial suggest you edit) and learn some new Photoshop tricks.
Or you can move back to OKC and I'll teach you! ;)
Sommer- thats a great idea. I'll check with kevin for sure!
As for OKC- I'd LOVE to come back!!! I really miss it!! (and you of course!!)
Online tutorials are awesome. The Adobe Classroom in a Book series is a pretty great resource if you are just starting out. It has lots of the basics. While it uses stock projects, you could work on your own photos and follow along. Really, the best way to learn Photoshop is to constantly work with the program.
I second the comments about finding tutorials online and following them. The more of those you do the more you'll start to understand what each step does and how the various layers work with each other. Then you'll finally feel brave enough to mess around and try things on your own. My two warnings about that are that not all tutorials are created equal and that even with step-by-step instructions you'll have to expect frustration and failure. I've seen a lot of tutorials that assume you already know how to do the basics so try to read through them first before diving right in.
This is an easy tutorial that spells everything out for you nicely:
http://www.thedaybookblog.com/2010/10/your-questions-answered-photography-and.html
This was the first Photoshop tutorial I ever used so it must have been good for beginners. Even if you don't really want to turn pictures of all your friends into scary demonic creatures with glowing eyes it's a good one to start with and I've applied the same steps to other photos for different results:
http://best-photoshop-tutorials.blogspot.com/2008/09/glowing-demon-eyes-effect-in-photoshop.html
Yes! Tutorials! And you can also download "actions" for free from lots of places; for instance: http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/download-files-for-pioneer-woman-actions-elements-version/
Otherwise, I more or less taught myself by looking up how to do things instance by instance and playing around with elements like curves, layers, etc.
I would say, if I had a choice (and it might be too late for you if you already have photoshop) I would ALWAYS recommend starting out with the Adobe program Lightroom instead-- it's so much more user-friendly, especially when you're editing large batches of photos.
Good luck!
For some reason, it seems like when I started learning Photoshop, "googling it" wasn't a universal thing yet. I think that I basically started with a picture, and tried every single option to see what it did. After that, I actually took a photoshop class (which didn't really help all that much, to be honest). I would say that you should just take some time and play around- but if you have something specific in mind (either an effect or a time frame) then hit up the photoshop help or online tutorials. The lovely thing about photoshop is that there is so much to it that a person with usual cognitive function may never actual fully conquer it...
Play around with filters and add layers. I always do a duplicate layer for my picture and apply filters to that. You can also adjust the transparency of layers to change the effects. I concur that doing tutorials is a great way to figure out how things are done -- I did a lot of tutorials when I was learning. Also, go to your local library and check out some books -- even if they are for older versions, you'll likely find most of the info translates and you won't have to spend anything to test them out. If you find a great book, you can always buy it.
Also, some libraries even offer free beginner's class for Photoshop.
just stumbled onto your blog! you are so cute - and smart apparently! my mom went to law school when we were growing up and i am impressed at how you manage your time and stillmake time for fun crafty stuff!
as far as photoshop - i had to take an online paid class (lynda.com) for my marketing degree and while it was helpful, i definitely think playing around and googling is just as helpful. and you know... free.
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