"How’d you do that?"
Practice. Practice. Practice. 🙂
Cindy Singleton wrote:
So what do YOU say?
I use to say: "with blood, sweat and lots of practice". Unfortunately most people think that everything is easy if only you have the right program as Photoshop for instance. I know a lot of people who thinks that if only they by a pen instead of a mouse, they can draw anything and they’re not even joking. 😮
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Regards
Madsen.
Largely depends on the individual’s attitude.
For people willing to learn and make an effort, I’ll take the time.
Then there are the annoying people. "Run before walk" syndrome. "One button" syndrome. Whatever you want to call it, I’m sure you know the type. For these people, I sometimes use this:
Q: What’s the fastest way to Broadway?
A: Practice.
I hear a lot of "How did you do that" when people see some of the stuff I do. I generally explain to them the process in plain language. Usually they end up with "Oh, sounds complicated".
It is. You have to understand color, print, screen and all of the available PS features. I always offer to teach, or better yet I volunteer for easy projects for my friends.
My fiance manages three designers. She has zero design knowledge. She’s asked me a few times to teach her PS. I tell her it’s not a 15 minute course. Just teaching the basics of how to set up a document can take 15 minutes.
People make good money knowing PS. If it were simple, we’d be useless. If they have a technical job, ask them to teach you their process in a one-sitting conversation.
I was asked, at my last job, to "show [someone] the basics of what you do." Uh huh. I had a week until my job was dissolved (thank you Gray Davis). I kills me when people think what we do is a simple click of a button that took 5 days to learn. The noive!
~Em
I kills me when people think what we do is a simple click of a button that took 5 days to learn. The noive
My last job laid me off in the middle of a T-Shirt and some brochure projects. They figured they could just send my files to the printers and all would be well.
Then they realized that you can’t can someone when their job is half done.
What you can’t teach is style. Yes, the mechanical part of what we do can be written down and easily learned if someone dedicated some time to it. The process that gets us to making a style and managing it so everything shares elements of that style isn’t a trained-monkey job.
I think a lot of people have some idea of the skill/patience that is needed in a darkroom. I generally describe PS as the computerised analog of that.
I actually think this is quite accurate.
"I’m a graphic designer" 🙂
I just tell them how I did it. If they think it boils down to some secret button I know, that’s their problem.
http://www.retouchpro.com
Cindy
The program is an extension of your artistry, intelligence, social understanding, mechanical ability, general knowledge, candidate for the weakest link, and alround wunderbar personality.
But only YOU can make it work as you see fit. Why do you have to justify HOW and WHAT and WHY you do what you do.
If you are an artist (and I don’t see why you’re NOT) you don’t need to explain anything to anyone. Why not, when they ask you how it’s done, offer them a course in how to find out @ $70+ per hour as this is what the big timers do and don’t even crease a face when telling you as well.
GIRL ! Appreciate your ability and charge the pants of them because everyone and I mean EVERYONE wants something for nothing and are YOU going to be the 1st to give them it? I think not. So hold your head up high and say………… "I DID IT MY WAY"
All Coins, Letters of appreciation and $20 dollar bills can be sent via Pay Pal. I am also available for Childrens Parties and all other Social Occasions.
Regards
Mark
My answer is usually a variation on this theme:
It’s digital image editing and about 10 years of design experience. I could tell you more, but then I have to kill you. Frankly, I think it’s magic.
Is there one answer?
I don’t think even their watching you do the work would explain it. Working a picture or scan into what it should be (at times what it HAS to be) can take anywhere from under a minute to weeks.
How do you teach "looking and SEEING" so you will know when your approaching the results that are right? I don’t think you can. And for how and for what I use Photoshop, that is my starting point.
I don’t envy you at the fair. At least with photography I can say: "Take a course in basic photography to get a foundation on the mechanics of using a camera. Until then, start looking at photographs you like and figure out WHY you like them. Look around you and SEE what is there. It may be hidden, it may jump out at you, but look and SEE. The camera and film are just tools to work with. They are just tools to let you capture what you see. You need to practice with them until you hardly think about them. It is what you see that makes the photograph."
Yes, most go away thinking I’m a selfish person who takes good pictures, prints them on a good printer, refuses to tell his secrets, and makes fun of people who ask him questions. <chuckles softly>
Best of luck.
Bill
I was thinking about this post last night (don’t ask why, too much coffee perhaps).
I came to the conclusion that for the select individuals who know what you are talking about, saying that you use photoshop only instills respect.
For those who don’t, there’s no amount of explaination that will help them understand the complexity of what you do; so again, saying "I used photoshop" does no more harm than good.
I came to the conclusion that for the select individuals who know what you are talking about, saying that you use photoshop only instills respect.
It’s like asking a musician why their song sounds so good. The most basic answer is "Practice." Followed by "Having a tuned ear to know what’s good and what’s now" and "Listening to moden trends so I know what people want to hear". The most complex technical level could involve the exact scales and tuning that they’re using and what key the song is done in.
But chances are none of them can boil it down to one thing, other than talent or practice.
Look at the PS Challenges and you’ll see that everyone is really good in certain aspects because they practice those the most.
You’ll know how to answer when you’re with a friend who points at an ice-cream ad and tries to impress you by saying "That’s not real ice-cream, it’s actually plastic". And you can say "That dish of ice-cream, even if it is plastic, probably never exists the way you see it there" and then describe lighting, layering, color correcting, filters and gradients.
Walk into a toy store with a good designer. While the kids are going crazy looking at the packaging, your designer friend will be looking at the same packaging and breaking it down into individual elements.
Pure talent and some Awsome software.
J.R. Sanford
1. A combination of blending modes, layer masks, and adjustment layers.
I don’t remember the sequence offhand.
2. Lots of stumbling around, some dumb luck, and knowing when to stop.
3. It took me a long time to develop that technique, but the actual steps are so simple I’m embarrassed to tell.
4. This one turned out to be easier than most. Just the usual routine stuff you throw at a picture. Levels, curves — something like that. I didn’t take notes so I’m not sure.
The truth. I would never dream of asking a traditional painter or sketch artist, "How’d you do that?"
Because it’s too general a question. Asking something specific that shows your intelligence is perfectly acceptible, like:
"Where did you learn to use interior shadows?" or "How did you get your colors to stay so vibrant?"
If you prove that you can handle the answer, people will give it to you. If you ask someone the question and they know that any answer that’s not "Pixie Dust and Magic" will put you to sleep, they won’t answer it.
