How did you learn Photoshop?

"Steven Wandy" wrote in message news:Aoz1f.8551 …..

How did you learn [about photoshop]? Books, courses (correspondance, classroom), etc.
What would you suggest to someone who knows their way around most of the basics of the program but wants to learn more?

….
For curves, there’s the Curvemeister class. You can use the Curvemeister demo for the class, and the concepts carry over to regular curves. —

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

"Steven Wandy" wrote in message

I have been using PS for the since version 4 or 5. I have never taken and courses, but feel that there is probably a lot that the program can do that I don’t know/take advantage of.
How did you learn it? Books, courses (correspondance, classroom), etc. What would you suggest to someone who knows their way around most of the basics of the program but wants to learn more?
Thanks
(BTW – I have been interested in photography as a love/hobby for almost 40 years and that is where my main interests in PS derive from.)

self taught from version 4.0
back then PS included a few video tutorials on selecting and masks, watched and re-watched a few times before I got it in many cases asked for a few tips from a printer friend (unsharp mask, pre-press info) tried every tool/filter till I knew what it did or ignored it until I found I needed it
made sure to explore all the variables of all the tools too (opacity, brush tip shapes, sliders)
coming from a photog/darkroom background, some of the tools are intuitive (levels.curves, burning, dodging) but are easier control precisely read and watched tutorials on the internet (Adobe Exchange) read digital/graphic magazines
looked at pictures and tried to figure out how they did it

Still learning and incorporating new ideas and methods…

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 18:46:56 GMT, Steven Wandy wrote:

I didn’t ^^
I’m thinking to buy a book, but then, I’m to lazy to read it 🙁

"Steven Wandy" wrote in message

I have been using PS for the since version 4 or 5. I have never taken and courses, but feel that there is probably a lot that the program can do that I don’t know/take advantage of.
How did you learn it? Books, courses (correspondance, classroom), etc. What would you suggest to someone who knows their way around most of the basics of the program but wants to learn more?
Thanks
(BTW – I have been interested in photography as a love/hobby for almost 40 years and that is where my main interests in PS derive from.)

I taught myself but used books for help and advice as well as going on the net. This year however, I went to an advanced photoshop course at nightschool so that I could re-learn using Photoshop without relying on plugins. I had become so terribly lazy using a plug-in for this and a plug-in for that when I could just as "easily" do it in native Photoshop. Boy was it an eye opener but well worth it.

Big Craigie

"Steven Wandy" wrote in
news:Aoz1f.8551$:

I have been using PS for the since version 4 or 5. I have never taken and courses, but feel that there is probably a lot that the program can do that I don’t know/take advantage of.
How did you learn it? Books, courses (correspondance, classroom), etc. What would you suggest to someone who knows their way around most of the basics of the program but wants to learn more?
Thanks
(BTW – I have been interested in photography as a love/hobby for almost 40 years and that is where my main interests in PS derive from.)

Self taught since V4 but had good understanding of art programs on other platforms. Read books, played with everything, spent enormouse amounts of time on it, still do. Search through online tutorials, watch training videos, hang around in here seeing how other problems are solved. I take part in the walrus comp in alt.binaries.pictures.wallpaper and keep trying out new things, techniques and ideas. Some work some don’t.

I doubt anyone ‘knows’ everything there is to know about the program, it’s awesome.

—
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

* I am an amateur Photoshopper, but a retired professional photographer (before Photoshop) who did most of his own developing and printing. * I’ve been using Photoshop since 1995 and think I understand about 30% of it.
* Versions 5-6-7. Currently playing with demo of CS2.
* Tutorials, books (lots, including "Adobe Photoshop 7 Classroom in a Book," which taught me a lot more than I thought it did), newsgroups (vital), and using the programs for years.

Books I liked:

* Adobe, Classroom in a Book
* Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas, Visual Quickstart Guide (for PS6 and PS7)
* Laurie McCanna, How to Do Everything with Photoshop 7 (despite the title’s blatent lie)
* Bert Monroy, Photoshop Studio (I’ll never have his skills, but the book is fabulous just to browse; Bert does photorealistic paintings–not image editing–in PS7. He’s featured in the Visual QuickStart Guide for CS2. He used PS7 for his book.)

There are also some excellent tutorials (MyJanee.com, Phong, to name two). I found and worked the ones on topics that interested me, e.g., fancy text.

If I had any advice to give to the potential Photoshopper, it would be to be prepared to spend a number of years learning the program (during which time it will be upgraded at least twice!).

Forgot to mention: You might check out http://www.good-tutorials.com/sites for an endless list of tutorials.

"Walterius" wrote in message

* I am an amateur Photoshopper, but a retired professional photographer (before Photoshop) who did most of his own developing and printing. * I’ve been using Photoshop since 1995 and think I understand about 30% of it.
* Versions 5-6-7. Currently playing with demo of CS2.
* Tutorials, books (lots, including "Adobe Photoshop 7 Classroom in a

Book,"

which taught me a lot more than I thought it did), newsgroups (vital), and using the programs for years.

Books I liked:

* Adobe, Classroom in a Book
* Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas, Visual Quickstart Guide (for PS6 and PS7)
* Laurie McCanna, How to Do Everything with Photoshop 7 (despite the

title’s

blatent lie)
* Bert Monroy, Photoshop Studio (I’ll never have his skills, but the book

is

fabulous just to browse; Bert does photorealistic paintings–not image editing–in PS7. He’s featured in the Visual QuickStart Guide for CS2. He used PS7 for his book.)

There are also some excellent tutorials (MyJanee.com, Phong, to name two).

I

found and worked the ones on topics that interested me, e.g., fancy text.
If I had any advice to give to the potential Photoshopper, it would be to

be

prepared to spend a number of years learning the program (during which

time

it will be upgraded at least twice!).

In article <Aoz1f.8551$>,
"Steven Wandy" wrote:

How did you learn it? Books, courses (correspondance, classroom), etc. What would you suggest to someone who knows their way around most of the basics of the program but wants to learn more?
Thanks

I used Photoshop by working with it in a professional graphics prepress environment, starting with Photoshop version 1.0.7 in 1992. Since then, I’ve used it for prepress and image editing for everything from annual reports to billboards and catalogs.

Working with Photoshop in a prepress environment is, in my experience, the best way to learn what the program is really capable of, particularly with regard to color correction, color separation, and sophisticated retouching.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html