Photoshop Beginners Question

T
Posted By
Tim
Mar 3, 2006
Views
548
Replies
11
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Closed
I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results , any suggestions?

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

B
bmoag
Mar 3, 2006
One suggestion:

http://www.epsonprintacademy.com/

It is worth the cost even if you do not use an Epson printer (you should!). The tutorials download to your computer and you can review them while you have Photoshop open on your desktop.
There are two parts to image manipulation: pre and post camera. If you do not already have a solid grasp of basic photography, the pre camera part, you are not going to be able to get much out of Photoshop, the post camera part of image processing. However I think anyone who understands the basics of exposure, selective focusing and a rudimentary aesthetic appreciation of how simple retouching, changes in tone/color/contrast can affect an image can learn to use Photoshop.
Photoshop concepts are not intuitive and can be difficult to translate from the printed page but once you see it demonstrated it is much easier to follow printed descriptions of different techniques.
There are many commercial DVD instructional packages that are more costly but also demonstrate Photohsop techniques and if you search the web there are many free video demos on many sites that are well worth checking out.
C
clive
Mar 3, 2006
Have a look at www.myjanee.com where you will find a mass of tutorials all free of charge. Janee has produced many excellent tutorials for beginners and the more exerpienced PS user.

Clive

"Tim" wrote in message
I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results , any suggestions?
K
Kingdom
Mar 3, 2006
"Tim" wrote in
news:du9n84$a0o$:

I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results , any suggestions?

http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html


‘Mirror mirror on the wall who is the prettiest of them all?’ ‘Snow White you dirty bitch and don’t you forget it!’
MR
Mike Russell
Mar 3, 2006
"clive" < SPAMoxenwood.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
Have a look at www.myjanee.com where you will find a mass of tutorials all free of charge. Janee has produced many excellent tutorials for beginners and the more exerpienced PS user.

I second that – www.myjanee.com is a great web site.


Mike Russell
www.mike.russell-home.net
V
vandrielus
Mar 3, 2006
Well Tim
You begin by isolating the parts of the image you want to use, using the lasso or magic wand. Any or all of the selection tools.

Then you dragg or copy past your new selection into your new poster. For each image your isolate you dragg or copy paste into this new poster untill you have as many as you want.

They will all be on seperate layers as layers is what Photoshop is about. Arrange them, colorize them and add type effects untill you have what you want.

Save as a Photoshop document and print.
V
vandrielus
Mar 3, 2006
Tim-
Photoshop by Elizabeth Reding Isner is on line. Just type her name: Reding Isner, Elizabeth, Photoshop and you will get her web page Course Technologies then go the Student help or student downloads where you will find each chaper and a few tutorials.
T
Tacit
Mar 4, 2006
In article <du9n84$a0o$>,
"Tim" wrote:

I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results , any suggestions?

This is a bit like asking "I would like to know, in layman’s terms, how to do simple things, explained in an easy-to-understand way, like brain surgery and open-heart surgery."

Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I mean. Doing color correction and getting "great results" involves a great deal of background understanding about how color works, how digital images work, what "color modelling" is, what different color models (such as RGB, CMYK, or Lab) mean, and so on.

Photoshop is not like a word-processing program. In a word-processing program, there is typically one way to make footnotes (step 1: choose thus-and-such a menu command, step 2: type the footnote, and so on); with Photoshop, it’s more akin to learning how to use a sophisticated tool, which has many different ways to achieve the same results.

Photoshop is one of the most powerful and incredible computer programs ever written, but the downside is that learning to master it takes years of work.

You will not find "How to make a great image: Step 1, choose this menu command, step 2: click this tool, step 3: choose this menu command." Every image is unique. Instead, you will find tutorials that say "Color correction: here is one technique (and here is why it works); here is another technique (and here is why it works)."

Now, if you have something specific in mind–"I would like to learn how to make this person’s red dress be blue instead," "I would like to learn how to make the sky in this picture more like the sky in that other picture"–we can help. But "I would like to get great results from Photoshop has only one answer, I’m afraid: "spend the time it takes to learn the tool."

As an aside, do not make flyers in Photoshop. If you do, you will find it to be frustrating, clumsy, and difficult. Photoshop is NOT the right tool for laying out pages like flyers and brochures; if you do this work in Photoshop, the work will always be more difficult than necessary, and the results will never be top-notch. Photoshop is an image editing tool; use it to edit images. If you want to lay out pages, use a page-layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com
SG
Scott Glasgow
Mar 4, 2006
"tacit" wrote in message
In article <du9n84$a0o$>,
"Tim" wrote:

I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I
am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in
finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop
as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be
of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and
manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results
, any suggestions?

This is a bit like asking "I would like to know, in layman’s terms, how to do simple things, explained in an easy-to-understand way, like brain surgery and open-heart surgery."

Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I mean. Doing color correction and getting "great results" involves a great deal of background understanding about how color works, how digital images work, what "color modelling" is, what different color models (such as RGB, CMYK, or Lab) mean, and so on.

Photoshop is not like a word-processing program. In a word-processing program, there is typically one way to make footnotes (step 1: choose thus-and-such a menu command, step 2: type the footnote, and so on); with Photoshop, it’s more akin to learning how to use a sophisticated tool, which has many different ways to achieve the same results.
Photoshop is one of the most powerful and incredible computer programs ever written, but the downside is that learning to master it takes years of work.

You will not find "How to make a great image: Step 1, choose this menu command, step 2: click this tool, step 3: choose this menu command." Every image is unique. Instead, you will find tutorials that say "Color correction: here is one technique (and here is why it works); here is another technique (and here is why it works)."

Now, if you have something specific in mind–"I would like to learn how to make this person’s red dress be blue instead," "I would like to learn how to make the sky in this picture more like the sky in that other picture"–we can help. But "I would like to get great results from Photoshop has only one answer, I’m afraid: "spend the time it takes to learn the tool."

As an aside, do not make flyers in Photoshop. If you do, you will find it to be frustrating, clumsy, and difficult. Photoshop is NOT the right tool for laying out pages like flyers and brochures; if you do this work in Photoshop, the work will always be more difficult than necessary, and the results will never be top-notch. Photoshop is an image editing tool; use it to edit images. If you want to lay out pages, use a page-layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress.

Good reply, tacit, consistent with the kind of learning curve that I and probably most others have faced in learning PS. At first one is quite overwhelmed with all of the tools, and with the need to understand specific terminology and processes in order to use them effectively, but with time, tutorials, and practice (practice, practice… ), comes more understanding.

I will have to disagree with the last statement. Well, partially, anyway. I agree that PS is not the tool for illustrative works like posters and flyers. However, unless you’re talking about multi-page documents such as newsletters, reports, etc., where a page layout program shines, a good vector program does the job admirably. I have Illustrator, Corel Draw, and Xara Xtreme, and my experience has been that they do a jammin’ job on flyers, posters, business cards, brochures, etc. Occasionally I will fire up PS to produce a particular part of a document and then import it into the vector package for integration.

With the caveat that everyone’s favorite tool is the "best" tool for the job, I find Draw to be the easiest to use for such work, with Xtreme a close second. To me, Illie’s interface is clunky and difficult to manage, and its file format selection too limited, but that’s just me. I can get twice as much done in half the time with one-third the effort in Draw as I can in Illustrator, and you can do some really tricky stuff with text and with paths in Xtreme that is a real chore anywhere else. To each his own, of course, but I do think that vector packages are just fine for one-up stuff like posters and so forth that don’t require multi-page and text-flow management capabilities.

Cheers,
Scott
WO
Wizard of Draws
Mar 5, 2006
On 3/4/06 3:11 PM, in article
, "tacit"
wrote:

As an aside, do not make flyers in Photoshop. If you do, you will find it to be frustrating, clumsy, and difficult. Photoshop is NOT the right tool for laying out pages like flyers and brochures; if you do this work in Photoshop, the work will always be more difficult than necessary, and the results will never be top-notch. Photoshop is an image editing tool; use it to edit images. If you want to lay out pages, use a page-layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress.

Please, please, please listen to this advice. Use the software for the job it was designed. Using Photoshop for page layout is the biggest time wasting choice you could make. In addition, when the client makes changes and corrections (and they will), it will take you twice as long to make them, leading to a staggering amount of unnecessary frustration on your part. —
Jeff ‘The Wizard of Draws’ Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic
http://www.cartoonclipart.com
K
KatWoman
Mar 6, 2006
"tacit" wrote in message
In article <du9n84$a0o$>,
"Tim" wrote:

I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I
am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in
finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop
as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be
of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and
manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results
, any suggestions?

This is a bit like asking "I would like to know, in layman’s terms, how to do simple things, explained in an easy-to-understand way, like brain surgery and open-heart surgery."

Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I mean. Doing color correction and getting "great results" involves a great deal of background understanding about how color works, how digital images work, what "color modelling" is, what different color models (such as RGB, CMYK, or Lab) mean, and so on.

Photoshop is not like a word-processing program. In a word-processing program, there is typically one way to make footnotes (step 1: choose thus-and-such a menu command, step 2: type the footnote, and so on); with Photoshop, it’s more akin to learning how to use a sophisticated tool, which has many different ways to achieve the same results.
Photoshop is one of the most powerful and incredible computer programs ever written, but the downside is that learning to master it takes years of work.

You will not find "How to make a great image: Step 1, choose this menu command, step 2: click this tool, step 3: choose this menu command." Every image is unique. Instead, you will find tutorials that say "Color correction: here is one technique (and here is why it works); here is another technique (and here is why it works)."

Now, if you have something specific in mind–"I would like to learn how to make this person’s red dress be blue instead," "I would like to learn how to make the sky in this picture more like the sky in that other picture"–we can help. But "I would like to get great results from Photoshop has only one answer, I’m afraid: "spend the time it takes to learn the tool."

As an aside, do not make flyers in Photoshop. If you do, you will find it to be frustrating, clumsy, and difficult. Photoshop is NOT the right tool for laying out pages like flyers and brochures; if you do this work in Photoshop, the work will always be more difficult than necessary, and the results will never be top-notch. Photoshop is an image editing tool; use it to edit images. If you want to lay out pages, use a page-layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

tacit thanks for typing that long and very good post to the OP I did not have the patience to get into that
D
durango
Mar 7, 2006
KatWoman wrote:
"tacit" wrote in message

In article <du9n84$a0o$>,
"Tim" wrote:

I have looked at the help menus in photoshop and some online tutorials as I
am a beginner when it comes to using photoshop.I am very much interested in
finding out in laymens terms , i.e beginners terms in how to use photoshop
as i didnt find the help menu and online tutorials i looked at online to be
of much help.I would just like a very easy to understand guide to tell me how to use photoshop and show me how i can make my own posters , flyers and
manipulate photos and colours in the easyiest of ways but with great results
, any suggestions?

This is a bit like asking "I would like to know, in layman’s terms, how to do simple things, explained in an easy-to-understand way, like brain surgery and open-heart surgery."

Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I mean. Doing color correction and getting "great results" involves a great deal of background understanding about how color works, how digital images work, what "color modelling" is, what different color models (such as RGB, CMYK, or Lab) mean, and so on.

Photoshop is not like a word-processing program. In a word-processing program, there is typically one way to make footnotes (step 1: choose thus-and-such a menu command, step 2: type the footnote, and so on); with Photoshop, it’s more akin to learning how to use a sophisticated tool, which has many different ways to achieve the same results.
Photoshop is one of the most powerful and incredible computer programs ever written, but the downside is that learning to master it takes years of work.

You will not find "How to make a great image: Step 1, choose this menu command, step 2: click this tool, step 3: choose this menu command." Every image is unique. Instead, you will find tutorials that say "Color correction: here is one technique (and here is why it works); here is another technique (and here is why it works)."

Now, if you have something specific in mind–"I would like to learn how to make this person’s red dress be blue instead," "I would like to learn how to make the sky in this picture more like the sky in that other picture"–we can help. But "I would like to get great results from Photoshop has only one answer, I’m afraid: "spend the time it takes to learn the tool."

As an aside, do not make flyers in Photoshop. If you do, you will find it to be frustrating, clumsy, and difficult. Photoshop is NOT the right tool for laying out pages like flyers and brochures; if you do this work in Photoshop, the work will always be more difficult than necessary, and the results will never be top-notch. Photoshop is an image editing tool; use it to edit images. If you want to lay out pages, use a page-layout program like InDesign or QuarkXPress.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

tacit thanks for typing that long and very good post to the OP I did not have the patience to get into that
If you live near Chatham County – Central Carolina Community College offers a basic Photoshop class … starting Wednesday.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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