PhotoShop Tutorials?

[biglou]

Any interest in tutorial series? I've had PS for years now, and I am so absolutely helpless with it, it's embarrassing. I've read that it's not the most intuitive program in the world. I tend to agree. I have never once been playing around with it and stumbled upon anything I've ever used. I am clueless about layers, masking, etc. I can do 3-4 things in PS: Crop, set DPI, play with colors/saturation, and unsharp mask. That's about it. On my motophotos, I crop, bump the saturation and contrast up 10-15% each, and do a base unsharp mask at 0.3 pixel radius and 300% (I play with the unsharp mask settings occasionally).

To top all this off, I have the official PS learning disk thanks to my IT guy. I should probably give it a go, eh?

Anyone interested in posting tutorials? Maybe one per week or something. Even a hack like me could post a progressive slide show on how I process my motophotos. But I just know there's more I could do to them to make'em really pop...

 

[biglou]

And a nice link, thanks to Okie: http://www.planetphotoshop.com/tutorials.html

 

[FruDaddy]

Try finding this book:
http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?isbn=0-619-18836-7&CFID=9959638&CFTOKEN=78334496

 

[SpeedyManiac]

The Photoshop <Insert version here> Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby is awesome! I have version 7 and this book has let me do stuff I never dreamt I could do before.

 

[Kawidude]

I've had really good luck with a magazine called Photoshop User. They only come out every other month and they can be hard to find, but they're definitely worthwhile. They feature a few really cool things each month that they walk you through. There is a beginner section as well and some great Q&A stuff that fills in some of the questionable areas.

I happen to have my March '06 issue with me and there are articles/tutorials about making flames, creating dramatic b&w images, making textured 3D type and then there is an excellent article about all the different ways you can tweak colors in PS (levels, curves, etc.) I like this magazine because it's not overwhelming. If you can pick up one or two new skills with each issue, you're sitting pretty by the end of the year.

As far as tutorials, if I've got the time I'd be glad to help out in any way I can. Often times there are several different ways to achieve the same thing, so it helps having lots of people chiming in.

Something that could be fun is to have someone (maybe Lou?) post a raw pic and then have a Photoshop user tweak the same image a few different ways and then explain the process.

 

[Okiewan]

Something that could be fun is to have someone (maybe Lou?) post a raw pic and then have a Photoshop user tweak the same image a few different ways and then explain the process.

Excellent idea! Unless Thump wants to play :( :)


Another idea is to have "assignments" ... another site has them, not my idea... but. Basically the moderator (Chili) lays down what to shoot and all the parameters, everyone than wants to take it on, then submits their image.

 

[Kawidude]

Excellent idea! Unless Thump wants to play :( :)

Uh, yeah. Thump is definitely an ace in the PS department. Although I'm sure he'd have fun laughing at some of the stuff I might contribute! :)

 

[Okiewan]

A little difference between we hobbiests and a guy who makes a (good) living working the piss out of PS everyday. You seriously would not believe what that guy can do with high end images. Imagine being in charge of images produced by $1,200.00 a day photog using a $30,000.00 camera (Hasselblad: http://www.hasselblad.se/ ), or an image that the client paid THOUSANDS for. Then you see the original compared to his re-touch... amazing.

 

[Kawidude]

I would love to spend a day peeking over his shoulder. I learned a lot of my early PS stuff by watching an old photographer my company used years ago. He was a damn good photographer but he was even better in PS. I used to keep my mouth shut and just watch him while I scribbled notes down. I've seen enough of Thump's work to know he's a true pro. I shutter to think of the amount of his time I could waste by asking question after question.

 

[Tony Eeds]

Well, I have had CS2 for about 3 days adn have not even loaded it yet. I assume it will be a steep jump from Corel 9. :)

As far as books go, I picked up a copy of Adobe Photshop CS2 "Classroom in a Book" by Adobe. I have not had time to dig into it, so I don't know if it will be helpful.

If you can find a copy, check out Layers. I stumbled onto it a few months back. It has step by step tutorials in it and explains why to use one tool over another when you can get similar results two different ways.

I like the idea of an assignment, be it photo or Photoshop.

 

[biglou]

The Photoshop <Insert version here> Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby is awesome! I have version 7 and this book has let me do stuff I never dreamt I could do before.

I have this book. It's in a stack on my kitchen counter, lol!

 

[MX-727]

http://www.totaltraining.com/prod/adobe/photoshopcs2.asp?mscsid=

This is the best series I've found. You may be able to find it used, but be careful as some are illegal copies. They'll work fine, but I don't think you'll feel good about yourself.

Get the Advanced package too. If you are like me, you'll end up wanting a Wacom soon after starting this package.

It is comprehensive and will take you quite a while to get through all the lessons. I really felt it was worth the money, and much easier to use than some of the tutorial books.

I have Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers and Photoshop CS2 Essential Skills by Galer and Andrews. Evening's book is a handy reference and the other one has a CD and website to get you through the tutuorials.

www.fredmiranda.com is a good site for assignments and to see what people are doing with their cameras and Photoshop.

 

[Combat767]

Great Post Lou! :cool: I've got CS2 sitting on my desk, but haven't loaded it yet. I'm looking to get somewhat proficient with the software as well. Like Tony I have "Classroom in a book on the way" Might delve into everything this weekend.

I like the idea of posting a raw photo and seeing everyones trials and results.

 

[Thump]

The problem with may of the "non-adobe" tutorials is they are written by hacks that do thinks improperly. Kind of like someone writing a service manual for a Formula 1 car but saying it is okay to use channel locks and a flat head screw driver to build the engine. It kills me that people pay for bad info. One of these days I am going to write a book or do seminars or something... :bang:

 

[Rich Rohrich]

One of these days I am going to write a book or do seminars or something... :bang:

:nod: :nod: :nod:

 

[Tony Eeds]

One of these days I am going to write a book or do seminars or something... :bang:

Get busy Mister ... I will line up right behind Rich for my copy.

Wow ...

I just got finished installing CS2. OMG, it ROCKS ...

Now I am off to begin the learning process ...