How did you learn Photoshop?

[duncanapple]

I am curious to see how people here learned to use photoshop? Years and years of tinkering, formal education, etc? The reason I ask;

I got into building (simple for now) websites on the side as a hobby more or less. I took a few classes on HTML, CSS, and an intro to Dreamweaver, so while I can't do any java, flash, database type stuff, (yet! ;) ) etc, I can do some real simple stuff. I wanted Dreamweaver to build my sites, and with a student discount, I got the whole CS3 creative suite for $500 so I couldnt pass it up (DW, PS, Flash, Fireworks, Illustrator, etc). I was perfectly happy using GIMPShop but the suite was just $100 more than DW alone.

Recently I had the oppertunity to build a handful of sites (one for a dentist, one for a home builder, and another for a small machine shop) and made a few graphics. I would really like to do more with photoshop (I had to stumble my way through PS just to make some simple 3D buttons) but the places that offered the classes on HTML, CSS, etc didnt have any offerings for PS.

So anyway, just curious as to where people learned. I have seen some amzing things done with PS, and I know I have not even tapped 1% of its/my potential.

Thanks for any replies!

- Chris

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Taught myself over the past 10 years or so. A lot of trial and error, a lot of reading web tutorials and a lot of talking to other users.

[Techguy172]

There are a lot of good books on it You should check out Richard Harrington's book I would also recommend sitepoints 101 Photoshop tips for web designers.

[TheAnswer]

I'm still in the process of learning. Lynda.com (http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modListing.asp?pid=228) is a good resource. Although not nearly as funny as this tutorial site (http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Big_Fat_Brain/You_Suck_at_Photoshop__Season_1/YouSuckatPhotoshop1_398.aspx).

[speakerwizard]

more or less self taught, later on got a book for reference, but these days there is so many video tutorials (lynda.com) and free ones if you google, for more advanced tuts i love this site:
http://pshero.com/ some nice work

[jdl8422]

I learned the basics is college (what each tool on the tool bar does, and basic basic effects). The rest was just through different tutorials online

[irishgrizzly]

Same as above, learnt a little in college (not much – they focused on the theory). The rest all learned through messing about, talking to others and google.

Even after 12 years there's always something else to learn about – some new shortcut or technique.

I would concentrated on the basics; layers and masks. Goodluck :)

[Pooba]

A friend of mine gave me a copy of PS4 Windows back in 97. Got into bought the books on PS. Really got into 2000 took a class a university PS 5.5 on Mac. Mostly self taught with books, tinkering, websites and and three month class. Bought a Mac and PS 5.5 the rest is history.

[jodelli]

Years of tinkering mostly, some books as well starting with the Photoshop 3.0 Tutorial and User Guide.

[covisio]

Started dabbling with it in the late Eighties/Early Nineties. At my job at the local newspaper we used to set all the large property ads using Quark. To get thumbnail pictures alongside each property description we had a sort of overhead video camera which we placed the picture under, captured it using the twain driver within PS then 'adjusted' the image (I seem to remember we just tweaked the lightness/darkness and contrast settings, very lo-tech).
Started using it a bit more to mess about comping silly pictures together, i.e. my head onto a sheep, etc (oh how we laughed).
I eventually moved to a much more high tech firm which did reprographics for food packaging, which entails lots of spot colours even in CT images. They originally used Sun Sparcs, then Silicon Graphics kit with specialised software but eventually moved over to Macs and Photoshop for the retouching.
This was where I really had to get to grips with PS because we used to separate provided CMYK images into spot colours for use in the flexible packaging industry (i.e. where often you would make a chocolate biscuit using brown ink rather than a CMYK mix, or a cherry out of red ink).
Working out how layer masking and adjustment layers worked I remember was a real watershed moment and after that my learning accelerated.
I then moved back into conventional graphic design in 2005 and have probably de-skilled myself a little as a result.
But I'm still learning after nearly 20 years, and always will be. Anyone who says they 'know' PS is usually lying. They know 2 or 3 aspects of it at best.

[design-is]

Pretty much self taught with the aid of tutorials and seeing if I could copy some stuff sometimes..

So not a lot different from everyone else :)

[arkitect]

How did you learn Photoshop?


Talk about getting in on the ground floor.

1990… Photoshop 1.0.
Self-taught. (Which probably explains a lot.)

Surprising what could/can be done with 9" of monochrome.
:p

[hank-b]

Self-taught as well, plus a few on-line tutorials. I've been playing with it since the early 90's. I'm still using Photoshop 7 though - I might upgrade next year...

- HB

[iwuzbord]

same as most. self taught. mainly through curiosity and wondering what everyone was talking about when they mentioned it.

[Captain Pyro]

college back in late 90s on 3.3, self taught since.

mostly driven by work needs and personal interest...

[Captain Pyro]

heartily agree with covisio though. you know the bits you need to know. having said that, a professional wet darkroom background and experience as a colour and black an white hand printer helps.

it's also surprising how often film+chemicals is quicker and higher quality too... :D

[Sdashiki]

Talk about getting in on the ground floor.

1990… Photoshop 1.0.
Self-taught. (Which probably explains a lot.)


Dammit, u beat me.

I started with PS2.0 I got at a yard sale in the original box! It was a big box.

[LimeiBook86]

I've always been into art and so has my family. My Dad installed a program called Easy Color Paint (a drawing program) on our Macintosh IIcx about 20 years ago. I loved that program a lot, used to draw in it all the time. :p

Then once when I was young I went to my Dad's office with him, he was using Photoshop 2.0 on his Mac. Recently I even found a Photoshop 2.0 VHS tape about how to use the program, haha. Sooner or later we had Photoshop 3.0 installed on our home Mac. Eventually we got a new Mac and a new version of Photoshop and so on. So ever since I've used a Mac I've been using some sort of drawing program. :)

As I got older I started using the program for much more than just drawing and playing with photos. I never really started reading tutorials or books until a few years ago. But they have helped a lot since there is so much to learn in a program like Photoshop. :D

[craigverse]

I started learning photoshop in 6th grade in my Tech Lab 2000 class. Led me to getting a copy for myself... somehow... and teaching myself. In HS the school had an excellent digital imaging class for photoshop and digital illustration class for illustrator. I was also in journalism and taught myself indesign. So mostly self taught stuff with a few formal classes on the side.

[Jaffa Cake]

I've basically learnt on the job, as it were. I've been using it for well over a decade now – I started on version 3 – and I'm still learning. ;)

[larapumkin]

taught myself.
learned a lot when i was in high school to face reports for my friends lol
i think it is the obssession that really helps the education haha

[csista]

Basics - self taught.

Advanced - A mix. Some self taught. Forums. Other designers at my job. Lynda.com was a huge help, that I can't recommend enough if you want to learn multiple programs.

Speed - Having a job where I needed to deliver 200 color corrected, usable images in an hour, ranging from old, low-res .pict files to nice new raws.

[2000ContourSVT]

I learn all my photoshop and dreamweaver stuff from trial and error and watching a lot of video tutorials. Here are a few:

http://www.photoshopusertv.com/
http://www.layersmagazine.com/tv
http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/

Then me and my cousin also do weekly podcasts and alot of times we do photoshop, and dreamweaver tutorials. As well as various other things. You can check that out here: http://limitless-studios.com/ (http://limitless-studios.com/index.htm)

Hopefully those sites help you out some.

[craigverse]

Thanks for all these links guys. Good stuff. :]

[Sweetfeld28]

I started with PS 5.0 in middle school, and have since used every version since at work. I also taught myself in combination with High School, and University classes.

I would say i learned the most by read tutorial sites, and having crazy competitions with friends.

We created a PS game where every two weeks one of our friends would choose a topic, like football or something, and then person would create something; photo or whatever. Then the other people would have to try and out do the other persons design, with the same topic or photo.


All round free stuff to help with designs: Blue Vertigo (http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/bluevertigo.htm).
PSDtuts (http://psdtuts.com/) -- Photoshop Tutorials by Designers.
Abduzeedo (http://abduzeedo.com/) -- More Photoshop Tutorials by Designers.

[duncanapple]

Thanks for all the good links guys - I think this will go a long way to expose me to some of the tools out there.

Another sort of unrelated question - and this may be very remedial - do you heavy users use a mouse or a pen/tablet (not sure for the technical name for this?)?

Thanks again,
Chris

[Yr Blues]

I just used it as I had a necessity for it. I can't learn any way else.

[RHVC59]

I got started with PS when I bought the first Microtek Scanner for the museum I work for. Version 3 was bundled with it. At work I have we run Windows, and 1 week before CS4 was announced i boutght 4 copies of PS CS3 for the shop. Last month I just bought CS3 extended for home use on my MBP. Oh well. As for how I learned the program...
1. A lot of trial and error.
2. Several versions of PhotoShop for Dummies books
3. One workshop.
4. A 3-credit University of Alaska course.
5. More trial and error.
6. PhotoshopUser TV podcast from NAPP
7. Understanding Adobe Photoshop HD -pocast by Richard Harrington – RHED Pixel
8. Bert Monroy tutorials
9. This Week in Photography (TWIP) Podcast
10. More trial and error
11. More Error and trial.

I use a mouse on all machines, 4x6" pen partner, 7 x 8" Artz II tablet, and a USB Intuos3 6x8 with the mac.

There is just no better way to restore photos than with a pen and tablet.

But it is still having fun learning some 15 years later...:)

[Sweetfeld28]

I tried to use the tablet once, but just couldn't get used to it. Lately, though i have been thinking of trying to teach myself how to use it again.

[locklearmj]

A combination of trial-and-error, books, and tutorials. Lynda.com and kelbytraining.com are great video resources. They're both cheap for what they offer.

[raggedjimmi]

Taught myself but did get a few tips and such from college.

[rhett7660]

I have tought myself over the last 16 years or so. Basically since version 4. Lots of books and magazines and once the internet came into it's own, I used the internet. There are so many tips and hints that you can pretty much find anything you really need.

I still have my books and I still pretty much keep all my magazines. I have been a member of NAPP for the past 8 years or so and I have been to numerous training seminars.

[thomahawk]

i did a ritual and sacrificed a nvidia graphics card to the photoshop GOD!!

lol kidding, i did it all though self teaching and reference from friends who are expirenced with photoshoping. but basically its all trial and error. practice makes perfect!! (well not really but you know what i mean)

[clancemasterj]

Donnie Hoyle taught me.

[JoeDRC]

Taught myself.
Its the only way really, to jump in and get stuck in.
Talking with friends who use it as well helps alot.

[larapumkin]

i think it's the obsession that keeps you in challenge haha
i could not be more obsessive when i got a report card with horrible grades from my classes and my mom was willing to see it..whew
i think books are like dictionary...just looking up when you need something specific ones

[DELINDA]

Just the ??? I needed an answer to . My other prob is this . When i am done in PS what do I do next ? Where and how do I save stuff ? Also , must I convert my photo to a jpeg or can I work it in psd . My tools would not do anything while I was in psd . Thanks for any help .

[Sweetfeld28]

Just the ??? I needed an answer to. My other prob is this. When i am done in PS what do I do next? Where and how do I save stuff? Also, must I convert my photo to a jpeg or can I work it in psd. My tools would not do anything while I was in psd. Thanks for any help .

When done with a file you were working on, and you want to save it, File>Save As...

This saves your current document to anywhere you would like, a local disc [hard drive, or optical, or Server]. The feature File> Save; Saves any changes, to an already saved document, saving changes made since opening the existing document.


JPEG/TIFF:

You can use JPEGs in PS, it just depends on the way you intend to use it/them. Since I mostly use JPEGs received from customers at work, we tend to mostly use Hi-Res JPGs or Tiff images. JPEG is a generic file format, meaning it is a Lossy Format; it throws out pixels when it can to conserve a small file size. TIFF, on the other hand is a Lossless Format type of file. Tiffs file sizes are bigger, since they tend to not throw out pixels, it replicates pixels when it can [AKA - ReSampling an image].


You don't have to convert a JPEG, to anything else, in order to use it in PS. However, if you are working with a PSD file, and wanted to send it to a Printer [Offset Press Printer] then most people would Merge Layers, or anything else in that PSD to a One Layer Image [one flattened layer], before printing it. In our office the designers are the only ones with the editable working PSD documents, the designers would output either TIFF images, or PS files.

[Melrose]

Blood, sweat, tears. Taught myself, grabbed a whole bunch of tuts online and went to town.

It helped that a college friend of mine was able to grab it for me free... but that's going back several years and I own a license now.

[stripytyger]

I learned the basics from an old CD set of tutorials called "Learning Photoshop 7" by Bruce Heavin. There was also a book by Scott Kelby called "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers" which I found in a local library. Once I got faster at editing images I worked freelance for a while and met a bunch of retouchers in different places who showed me a lot of cool stuff.

I use a Wacom Graphire 4 tablet for pretty much everything and retired the mouse to a drawer. It did take about a week getting used to navigating files and surfing webpages with the pen, but now I'd never go back.
Have fun learning Photoshop, it's a wonderful program.

[yoppie]

I don't know how to use Photoshop. I rarely do graphics so I guess it's oK but there are times when I wish I knew the basics. I'll be keeping tabs on this thread for some good tutorial recommendations.

[Chase817]

i taught myself photoshop

[camomac]

All round free stuff to help with designs: Blue Vertigo (http://www.bluevertigo.com.ar/bluevertigo.htm).
PSDtuts (http://psdtuts.com/) -- Photoshop Tutorials by Designers.
Abduzeedo (http://abduzeedo.com/) -- More Photoshop Tutorials by Designers.

GREAT SITES! thank you. especially blue vertigo.

oh yeah and i taught myself with some online help (since version 4)..
i am still learning everyday. it is my favorite program by-far.

[scotty96LSC]

Taught myself while in the military. We used it along with Adobe Pagemaker for the newspaper and magazine we published. Lots of trial and error, lots of discovery and guess work.

[mperkins37]

Photoshop User Magazine - NAPP - National Association of Photoshop Professionals, & Lynda.com tuts

[UltraMegaMan]

Learned the basics the day before a job interview. Surprisingly, it worked. Basically, the most important aspect of working with Photoshop was using layers and that book made it really clear from the start. The rest of the book was very well structured too. I wish all books were like that instead of showing you how to go through menus and describing the different bundled filters.

[FrankieTDouglas]

I started building websites for my band back in 1997 or so. So it was then that i started teaching myself graphic programs and html. Read books. Read tutorials. Really, anything I could get my hands on to learn all about Photoshop, coding, etc etc etc.

In 2004 I took a web design class that included a working knowledge of Photoshop.

In 2007 I taught a college course on Photoshop for photographers.

So I've never really taken a course on the subject. Mainly, I just dove in years ago to teach myself as much as I could.

[tremulant14]

I learned a little bit in a Photography class in highschool. Now I'm taking a class on Photoshop CS3, following along the Photoshop In A Classroom book. Otherwise, the "You Suck At Photoshop" tutorials are a hilarious way to learn PS.

Did anyone try CS4 yet?

[Jim Campbell]

i taught myself photoshop

I taught myself Photoshop 1.0LE ... after that, it was just a case of working out what the new features were and how to use them every time Adobe put out an upgrade.

Cheers!

Jim

(No, I'm not joking.)

[Snakel3ite]

I had one class in high school of my senior year... before that I dabbled around with it, and still do. I first used Illustrator in high school, and I am still learning a lot in I.

I make banners mostly for a website, here is an example (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y155/hsrealms/Banners/HSR_Banner_eye030608.jpg).

:apple:Austin

PS, I still am using a Dell Latitude 131L for all my Adobe works.

[silverpoebandit]

I just started teaching photoshop last year myself, before i knew nothing about it. I started watching online tutorials and reading up on it, but the best thing I found was BERT MONROY.

Bert is one of the leading digital artists in the industry. He has his own internet TV show called Pixel Perfect on www.revisionthree.com. He has over 100 episodes that show you how to do all sorts of stuff. He is also the cowriter of the the first photoshop handbook. Read up on him, he can teach you alot.

[bengal85]

I took a class at my high school last year that was all about photoshop and how to use it and what it can be used for. I think you can get books check online there might be books or you might find an online guide to photoshop.


Its an easy prgram once you get the basic knowledge of how to use the tools

[Phrasikleia]

I started using the predecessor to Photoshop, Digital Darkroom, and then started Photoshop with its first version after Adobe bought DD. My boss at the time showed me how to do the basics that I needed for my job (levels and color separation, mostly), and I taught myself the rest. Of course, back then, Photoshop didn't do all that much, and it was really easy to master everything fairly quickly. Then all I had to do was learn new features as they came out.

However, nowadays beginners are diving into an extremely robust and complicated program. I ultimately ended up teaching Photoshop classes for years and was thrilled to see how much the classes helped beginners get up to speed very quickly. You can certainly teach yourself, but taking a class will greatly accelerate the process and will probably introduce you to methods and tricks you didn't know you needed.

[Schtumple]

A friend showed me what he knew, I picked up some bits, then went crazy and learnt a heap load myself, I am far from a intermediate user however.

[alphaod]

Took a class in 6th grade on Photoshop for fun. :D

Of course I never actually used it much, until recently, which has prompted me to buy it.

[Snakel3ite]

Buying it is so overrated... :p But, as of recent, I really want to buy it, but no moola, just enough to pay bills and get my macbook :) Im happy about that.

But when I do get PS/AI, is it worth buying CS4??

[sangosimo]

pixel perfect on Revision 3 :[