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abijnk

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 15, 2007
3,287
5
Los Angeles, CA
I am starting to learn Photoshop CS4 for the first time ever and am naturally finding it to be a little overwhelming. What I am in need of are good beginning tutorials in the form of websites, books and/or videos. I've seen a few recommendations from searching around here, but I need more basic stuff first (navigating the interface, what buttons are where, what the basic ones do) before moving on to the editing basics (which are more of what I am finding).

Anyone have any recommendations?
 

TH3D4RKKN1GH7

macrumors 6502a
Mar 25, 2009
756
115

mashny

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2006
185
0
I use Photoshop both professionally and as a hobby, and the source that helped me the most was Katrin Eismann's "Adobe Photoshop Restoration and Retouching." Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Res...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251094016&sr=8-1

She has files you can download so you can work along with her, and starts at a basic level and works her way up to more complex issues. This book was the foundation of my Photoshop knowledge. If you look at the Amazon comments about the book, you'll see that people unanimously love the book.

I've used the Lynda.com tutorials for other applications and agree that it's an excellent way to learn software.
 

abijnk

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 15, 2007
3,287
5
Los Angeles, CA
Forget effects for now, learn to use LAYERS and CHANNELS first and the rest will follow.

I'm not looking for effects, I'm looking for getting started. I'm still having a hell of a time finding crap. There has to be a good introductory tutorial out there somewhere. Importing photos, making the basic adjustments and viewing meta data. I mean, I am finding all that stuff by myself slow but sure, however I would move along a lot faster if I had something like what Apple has for Aperture.
 

pprior

macrumors 65816
Aug 1, 2007
1,448
9
I would also check out the Lynda Tutorials. Althou you need to subscribe it's worth it. It will turn you from a complete amateur to a expert.

+1 to this.

I also HIGHLY recommend the Lynda website. It's costly, but I can't tell you how many PS books over the years I've bought and collect dust.

I'm a visual and auditory learner, and I learned so much more by sitting for 20-30 minutes per day for a few weeks on that site than from reading a LOT of stuff before.
 

Nicolasdec

macrumors 65816
Dec 7, 2006
1,168
0
São Paulo
One more thing about Lynda.com, I subscribed to the site and im doing a few tutorials, The one I'm am on now is the Getting started with Photoshop CS4, it last more than 20 hours.

I just spent 30 minutes learning what all the settings in the Preferences panel.
 
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