Photoshoppers: Some help please

[lazarus]

Well, I just got a copy of Photoshop. Now what?

Any tips, any websites you can recommend with good tutorials, etc?

[SoCalDem]

1. Hah.. Good LUCK..

All I know how to do is save for web and resize.. and I could do that with irfanview..for free..

Photoshop is very complicated.and I am too dumb :(

google photoshop tutorials... there are several, but I am too dense to figure it out :(

[lazarus]

2. Yeah, just did that

Sigh. Too late for me. I'm going to bed.

But I'll be learning me some Photoshop next week, and then the fun begins. :evilgrin:

[I AM SPARTACUS]

4. try out the magnetic lasso...

...tight-rope ya an image, cowboy...

...in edit menu, "transform" is your friend...

...fiddle with filters...

...grab that paint-can icon and dump some color...

...under image - liquify your life...

I'm not at all a pro, I just started and I find it pretty intuitive.

For instance, I wanted to make an image of one of my carvings in a swamp-setting. Not wanting to immerse the carving, I took digital photos of the swamp out back o' my house and of the carving. Magnetic lasso time. Paste. Changed colors by dumping paint-can. Erased the bottom of the carving so it looked more like the carving is rising from the swamp-water. Everything in the background was reflected in the water, but my carving was not reflected...so, paste a second image, edit menu-transform-rotate and that fixed the alignment so it looked reflected. Then I noticed that the rest of the reflected images were wavy - found that in filters menu-distort-waves. Result cropped and thumbnail'd below...



if'n yer inclined, visit my site... www.ooga-booga.net

cheers...

and when yer ready for a really cool package of freeware animation applets, try...
http://www.anfyteam.com/

[glarius]

5. Glad to know I'm not the only dummie.....

I tried the tutorials but it seems to me you need a special knowledge of all the terms and words used there before you even BEGIN to figure things out....I've made several stabs at it to no avail...Of course I learned about computers on my own anyway....No lessons or courses so my knowledge is pretty basic....

[MoonGod]

3. Yeah...

... There should be a little interactive/video tutorial that comes with it... at least there was with older versions. Run through that. It'll get you up to speed with all the basics.

[DS1]

6. Practice

pick a tool, read through the help files, and practice with it.

There's no shortcut to PS, looking for one is wasting everyone's time.

[matcom]

7. Photoshop is POWERFUL as hell!

and it ain't easy at first

there are a TON of people on the web who have written tutorials

do a Google on some of the following:

Photoshop for beginners

Photoshop filters

Photoshop tips

Photoshop effects

Photoshop Tutorials

have fun. Photoshop ROCKS!

[asthmaticeog]

8. Start with the manual

and proceed onward from there. Or better still, drop $35 or so on the Photoshop Bible by Deke McLelland - it's better written and better organized than the manual and comes with tutorials on CD-ROM. Photoshop's an incredibly deep program, it takes years to learn, and there are no shortcuts. Best approach is to start with getting as good as you can with a couple/few things you want to do with it, then refine those skills and then start branching out from there. I started learning it in 1995, just for retouching. Now 8 years later, I use it professionally, and have gotten pretty badass with it, but there's no way I know all there is to know about it.

Hint: QuickMask mode is underutilized and incredibly helpful.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. Work through the tutorial that came with it.

Great way to start.

Nose around the Adobe PS site and pick up a lot of good recipes and filters there.

Be patient, there is a hell of a lot there.

[lazarus]

10. Thanks, all

I started last night. This is gonna be fun.