Best way to pick up Photoshop?

Question

What is the best way for someone to learn photoshop on their own? Any good reference links or anything? What type of stuff should be created?

Answer 1

There are hundreds of sites dedicated to Photoshop tutorials
http://www.sketchpad.net/photoshp.htm
http://pstutorialsblog.com/
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials.html

Answer 2

A huge advantage of Photoshop is you have more ways to learn it, like this page here, than any other program. So many people know it it's easy to learn just about anywhere.

The best way to learn Photoshop is to take a class at your local community college to learn the basics of Lightening Underexposed Images and Correcting Color Casts and White Balance Problems. These basic adjustments are covered in every introductory Photoshop class and book so I'll just cover them quickly below. You must be fluent in these to get anywhere with Photoshop for optimizing images.

Photoshop also has built-in help as well as free tutorial usually included in the box. All you need to do is choose how you learn best and go that way. Personally I learn best from an in-person class or having an expert show me in person. When I have a question about how to find some obscure tool or how to make a command work I just choose help from the HELP menu.

Basic Operation and Tricks of the Trade

All these adjustments work with every kind of image. That's why skilled photographers feel sorry for people who toil away with RAW files just so they can correct exposure and white balance later. You can do it all to any JPG image in Photoshop without all the hassle.

The tricks below presume you have at least a basic navigational familiarity with Photoshop. You can get that from any book or community college class, or even the built-in help!

Photoshop has been around since the 1980s when it was only used by professionals. It therefore uses terms from traditional professional photography and the commercial printing press trades. Often these terms are exactly the opposite of what you'd expect! The most obviously labeled tools are sometimes the worst way to do things, so read up below.

People spend entire careers learning Photoshop. There is more to learn than any single human will be able to master. Each of us learns what's relevant to our own work.

Answer 3

i believe that the best source it is gived from adobe itself - so that download and read the documentation.
photoshop permit many direction web design, typography retouching
Decide what it is your favorite and try to buy the book concerning this.
Usually the on line tutorials are "How to's"
Try to avoid this tramp and don't ignore the basic knowledge about color and channels.
Try to make a subscription or fiist a site and archive of a good photographic magazine like PEI magazine or Digit
Now you can try to make a subscription to a specialized pod cast like:
http://creativesuitepodcast.com/

If you permit me some example and suggestion:
http://adobe.com
http://adobe.ma001.com/anony/newsletters/G7/G7_0122.asp?str=*3234373431393136332C30
http://www.worth1000.com