I am not a professional photographer or artist, but I want to learn to use PhotoShop...?

Question

I don't want to earn a degree in grapnic arts or design. I just want to learn to use Adobe PhotoShop. I've taught myself to use quite a few editing & graphics packages over the years--by trial & error & just experimenting. Now, my interest is at the point where I really want to learn PS. I'm 49 years old, and just want to do this because I'm highly interested in the subject and live with a digital camera in my hand. I can't go to school full time (my husband is handicapped & needs me here)... any suggestions? I don't have a lot of $$. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can probably take the class online through your local university, community college, or university extension.

You could also borrow a photoshop book from the library or buy one via Amazon or your local bookstore--there are step-by-step books available. I am placing the Amazon search for Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book in the sources area. All the best to you!

Answer 2

I taught myself Photoshop just by doing it, and I don't own a Photoshop book. Think of a project that you want to do. You could try doing photo retouching, such as fixing antique photos that you've scanned in, or the type of retouching done on models for magazines (this is fun... just find an ugly person on the internet and try to make them look good without making it look like it was retouched). You can do photo composites, which are photographs that you edit in other photos to make wild stuff, or you can even do digital painting, and make a whole picture from scratch. For examples of some good Photoshop work, check out http://www.deviantart.com
Pretty much anything you can think of you can do with Photoshop, and I would utilize the Help that it has, which is quite in depth, and use Google when you get stuck. You learn best by doing, so just dive in.

Answer 3

Mine came with a manual assuming you've already gone through this. It's a relatively user friendly program and assuming you've already experimented with photo alterations, there is a photoshop cafe online and users submit information to share with the forum. It's worth checking out. Personally I only use PS for certain things I'm fascinated with the PS Illustrator program and it's capabilities. In any case, don't spend any money to learn it. Familiarize yourself with each and every function by manipulating a copy of an existing photograph. One of the coolest things I found was I was able to fix all my old photographs even ones that were faded or had spots or tears preserving memories for my children. Also printing pictures in this program is so much nicer than what I used before and now all the original antique photos are ph balanced and archived :-) Have fun with it and you'll figure it out. Good luck

Answer 4

i've noticed recently that alot of the outdoor photography and other photography publications have been doing a photoshop - "how to" article in them with almost every month. there's also online tutorials. or adobe itself sells a photoshop mag that explains how to do things in the program. or some colleges offer classes.

personally i would say just jump in. you won't learn till you start trying stuff. some of the basic stuff is very easy. i took a two week program which didn't teach me any more than i already knew. lol.

Answer 5

Yes you can learn some stuff from Elements. PhotoShop is ridiculously difficult to learn and has more stuff than any normal person will EVER want to use anyway. It's made by geeks for geeks so use Elements which is made for real people. Believe me I have both and Elements is much better for actual humans.

Answer 6

If you've used other graphics programs, you probably understand the terminology of PS. The more other programs you've tried, the better.

There are lots of people in your position and the web is alive with blogs, bulletin boards, etc dealing with PhotoShop. I also think the on-board help and on-line help are very good.