Best websites/books and such to learn photoshop with? - Off-Topic

#1 Posted by ALavaPenguin (140 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

Hi everyone. I just recently purchased a copy of Photoshop CS6 Extended or whatever. I don't know how to do much with photoshop to be honest. That is fine I purchased it so I could learn!

However I am having a lot of trouble finding anything that actually teaches me how to do it. At most I have found websites that simply tell you to follow something step by step, not actually explaining why I am doing something, or what effect it is having on the picture, so I don't really learn much.

Does anyone know any good websites that actually teach photoshop skills, not just how to copy instructions to make something look like what they put on their website? A book would be good too I guess I dunno!

#2 Posted by Video_Game_King (29205 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

I'd say just jump in and fuck around until you figure stuff out. That's what I do.

#3 Posted by Ravenlight (7023 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

@ALavaPenguin:

@Video_Game_King said:

I'd say just jump in and fuck around until you figure stuff out. That's what I do.

That's what I was going to say. Give yourself a goal (maybe make something for the Official Staff Photo Edit Thread) and look up how things work when you run into something you can't figure out.

#4 Posted by Jack268 (3386 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

I was going to sell this in book form but it was too short so here is Jack's two steps to Photoshop success:

1. Spam the new layer button
2. Use content-aware fill.

These are the secrets they don't want you to know about!

#5 Posted by ALavaPenguin (140 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

Ok thanks all I think that will work.

I mean don't get me wrong I do learn some stuff from those tutorials but there are normally like steps in them I am doing stuff and I have no idea if that actually did anything to the picture =P!

Ok I will work on it thanks!

#6 Posted by SagaciousJones (142 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

Ctrl+Paint is a site intended for digital painters, but I've heard that some of their videos are excellent for learning general image manipulation as well.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/

#7 Posted by Marmalade (158 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

The You Suck At Photoshop series seems pretty informative, while also being entertaining to watch.

#8 Posted by Kidavenger (2227 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

Watching tutorials on Youtube seems the way to go, just make sure you actually do the exercises they go through in the video while watching, or you'll forget it right away.

#9 Posted by Droop (1689 posts) - 3 months, 18 days ago

Just google photoshop tutorials and do a bunch of them even if you don't care about the outcome. Teaches you the tools and how they can be used.

#10 Posted by Miketakon (487 posts) - 3 months, 17 days ago

@Kidavenger said:

Watching tutorials on Youtube seems the way to go, just make sure you actually do the exercises they go through in the video while watching, or you'll forget it right away.

I agree.