How does one learn PS CS as a photographer????

[Richard Mauro]

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would be great.

Thanks!

 

[chriscupp]

look at your local college and take a class. I learned by just fiddling with it and spending hours and hours with it. I didn't learn anything, but I learned through trial and error.

If you take a class, it will be less frustrating for you and you will excel much faster.

chris

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop
for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would
be great.

Thanks!

 

[JJMacks]

Richard
Start here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/instant_photoshop.shtml

Then read some of that site understanding series

If you have a question search foe an answer in this forum if you can not find the answer post your question
--
JJMack

 

[Paul Demers]

The "best" way to learn anything depends on the learning style of the person. Just like assemblying a bicycyle, some folks first read all the directions very carefully while others just jump in and ONLY refer to the directions when they get stuck!

This being said, I think the resources that provide a copy of the images being worked on are very good. They let you follow the process step by step.

Katrin Eismann's books are VERY GOOD, and image files are available for download at each books companion web site. She has 3 books out:

1. Real World Digital Photography, half of this book is about digital photography techniques, but the other half is image processing in PS.

2. Photoshop Restroation and Retouching is a must

3. Photoshop Masking & Compositing... this is her latest book, and again is very very good. You may not do much compositing, but the skill to make good selections and masks is critical to image editing.

If you shoot in RAW and use ACR as your converter, I would recommend Real World Camera RAW by Bruce Fraser.

Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS book for Digital Photographers is also good, good for PS beginners.

For color correction, Photoshop Color Correction bye Michael Kieran is good, as is Color Confidence by Tim Grey.

As far as training videos, Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS is pretty good but expensive. Several DVD's show step by step image editing and includes the image files. I purchased this program for PS 7 a couple of years back. Sometimes I would follow along with the video and work on the images too, and sometimes when I was brain dead, I would just watch the video.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you read this forum each day along with whatever else you do. Download and work on problem pics that folks post. Follow the instructions that others use to FIX the image, and do it yourself.

Hope this info helps.

Paul

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop
for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would
be great.

Thanks!

 

[cspringer]

The Total Training for Photoshop videos are like a semester at school...highly recommend them.

This being said, I think the resources that provide a copy of the
images being worked on are very good. They let you follow the
process step by step.

Katrin Eismann's books are VERY GOOD, and image files are available
for download at each books companion web site. She has 3 books out:

1. Real World Digital Photography, half of this book is about
digital photography techniques, but the other half is image
processing in PS.

2. Photoshop Restroation and Retouching is a must

3. Photoshop Masking & Compositing... this is her latest book, and
again is very very good. You may not do much compositing, but the
skill to make good selections and masks is critical to image
editing.

If you shoot in RAW and use ACR as your converter, I would
recommend Real World Camera RAW by Bruce Fraser.

Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS book for Digital Photographers is also
good, good for PS beginners.

For color correction, Photoshop Color Correction bye Michael Kieran
is good, as is Color Confidence by Tim Grey.

As far as training videos, Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS is
pretty good but expensive. Several DVD's show step by step image
editing and includes the image files. I purchased this program for
PS 7 a couple of years back. Sometimes I would follow along with
the video and work on the images too, and sometimes when I was
brain dead, I would just watch the video.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you read this forum each day along with
whatever else you do. Download and work on problem pics that folks
post. Follow the instructions that others use to FIX the image,
and do it yourself.

Hope this info helps.

Paul

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop
for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would
be great.

Thanks!

 

[TeriF]

I just clicked on your link and found it very helpful. I am a beginner and started with Scott Kellby's book for PS Elements2. I have one question. In your link it describes how to adjust levels, by moving the highlight and the shadow slider and the adjust the RGB channels. According to Scott Kelby you simply use the eyedropper for those adjustments, which is easier and faster. Did I miss the point?
Teri

Richard
Start here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/instant_photoshop.shtml

Then read some of that site understanding series

If you have a question search foe an answer in this forum if you
can not find the answer post your question
--
JJMack

 

[Greg.]

Adobe digital photography white papers and primers.
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/ps_pro_primers.html

Power hour, Russell Brown's Adobe photoshop tips and techniques.
Over five hours of quicktime movie tutorials.
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=131

Andrew Rodney, aka the Digital Dog. Tips tricks and articles.
http://www.digitaldog.net/tips/

Photoshop for Photographers.
http://www.epaperpress.com/psphoto/index.html

 

[JJMacks]

TeriF

Watch those eye droppers. Using them on the wrong points can really mess up an image. Using the Black and White sliders in concert with the Alt key will give you good visual feedback of where color clipping will occurs. When you set the black an white point with the sliders or droppers you will be clipping some but where and how much??. The Alt slider lets you see the eye droppers don't give you this feedback.

With the options auto or manual you can set the percent of clipping allowed.

I'm colorblind sometimes I will use the center dropper to correct color balance. If I see an image that the colors even look off to me and I know that something in the image is a neural color I will inspect that area using the color information shown in the information pallet then check the rest of the image to see if one of the RGB colors seems off through out. I may use the gray dropper on the known neutral area check the color again.

--
JJMack

 

[TeriF]

TeriF

Watch those eye droppers. Using them on the wrong points can really
mess up an image. Using the Black and White sliders in concert with
the Alt key will give you good visual feedback of where color
clipping will occurs. When you set the black an white point with
the sliders or droppers you will be clipping some but where and how
much??. The Alt slider lets you see the eye droppers don't give you
this feedback.

With the options auto or manual you can set the percent of clipping
allowed.

I'm colorblind sometimes I will use the center dropper to correct
color balance. If I see an image that the colors even look off to
me and I know that something in the image is a neural color I will
inspect that area using the color information shown in the
information pallet then check the rest of the image to see if one
of the RGB colors seems off through out. I may use the gray
dropper on the known neutral area check the color again.

--
JJMack

Thanks JJMack for your response. I never used the Alt key with the black and white slider. I'll try that.
Teri

 

[John Sullivan]

All of the above are great suggestions. However, you need to integrate the training into some actual work. Right now I am working on photo calendars for gifts for family. Each month involves up to ten photographs done as a montage. By working on many different types of photographs (some are scanned, some are from my old G2, some are from my 10D and some are from someone else's digital camera) I am learning by necessity. Some of the skills I read about but did not stick until I did it ten times. If I am stumped I search or ask a question hear or look up in Kelby's book, the 123 Digital video training material or the PS help menu.

--
John S
http://www.jsullivanlawyer.com/Galleries.htm

 

[treaks]

All of the above are great suggestions. However, you need to
integrate the training into some actual work. Right now I am
working on photo calendars for gifts for family. Each month
involves up to ten photographs done as a montage. By working on
many different types of photographs (some are scanned, some are
from my old G2, some are from my 10D and some are from someone
else's digital camera) I am learning by necessity. Some of the
skills I read about but did not stick until I did it ten times.
If I am stumped I search or ask a question hear or look up in
Kelby's book, the 123 Digital video training material or the PS
help menu.

--
John S
http://www.jsullivanlawyer.com/Galleries.htm

I am a total beginner in Photoshop, for me the only way is to spend many hours working at it. Get a book then sit down next to your computer and have at it...you can get a cup of coffee every few hours, then sit your butt back down. This site has been a fantastic source of information, and I am very thankful to all the participants. It can consume your life so be careful, haven't watched TV in weeks!!!

Treaks

 

[mdavis]

Excellent list, but I would add "Professional Photoshop" by Dan Margulis as the "bible" on color correction. Very deep book that requires multiple reads to extract all the information, but worth the time once you get the basics.
--
mdavis
http://www.pbase.com/mldavis2

 

[Contador]

Actually, for a total novice, I usually recommend Deke McClelland's PS CS One-on-One. The guy really spoon feeds the stuff to you and the book comes with these video lessons. After you get used to working in the environment (and before you finish this book) you will likely want to move on to a reference book.

Again, I use McClelland's PS CS Bible as a reference.

Dexter Cobb

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop
for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would
be great.

Thanks!

 

[dstefan]

FWIW -- here's how I learned in the last year. I'm a long time, serious amature film photog who just switched to digital in Feb 04 (D70).

Started with PS Elements 2 (freebie) and read most of the manual and did some test pictures over a month or so. Realized that PSCS had the real power after looking at a book of workarounds for PSE 2. Bought CS (this is the most critical step ) and used it at a rudimentary level (levels, cloning, hue/saturation) for a month. Bought a Scott Kelby book (Adobe PS CS Book for Digital Photographers) and learned a lot from it as far as a cook book approach. Read a lot of dprewiew posts and tutorials. Got Katrin Eismans books on Retouching and Masking and Compositing. Read and marked them up twice and used the techniques with my photos. Read Bruce Fraser's Realworld PS CS. Spent a lot of time working with some big batches of photographs from an Italy trip and some local Arizona trips. The big key was ALWAYS use Photoshop to be editing/retouching pictures, and ALWAYS be willing to refer back to the book and try something without regard for how hard it looked or whether I understood it. Books give you structure, using PS on real pictures gives you expereince. I learn something new everyday and I do at least an hour of PS on my pics 5 days a week, more on the weekend days. Net result is that in 10 months I can now do complex masks, blending, composites, channels, curves, etc. etc. with conifidence and great results. It wasn't that hard and I had a great deal of fun and pleasure learning it.

You've got to want to learn it, and IMHO view PS as an intriguing new way to see your photos. You also have to realize, again IMHO, that digital photography as as much about PS as darkroom work and printing was to the beauty of Ansel Adams photographs. Sure you can get half decent pictures without it, but you just won't see the full beauty without it. You also just have to do it, and keep looking for new techniques. Don't worry if you don't understand the most sophisticated or best way to do something. There's only 20 ways to do most things so a lot work. You can always go back to a pic and do it again better.

You also have to know how you learn complex subjects best. I've spent years learning computur systems and software on my own from books (started before there were classes for PCs) and I have a way of learning things from books that works for me. Some people can't and need a class; that's good for them. To each his own and YMMV, but start by just buying the damn thing and fooling with it then figure out what the best learning path is for you.

Good luck,
David in Phoenix

Again, I use McClelland's PS CS Bible as a reference.

Dexter Cobb

I am anxious to know or hear on the best ways to learn Photoshop
for photographers. Books, classes, or anything you can share would
be great.

Thanks!

 

[feivel]

your email address is not public.
a consideration for you:

people that take the time out to respond to a request for help generally appreciate a note of thanks or at least some kind of indication that you bothered to read the replies

feivel