Learning Photoshop 3

[SamBones]

Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to learn Photoshop?

I know it can do a lot more, but I'm a photographer and would be only using it for manipulating photographs. I'd like to learn layers and all the wonderful things that gives you. I'd like to be able to fix exposure issues and make my pictures pop.

I was planning on taking a class that was being offered at my local JC, but they stopped offering it. I've bought a couple books, but that's a slow way to learn something like this, for me at least. I've looked at the YouTube, but there are a bazillion of them, and some of them that I watched were pretty bad (old versions and/or people who can't teach).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Alt255]

This may sound trite but the best way to learn it is to use it. If you get into a jam, Google is a couple of clicks away. I learned it in an unforgiving, high volume environment and I learned that simple is much more efficient than complex. Easy is faster than hard (duh). If you find yourself spending a lot of time on a small job, you are probably doing something wrong. If you find yourself repeating a task more than a couple of times, it might be time to record an "action" or write a script.

Add water (makes its own sauce).

 

[spamjim]

The best way to learn Photoshop? Hopefully with an existing perpetual license.

If you're looking to fix exposure issues and assuming you're shooting in RAW format, you would want a RAW image tool like Adobe Lightroom (or freely licensed alternatives darktable, RAWtherapee, etc). Once exposures are corrected there, you can bring into Photoshop (or alternatives like Krita, Affinity Photo, etc) for additional image manipulation.

This may sound odd from a guy that uses Photoshop professionally, daily...but it may be a dying program for general photography. This is why Adobe switched to subscriptions. Photoshop is/was their core product but most customers were content with using old versions. They had to be forced to upgrade via the introduction of CC subscriptions. Most smartphones now have great options for photographing and adjusting images that will pop. To compete with smartphones, DSLR manufacturers are starting to introduce apps within or associated with their hardware. Desktop image manipulation is fading.

Search YouTube for full channels of Photoshop and photography training content. That will filter out the chaff you've already seen.

 

[SamBones]

A little more information, I do have CC. I have a hand full of small websites and I use Dreamweaver to manage and massage them. I also have the photography oriented apps in CC, including Photoshop.

A long time ago, I looked into Phototshop and was put off by the price. I'm not a pro, so it would be coming out of my pocket. At the time I found Paint Shop Pro, which was free at the time and seemed to do about 50% or more of what Photoshop could do. And that covered what I needed. Paint Shop Pro has grown up a lot and can probably do 80% or more of what Photoshop can do, but it does seem to fall short in a few areas. Plus I'm lusting after some Photoshop plug-ins that Paint Shop Pro can't use.


Thank you both for your suggestions. I will try to spend more time with it. I do have a bunch of vacation pics from last year (Costa Rica) that I need to go through. And I will try again to find some good channels on the YouTube. There are a lot of older versions covered, and not everyone with skills to record a video have skills to effectively teach.

Thanks again.

 

[spamjim]

https://www.youtube.com/user/PhlearnLLC/videos

Unless you stumble on to vintage training from 20 years ago, training for older versions still apply to today's version. The core concepts are still valid. I just watched a fairly popular/well-to-do artist post on social media that he's finally going to move to CC from his CS3 (12 years old). The only reason is that the latest Mac OS broke CS3 compatibility.

 

[SamBones]

Awesome! That looks perfect. They seem to have focused videos on topics I want to learn and their last post was 3 days ago, so it looks like an active channel.

I just watched one and it's exactly what I'm looking for. Clear and concise on how to get it done. Thank you!

 

[mscallisto]

Very nice post for my Archives...thanks spamjim

sam (mscallisto)