Learning Photoshop and Image Management Software

[david enzel]

I am new to digital photography. I just ordered Photoshop 7.0 and

will need to learn how to use it. I would very much appreciate book

recommendations. I hear the learning curve is pretty steep. Should

I also take a course or do you think I can learn on my own (I am

pretty comfortable with computers and software). I also will need

software to file and manage my images and would appreciate

recommendations on that as well.

[leonard_evens]

The trouble with learning Photoshop and photoediting in general is that to some extent you already have to understand it in order to be able to understand anything anyone tries to tell you about it. So learning the subject is a boot strap process. Keeping that in mind, you should expect to be confused initially until some of it gets through to you, and then it should become easier. Also, in evaluating any recommendations, including mine, remember that the advice is coming from people who have already got past that initial barrier. Sometimes it is hard to remember what it was like to start.

 

As far as texts are concerned, many people like Real World Photoshop. I don't own it, but I've spent some time with it at Borders, and it looks to me like a clear, coherent treatment. Try to avoid books that concentrate too much on specific lists of key strokes or menu choices to accomplish specific tasks. You want a book which emphasizes the basic principles. Once you've got those straight, the details will fall into place. Real World Photoshop has a good balance between theory and specific details.

 

I started off with Photoshop 4, but I was busy with my job and didn't have enough time to concentrate on learning it. The first two books I bought about it were a waste of money. I learned a few basic tasks, but I didn't have the feeling I understood the point of it all. Later I started using the Gimp under Linux and encountered Grokking the Gimp by Corey Bunks. It finally clarified for me what photoediting was all about. I recommend it as the best introduction to that subject that I've seen. You can read it from the website. There is a link to it at www.gimp.org. It is specific for the Gimp, but the basic principles are the same.

 

The tool that many advanced users of photoeditors concentrate on is the curves tool. Real World Photoshop has lots on that. In addition, there are a couple of books that do a good job explaining that aspect of the subject. They are Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis and Photoshop Color Correction by Michael Kieran. You won't need them for a while, but keep them in mind.

 

If you are going to be working mainly with web images and/or making inkjet prints, a lot of what you will find in some of these texts may not be too relevant for you. A lot of the commercial use of photoediting involves preparing images for third parties, often for printing in magazines, catalogues, and the like. For this color profiling is essential, and there may be a strong emphasis of CMYK work. If you are not going to be doing that, you don't need to worry about it initially. So you may have to read some of these texts selectively with your own needs in mind.

[emre]

Both your questions are in our arhives. <i>Photoshop Artistry</i> by Barry Haynes and Wendy Crumpler is simple and offers many practical examples.

[jeff_rose3]

David,

 

I just attended a Photoshop Seminar given by Ben Willmore. I feel like I learned a lot at the seminar, probably a years worth of learning curve. All the techniques I witnessed at the seminar need to be practiced however to really learn them but I was exposed to capabilities I didn't know existed and that is the important thing.

Expose your self to new techniques in photoshop and then practice them until they are second nature that is how you will get efficient at what you do.

 

Jeff...

[markrupert]

I have benefitted from the following:

 

Martin Evening, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 for Photographers

 

Scott Kelby, The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers

 

The Evening book is especially clear and helpful about color management issues. Have fun,

 

Mark

[david enzel]

I want to thank you for the helpful suggestions. I am sure I'll end up with more than one book. I did find a book at Barnes & Noble that seems very accessible: "The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kerby, Editor of Photohop User Magazine. It was just published in March.

 

And next time I will check the archives before I post. It just seems that everything in the digital world changes very rapidly.

[brainbubba_motornapkins]

You could do worse than to just go through the tutorials provided with Photoshop. It is a very, very deep program and, depending on how much time you have to spend with it, it will most likely take many months or even years before you truly become proficient (and to say one could become proficient in months is rather optimistic). Still, it's reasonable to expect you will be able to start doing useful stuff within a few days -- very basic stuff like cropping, resizing, rotating and simple image adjustments.

 

 

 

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I personally found it best to focus on learning specific tasks I wanted/needed to accomplish then gradually acquired the other stuff, again on a 'need-to-know' basis.

 

The manual is pretty decent, and a lot of the books out there merely duplicate the information it contains, badly.

[kelly_flanigan1]

I started off in the PS 1 to 2 era; and got legal at 3.0 ; Photoshop is a good program; dont let it scare you. One must use Photoshop to learn it. The books are helpfull; but one should also try using the built in help files too. Learning layers is a powerfull tool; it has been around along time; and saves much time when mastered. There is also alot of undocumented stuff; and pseudo documented stuff too. Having an associate; pal etc with the same revision of software is very usefull; one can call them when stuck; when a toolbar gets lost; etc etc...

[ellis_vener_photography]

Book: <B>Real World Adobe photoshop 7</B> by David Blatner & Bruce Fraser. it

starts wit hthe very fundamentals of Photoshop and color colar management and then

takes you through every command and menu option. The kelby &* evening book are

also very solid. if you live in or near a city that has an Apple Store, Apple & Adobe

regularly co-sponsor free (or sometimes almost free) workshops and seminars. Even

if you don't own an Apple computer these are still good learning opportunities, so

check out the schedule at http://www.apple.com.<P>

If you have the time and the money, check out the weeklong workshops at http://

www.santafeworkshops.com

[www.whitemountainphoto.com]

If you can, definately take a class. I've actually taken two beginner classes, for lack of an advanced one in my area (they keep saying maybe next semester). The classes were taught by different people, with different backgrounds, at different institutions. One teacher came from a marketing/web background and another from a printing background. I learned a ton of new and valuable things from both. I have a couple of the above mentioned books, and have maybe 150 hours in photoshop(just scratching the surface), but I found for me, a class was the quickest way to learn. They both lasted a few weeks, giving you time to try stuff out in between classes, and to have a pro help you with the answer. In photoshop, sometimes it gets maddening spending hours to make something the way you want, when someone who really knows what they are doing can tell you how to solve it in ten minutes. Some of the best money I ever spent.

 

Dana

[duncan_mcmorrin2]

If you want a really useful list of photography related softwares, try here:

 

http://www.camerans.com/resources.htm

 

There's most of what you could possibly need there.

 

Cheers, Duncan