Photoshop newb

kyeezie

I know nothing about photoshop. I have CS3, does anyone know of a good book to start out with? I also have Aperture. Is one easier to use than the other?

pathfinder

Kyeezie,

If you are a complete PS newbie, I would rec you start with Scot Kelby's "Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers", as is it a easy to read text that teaches you exactly how to edit an image. It is not full of theory, but simple direct steps to perform.

Learning Photoshop can be a challenging endeavor ( many of use have been learning for years ). There are scads of books and online sites, but Kelby's book will help get you started editing, and then you can begin to learn things in more depth.


Photoshop is harder to learn than Aperture, but offers far more control, and finesse. The numbers of users is far larger for Photoshop than for Aperture.

I used Aperture briefly, but today, I rely on Photoshop and Lightroom2 for my own work.

Art Scott

Just gotta agree with Pathfinder on the Scott Kelby book........

Nikolai

+1 on Kelby
Few books, some online tutorials, few months of every day practicing - and you'll be fine :-)

kyeezie

Thanks everyone! I will check out that book. My husband is great at photoshop, but he's so good it's hard for me to follow what he is doing then I get frustrated that I don't know what he's talking about and vice versa. I figured following a book would probably be best. Thanks again!

Xero

kyeezie wrote:

I know nothing about photoshop. I have CS3, does anyone know of a good book to start out with? I also have Aperture. Is one easier to use than the other?

In addition to the great advice from all those who have responded, there is also a veritable treasure trove of information in the form of tutorials located on various websites around the internet.

When I first began working in PS, version 4 was about the industry standard. I used Good-Tutorials.com to find what I needed and learned from there and through experimenting with ways to apply the knowledge I'd just gained in settings other than those I'd originally used. And, despite the huge amount of crap floating around the pool at deviantART.com, there are some worthwhile tutorials there as well.

Trial and error goes a long way in the digital realm.

Here's a quick list of websites with useful tutorials:

http://www.good-tutorials.com
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1
http://pshero.com/
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
http://www.tutorial9.net/
http://psdlearning.com/
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/
http://luxa.org/
http://www.tutorialsphere.com/
http://www.photoshoptalent.com/photoshop-tutorials
http://www.photoshop-garden.com/
http://psfreak.com/
http://www.tutorialdash.com/
http://photoshoplovr.com/
http://www.photoshopstar.com/tutorials-page/
http://tutorialdog.com/topic/photoshop_tutorials/
http://www.pstut.info/
http://www.pscloud.com/
http://phong.com/tutorials/
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/category/tutorials
http://photoshopcandy.com/


Hope this helps out.

Cheers,
X

Nikolai

Xero wrote:

In addition to the great advice from all those who have responded, there is also a veritable treasure trove of information in the form of tutorials located on various websites around the internet.
....

Hope this helps out.

Cheers,
X

Wow, X, quite a collection!

Xero

Nikolai wrote:

Wow, X, quite a collection!

Thanks much. I try to help others avoid the hassle I endured, Googling until my eyes burned (I'm not sure if they actually burned or not, but it would stand to reason if they did) and sifting through loads of junk just to find one good tutorial on color editing.

I will probably add to the list over time as I find more useful tidbits.

kabeer

"Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book (Classroom in a Book)" a great book its pretty expensive for a book but if your serious about learning photoshop it will teach you every thing you need to know about photoshop cs3 & cs2.

catspaw

kabeer wrote:

"Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book (Classroom in a Book)" a great book its pretty expensive for a book but if your serious about learning photoshop it will teach you every thing you need to know about photoshop cs3 & cs2.

Expensive for a book but CHEAP for a class I picked that up for CS4 once I get the basics down, I'm gonna learn everything about that sucker....