Learning more about Photoshop

Photoshop is a powerful tool. It is a tool that can take average photographs and make them great! It is a blank canvas on which you can create a masterpiece from scratch! Most importantly, it is probably the most heavily-used piece of software any designer will likely need.

Before we go too far, have a look at how one photographer includes photoshop into his workflow. See what wonderful images photographer Uli Staiger creates and how Photoshop plays a major role i his work. Check out the Uli Staiger interview here.

Now that you've seen some of the amazing things Photoshop can create, you may question how someone learns these techniques. Well, first things first. You've got to have a firm grasp on what Photoshop is and what it is capable of. In order to do that, you need to learn some basics of how Photoshop can be operated.

Mashable.com has a great post entitled: 12 beginner tutorials for getting started with Photoshop. I want you to read ALL the tutorial articles. (Here's a hint: you'll have to click on the title of each section to get to the article.) It will take you a while to read all of these, but I want you to do it. If you don't understand something, you may need to read it more than once. Take your time and make sure you understand it. If you don't, it's going to be hard when I start asking you to make things using Photoshop.

Make sure you read them all carefully and understand them. I will be giving you a worksheet on the 12 beginner tutorials on Wednesday and will be asking you to fill in correct answers. You'll be able to use the website, but if you don't read the articles, you won't know where to find the answers!

Once you've read them all, I want you to download some images from the internet to use and practice the techniques you saw in the areticles. Go through each one again, doing everything yourself. This is the best way to truly understand what's going on. Since this is an internet-based class, I'm not there to walk you through each step. I need to know you will follow my directions and learn these techniques. If you don't, you'll regret it when we start working in Photoshop for assignments!

I'm a big fan of self-directed learning, so you will be watching/reading lots of tutorials in my class(es.) Not just in the internet-based classes, either. When I teach traditional classes I always have my students watch tutorials to learn. In the real-world, there won't be an instructor there to teach you a new technique. You'll have to be resourceful and find a method online that you can follow. These tutorials now are just preparing you for your future and paving a road of self-reliance.

So, please take your time and read all the articles carefully. At this stage of the class I'm being very easy on you and asking you to soak up as much knowledge as possible. The time will come (very soon) when I ask you to start creating things for me and that will be when being able to follow these tutorials will count!