What to learn to be considered good in Photoshop

[gwx03]

Hi all.

What should I learn to be considered proficient in photoshop? There are so many features that I don't know what to learn! Currently, I know the following...

- creating deleting renaming layers
- Brush sizes, feathering, a-alias. ( duh )
- Healing Brush
- Alpha Channel
- Colour types ( CMYK, RGB )
- File browser
- Selecting
( magnetic lasso, adding or deleting from selection, lasso, magic wand, polygonal lasso tool, select color range, deselect, inverse)
- Sharpening ( unsharp mask, sharpening tool, etc )
- Blur tool and filters ( gausian, motion, radial, etc )
- Some filters
- gradient, solid colour fill layers
- adjustment layers
- channels and selecting using alpha channels
- gradient tool
- zoom tool ( duh )
- Background eraser
- Going back in history palette
- Using styles
- Making actions
- Using navigator
- Move tool, path selection, direct selection ;-)
- hand tool ( LOL! )
- eyedropper
- Feathering
- paint tool ( hahaha )
- canvas, image size, resolution...
- characters ( warping, faux text )
- Text ( faux, anti aliasing, kerning and all that )
- Point text, paragraph text
- Txt alignment


Ahh yes. I didn't say anything in detail about filters, did i? So here are the filters I have tried using and know how to use...

Fresco, plastic wrap, Rough pastels
All the blur filters
Lens flare, lighting effects ( those stuff on matte, material .. )
All the sharpen stuff


AND the styles...

-Drop shadow
( Opacity, angle, distance, spread, size )

- Inner Shadow
( opacity, angle, distance, choke, size )

- Outer Glow
( opacity, noise, colour )

- Bevel and emboss
( style of emboss, technique, depthdirection, size, soften, angle, altitude, gloss contour ( just playing around ) )

- Satin
( opacity, angle, dist, size )

- gradient overlay ( all )


Sadly, that is all I know right now. Just the basics ( or maybe not even the basics )

What else should I learn to be considered good in photoshop????

[Webforumz Staff]

Ok, Maybe you don't understand this yet, but you will in time. Being good in Photoshop is not really how much you know, but how much you are willing to experiment. Most of the best effects I have seen created in Photoshop have been made by accident, just by combining a few effects.

The "Filters" you speak of are not filters, but layer styles. Filters can be found from the Filters menu and can be far more useful. As a rule, the layer styles can act very much like filters so they are often called this too (Just to make things really confusing!).

I would suggest experimenting with a mixture of both as that is how the best results can be achieved. However, the direction you take it is entirely up to you. You could learn how to touch up Photos and create terribly realistic scenes, or you could go the other way and learn more abstract art and become very proficient at it.

The problem with Photoshop is that there is no easy way to become good at it. I suggest you surf the web, checkout some tutorials and try to imitate what you see. That's the best way. But don't ever just follow a tutorial precisely, play about with it and see what different effects you can produce. It's a bit of a gamble, but after a while you get a good idea of how the different effects can work together, or not, as the case may be. You can't be taught how that works because there's always a certain level of intuition involved.

I'm still learning myself, all the time. If I have to create something in Photoshop, it can take some time just because I have no idea how it will go before I start, especially if I have to use an effect or filter that I'm not totally familiar with.

Hope this helps...!

[D3mon]

Follow some of the tuts here:
www.thewebmachine.com (although it appears to be down at the moment)
<s>I'd advise getting to grips with the fundamental principles involved to start with, like using layers, layer effects, adjustment layers, alpha channels etc. These are the basic tools of image manipulation. Then take a single image or photo and apply the other menu options and filters one at a time, to see how they affect the image. Combinations of these methods will help you achieve anything you want.</s> Looks like you've mostly got it covered!

[gwx03]

Yes, sirkent! That was really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to reply... I like learning and experimenting new things by the way!

I can't wait to be a Photoshop pro! And yes, I'll check out some tutorials and play about...

D3mon, thanks for the link , though it apparently doesn't work now

Looks like I am going to get my hands dirty.

[D3mon]

it would be a terrible shame if that site closed. It is/was an excellent referencefor users of many Adobe products.

[courtjester]

Well GWX, I agree with Sirkent.. The way I AM LEARNING is like I mentioined to you yesterday. Surf the web, find graphics and try to create them. Also, another good way is to take photographs of landscapes and Space pics and try to create those using Lighting Effects and all that good stuff. This will help you out a ton. Ohh.. but please dont try and make my copyrighted blue wood grain :wink: . Yeah, Sirkent knows what I am talking about. haha

[giles]

Thats what I do, I am a clueless designer, I cant think about drawing somthing, I just have to keep experiemtning - some days I cant come up with nething, even if it takes the entire day, other days (like when I made my site) I can come up with something reasable in a matter of minutes. Everything that I use which has layers, I try each layer blending mode (Cos I dont no what they do :S) untill I find one i like the best, and then aple different filters so on - just keep going until you are completly satisfied, thats what I do - and it seems to work. Omg, just look at my logo! when I first drew it, it was the most basic peice of $^$#! I have ever made, it was just a simple plastic effect, and then, after time I added the sdame picture on top of each other, and apple filters and blending modes and now look at it! its like some cool robot thingi

anyway, "free you mind"