Learning Paint Shop Pro X2 with Photoshop books?

[Melesse]

(TLR at the bottom)

I just picked up Paint Shop Pro X2. I chose this program for two reasons, one being price, the other being price. I knew there would be a built in handicap in learning the program simply because Adobe was so dominant in the arena.

I've been googling tutorials, and practicing with my own photographs, but it's been slow going. Mostly because tutorials are snapshots. They generally show you one thing, and it is alone, without a framework. One tutorial might go over masks, one tutorial might go over sharpening, one might deal with saturation. But rarely (I've only found one) do they deal with the entire process of retouching a photo from start to finish. That sort of learning you get from a class, an apprenticeship, or a good book. I don't know any photographers in my area, and my local CC's don't offer any classes that I've found on a regular basis. That leaves a good book. Unfortunately, there aren't many books for Paint Shop pro.

So here's the question. Knowing that there will be cosmetic and functional differences between programs, is it worth getting a good photoshop book (like a couple I've seen recommended in this forum) and simply using it to learn the technique? Are Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro THAT different?

Thanks for any input!
Mel

 

[Provo]

Well industry trends then photoshop I never got used to using paint shop pro the interface got to me after a while.

I do however from time to time use corel draw for some odd reason I can't put the program down still especially for freehand designs. But everything else it's adobe prodcucts photoshop cs4, lightroom,illustrator etc..


A good source for learning paint shop pro and any other software is lynda learning these courses are steps by steps and extremely informative

 

[skieur]

Paint Shop Pro X2 is very similar to Photoshop. The Express Lab section is similar to Lightroom but with more editing functions and the included Corel Media 1 program also has a combination of cataloguing and editing functions too. It is also compatible with Photoshop Plug Ins which will speed up your postprocessing.

"The Learning Centre" under Help at the top gives you step by step instructions to do whatever you wish in the area of editing and choices, so a book really should not be necessary. Because I already had Photoshop, I found Paintshop Pro X2 Ultimate very easy to learn and fast to use.

I certainly recommend Paint Shop Pro over Elements or Lightroom, especially for any postprocessing photographer with medium experience or less.

skieur

 

[KmH]

Why not just get one of the many Paint Shop Pro X2 books? Amazon.com has a bunch of them.

 

[Melesse]

Both the learning center and the books on Amazon were fairly biased towards beginning level editing. In addition, from what I saw, both those and the tutorials available on youtube and other sites treated adjustments as discrete events, rather than part of a continuum.

What I was looking for was a complete tutorial that talked about the order changes were made (for example, I read somewhere that sharpening should be applied last. Why? Are there other adjustments that should be made in specific orders?) and some of the theory behind making the adjustments. Maybe talking about how to create high and low key looks using graphics editing programs, etc etc. I was looking for something more than just a series of tutorials, and it looked like that sort of thing was only available referring to photoshop.

Thanks for the assistance anyways, it looks like I'll get to buy one and try it out.

Mel