Just downloaded CS6!!! now what?

[myko5]

Alright, so after getting the iMac on monday, I was finally able to sit down and get photoshop loaded. Found another bonus for kids, my daughter is in school which qualifies her for the student/teacher edition. She's only in first grade, but she has a report card and thats all that was needed so I am not complaining.

Anyways, does anybody have any good tutorials for learning the program? I have basic understandings of the program and thats about it. I have a elements background, but I really never used to get too in depth. I prefer online learning, free is always better. Books are ok, but I really do not like that method. For now I plan on learning buy using. I guess its the trial and error method.

There is a cheap local school that offers classes on it too. So I am also considering that route.

Thanks!!!

 

[o hey tyler]

lol, Adobe's probably wondering, "Gee, this girl in 1st grade must be really adept with computers to utilize photoshop."

You could always just open up a photo and play with it in photoshop. There are neat filters and such that you can put on images, and utilize layers. Not easy for someone who just got the program, but fairly easy with the help of a youtube tutorial or two.

 

[myko5]

She is a lot better on them then I would have thought she would be at this age. But their student teacher program is k-12 so I guess they want them to start young. I will probably have her sitting by my side quite a bit anyways. It didn't take her long at all to figure out how to get to Disneyjr.com or open up the photo booth.

 

[jake337]

It takes years of training to fully understand this amazing software. I mean, people go to school for this stuff for years.

That being said you can always check out youtube and search for anything you want to do. But once you start to get the hang of things you'll realize there are many, many different ways to achieve the same effect. Each different way may or may not work depending on image you are trying to create.


KMH should jump in the the Adobe forum link, it's a paysite but has vast knowledge of information with studied members who know what they are doing.

 

[ceejtank]

There's a great book for sale at Barnes and Nobles... Adobe Photoshop for Photographers (CS6) by Martin Evening. I have CS3 - however I thumbed through this book while debating whether my next camera related purchase will be a new lens, or CS6.. and this book has a LOT of good detail, and instructions / walkthroughs for lots of things. Worth checking out at least.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

If you truly paid for the legit version, adobe has many available utilities integrated to help you learn the software.

Adobe TV is a good start, along with CS Live and the Adobe Online Portal.

 

[MLeeK]

Spend the next few months on Adobe TV and YouTube.

 

[Animaniac888]

Gotta love that student discount... hehe.

I'd suggest looking for online sources, preferably from Adobe itself, such as Adobe TV. Tutorials from Adobe should be of a much higher quality than third party tutorials. Of course, third party tutorials can be helpful as well, but I find that for starting out it's best to look for tutorials from the company that makes the software.

 

[ghache]

I just finished reading this book.

good resource, book is well made and teach you some easy technique in retouching portraits.
Not as advanced as i wanted to be but it covers everything you need to know to start retouching your portrait in the right way....

Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers Using Photoshop | KelbyTraining.com

 

[sapper6fd]

Youtube has an excelent library of PS training video's. Your best bet is to look at your local community college ant take a PS training course. They are ususaly cheaper than the student edition of PS (funny how a course can cost a few hundred dollars, but the course material costs more than the course itself).

 

[KmH]

Open CS 6.
Press the keyboard F1 key (or click on Help > Photoshop Help). That takes you directly to Adobe Community Help
Look for the Getting Started tutorials. Start by learning the layout of the GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Many community college Photoshop courses concentrate more on graphic artist type Photoshop use. Particularly if the text used is Adobe's - Classroom in a Book.

A more comprehensive, and much less expensive, guide for photographers would be - Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

Evening's book will cover pretty much every tool, feature, and function CS 6 has.

 

[myko5]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I will have some good sources of useful information to help me out. I know adobe offers help and tutorials, I will have to give that a try.

Might be starting a war asking this, but what are the better actions that are out there. I would rather be able to do everything myself, but for now it is something I also want to look into.

 

[charlie76]

Photoshop should follow the lead of Autocad....free for non-professionals. It increases popularity of the software and encourages more people to use it. Never understood why they don't.

 

[Animaniac888]

Photoshop should follow the lead of Autocad....free for non-professionals. It increases popularity of the software and encourages more people to use it. Never understood why they don't.

I had the same thoughts exactly. Even though I abhor Autodesk, it's still a pretty neat idea.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Photoshop should follow the lead of Autocad....free for non-professionals. It increases popularity of the software and encourages more people to use it. Never understood why they don't.

There was a press release somewhere (I'll have to see if I can find it) that I read a few years ago after the release of CS3 where Adobe Executives said something along the lines that they are fully aware of software pirating and plan to do very little about it to the non professional home user, as it raises product awareness and business sales of the product.