Photoshop/PP online courses?

[Stilltime]

Are there any decent online photoshop courses, or other digital post processing courses? I have CS3 and lightroom and have no idea how to use them, and quite frankly, I find them so intimidating because they just frustrate the hell out of me. My husband is good with the basics, but I want to take a course, and in looking online they all look scammer-ish.

 

[Samanax]

Check out YouTube. According to some of my friends there are lots of good Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials in video form that are easy to follow and understand.

 

[Chairman7w]

(Edit - apologize in advance if you're offended that's not my intent. It's a serious question, why wouldn't you just read your manual?)

Seriously? You know - they DO come with manuals. Unless of course, you have pirated copies, then they wouldn't. But I'm sure you bought yours, right, so why wouldn't you just RTFM ?

Are there any decent online photoshop courses, or other digital post processing courses? I have CS3 and lightroom and have no idea how to use them, and quite frankly, I find them so intimidating because they just frustrate the hell out of me. My husband is good with the basics, but I want to take a course, and in looking online they all look scammer-ish.

 

[Stilltime]

Seriously? You know - they DO come with manuals. Unless of course, you have pirated copies, then they wouldn't. But I'm sure you bought yours, right, so why wouldn't you just RTFM ?

What the hell is your problem? I'm using a hand-me down lap top that came with it installed (paid for by my husband's company). I'm sure there is a manual around here somewhere, or I could download it. But I'm more interested in taking a digital photography COURSE, and in looking online and saw a lot of "become a photoshop professional in just 2 weeks!" and wondered how many of them were crap, or if anyone had used them before.

I really don't get your attitude. I asked for suggestions on courses specific to digital photography. I've seen people mention taking online courses in this forum before, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

So much for "the only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked".

 

[goodoneian]

i would ignore what chariman said. with that logic since i have the manual that came with my camera, i should never ask anyone questions or techniques for taking pictures.

but i agree with the person who said looking in you tube. i've found many things on there that have helped me out. (how to batch re size and save items etc.)

i would think watching a tutorial on youtube would be more helpful than reading the manual anyways

 

[Stilltime]

(Edit - apologize in advance if you're offended that's not my intent. It's a serious question, why wouldn't you just read your manual?)

Just saw your edit, and the answer is, uh, because I want to take a COURSE. I have NO experience with photoshop or digital image processing. None. I want to take a course, not just read a manual or look at youtube videos. I love the implication that because I want to learn and take courses that I'm pirating software or must be a complete idiot who doesn't just go by the manual. Thanks. I just want some feedback on online courses (the ones I looked at in particular were the art institute, and kelbytraining). Do you have anything to say about either? Besides looking through my manual.

 

[maulrat]

For one, using a laptop to post process photos can be a toughy... unless you're using an external monitor. If you are using a hand-me-down laptop, chances are that it's monitor is not accurately displaying your photos. I would even suggest buying a $20 CRT monitor on craigslist.

As for classes, I tried so hard not to spend money. There are so many online tutorials for just about anything you want to do in photoshop. Come to think of it, there are probably more free online tutorials for photoshop over any other software out today.

PM me on what you want to do. I can help send you some links that I may have regarding PP in photoshop.

 

[hankejp]

I find the Youtube Videos VERY good. Although when I search, I'm looking to do something specifically and not learn the whole program like I assume you're looking to do. I would be interested what you find out.

 

[Stilltime]

i would ignore what chariman said. with that logic since i have the manual that came with my camera, i should never ask anyone questions or techniques for taking pictures.

but i agree with the person who said looking in you tube. i've found many things on there that have helped me out. (how to batch re size and save items etc.)

i would think watching a tutorial on youtube would be more helpful than reading the manual anyways

Thanx. I've watched youtube videos before to do get things done, but truthfully, since I'm really getting into digital photography I think I'd love to take some classes specific to digital post production. I'm finding a lot of photoshop stuff is specific to graphic design, and I'm not sure how much of that would be useful to a photographers workflow, or if there are courses/schools that cater more toward photography post production.

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my original question, but I'm quite serious in changing my study (I'm currently going to school for something totally unrelated and have just decided that I'd rather do this).

Chairman, I think your comments were totally inappropriate and rude, and I still have no idea why you decided to jump in to this thread with that attitude. It seems totally out of left field to me. Nothing you said was at all helpful, and only seemed to indicate that you really didn't understand the question (which perhaps was my fault for not being clear enough). I am really interested in digital photography post production classes/courses. The suggestion to "read the ****ing manual" (RTFM, as you said) was not only rude, but completely useless.

 

[Stilltime]

For one, using a laptop to post process photos can be a toughy... unless you're using an external monitor. If you are using a hand-me-down laptop, chances are that it's monitor is not accurately displaying your photos. I would even suggest buying a $20 CRT monitor on craigslist.

We have a desktop as the main computer on our network, so I can use that as an external monitor, but I was also at best buy the other day and was seeing how cheap flat screen monitors are these days anyway. I would be totally lost without a wireless laptop, but I may get a cheap desk top set up just for this purpose (or just a new screen). I was reading in the other forum about calibration and all that, so yeah, I'll have to use the other screen for now.

I find the Youtube Videos VERY good. Although when I search, I'm looking to do something specifically and not learn the whole program like I assume you're looking to do. I would be interested what you find out.

The art institute has a digital photography course near me that includes post production using photoshop, but I wanted something specific to post production without all the basic photography stuff (which I don't think I need). So the other one I found was this. It's online (not the 1.5 hour drive to the campus for the other one), which is nice.

And there were a few other ones where you can get DVD how-to's sent to your door, which looked a little dodgy.

I don't know. I'm the type that instead of doing incremental tutorials would just want to learn the whole thing. It's easier for me to see the "bigger picture" that way. I'm also painfully stubborn and when I set my mind to learning something, I don't just learn it, I have to become an expert (so to speak). Hence the classes.

 

[Chairman7w]

Sorry man - didn't mean to sound so rude.

No qualifiers, just an apology.

 

[ATXshots]

I like the "you suck at photoshop" series on youtube

 

[fiveoboy01]

Yeah those are funny.

FWIW, I have PSE7 and there isn't a manual included.

I bought Photoshop Elements 7 - The Missing Manual(sorry I forget the author at this time) and I have been basically teaching myself how to use it.

Do you have a local technical college? Usually you can find a course there.

 

[scooter2525]

lynda.com Online Training Library: Training


Lynda.com offers some good video courses.