Photography editing: Do a course or teach yourself ?

[Seesee]

Mostly self taught via trial and error error error error...error.

But also one of the best learning sources is the Digital Camera Magazine, the English version available every month from most newsagents. Apart from inspiring images to get your creative juices flowing every edition comes with an instructional CD covering all aspects of most PS programs all in easy to comprehend step by step instructions, as well as step by step instructions in print as well. Features more advanced instruction and simple to at least get you over initial hurdles.

A whole lot cheaper than paying someone to educate you, and a keepable reference library of CD's to refer back to at any time.

[Avalon]

David I have CS3 if your ever down Tweed way give me a yell. happy to run through the basics with you
PS you as well Avalon

Thanks for the kind offer dbax,
you might live to regret it though

[David]

Mostly self taught via trial and error error error error...error.

But also one of the best learning sources is the Digital Camera Magazine, the English version available every month from most newsagents. Apart from inspiring images to get your creative juices flowing every edition comes with an instructional CD covering all aspects of most PS programs all in easy to comprehend step by step instructions, as well as step by step instructions in print as well. Features more advanced instruction and simple to at least get you over initial hurdles.

A whole lot cheaper than paying someone to educate you, and a keepable reference library of CD's to refer back to at any time.

Thanks SeeSee: I will go look up the mag at my local newsagent this week and give it a go..if it saves me some money being taught by a so called at a course it will be a very welcome source

[Outoflipsync]

I can recommend some of the free video podcasts you can download through itunes. You don't need to have a video ipod, as you can download and watch them from itunes on your PC. A couple that I subscribe to and can highly recommend are....

Photoshop for Digital Photographers (website has videos as well http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/ )
Photography 101

These are very easy to watch, listen too and understand..

Enjoy

[Miaow]

Taught myself and look around the net or ask on things not sure on - Don't think I'd pay for a course on something unless really needed etc

[Colourised]

i myself am self taught. and i think its not THAT hard to begin with. the only hard part to begin with is knowing what you want to do in the first place imo. after that its just time consuming! if u knw where everything is what everything does (buttons, functions, symbols etc) then its pretty much gng to flow your way.

but dont take my word for it. i only do minor pp on my photos anyway.

if youre interested in portraiture post-processing i think this might be a really good ebook. ive yet to get it myself but eventually i will!

http://banhup.com/wordpress2/product...for-beginners/

[Mick]

Its a big C for me. I love it. There's just so much to learn it never gets dull.

[daletron]

yea i found that just spending time in photoshop helped me alot. it also helps to do a couple tutorials from the net, they get you through the basics. Once you figure out what does what, you can pretty much just teach yourself.
Also experimenting is great.

[David]

yea i found that just spending time in photoshop helped me alot. it also helps to do a couple tutorials from the net, they get you through the basics. Once you figure out what does what, you can pretty much just teach yourself.
Also experimenting is great.

After originally posting this thread, I realise there is no easy fast way; you pick up tricks from expereinced people, download a crash course or two, but mostly its experimentation and putting the time in to learn the skills just like you do with the camera..damn.

[Darvidanoar]

...
The youtube tutes are very good

I watched a bunch of them and started to wonder how can you tell the good from the bad? So many of them seemed to start with "Ok, so the first thing I'm going to do is sharpen my image ..."

[Darvidanoar]

Here is option I, seeing AK added a heap more to the list.

Organise an AP processing meet. Everyone takes their laptops etc and you go to someones house and spend an afternoon teaching each other.

I am self taught (books and videos), but I also learnt a lot from other photographers, by catching up with them and talking about processing methods etc.

Ooh, yes! I would love to sit down with some of the folk on this forum and watch how they approach PP on their images.

[DAdeGroot]

After originally posting this thread, I realise there is no easy fast way; you pick up tricks from expereinced people, download a crash course or two, but mostly its experimentation and putting the time in to learn the skills just like you do with the camera..damn.

Yep that's exactly it.

I self taught, and pretty much did the same thing. Sometimes I knew what I wanted to achieve, but not how to do it, and that's where photoshop shines as there are so many tutorial videos on the 'net that it's almost impossible to not learn how to do what you want ;-)

Then it's just practice, practice, practice until you perfect that technique.

[DAdeGroot]

Ooh, yes! I would love to sit down with some of the folk on this forum and watch how they approach PP on their images.

Well if you're ever in my general area and want to drop by, just let me know

[Darvidanoar]

Careful dave, I might just take you up on that

[nigo75]

Magazines & Youtube

[Dylan & Marianne]

Tons and tons of ways to do it David.
My wife and I are both self taught and every so often we keep gathering more ways to do things.
Much of the basis for what I learned was through a site called www.photoshopessentials.com and the tutorials there.
It's one thing to look at all of these things, but until you do each process with hundreds of photos, it's something thats still not intuitive until its a reflex.
When I'm trying to learn something new, I apply the technique on to every photo I process so that it becomes engrained - (then delete the layer if its something that doesn't suit).

[Brodie]

Become a NAPP member. best $100 odd bucks you will spend. Google it.

Subscribe to the Photoshop User TV Podcast. Brilliant tips every week.

[JazzXP]

Become a NAPP member. best $100 odd bucks you will spend. Google it.

Subscribe to the Photoshop User TV Podcast. Brilliant tips every week.

You don't need a membership to subscribe, but yeah, I'm considering a NAPP membership myself (I'm self taught, but I've been using Photoshop for quite a number of years now).

[Ruthie72]

www.photoradar.com is a great site with tutorials on using elements and photoshop ... excellent site !!

[Chilli]

Thanks for all the above links and info..much appreciated.
But digital dummy here has one question,
Where/how does Lightroom fit in with Photoshop....?