I’ve got two weeks to learn Photoshop 7.0 for a teaching gig. I’m having a hell of a time getting to grips with it. It’s not that the program is inaccessible. Far from it, it’s actually quite userfriendly. It’s just that there’s so damn much to learn!
Photoshop wizards, how long did it take you to get to grips with this infernal program? Are there any tips, tricks or cheats I can employ to make it easier? Can I possibly learn it in two weeks?
Yes of course you can. It took me a week or so when I first picked it up in 1995, but it was just about my very first software ever, after simple text programs. But I’m still learning little tricks, new things, even today.
You can learn more about photoshop than your students, you can be very competent at it, but you can never learn photoshop. The program represents tens of thousands of hours of programming and has so many variables that can be used in different ways. You can spend years learning the nuances of layers. Actions can take another year. Because it is a creative program you will never stop learning its possibilities.
I learned the basics in about a week, by myself. If you are teaching, expect some of your students to know more than you. Feel free to ask them stuff.
I agree with Mikemike2. I started using Photoshop in 1998 and I still am learning new stuff. If you want an organized approach, I’d say to set your curriculum and learn a bit more than you’ll be teaching your students.
You can try reading Photoshop for Dummies (Deke McClelland, Barbara Obermeier), that might target your practice a bit.
There are also some fantastic tutorials online. This is where I got the majority of my Photoshop education.
I’d provide links, but my computer is currently undergoing surgery.
stupid viruses…
I learned the basics in '99 in a week. To this day, I’m still finding out new things.
I’d say a lot depended on what you intended doing with the program - there are all sorts of masking and channel work that is only needed for particular tasks, and the fiddly details of optimising for print work, like salt, can take years to master, apparently.
If all you want to do is optimise photographs in various ways, two weeks is pleanty…
Absolutely true. It takes a day or so to learn enough to do the most basic editing, a bit more to learn to use it as a drawing tool… but I’ve been using Photoshop since version 3 (about ten years) and I’m still learning new stuff.
I think its automation capabilities were there for years before I released how incredibly powerful they were. I didn’t find a use for independently editing channels until around 2000.
I think there’s a huge tendency for Photoshop users to find a way that works to do something and stick with it – when there are invariably many different ways to accomplish the same thing – and it seems there’s always a better way.
It’s such an open-ended tool, you can never stop finding new techniques.
I’ve been using version 5.0 since it was new, and it has such a baffling array of uses that I can only figure out a handful of them. I’m probably only using 1/10,000 of its potential. I don’t understand anything about layers or channels or drawing. The overlaying of text on a photo is unbelievably user-unfriendly, and there is only one level of undo. You spend three hours cleaning up a picture, mess up the titles and your work is ruined.
Photoshop starts out with a bit of a steep learning curve in my opinion, especially to those not used to graphic arts tools and such. Layers, filters, coloring, etc. A lot of people are intimidated by it but once you learn it - you’ll join the Adobe cult and follow them to the gates of hell.
I honestly don’t know how long it took me to “learn it.” I’ve used it since Photoshop 3 and I just now got a handle on batch processes and stuff. There’s so many facets and tools available it blows my mind.
You can definitely reach a competent level in 2 weeks given probably 40 hours of study. You just have to have some graphical knowledge before hand. If you know Paint Shop Pro or some other app and can relate it to those then you’ll learn much quicker.
I used to teach Photoshop both as a tutor and in an art college setting.
The thing about Photoshop is even though there are a finite number of commands in the program, there are a bazillion number of ways to use the commands to accomplish a bazillion number of tasks. Photoshop is used by a wide number of types of users to accomplish a wide number of things. Also, with a program like Photoshop, the ability to do something and do something well are sometimes worlds apart. Plus, every other year they update the thing and add more things to learn about it.
So the questions to you is: Are you teaching the program itself or is a working knowledge just ancillary to the main subject matter?
If it’s the former, I think you’re in for a tough semester, because if you’re teaching high school or college, you’re bound to have kids in there that know more than you, and that’s going to undermine your authority in the classroom.
If it’s the latter, what are some of the main tasks you will be expected to do with the program? Some things like sizing images, applying transformations and applying filters are easy. Other things like advanced photo-merging or color-correction for reproduction can get tough.
You should upgrade. Recent versions use live type layers and incorporates a History palette that allows unlimited undos.
That really doesn’t sound right - there’s only one level of Ctrl-Z-type undo, but many levels (buffer-size dependent, I think) via the history tab (menu “Window->Show History” if you don’t have it turned on).
Me, I’ve never had a problem with the way 5.0 handles text, which should automatically be on a seperate layer and therefore not mess up your picture cleanup. Your setup sounds nothing like mine.
I’m starting to like natural media painting programs for drawing, but I still do a lot of stuff in Photoshop - things really took off when I got a tablet, it unlocks so much more from the program once you factor pressure sensitivity into stuff, whether it’s drawing or touchup work.
My recollection of 5.0 is that the text is entered in a separate window, and couldn’t be edited directly from the image. Not bad for a few words at a time, but a pain if you’re trying to do anything longer. I’m on version 7 currently, and text is a lot easier to work with.
Then again, I may have been thinking of version 3. It’s been a while.
[sub]verb tenses in the previous post have been randomly changed to, uh… protect the innocent. Yeah, that’s it.[/sub]
I’m still using it the way it comes up after installation. If there is setup required, there was no mention of it. The Help files are written for people who are graphics professionals. To someone who has never used a computer for photo manipulation before, it might as well be hieroglyphics. The information only tells you something if you already know how it works. As for explaining the functions, what they’re for and how to use them… forget it!
That’s the problem, I think:
fishbicycle, if I cast my memory back to 5.0, what’s happening when you enter text is a new layer is created for it, and you’re automatically switched to that layer.
You really have to figure out layers if you’re going to use text. (Actually, you really have to figure out how to use layers if you’re going to use Photoshop – otherwise, it’s really just MSPAINT on steroids.) Don’t worry, it’s a snap.
The first thing you want to do is make sure you can see the “Layers” panel. (WINDOW → SHOW LAYERS)
The layers panel will show you thumbnails of your different layers, with the top layers at the top of the list. If you use the text tool to add a layer of text, you’ll see it added in the layers panel, which becomes your work panel. (ie; any tools you use will be effecting that layer – the layer with the text on it.)
If you’re satisfied with how the text looks, and you want to switch back to another layer, just click on its thumbnail.
Layers are probably the most important thing for editing. Every time you add a new element, you want to create a new layer for it and name it. That way your editing is totally non-destructive. To create a new layer, click the little “dog-eared page” icon at the bottom of the layers panel. To delete the selected layer, click the little trash-can. Check out the help file to learn how to link and merge layers once you’re satisfied with how the elements on them look, if you’re sure you’ll never need to edit the seperate elements again. (I don’t think they’ll look so greek to you once you have the basic concept.)
I promise you, you’ll have a :smack: moment when you realize what you’ve been missing. 
Go to Amazon.com and grab a copy of Ben Wilmore’s “Adobe Photoshop Studio Techniques”. It helped me IMMENSELY when I got my forst version of Photoshop (CS2, no less!). He has a copy for about every version.
I read it in about a week and it gives a great overview of the program, and comes with a CD of files so you can follow along with whatever Ben is doing in the book. It tells you about the inner workings of Photoshop - it doesn’t just tell you how to do something, it tells you WHY you need to do that, or HOW it actually works.
Thank you for the advice. I’ll open up the program tonight, and see if I can find an online tutorial. Anybody know of a good one?
Here’s a basic layers tutorial. I don’t remember any major changes between five and six, you should be fine. If you can swing it, version six really is a major upgrade, and the text handling is much better. (eg; there are special text layers that you can edit like a text document, with the keyboard.)
To edit text in version five, you still have to create new text in the same font, size, and colour and arrange it like you would scissors-and-paste layout. Rulers are useful for this. (Press control-R to toggle them on and off, and then drag and drop a rule-line from the top ruler. You can adjust it with the “move” tool.
For example, say you created a large text layer with a typo on one line:
To fix it, you’d:[ul][li]Go to the layers panel and set the text layer as your work layer. (Click on it.)[/li][li]Drag a ruler down so you can line up the text properly.[/li][li]Use the Rectangular Marquee (selection) tool to select the word “monkies”[/li][li]Press “delete” to clear the selection.[/li][li]Use the Text tool to make a new layer with the word “monkeys” in a matching font, size, and colour. This will automatically become your work layer.[/li][li]Use the Move tool to line it up as best you can with the word “the.” (Proportional spacing will make it a bit bigger than the old text, so it won’t fit in the hole properly.)[/li][li]Go back to the layers panel and set the original text layer as your work layer again.[/li][li]Use the Marquee tool to select the text “when they fling poo.”[/li][li]Edit–>Cut (Moves the text to the clipboard.)[/li][li]Edit–>Paste as New Layer (Creates a new layer with the text.)[/li][li]Use the Move tool to line up the text properly.[/li][li]In the layers panel, link the three text layers. (See the paintbrush in the checkbox of your working layer? For the other text layers, click the box in that column so that a little chain link icon appears in them.[/li][li]Layers–>Merge Linked Layers. (Now your corrected text is all on one layer.)[/ul]A bit of a production, but that’s the way you do it in V5. (Unless you just redid the text layer altogether, which is sometimes easier.)[/li]
In version 6, when you noticed your mistake, you’d make the original text layer your work layer, select the “Text” tool, and click at the right hand side of the word “Monkies” to get a cursor going there. Then you’d press “backspace” three times, types “eys,” and then click on a checkbox at the top of the window to say you were finished editing the layer. A bit smoother.