Photoshop courses

[Technik]

Hi all

I am hoping to improve my PS skills in particularly curves, layers and other adjustment functions.

I was thinking to enrol a community or tafe course specialising in graphic design, PS skills etc. Could anyone recommend any reputable community courses in NSW? Has anyone done one before?

Cheers
Leon

[iGBH]

There are some good tutorials to be found on the net. They range from just your basic PS for Dummies type thing through to interactive video tutorials. Just something to keep in mind before you sign up for any courses.

[Reschsmooth]

I also found this book by Scott Kelby to be of great help. It is written with CS2 in mind, but if you have an earlier version, I am sure you can still take a lot out of it. It does assume some level of knowledge of PS.

It appears he has a whole range of PS books for different uses.

Hope that helped.

P

[Technik]

I have already gone through the stage of reading books, doing online tutorials etc. The book by Scott Kelby is a great introduction for PS CS2, there is another one by Martin Evenings - it goes into more details etc.

Actually what I'm after is a face-to-face instructions, hand on demonstration and perhaps some feedbacks on my works so that I know I am doing the right thing!

[Yi-P]

Actually what I'm after is a face-to-face instructions, hand on demonstration and perhaps some feedbacks on my works so that I know I am doing the right thing!

What do you wish to do with photoshop? It has so many different ways to do one single effect and needless to say, the field which it can apply to.

Say, retouching landscape, fine-arts, publishing, printing, portraits and studio are all different sort of applications of photoshop techniques. They all require a very long time before you can actually master one.

Best 'free' resource I can think of is do them yourself and play with it as much as possible, then post them up here for review. Following lead is not a good way to learn as each person has their own workflow that suits them best, I dont know yours nor you will find my ways useful.

Mind you that you might not get as much feedback or comments as expected, but there are many here who are willing to help, including myself...

Photoshop is more like drawing/painting, I cant take your hands and draw a picture for you, nor you will learn anything from simply following my strokes. The best way, is always, go out and draw yourself, see what you've done wrong and go back and draw it again.

At least, that is what I can say apart from all the online and book resources that you've gone through.

[Reschsmooth]

As Yip said, there are gong to be many different ways to sharpen the cat, so to speak. For example, I have played around with at least 5 different B&W conversion methods, and that is without using external plugins such as Alien skin. Each different method will produce a slightly different result.

I know you said you have gone through the books, but one of the reason I found it incredibly useful is that you can have it there as permanent reminder of steps for a particular method, and you can keep practising with as many images as you want to.

At the end of the day, the most important feedback is your own (or your clients if that is the area in which you work!).

But, I am sure someone else will be able to provide additoinal informatoin regarding available and recommended courses.

Cheers

P

[Technik]

Very true, practice makes prefect!

Just like everything else, it takes time to master one's skills and techniques. The bottom line is that I just want to improve my PS skills in the most efficiency and effectively manner - i.e. by doing a graphic design course at Tafe/Community course.

Think of it as an investment!