Favourite Photoshop help sources? Online tutorials, books or magazines?

[JayR]

(and before anyone has a go, I have seen there is a photoshop tutorial section here also :D )

Anyway, I have an ok/basic knowledge of photoshop since teaching myself to use it with a tutorial book about 10 years ago, but i REALLY want to up the ante and teach myself more and more to the point of almost knowing it back-to-front.

How have others taught themselves?
I understand there are plenty of tutorials online, but of course there are also plenty of books to buy about it, and then of course tons of magazines coming out on newstands every month.

Does anyone have any experience with all/any over another?
Are there any really good books?
Are the $20-ish magazines worth the cash?

I understand people cant post websites here, so PM me with any awesome suggestions.

Cheers all and thanks in advance :)

[ricktas]

People can post websites once they have reached the 30 days membership and 50 posts. You havent reached 50 posts yet, but anyone who has, can!

Buy Scott Kelby's book on photoshop for the version you have.
Use Youtube, search for photoshop tutorials
Post your photos on AP for critique, people will tell you how to process them (you have been a member for over 12 months) and as far as I can tell we haven't seen a single photo of yours up for critique.

[JayR]

Yep thanks, just wondering what people's preferences were... Am a little shall we say time poor. :)
Had heard of Scott Kelby too, so good advice clearly.

I hope to post some images up soon, but am a little bit critical of my own work, albeit though exhibiting, so go figure.
So yes, once the next exhib is out the way, I will definitely post up some stuff. thanks for your patience.

[Analog6]

I've used them all. My personal favourite is the Better Photography magazine and their website, which has tutorials by Peter Eastway, the editor. There are free tutorials available to see if you like them and then you can subscribe, and he puts new ones up regularly. Sometimes I don't agree with how far or which way he has 'pushed' an image but it is good to know how to do it! I also like Better Digital Camera magazine from the same 'stable'. I do have a good book on Photoshop, mine is Photoshop 4 essential skills by Gayler & Andrews (focal press), I like the way they write and can relate to the explanations.

I also like Gavin Hoey's little tutorials on You Tuber - he keeps it simple and they are easy to follow.

[agb]

I too have the Photoshop 4 essential skills book by Mark Galer and Philip Andrews. It h as a DVD that allows you to follow the moves they are making on the same image.
I find that there is such a lot on the internet that if I want to do something I can sometimes just do a search and come up with any number of tutorials. Lots of tutorials on Adobe and also you can buy the Linda tutorials too, though I have not there are some free ones.
Damiensymonds is also pretty good value. His info pallete http://damiensymonds.blogspot.com/and http://damiensymonds.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results are good.

[Geoff]

I can recommend Kelby Training online - his books a reasonably good too for beginner to intermediate photoshop (that's really his target audience IMO).

Also worth a look is Lynda.com - there are some excellent Photoshop courses on there.

Both of the above can be subscribed to on a monthly basis so you can try it out and see how you go. They also have a lot more content than just PS.

Another online source is creativeLIVE - which is set up by photographer Chase Jarvis and friends. These tend to be course based - usually free while live (US time) and then a one off payment if you want to rewatch. The do occassionally rebroadcast at more Australian friendly times over a courses "live" period...it'll make more sense when you check it out.

The above are all items I've felt happy to shell out some $ on. There is of course also a tonne of info available for nix if you're willing to search it out on forums and YouTube. Quality varies.

My big thing is portraiture (Fashion/beauty that sort of stuff) - I've found that all of the above really don't get past intermediate techniques for retouching portraits - they do provide a lot of value - but they're not necessarily the high-end techniques you'll see in the glossy fashion mags etc. If this is also your thing ... then I can recommend the ebooks by Gry Garness and I've heard good things about Natalia Tarrafel's DVD (apologies if I fumbled the spelling). Be warned though - while the ebooks are great...it gets pretty full on...so if you haven't pinned down the Kelby level fairly well then it may be heavy going.

Geoff

[JayR]

Awesome, thanks for all the suggestions - I figured it'd be better to be pointed in the right direction first... Will also have a look at the tutorials here very soon :)