[Question] Do you need to spend years to get a hold of Photoshop?

Lets get Anal about Photoshop!


Talking about Photoshop with a friend this got me wondering...
Do you need to spend years to get a hold of Photoshop? I mean you seem to have mastered it quite well with my PSP (Paint Shop Pro) skills with a year of training my skills don't come as near as good as yours ^.^
Any advice or web to learn tricks?

Ahh.. I love talking about Photoshop.   I think the best way to sum up working in Photoshop is to compare it to Anal Sex.  Some people fear/hate/loathe/despise it.  Some people love it.  It can cause pain if not done right, but can cause pleasure if done correctly. 

This is a question from Alectra of Alectra's Playground.  Its not an easy question about 'getting a hold' of Photoshop.  Its probably best not to think of Photoshop as A tool, but to think of it as a collection of MANY tools.  As its a professional piece of software, there are many parts of it that an amateur like myself and most of us out here making caps just won't utilize.  The color correcting portions of it are some of the best in the industry... but do I honestly care if the flash used to take the picture was juuuust a bit too blue?  And therefore doesn't match the sunlight coming in the window in the background?  No... I don't care.  But if I did, Photoshop could correct it.  Do I care that the image is 300dpi, and 2500pixels X 7000pixels?  Yes I do.  And Photoshop can crop that image down to the size I want.  And in all honesty it can do it in about 7 different ways.  

I think I covered my experience with Photoshop in a previous post, but I'm a little to lazy this morning to search it out, and I expect that most of you would just rather read it here, than open up a new post anyway.  I learned Photoshop when it was Version 3 or 4 (the current version is 12).  The 'new' thing at that time was layers, but it was still a beast of a program.  I learned it in a classroom as part of my photography degree.  At the time I thought it was interesting, but not really important to a photographer.  After that first course I changed my major from 'Commercial Photography' to 'Digital Imaging'.  I fell in love.  Now that was back in 1995 or 1996.  And I wouldn't say there has been any gap between then and now that I haven't been 'learning' about Photoshop.  

The program is just that big.  And each version comes out with something new.  I don't believe I have ever met anyone that said they knew ALL of Photoshop, and I've met plenty of people that make my 'Mad Skillz' at Photoshop look just sad.  

So first thing... you will never learn everything about Photoshop.  And thankfully you didn't ask that.  But I can't give a good answer on how long it will take to get a 'hold' of Photoshop.  That really depends on what you want to do with it.  If you want to make caps, there isn't to much to it.  Making a 'new' Image, making some sort of background, pulling a photo (or drawing, or whatever) into it, then adding some text.  Easy Peasy.  But each of these steps can be as complex as you want.  

I think my best recommendation to learn Photoshop is to take a class.  Any introductory class will give you the basic skills to do basic manipulations, and create new images.  If you don't want to take a class, and feel somewhat comfortable in image editing, then get Photoshop installed and start playing.  If you see something that you want to do (oh wow, how did she get the text to glow like that!?)  then search online for tutorials.  I still search online to figure some things out. 

But please read that part again... '...feel somewhat comfortable in image editing'. 

Thats important, as I really don't think Photoshop is a good place to start, unless you plan on using it professionally.  Paint Shop Pro is a good place to start.  For caps, Comic Life seems to be pretty good.  There are a lot of image editors out there that are easy and welcoming to new users.  Adobe seems to pride itself on Photoshop's steep learning curve.  Even the 'consumer' version of Photoshop (Photoshop Elements, now in its 9th version) isn't easy.  And the interface is JUST different enough between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements that skill in one doesn't necessarily transfer to the other.  I spent 2 months playing in Elements, and finally gave up.  I could do something in 30 seconds with Photoshop that took me 4 minutes to do in Elements. 

I think with the skills you've shown in Quark and Paint Shop Pro (Photoshop has elements of both), I think you would probably be 'comfortable' in photoshop after about a year of use.  That year would probably be frustrating as all hell.  Since you already do things in Quark and Paint Shop Pro, I would suggest you make a cap in your normal method, then starting from scratch, do it again in Photoshop.  I read you write up on your Magazine covers, and in all honesty I could probably do each of those steps in Photoshop.   But as you find a stumbling block (how do you turn this image around?  How do I make the text fit in a square?  How do I change the opacity of this background?....) you will need to go online and find a tutorial that covers it.  There are plenty of tutorials for Photsohop out there that are free.  Most are good.  Some are great, and some are just awful.  You just have to keep trying until you figure it out.