Photoshop Experts

[gjm]

Does anyone know of a website/blog or tutorial set that explains how to use photoshop or other creative suite prog's to complete common tasks/projects? What frustrates me about the tutorials I have seen by companies like MPV is that the approach to teaching is hardly ever applied within the context of an actual common task let alone explained within a workflow environment. For instance, among other things, I want to make an image to be used as iTunes artwork. I know what I want the image to look like but I can't find a tut to walk me through this one specific project. I guess it involves more than just PS so kind of falls outside of a PS specific tut.

I guess the thing that frustrates me about what seems to be a common approach to tuts in general is that many are not inclusive of or overlap with other programs which are most often used to complete certain tasks, or solve specific common needs. When I did my apprenticeship training for my trade, I was not given a tour of the workshop and an overview of every chisel, hammer, screwdriver, vice, pliers, power tool, saw, clamp, brush, screw, nail, staple, pin, dowel, blade, pencil, ruler, square, sheet of ply, wood species, varnish, paint, sandpaper, sanding block, apron, drill bit etc and then left to decide what project I wanted to do and given free run of ALL the tools. Rather I was given a small task with a limited skill set to explore. Later the projects got either bigger or more refined based on skill development. The majority of people buying tutorials in what ever field are DIYers. They usually have an actual project in mind to be completed, so they buy software and a tutorial to help them get started. Granted some may be bigger than they can handle at first, but most have what would seem to be relatively common needs. It could be a business card or a product video or a CD cover or an avatar image or a static banner style image for a website. Its hard to find tuts that approach the exploration of a prog like PS from this perspective.

So if anyone knows of a place I can visit on the web with some bigger picture project specific tuts rather than features of the software like 'how to make 3D text' or 'turn a photo into an oil painting,' I would be grateful.

Thanks.

[cmcpress]

I've just started teaching myself PS - and i've been using http://photoshoptutorials.ws/ and whilst it's not a comprehensive programme there's plenty to learn on there.

[Angstrom]

If you prefer more structured leaning you might be best off with a course in book.
The internet is not linear, authors are catering to the reader with A.D.D. and a pressing desire to make a shiny round glass icon

[Styles Bitchly]

If you can snag a copy of the Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom In A Book, that's your best bet to cut right to the chase. Either way, there's a learning curve and you're gonna have to pay your dues.

[DangerousDave]

^^ Agree with all. Photoshop is just a tool, it does not teach you how to be a graphic designer.

[Styles Bitchly]

^^ Agree with all. Photoshop is just a tool, it does not teach you how to be a graphic designer.

If you want to retouch a couple of pimples on a digital pic you took of your girlfriend, then that's pretty easy to do, but if you want to say superimpose George Bush's head on your Pit-Bull and have him chasing a frisbee on the surface of the moon, you're gonna need some good chops to do that. Photoshop like every other piece of software is humongously over-engineered and bloated with so many features that it takes months and months to get proficient at it.

[gjm]

^^ Agree with all. Photoshop is just a tool, it does not teach you how to be a graphic designer.

Hi Dave. I am not looking to be taught how to be a graphic designer. I have already designed my graphics. I already know what they need to look like and where they need to go. What I am looking for is the bigger picture of work flow. For instance, if you need an image for a website header, then there are certain things you need to know before you get going that perhaps would affect work flow in PS, such as size in pixels and finished image file type. Now these things can be changed after the fact but there should be an 'economy' of approach that could be laid out in a tutorial to get a common job like this done including how to set up the project for editing and fine tuning. What I find most tutorials aimed at is either a show and tell of how many tools are in the box or how to make a werewolf headed knight wielding a flaming sword while flying through space... sort of

[gjm]

Photoshop like every other piece of software is humongously over-engineered and bloated with so many features that it takes months and months to get proficient at it.

I took a look at Pixelmator..."Image editing for the rest of us..." and they are they same. They have some tuts on specific tasks but no workflow projects. I am still left having to guess my way through the steps.

[LoopStationZebra]

Listen, Broham. Lynda.com is your best friend in cases like this. Awesome tuts for a nominal fee.

[LoopStationZebra]

Tuts!

[DangerousDave]

^^ Agree with all. Photoshop is just a tool, it does not teach you how to be a graphic designer.

Hi Dave. I am not looking to be taught how to be a graphic designer. I have already designed my graphics. I already know what they need to look like and where they need to go. What I am looking for is the bigger picture of work flow. For instance, if you need an image for a website header, then there are certain things you need to know before you get going that perhaps would affect work flow in PS, such as size in pixels and finished image file type. Now these things can be changed after the fact but there should be an 'economy' of approach that could be laid out in a tutorial to get a common job like this done including how to set up the project for editing and fine tuning. What I find most tutorials aimed at is either a show and tell of how many tools are in the box or how to make a werewolf headed knight wielding a flaming sword while flying through space... sort of

Ah, I seem to have misunderstood your aims. Seems like scutheotaku has provided some good places to look at tutorials, but if those don't work I think your best bet would be contacting someone who is a professional in the area, as the issues you are asking about are, as stated before, not directly related to step by step tuts. Best of luck! PS is an amazing program.

[cmcpress]

By the way, by iTunes artwork do you mean the cover art? Well, there aren't really any specifications for this. I think it may not to be in the JPG format, but other than that you can place any size image you want as cover art and it will just be scaled to fit the space. It's often best to do larger images though, since scaling down looks better than stretching. Once you have the image ready, you just need to add it to the song with a tag editor (for MP3s, MP3Tag is excellent for this - though I think it's Windows only).

Actually from my experience - iTunes have specs for the artwork - off the top of my head it's 2000 x 2000 (but i might be wrong on the exact dimensions).

The tags are generated by iTunes - you'll need to upload 16 / 44 Wavs to them and they do all the transcoding.

[gjm]

iTunes have specs for the artwork - off the top of my head it's 2000 x 2000 (but i might be wrong on the exact dimensions).

Just found a Pixilmator iTunes artwork preset with the dimensions of 300x300 with a resolution of 72.

[gjm]

Lots of stuff...

Hey thanks for all those sites... will wade through them over the next few days.

It is project specific planning and workflow I am wanting to find... like setting up for and implementing iTunes art work, designing a business card with print on both sides and sending the files to my printer to print for me, designing a static website header image for my DIY website image place holder and a few other specific projects.

I will muddle my way through...

[Styles Bitchly]

...but if you want to say superimpose George Bush's head on your Pit-Bull and have him chasing a frisbee on the surface of the moon, you're gonna need some good chops to do that. Photoshop like every other piece of software is humongously over-engineered and bloated with so many features that it takes months and months to get proficient at it.

That's actually really easy to do.

I also disagree about PS being bloated - it's a very fast-running, streamlined program nowadays. 50x better than the alternatives in this category, for sure.

On topic:

The best way to learn the workflow is to either just experiment, or to take tutorials. It doesn't matter if the tutorials apply to what you want to do - by taking step-by-step tutorials, you'll quickly be able to understand both how PS works and what workflows other designers use. You unfortunately can't expect a tutorial to show you the workflow to complete an entire project since, 1. every project is different, and 2. every designer will approach a project completely differently.

Here are some excellent PS tutorial sites:
http://pshero.com/
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
http://psdvibe.com/
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/
http://psdlearning.com/
http://abduzeedo.com/tutorials
http://www.psfreak.com/
http://www.photoshoplady.com/
http://photoshopcandy.com/
http://www.pscloud.com/
http://www.tutorial9.net/

Adobe also offers a ton of tutorials and tutorial videos that should give you a good idea of the workflow from a more technical point of view:
http://tv.adobe.com/
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/

By the way, by iTunes artwork do you mean the cover art? Well, there aren't really any specifications for this. I think it may not to be in the JPG format, but other than that you can place any size image you want as cover art and it will just be scaled to fit the space. It's often best to do larger images though, since scaling down looks better than stretching. Once you have the image ready, you just need to add it to the song with a tag editor (for MP3s, MP3Tag is excellent for this - though I think it's Windows only).

Just to clarify - are you having problems with project planning (e.g. what needs to be done, what order you need to do things, what tools are used for what, etc...)? If so, the best way to learn this is just with experience - no one can really effectively teach you project planning and workflow development. It just kind of comes naturally with time (though there are planning classes out there, but they're generally less specific and more about learning how to set goals for yourself).

Meh...all you really need is GIMP and maybe Irfanview and you're set to go.....and they're free too.