Comments on: Photoshop for the Clueless

By: ian

ian — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 04:48:03 +0000

Levels…
I understand it thus…

The graph represents the proportions of the image that is a certin brightness

Anything to the left of the black arrow will be black
Anything to the right of the white arrow will be white
And the grey arrow represents a mid-tone.

There. I’ve demonstrated my ignorance. Someone will no doubt tell me otherwise.

By: ian

ian — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 04:43:36 +0000

I find Unsharp mask works best in two passes…

1.Amount 20%, Radius 50 pixels, Threshold 0
2.Amount 250%, Radius 0.4 pixels, Threshold 0

Books I like

Kelby – Photoshop for Digital Photographers
McClelland – Photoshop Bible

By: Reinder

Reinder — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:44:47 +0000

I must second Tom’s opinion. I’m in the middle of the switch from PSP to Photoshop, re-learning what I used to do in the new software, and while there are some things I dislike intensely, Photoshop on the whole is worth the price difference. It’s a much better-designed piece of kit.

(Slight delay in my own Photoshop rundown as I’ve been preoccupied with actually producing work)

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:42:20 +0000

Yea, I agree with that. Only just found out how usefull the patch tool can be.

Rog: I used to use Paint Shop Pro and then I found Photoshop, you will never go back.

By: Rog.

Rog. — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:36:13 +0000

These tools look pretty much identical to the ones in Paint Shop Pro (or at least to the ancient version I’m using) – thanks for the paragraph on ‘channels’, it prompted me to delve a bit deeper, with the result that I’ve found a way to change the colour of very glossy surfaces which has eluded me for some time. Cheers!

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:54:57 +0000

Tom, I have owned Photoshop since 4.0 and still keep finding new buttons to press! Then there are the tools I discovered only to forget completely for a year or two and then rediscover.

By: bse

bse — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:41:26 +0000

This is really good. I use all of these except for Unsharp Mask which I have never figured out. I think I’ll have another go at it now. Also I’m gonna email this link to a few people who have just bought digital cameras. A nice public service, thanks.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 07:43:32 +0000

The way I learned Photoshop it by pressing every button to see what did what, so if you don’t what something does experiment!

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:54:39 +0000

The book Paul lent me was Photoshop for Photographers which is very good but I got really frustrated with it because it assumes a lot of knowledge. It’s pretty much a professional guide which is great if you’re a professional…

That said, I did get the “BW using Channel Mixer” tip from there so credit where credit is due.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:58:37 +0000

There are two ways to learn Photoshop – your way and the “go to school, read 100 books and get a diploma” way. Personally I have always prefered your approach but there are one or two books that merit consideration. The one I think I loaned you with the CD of Quicktime movies is certainly worth the effort.

Another alternative is the series of free Photoshop TV podcasts (available on iTunes). However there is far more geeky crap on these shows than can possibly justify the broadband space for downloading them. I think you have to be really bored with life to watch one!

By: Reinder

Reinder — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:47:09 +0000

Nice! I’m preparing a tutorial that I’ll probably post tomorrow, with things I learned literally in the past week, aimed at cartoonists (the correct way to set up layers for colouring, how to automate that, and why the “All Layers” option is misnamed in a way that costs cartoonists who don’t realise it is misnamed hundreds of hours of lost productivity a year)