Advice to beginners

[Krossinc]

Although I have dabbled in Adobe Photoshop for many years, I am by far a beginner. I have made a few interesting pieces, but nothing that could be considered 'very good.' I'd like to know what advice you have to one who's looking to advance his photoshop knowledge. Yes, I've been going through tutorials but where do you think is the biggest step in extending your knowledge. From making cheesy looking graphics to some of the pretty well-done sigs you guys have. Also, are you more creating things from scratch or just advanced photo editing? I'm new to the site, so feel free to yell at my if I said anything stupid. :blush:

[Krossinc]

Here's a few examples of about what level I'm at ...feel free to say whats good and bad about them. If I don't know what's bad, i don't know what to fix :lol:

[OneBoredColeman]

Experimenting! Wheee! (That's the best thing you can do to learn the program.)
I'm more into photo editting because it's usually fairly easy, but when I make original images, I like to use Adobe Illustrator. I don't go for realism because it just isn't happening. :p

[Krossinc]

Experimenting! Wheee! (That's the best thing you can do to learn the program.)
I'm more into photo editting because it's usually fairly easy, but when I make original images, I like to use Adobe Illustrator. I don't go for realism because it just isn't happening. :p

For the most part I like to create original pieces because I do not take my own pictures and I want it all to be my own work. Just ran the length of my experiments ...help, lol.

[OneBoredColeman]

I know, that's what I'm talking about. Really, just experiment some more. There's always new things to try or room to improve on things you've already tried.

[Snowi]

Although I have dabbled in Adobe Photoshop for many years

Wtf? Many years? And all I see are these tutorial render stuff? o_O
I started last summer break, so i dont even have a year of experience.
You should try www.tutorialman.com and try to get hold of some *real* tutorials, where you acctually brush and smudge. These standard filter thingies are so obvious

Damn... there are 1 or 2 nice things that I acctually had to think what you did, but its pretty obvious, the warriors of azeroth is by far the best and if you continue with that quality you'll end up right

Anyway, I do everything, I can make 3D abstract, I can paint abit (tho i must say i really suck <_<), I can photomanipulate, and I ussually work from scratch

[Take This Dream]

although I've dabbled in photoshop since its creation, spending countless hours upon hours fine tuning my skills with every feature in the program, I do consider myself a beginner. on another note I'd like to see hyenas fight against baboons.

[Krossinc]

Wtf? Many years? And all I see are these tutorial render stuff? o_O
I started last summer break, so i dont even have a year of experience.
You should try www.tutorialman.com and try to get hold of some *real* tutorials, where you acctually brush and smudge. These standard filter thingies are so obvious

Damn... there are 1 or 2 nice things that I acctually had to think what you did, but its pretty obvious, the warriors of azeroth is by far the best and if you continue with that quality you'll end up right

Anyway, I do everything, I can make 3D abstract, I can paint abit (tho i must say i really suck <_<), I can photomanipulate, and I ussually work from scratch

Nothing like constructive criticism to get someone going... or you can be mean, lol :sadwalk:

That's why I said dabbled, I've never had the reasoning to go through and learn great amounts of photoshop, til' now..
Will check out the site.

[Snowi]

Dont be sad lad, but a few years o_O
Cant take critisism from people who dont know what they say either <_<

Anyway, to become good you must practice alot. There is no such thing as "ohhh well it will come within a few days"

There are a few sites to get your thing going, www.deviantart.com www.tutorialman.com www.shiver7.com www.good-tutorials.com
Especially DeviantArt, lots of artists there, also alot of tutorials, get ideas, get to know what you like, get to know how to, and master it, thats the way to become good. There is no other way ^_^

Cheer up, if you want to become good, then you should atleast be busy with photoshop for about an hour a day

[Krossinc]

Just a quick question out - on extract, when you've gone through and completely cut out the object - what causes smudges to appear all around the object?

[Snowi]

I dont know what you mean?

[Krossinc]

Okay...on the last 3-4 images I've been working on, I used the extract tool to cut them out of the background. However, where the background used to be there's a lot of smudges/unwanted marks. I then have to spend another few mins trying to erase all the marks it left...I was just wondering what's causing them

[OneBoredColeman]

That's how the tool works. Those aren't smudges, they're opaque (partially visible) copies of the picture before. The program reads it as that's part of the picture you wanted saved, and you have to go back through with the history brush and eraser to get rid of it. You can minimize it by using a smaller brush in Extract.

[Snowi]

That's how the tool works. Those aren't smudges, they're opaque (partially visible) copies of the picture before. The program reads it as that's part of the picture you wanted savd, and you have to go back through with the history brush and eraser to get rid of it. You can minimize it by using a smaller brush in Extract.

<3 Luv teh coleman Luv <3