Where/how did you learn your PP technique?

[ag93]

Curious where/how everyone learned how to PP? Something you knew from college, learned from books, classes, or completely self taught?

My PP is very limited, I've only read one book which was helpful but there is so much to absorb.

[TomTomTuning]

I just started with Post processing.... Well with Photography in general.

I picked up 2 bucks and a Dvd so far, and they have helped alot. It has also helped me just familiarize my self with photoshop.

*Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3
*The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers - by Scott Kelby
*Lighting Essentials- 1 & Photoshop DVD Tips/tricks - by Don Giannatti

[joevol]

just get a picture and start playing with it. use the different brush stroke options, adjust colors. just experiment. that's mostly what i did. also learn about using the histogram, that can really help a lot.

[cdifoto]

My PP is more futzing than technique. I do pretty much everything in Lightroom and over time have either downloaded or created presets that do what I like most, then adjust those to fit a photo or series of photos. Being able to copy and paste settings is a real time-saver.

[PixelMagic]

Almost everything I learned about Photoshop I learned it in this forum (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1006); some of the best retouchers around hang out there. After that forum sparked my interest I started reading voraciously and practicing as much as I could.


Curious where/how everyone learned how to PP? Something you knew from college, learned from books, classes, or completely self taught?

My PP is very limited, I've only read one book which was helpful but there is so much to absorb.

[René Damkot]

Learning as I go along. Sometimes I need something, and google for it, or run across something on the web. Sometimes I see something doen, and look how it's done.

I guess that makes me self taught, with help from the web and others. ;)

Started on Photoshop 4.0 back when that was new, and still learning new things :p

[Chet]

Self taught in Paintshop Pro, played a bit in Photshop. Just have to know what your trying to achieve and start playing around. You can take classes but they are more concerned that you've learned the quick keys then the technique. And the techniques shown/taught are the absolute basics!

Your better off finding tips and tricks online, or from this forum.

[cfcRebel]

99% of my PP skills, i picked up from this forum. When people posted "Effective way to adjust jpeg white balance", "Photoshop action for something.....something", or "Free Sharpening Toolkit for Photoshop", i quickly read up and followed the instruction. If i have question, i just replied and asked the original poster. I still do nowadays.

[cosworth]

Kelby's books. True gold. (http://www.scottkelby.com/)

[elTwitcho]

Self taught from a few thousand hours of photoshop experimentation. I think that ultimately "techniques" are monstrously overated as the quality of your end product will be more dependant on your familiarity with whichever technique you chose, not the "effectiveness" of the particular technique. For what it's worth, the most powerful tool I use IMO is the curves tool.

[freebird]

You can buy some great PP books but a really good friend with experience can speed up the learning curve bigtime. Initially I taught myself, picked up alot on this forum, and websites are abundant. Looking back now, I would have absorbed so many more techniques with someone just showing me the basic tools, layers, layer masks , curves. Im not that great at PP but in 2 years Ive come a long way with Photoshop, and its a "HUGE" program.


Chuck

[PhotosGuy]

Mostly self taught, with some help from forums. Almost any technique we need for pics is now in the "Sticky"s, so the road should be a lot easier for the new guys who come along.

[sf1]

Self taught with the help of this forum plus many hours of internet reading. Try going to the competitions forum. In some the the competitions, they post a starting pic then everyone alters the pic, but gives you an overview of what they did, somethimes you can pick up a couple of tips.

[chakalakasp]

Self taught through college, and then I got hired to do color correction for a metro newspaper. Boy was that a crash course. PPing 150+ images every day learns ya quick. I find it weird that after all these years, Photoshop is still pretty much the only horse in town for professional correction.

The biggest key to good post processing has two words: "Adjustment layers".

[Cliff666]

My PP is more futzing than technique. I do pretty much everything in Lightroom and over time have either downloaded or created presets that do what I like most, then adjust those to fit a photo or series of photos. Being able to copy and paste settings is a real time-saver.

u can do that with lightroom(PP newb) where can i find more info on settings and presets like this?

[rammy]

Self taught through the internet. I use to have Paint Shop Pro 5 and upgraded to Photoshop eight years ago and have kept learning since. Still learning :-)

[Ultra]

I've learned a good deal from Scott Kelby books as well and I recently purchased this video tutorial (http://digitalphotoshopretouching.com/). I havent watched it yet so I can say how great it is but the samples seemed worthy so I made the plunge.

[adam8080]

Self taught here. But I learn new techniques and get ideas from different tutorials and pictures I see on the web. I've been using Photoshop for 10 years now and within the past year I've learned the most.

[Damo77]

Funny story ... I'm a prepress tradesman, and I needed to move cities to be closer to my girlfriend (now wife). I applied for jobs anywhere and everywhere, with a resume that included the bold statement "excellent Photoshop skills" (I'd designed a few logos!)

I was lucky enough to get a job at the newspaper in the Enhancing department, and I soon found out how little I knew about Photoshop! Fortunately they were very patient, and I learnt some great basic skills from experienced operators.

Since then I've expanded on those basics through a mix of web tutorials and forums, and good old fashioned trial-and-error. Still learning every day. My wife and I have a weekend photography business, so my time is spent roughly 50/50 between RGB and CMYK.

[figmented]

My wife and I have a weekend photography business, so my time is spent roughly 50/50 between RGB and CMYK.

lol the story of my life.

[ChasP505]

Self taught through books, forums, videos, trial and error. I started out in 1997 using PhotoImpact 4 to prepare real estate photos for the web and printed ads. I later moved to Photoshop 7 (along with other Adobe graphics apps), still working with real estate and appraisal photos primarily taken by other people.

Relatively speaking, I'm only beginning to explore taking my own photos and using my PP skills creatively.

I like most of Scott Kelby's books and I'm working through his 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop book. I also like the videos from the Luminous Landscape website.

[airfrogusmc]

When I worked full time for a hosiptal I took a couple of classes in photoshop which they paid for. I think it was PS4 at the time of my first class. Got some of the basics and picked some more stuff up on my own. Probably going to do a workshop in Feb. Some things I need to get up to speed on. Maybe Lightroom to..

[Bill Boehme]

The School of Hard Knocks -- about a twelve year long self-paced curriculum ... and still don't have a degree! I hear that this institution has since fallen on hard times and we may be forced to take the easy route in the future.