learning photoshop the next step?

So right now I am shooting in raw and using aperture on Mac to edit my photos. I like my results but feel like I could do better/ am limiting my post production wow factor by not learning Photoshop.

I am thinking of getting the creative cloud package and teaching it to myself using several books I have found. Mainly Photoshop for photographer's. I travel a lot witch limits my WiFi but I have down time and a good laptop so I'll have time to work at it.

I want to get into shooting more fashion and studio inspired stuff and most of the books I'm reading go into Photoshop and retouching. Right now I am still at an ameture level but trying to work my way up to a point where I could see myself doing this and charging for it.

Thanks for any tips or advice on where I should go from here. That is really my main question.

Id Start with PHLEARN on Youtube and Phlearn.com for good free stuff. Lynda has some good stuff if you want to pay. Learn your PS tools and what they do. Learn one thing at a time. You'll never learn it all, so dont try to learn all at once.

kjonnnn wrote in post #17359267
Id Start with PHLEARN on Youtube and Phlearn.com for good free stuff. Lynda has some good stuff if you want to pay. Learn your PS tools and what they do. Learn one thing at a time. You'll never learn it all, so dont try to learn all at once.

Agreed.. Aaron @ Phlearn is a cool guy and they offer a lot of great free videos.

As kjonnnn suggested, you need to learn it piece by piece.. figure out what you want to do to an particular image (i.e. convert to BW, or remove a tree from the background, etc..) and learn that. Then learn something else small, and then something else, etc.. If you go in trying to 'learn photoshop' it will be an exercise in futility.

I've been using Photoshop since the mid 90's and I probably only know 60% of the program. There's just so much to the entire program, and it changes quite frequently.

Well that's the thing I won't have access to YouTube. I know that's the common method for teaching yourself. And yes I realize how fast of a program it is. And I don't mean to come off like I can master the program over night. I mostly just wanted to gauge some responses on would this be the next step in my post routine? I know this is hard to gauge without some examples of my photos which I can't post because I'm working off my phone.


Okay let me rephrase, to get to the "next level" ie paid work, establishing a portforlio that looks polished, getting more wow factor from my photos, would I be better off learning some of the Photoshop tools which will give me some pop and do most people use it?

Kingofdust wrote in post #17359362
Well that's the thing I won't have access to YouTube. I know that's the common method for teaching yourself. And yes I realize how fast of a program it is. And I don't mean to come off like I can master the program over night. I mostly just wanted to gauge some responses on would this be the next step in my post routine? I know this is hard to gauge without some examples of my photos which I can't post because I'm working off my phone.


Okay let me rephrase, to get to the "next level" ie paid work, establishing a portforlio that looks polished, getting more wow factor from my photos, would I be better off learning some of the Photoshop tools which will give me some pop and do most people use it?

YouTube will, indeed, require an enormous amount of time to wade through all all the "stuff" in photoshop, more than you will need.

I'd advise subscribing to Lynda, either via inline subscribed videos or DVDs. Take the time and it will pay off!!

Kingofdust wrote in post #17359362
. . . Okay let me rephrase, to get to the "next level" ie paid work, establishing a portforlio that looks polished, getting more wow factor from my photos, would I be better off learning some of the Photoshop tools which will give me some pop and do most people use it?

I think it depends on your present strengths. Some shooters produce great work with any old editor they have stumbled upon. Others of us benefit from all the pixel bending they can get. With my fairly advanced PS skills I only rarely produce work of the highest quality because my shots are only rarely great.

You might want to throw the RAW file of one of your shots you think could look better on a server if only processed well and invite people here to play with it. The results could give you some information on whether it's worth spending the time and money on PS.

I haven't used it but the biggest bang for your buck would be Lynda.com. It's $25/month but there is a free trial period which would allow you to learn as much as you can in a short amount of time.
Another option would be CreativeLive which offers free courses when they're live and then charges ~$99 (depending on length of course) afterwards.

The thing to do is focus on the things that you want to improve your photos on. then learn those skills. IE.: Skin smoothing, spot removal, teeth whitening, etc... It's almost impossibel to learn it all, just learn what will help you.

Adobe TV http://tv.adobe.com/sh​ow/learn-photoshop-cc/ is worth a look

I think learning Photoshop is a must to get to the next level, because as fantastic as Lightroom is, there are times when you need Photoshop for some advanced edits. The other posters are right when they say that you need to focus on the things that will improve your photos vs Photoshop's myriad of other tools and features.

Since you will have limited wifi access, I can recommend a book by Scott Kelby that will help: "Photoshop for Lightroom Users" - from the book: "You don’t need to learn all of Photoshop’s tools, or its filters, or all the layer blend modes, or panels, because in reality, you’re just going to need a handful of these, and Scott tells you flat-out which tools to use, which techniques work best, which ones to avoid, and why. You only really need about 20% of what Photoshop can do, and that 20% is all covered right in this book."

Also for learning specific things in Photoshop, the website photoshopessentials.co​m is a great tutorial resource (for when you have wifi.)

just as a side note, if you're out of range for wifi but have a smart phone and good data plan, you can use your phone as a hotspot to create your own little wifi where ever you are - if still withing cellphone reach - and get youtube etc that way.

If that's not an option, Photoshop for Photographers by Martin Evening is great, also Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4 is good, don't know if there's an update to LR 5 and PS CC, but I doubt it would matter much. I also have a couple of the small Focus Guide books for photoshop, 101 top photo fixes, creative photo effects, etc. Those are small and light and come with a CD too. I think I bought them off the magazine rack at B&N but maybe you can find those online.

There are also ways to save youtube etc onto your computer to view offline, google for more info on that.