Photoshop: Where do you start?

So I'm able to do XHTML, CSS, PHP (with MySQL) without too many problems, but what I lack is the graphical skills and knowledge of how to design awesome looking websites.

I've had Adobe Photoshop for years, recently bought CS3 (sharing the license with a couple of friends who do digital photo manipulation), but I've never fully used it.

So for all of the graphics designers and web designers out there, how did you start out doing what you do?

A tutorial website perhaps? Or did you learn the skill after years of doing it? Did you start off with a book?

Thanks guys =)

 

Well, when i first started to Learn Illustrator, Which is similar to photoshop.

I Bought a book, taught myself all the basics.

Then the rest is just a result of experimenting and practice.

 

i would recommend a print book to begin so you can get a basic hang of how cs3 works and then move onto the site tutorials to get some experience

then start searching for specific tutorials on what you want to do .

also consider some professional magazines which have a lot of tutorials.

may be worth having a couple of months subscription to get going.

 

back when i started there weren't too many tutorials available but there were a couple. i bought the photoshop 5 wow book and learned a couple things from that and over the years it just evolved to where i am now.

 

I started out with making forum signatures, sounds abit funny when you think of it but it was damn fun, and I learned alot. I used to hang out on sites like gamerenders.com. I also visited many tutorial sites in the beginning.
www.pixel2life.com is to recommend, very nice site.

 

@mitcharr - Is there a major difference between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator? I somehow always thought they were pretty much the same lol (excuse my ignorance). I'll read up more on Adobe Illustrator. Thanks

@turbosatan - Would you know of any good professional magazines to subscribe to?

@ Mooseman, ansi - Thanks for the tips I'll check them all out soon enough.

 

Well, Illustrator IMO is better for design work, but for using real images and photos, then photoshop is for you.

Also illustrator is Vector, meaning it uses less space, and is always perfect quality, you can resize as much as you wish quality will not change. But with photoshop this is harder to achieve perfect quality

 

Wicked, thanks

While we're at it, do you have any recommendations for books about using Adobe Illustrator?

 

just play around with simple things like little kids do with paint. every day or week read a tutorial and try to make your own sig. It will work wonders.

 

Um. I Used Adobe Illustrator For Dummies LOL

 

No worries, i'll try and see if I can find a copy of it

 

Read some tutorials, mess around and you should get used to the controls first.

 

@MichaelS - I think I'm used to the controls. Is there any sites with good tutorials that you would recommend?

 

any free books

 

Could you please recommend some good books on PS CS3 ?

 

I would recommed a decent book so that you can get hold of the basics in a phased manner. Then you can surf the sites and learn few neat tricks!

 

Its a no-brainer but i cannot emphasize enough the importance of joining designer/artist communities which will allow you to learn about the ongoing trends, review artist portfolios, and share tips and techniques.

 

As stupid as this sounds, I actually started designing in Microsoft Publisher!!

I used to hang out at wrestling forums a lot when I was about 14-15; and in those places, your signature was everything... so i'd usually download PSD cuts of wrestlers (where the wrestlers were "cut out" from the background image), slap a pre-made background in there, and then produce text in Publisher using word art, which i'd then copy and paste over!

Gradually though I started exploring the features of Photoshop; starting with the Eye Candy plugin which automatically applied certain effects to text and images. Then i progressed into cutting my own PSD wrestlers; then onto creating my own text effects; then onto backgrounds.

Eventually I wisened up and started checking out tutorial sites; endlessly practicing what I read and learning new tricks. To this day, I still try to keep myself "fresh" by hitting up tutorial sites to see whether there is anything new to learn; and I can spend hours on end just messing around.

So basically, absorb whatever you can from wherever you can (i'd back up the recommendations about joining design communities and checking out good-tutorials.com and pixel2life.com), and spend a lot of time experimenting and just having fun messing around with photoshop.

 

@kingcaw - Haha, Microsoft Publisher.. that's a good one

Cheers for the sites, much appreciation

 

I'm not a graphic designer or anything but I learned (started off) by doing signatures for people for free and making some avatars. Just start off by doing some random tutorials like "fire effects" or something, that way you can just take off in a random place and figure things out....helped me

, Jack.