For Christmas I am getting the camera I wanted, the Digital Rebel XT. I have heard from alot of people on here especially the notorious DiD, that photoshopping is where all the "magic" happens. I am a beginner at best. I acquired a copy of Photoshop CS2, and am confused with where I even start. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, hints, or instruction as to how I begin making the "magic" happen with my photos?

Thanks

Chili

 

Scott Kelby's series of excellent books. The full magic of CS2 comes out only when you shoot in RAW.

Check out the Retouching forum on dpreview.com and also Fred Miranda's site.

This link should get you started.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=10629231



HTH

 

This is not a simple question. You jumped into what is probably the most complex graphics program. You could of got elements 3.0 for a fraction of the cost of CS2 but since you got it.

Google for Photoshop tutorials. There are like five million of them. Try some out. The only way to learn on your own is to try out some of the tuturials. As you go along, you will start to understand what is going on.

You might also want to check amazon for "photoshop for dummies" or something like that (yes its a real book). Dont bother with the intermediate or advanced, you got to learn the basics. A couple of good Photoshop books will go a long way to learning ... they are expensive but come with practice CDs

Good Luck and have patience, its highly doubtfuly you'll be come an expert overnight

 

Like others said, its great if you look up a tutorial. The online tutorial provided in the "help" menu in photoshop has great information too. Once you get understand how to use the tools, how to work with levels and other adjustments play with it alot. Take lots of pictures, and then play around with every picture you took. That's how I got started, and I've become pretty efficient at it too. I got a Rebel XT (350D) for my graduation present, I've never put the camera down since then.

Good luck!

 

Well I agree with everyone, it is a hard thing to learn quickly. Tutorials are definately the best free advice you can get. try this link, I ran a search on Deviantart for phpotoshop tutorials, they're written by normal people so sometimes they're bad but sometimes it's "human speak" rather than uber nerd talk and have been quite helpful.

Another good book is the Photoshop bible I have a copy of it and it's pretty easy to follow, all thuogh I've barely cracked it because I'm one of the lucky one's who's "other half" breaths over her shoulder and gives her pointers on occasion...good thing I can do it right back when it comes to nifty ideas
Not ALL the magic happens in photoshop, you need to work on being a good photographer as well. Their are some preset filters which are quick and easy to put effects into your photos but it's obvious to other photoshop users and often just looks silly but they are good to start with just to learn the program.

 

It also helps if you can make a lot happen in-camera . . .

 

I whole heartedly agree.

Garbage in, Garbage out definitely applies to photoshop, even if it is nicer looking garbage.

That said, a large amount of potential is just left on the table if we rely only on in camera processing (speaking digitally here).

As the others have said, tutorials are helpful, especially if there is something specific you're looking to fix or adjust with a particular photo. It's a complicated program, and even now after using it for well over a year i can't say that I have even begun to scratch the surface of it's potential.

 

I would go even further. Photoshop for 99.9% of users not doing commercial use, is a total waste of money. Way to much? $700 or so. I know this is too late for Chili but for others. Go for Uleads photoimpact 9 (or latest leve) or Adobe Elements 3.0. Only about $100 and you can do must of everything photoshop does including using their filters.

 

If you can get Photoshop with educational pricing, then I think it makes sense, but yes, at full pop, the pricing for photoshop is pretty out of hand for most users.

 

Per the site guidelines prohibition of discussions of illegal activity, the posts discussing software piracy have been removed.

 

sorry! But seriously I wasn't describing me. I am a firm believer in PAYING FOR YOUR PROGRAMS.
Back on topic to the topic at hand...
I am going out tonight to Best Buy, Borders, and Barnes & Noble to see if I can find any books on the subject. Everyone says that Photoshop is really in depth and that they haven't even truely broke the surface of it yet. What sorta neat/unexpected stuff can you do with this program? The notorious DiD I think would be the best at telling us about this but if you know something please share it!

Chili

 

DiD is your mini in your signature photoshopped at all? I just am amazed at how clean and clear and smooth and perfect everything is. Nothing at all like my pics!

 

http://www.good-tutorials.com

 

The image in my signature is a smaller version of this image

I shot the image in RAW format, which means that no sharpening, or white balance, or saturation was imprinted on the image and no compression was used. RAW is just that, the information recorded straight off the sensor.

When people say "oh, I just took the photo straight off the camera, there's no photoshop", they seem to imply that nothing has been done. That's not actually the case if you shot jpeg (and it's definitely not the case RAW... I'll get to that in a second).

In the case of any jpeg image, Nikon or Canon or Olympus or Kodak or whoever built your camera dictated how much sharpening there would be, how much color saturation there would be, how the white balance would be, and so forth. A jpeg overlays all of that information and then uses a compression algorithm to shrink the file size. "Straight off the camera" in a jpeg format is really, just the manufacturer's initial take at how an image might be processed, it varies from camera to camera and manufacturer to manufacturer. If you like the way Nikon or Canon processes your photos, do no more, but recognize that straight off the camera doesn't mean it hasn't been played with.

Since I shot the image in RAW format, I had to select the amount of sharpening, white balance, and adjust the exposure, and then could adjust the curves to better fit with the photo I had in my mind at the time it was taken (not some washed out rendition of it).

So, the short answer is yes there was "photoshop" in the sense that there was post processing, but there wasn't anything special necessary for that photo because the base image that was captured was good to begin with (something Juan alluded to earlier).


I'm not the best on this forum by any stretch of the imagination, look at Tuls, Emis, Juan, Scooby, (to name a few, not an inclusive list by any means). They all have fantastic skills in this area. We all have a personal style that shows through in our image processing, because while we may use some of the same tools, we adjust things differently and use different tools than others may to produce different effects.

My best advice would be to play around with the following:
1) Levels
2) Levels
3) Levels

That's where i would focus my attention first.

 

Thanks. I knew about this RAW format. I didn't think it was that simple though. I check out their galleries, but I really like your work, DiD, I have yet to find a setting in SB, IN that is anywhere that beautiful.

 

I just visited Juan's site. . I so wish I could take shots like that. Where do you get your ideas/where do you come up with such good subjects and spots to shoot?

 

David's done a terrific job of describing what goes on during a JPEG conversion and the benefits of shooting RAW. I definitely prefer shooting RAW, when I can. When I'm shooting hundreds of images at a race it's often not really practical so instead I shoot in the highest quality JPEG mode with no sharpening and in Adobe RGB colorspace, then I do my levels and curves work, edge sharpening, etc. later. What I don't do is things like paste in different skys, a second sun, remove objects I don't like, put person A's head on person B's body, and so on and I suppose that's what people usually mean when they claim they don't use Photoshop.

Definitely start with understanding histograms and working with levels, then move on to curves and working with the tools that allow you to selectively manipulate parts of images.

I like Martin Evening's Adobe Photoshop for Photographers. Photoshop's a huge program and a lot of it is features intended more for graphic designers. Evening covers the subset most useful to photographers and does a very good job of it, IMO.

Mark

 

I'll second what David and MarkS have to say. I've been using Photoshop since 1991 and I've probably got most of it down pretty well (although I do learn something new about it all of the time - especially the new PSCS2). I've been shooting pictures on a semi-pro level for about 30 years. I can't even begin to add up all the money I've spent on cameras, lenses, and other equipment. But I know it's a lot. The equipment does not make you a good photographer - composition, learning how to light a subject, and then getting in the camera what your eyes/mind see is the key IMHO.

Chili, I think your best bet is to acquire PS Elements - this will give you all of what you will probably need for quite some time to process your photos. Then you will deal with how to get that "perfect" photo onto paper - which is another entirely different subject! What printer, what papers, what inks, etc. etc. (Unless you take the image to a photo lab for printing).

My mantra would be this: practice, practice, practice! Practice using the histograms, levels and curves as MarkS says. Practice will make your efforts pay off. I would also recommend spending a LOT of time with your camera (get to know how it works and what it delivers under varying circumstances), composing and experimenting with light sources. Scene composition will come in time. Only practicing this will produce better and better shots. Once you have learned what your eyes see and what you capture with the camera, then using a photo manipulation program will pay off.

I also have books and books about PS and I can say without a doubt that these two books are the best..."Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers" by Martin Evening and "The Photoshop CS2 Book" by Scott Kelby.

Good luck and happy shooting!

 

Do a search online or in PCworld. there are a lot of camera software "upgrades" that give your camera some features that only the top model(s) have.

 

For the average user Photoshop is overkill. Elements is so much easier to use. That being said, it is still the person with the camera that makes the picture. In my case I'm one of those photographers that just has no perspective/imagination/artistic ability whatever you want to call it. Anything that I take that is good enough to hang on a wall is gotten by taking a zillion shots and SOMETHING comes out good!!! Digital was a boon for people like me that couldn't ever afford to use that much film. All that being said it doesn't keep me from trying!!!

 

http://www.accessphoto.com/

In the Post Processing Section has good tutorials and they are easy to follow...