My first Photoshop Edit

So I finally went out and bought a copy of Adobe Photoshop. I've never done any graphic editing before. I was wondering if anyone had any tips they wanted to share about how to make amazing images. Here is my first attempt.

a reply to: ChefSlug

Mostly you play around with it until you figure it all out. It is pretty in depth to create some of the more intricate things, but if you click on my signature (my signature is a hyperlink) we make avatars for people in that thread - for me, and others, this gives us tons of practice with Photoshop, and the longer you work at it, the better you get!

As you work on stuff, just ask questions when you get stumped in that thread, and everyone is happy to help you and answer questions and give you tips as you go!

a reply to: ChefSlug

I've been a Photoshop user for over 15 years now and I still discover new ways of doing things. I agree with OpinionatedB that the best way to learn is to use it often. Create projects for yourself. Look up the hundreds if not thousands of free tutorials online. I'm sure your local library would have a few tutorial books as well. Most importantly, have fun with it. Photoshop is a wonderful tool.

I haven't bought Photoshop, but I like playing with GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). It does the same thing, but the only way you can learn is by experimenting, playing with all the different controls - lassoo selection and color balance to colorize a black/white picture, airbrush and blur filters to fix small defects. Then there are all those amazing plugins that you can use to automatically fill in holes or remove unwanted objects from a scene.

You can go to any railway or airport magazine shop and there will be tech magazines for Photoshop users, along with the "What Android?" or "Which Smartphone?" "Synthesizer monthly" or "Which Linux?" magazines.

a reply to: ChefSlug

You will never learn just by playing in the program. Google some tutorials about Photoshop basics and start from there. Look up Photoshop Effects tutorials and play around. You will learn to do some great things, but it takes time and it takes practice or else you'll forget everything you "learned" from tutorials.

Also, it's fun to find some contest websites and just play around--they give you a goal image to create and you do it the best way you can. I used to play around at worth1000.com, but outgrew it many years ago.

I'm a graphic designer and use Photoshop generally on a daily basis, and I STILL have tons to learn--been doing it for 12 years now.

Good luck! And always, always, always pay attention to details--missing details, especially with lighting, will kill an otherwise good image.