Photoshop (7) tutorials for beginners

These tutorials are merely the way I do things, many people will have found better, simpler, quicker (or all three) ways of doing things so just treat these as a starting point. The effects shown are generally highly exaggerated to show what happens more clearly. In real life be more subtle for better effects.

Before you start buy a graphics tablet

Hardware tutorials

Tutorial

Description

Further information

Scanning

Why do my scans look terrible Resolution & descreening

scantips.com

Basic Colour

Why can't I print red ...or ... green ... or ... blue...

Colour matching

You want your prints to look vaguely like the superb image you have just created on screen - Oh Boy - Things don't get much more complex and you really need (expensive) additional hardware. Oh and even then they never will.

Setting up colour management

mac world

Photoshop tutorials

Tutorial	Description	Further information
Basic image enhancement	What to do to EVERY image you use (levels and curves)
Basic layers	Without multiple layers you will get nowhere.	Layers primer photoshopcafe.com web reference.com Basic layers graphicsoft.about.com
Layer masks	Hiding parts of an image
Layer blending modes	Which are the useful layer modes, and what do they do.
Feathering	Fading out an image
Creating backgrounds	Fuzzy backgrounds and starfields.	Quantum petshop
Extracting images from a background	The Colour range, extract and background eraser tools, using channels.
Spine spanning images	Create an image to go across several box sets
Making text readable	Text against a non-uniform background can be very hard to read,
Sharpening	You need to sharpen images before you print them	Creative pro Two pass sharpening Everything you wanted to know

Shortcuts and quick tips	How to do things quicker	General tips

Hardware

If you are at all serious about working with images on a computer there are a few basic points about the hardware set up to get right.

Monitor	Get the largest and best you can afford, you will spend a long time staring at it
	Screen resolution depends upon the size but choose a high refresh rate prefereably at least 80Hz
LCD vs CRT		LCD	CRT
	Space	LCDs are much smaller
	Price		Cheaper
	Colour reproduction		More accurate
	Angle of view	Colours change drastically with a slight vertical angle change	Consistent from all angles
Input	Buy a graphics tablet, it is much easier to draw with a pen than a mouse (A6 is large enough for most people)
Hard drives	Get a second hard drive (you will probably need it for images anyway), and put the photoshop cache on this drive.
Processor	Photoshop eats processing power for breakfast