I'm a new user seeking a thread on tutorials to start learning from scratch

[I Shouldntadunthat]

I stumbled on this site by typing Photoshop and Tutorials into google and find the wealth of information here is fantastic, but I must say that I am overwhelmed with the amount of resources and I hope someone can steer me to a good place to begin.

I have been an amateur photographer for 30 years, primarily shooting powder hound back country skiers, mountain and desert scenery as well as wildland fauna and flora. I am currently residing in Asia. Although I have two thousand digital photos from the last three years, the majority of my photos are stored as slides that I intend to digitize a portion of, and afterward manipulate with Photoshop. I am also an oil painter and have tweaked some digitized versions of my paintings in addition to altering a few of my digital nature photos with GraphicConverter, which came free with my Macintosh. GraphicConverter is an amazingly powerful photo manipulator, consdiering the price as it can be bought separately for $30 , but learning everything that it can do will be redundant if I also learn Photoshop, so I have decided to learn just one from this point on, and that will be Photoshop CS at least for now.

I had such a blast with the outcome produced with GraphicConverter, but found little supportive literature and also it is obvious that the more in depth top of the line manipulator is Photoshop.

I bought Photoshop CS three months ago and and have barely touched it, it jsut seems woefully complicated so now I am seeking to dig into some turtorials as a starting place tsystematically to get REALLY into it.

I bought two books after reading online reviews here and there, and came up with Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby and also Adobe Photoshop CS one-on-one, by Deke McClelland, which comes with an interactive video on CD Rom.

I have just begun the first unit in Deke McClellan's book, but I want to supplement the lessons with some additional lessons . A few months back I came across a web forum where more than one member recommended a large set of video tutorials on a set CD Roms that cost $50 all toll, and I failed to bookmark that site and can no longer recall who offered it. I see that The book I bought includes two hours of Total Training but to purchase the entire program costs somewhere near $300, which is a way bit rich for me.

I also see that this site and many others offer a myriad of tutorials free, as well as particular threads on hundreds of individual techniques, but I just can not pick and choose which tutorial is best to begin with, and that is why I seek an organized hierarchical set to begin with.

If anyone can suggest a good way to begin, or point me to a thread here that already discusses this topic, I'd appreciate it. I'd also be grateful to hear how you went about your first steps with photoshop.

If you are familiar with the books I bought and think that they are sufficient for me then please let me know. Like I said, I do not mind spending a LITTLE more money, if it will help but I am hoping to avoid the most famous, expensive tutorials I have seen advertised online. Now I'd better cut my verbosity and stop procrastinating, and get back to the One on One text.

Thanks.

 

[Sean]

First off, welcome to the forums I Shouldntadunthat! 8))

What I think you need is a basic understanding of Photoshop before you get going onto some tutorials. Having a basic knowledge of PS, it's tools, layers, effects, and how to use the program, you will be able to extract more from a particulare tutorial then would having no prior knowledge of the app.
As far as books, or videos on learning PS, I don't have any suggestions at the moment. I basicly taught myself Photoshop and then gleened off all the tuts I could get my hands on. Since you live in Asia, then I'm not sure you can stroll down to nearest Borders, or book shop and find a book on PS. So, maybe some other members here can point you to the right source for that kind of learning material.
I just wanted to say that getting into some tutorials without knowing how to use PS is almost pointless, if not difficult. I seen alot of people some here asking how to do someting when they havn't a clue how to use Photoshop.
Anyway, I hope you find what your looking for.