What order to study to learn Photoshop Elements?

[Richard F Dillon]

Folks, having recently purchased Elements 2.0, and finding it kind of overwhelming, I was wondering if anyone had a list of topics with some order that I should study first. You know,one has got to crawl before walking and running! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, TIA, R. Dillon, [email]rfdillon@hal-pc.org[/email].

[Beth Haney]

How do you learn best, Richard? There are a lot of good books out now for Elements, there are online tutorials, great internet sites with helpful information, and some forum regulars are taking internet classes in digital editing.

This site of Jay Arraich's has some good information on Elements that can get you started.

<http://www.arraich.com/elements/psE_intro.htm>

Or, this is a favorite book of a lot of people who are regulars on the forum.

50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques by Gregory Georges
<http://www.reallyusefulpage.com/50techniques/index.shtml>

In answer to your specific question, getting a handle on the various image formats and learning about image resolution would be two very basic things to do before going very far. Also, will you be using Elements to touch up and print pictures from a digital camera, or will you be scanning old pictures? Formats and resolution apply to either, but if you'll be focusing more on one source of images than another, then we can give you more helpful advice and resources.

Other people will be along shortly to add their .02!

And please use the forum for lots of questions! Many of us started out staring at the Elements screen and feeling overwhelmed, too, so we encourage new users to hang out and ask questions.

[Kenneth Liffmann]

Richard
I found the book by Mikkel Aaland, "Photoshop Elements Solutions," to be invaluable to me when I started out and I still refer to it periodically. The author takes you through the process step by step, showing what the tools can do and building on this. I went through the book chapter by chapter, took notes, underlined text, and tried it out.
I also have the Georges book referred to by Beth, but for an initial manual I think that the Aaland book is the one of choice. The people participating in this forum are most helpful, and when a good technique comes along I print it and insert the page in to a 3-ring binder - sort of my own manual.
Good luck and I hope that you will have as much fun with this program as I have.
Ken

[Chris Rankin]

Richard,
As mentioned above there are plenty of good books out there and many fine tutorials on the 'net. That being said, there's nothing like just playing with the program and seeing what it will do. Sometimes the books and tutorials can be confusing if you don't really have a feel for what the differant tools can do. Experiment, play with different settings and combinations, try out the filters and effects that come with PE and then go back to the books.But most importantly, never work on the original image - always save your image as a .psd file and work on that. This holds true even after you've mastered the program.

[Cory McNutt]

Richard...there is a GREAT on-line course, "PSE From The Ground Up" at <http://www.eclecticacademy.com>. They are only $20 for a 6 week lesson. It just started this week and I have found it very informative. The books mentioned above are also great. Good luck!

Cory

[Leen Koper]

Richard, everyone is right, but I would add something that was -except for this forum- the best way to master the various techniques.
I found some people that sometimes would look over my shoulder and ask me why I did it that particular way and sometimes showed me how to improve my technique.

I did some seminars on Photoshop, but after 20 minutes I usually had to give up due to an overload of information.
Good friends with the right knowledge and -above all- patience are probably the best way to learn at your own speed.

And sometimes I just ask a dumb question ;-) to my new friends on the forum.

Leen

[Chris Rankin]

Remember, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.