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If you are a beginner at digital photography and want to learn how to manipulate your images, I recommend you learn PhotoShop. Now, there are plenty of inexpensive PhotoShop clone programs available for download, but that's not what you should be learning. If you are serious about digital photography on any level, you should be learning PhotoShop.
It is the industry standard and one of the most powerful images editing applications known to the industry. Aside from just editing digital photos, PhotoShop can be used to create logos, design affiliate websites, design ebook covers, and design CD covers, convert photos into paintings and much more. If you are not sure about spending $800 on PhotoShop, keep reading this article; you might change your mind.
Back in December of 1982, Adobe Systems Inc. was founded, but probably had no idea of how quickly PhotoShop would become such a popular application. Finally in 1989 when Adobe PhotoShop was launched on the Macintosh, the beginning of a whole new generation of photography was born. PhotoShop has come a long way since version 1.0, and is still being developed and improved every year. It seems that when PhotoShop has reached its perfection, yet another version is released.
Some of the world's best photographers and digital artists use PhotoShop for every masterpiece they create. Some artists have used PhotoShop to make a living, creating stunning pieces of art and selling them for thousands of dollars. Now, you don't have to be an artistic genius to make money with PhotoShop. The good news is, you can use PhotoShop for some of the most basic digital edits and still generate money. It's just a matter of being creative. If you are a Photographer like me, it is essential to use PhotoShop.
Without PhotoShop, you'd never be able to fix an imperfect smile, or correct bad lighting, or swap out heads in a photo. (My favorite thing). Seriously, you can do that! Once I was shooting some infant photos and I had shot several dozen photos of infant twins. I could never get both of them to look perfect at the same moment, so I just got their best expressions from all the photos I shot and then merged them into one photo to make the perfect shot.
Adobe has drastically improved the features and usability in PhotoShop over the years, but for a complete beginner, it can seem overwhelming. So how do you learn PhotoShop? Well, there are dozens of ways to tackle the application, but there is only one way to truly learn anything. Patience and time are the two key elements. Unfortunately, there is no magic method to learning PhotoShop, so it will take time. You can't just plug information into your brain; it's not that simple.
To really learn PhotoShop, you need a step-by-step video PhotoShop Tutorials that will help you every step of the way. Similar to learning in a classroom environment, you'll need an instructor to walk you through the most essential features. Without knowing the most essential features, it's like walking through the dessert with no water and no shelter. You will be lost and completely hopeless. After some time, you will probably give up and quit. PhotoShop is not hard to learn, but you will need instruction and video seems to be the method of choice when it comes to learning PhotoShop.
The main thing to realize is that you CAN learn PhotoShop. It is not so difficult once you learn the basics. Without the basics, you'll be searching the Internet forever trying to find the perfect PhotoShop Tutorials . Youtube and the video sharing sites are loaded with PhotoShop tutorials. Yes, I agree, there are some fabulous tutorials out there, but they are just tidbits of information.
You can watch tutorials all day long and learn small bits of PhotoShop, but you'll still be frustrated at the end of the day because you still don't know where half of the tools and functions are. Doing tutorials are great for experienced users or others who just want to freshen up their skills. To become a PhotoShop Master, you must first learn the basics; such as the menus, tools, layer styles, layer adjustments, filters, adobe bridge and more. Without the basic understanding, you'll only continue to get frustrated. Once you learn everything you need to know about the basics, then you can start watching freer video tutorials. This will help you expand your ability to apply amazing effects and begin to compete with the Pros.
As mentioned previously Digital Photography Pros use PhotoShop, as well as many other programs, but PhotoShop is always the program of choice. If you want to make money with your photos, design beautiful websites and graphics, or create stunning artwork, PhotoShop should be your #1 program of choice.
With patience and good step-by-step instruction, you will learn the application quickly. If you are interested in learning PhotoShop, we recommend you start with a PhotoShop CS3 Tutorial.