Taught myself PS with online tutorials, can do the same stuff with GIMP.
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I used GIMP for a long time. Mainly to make animated gifs. It's a great (free!) program. I finally made the switch to PS because I noticed that the gifs I made looked noticeably better in PS.


I would love to be able to take full advantage of all the things that Photoshop can do, but it's a little intimidating. You not only need to learn how to use the program, but I think it would be very useful to have some knowledge of art, too. I learned really fast that I had a lot to learn after agreeing to make an avatar for a guy. I spent three fucking hours trying to draw a cartoon eyeball that didn't come out looking like it belonged on Marty Feldman.
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I had some classes in a classroom, but they weren't that good even though I got through what they considered advanced for back then in the mid 90's.

Where I really made my best headway was using Deke McClelland's Photoshop One-on-One but since CS6 he hasn't put those out anymore. They are excellent because I think they explain better than just a tutorial as you work through simple to complex projects. I use Lynda which is now via Linkedin for updates. Deke is on there as he is with other people. He is one of the best but he can get too complicated sometimes.

The program has changed dramatically. Some things are easier like cut-outs. I kinda resent that after all the blood-sweat and tears of using things like calculations and channels when you need to get things like hair of fur selected naturally and getting good at those or the pen tool, only to see AI make amatuers look like pros. It is what it is.
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It helps to know photography. It uses old light room photography terms. I remember being in class, seeing those who did not attend art school with some elective photography classes be completely lost at times.

The program is deep, to learn all of what it can do could possibly take 4 years. Different professional jobs have different things they use it for. Well now they have Lightroom for photographers.

I often mix Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop with each other as a graphic designer and illustrator. But I usually start off with a small hand sketch or sometimes larger. My degree is in Illustration but I have had graphic design courses mixed in for electives and as part of the BFA degree program.

You might take some composition courses, intro graphic design courses and typography courses on Linkedin. It will help you immensely.
I've taught various graphic design courses from intro, to corporate graphics, to digital illustration, advertising and typography. You can spot an amateur just by seeing how they use type.
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Yeah, I think that would be the best way to do it. All I mess around with is animated gifs and simple composites, but every step of the process is a huge struggle of trial and error. I know that there are a lot of things that I don't know about PS, but the biggest problem is the things that I don't know that I don't know about.

There needs to be an 80s action movie montage of someone training how to use that thing.
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Self taught. Did some Linda classes and then tried to follow a bunch of online tutorials that were specific to what I was trying to do. Can do what I need to get done now.

This is a pretty awesome website that offers a free online version of a photoshop look-alike.

https://www.photopea.com/
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This is about the cheapest Photoshop course I know of. For one year it's only $99. Don't know about you but I think that's cheap compared to what I paid for just learning levels from beginner to advanced years ago. He's pretty good. I learned some updates from him. I would imagine he teaches the pen tool. It is indispensable. ( as well as masks) He has some free ones on You Tube.

https://phlearn.com


It's intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it, it's easy and very powerful for good clean selections. I learned it in Illustrator first and I use it a lot in Illustrator for vectors because it makes really smooth curves. It helps having someone guide you in person at first, because they can tell you which way to pull the handles. But there's some You Tube videos on it you can follow.


Funny but I have gimp and never really got the hang of it but I didn't play with it very long.
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Took a class for the basics then mostly self-taught. I use it process landscape and nature photos.
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The best teacher is honestly just making stuff you like and Youtubing how to get a lot of it done. So much stuff is free and out there thanks to YouTube. Learning from hands on experience is hard to replicate.
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A lot of this. When I want to learn a new piece, I just start something.
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Check out this shit I made on my own in Photoshop. It's badass.
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My sister teaches a class at a major university and has tried to show me several times. I used some of her lesson plans but I just never have had the need to get really involved in most of it. Once I started using Lightroom, I only crank up PS for a few things.
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Rasputin, you are not.
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Not enough theory to be able to think with the program on your own long-term. Good for a quick-start.
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