It’s easy to find Adobe Photoshop tutorials. A simple Google search turns up millions of results. The harder part is trying to decide which of these millions of Photoshop tutorials to start with. This article is designed to help guide you through this mass of information by giving you tips for how to find easy Photoshop tutorials and, equally importantly, how to make the best use of what you find. At the end of the article you’ll find links to detailed Photoshop tutorials designed for beginners.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

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1. Consider Learning a Simpler Program First

Many Photoshop tools and commands are also common to other graphics editing programs. Popular programs which share features with Photoshop include PHOTO-PAINT component of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Corel’s PaintShop Pro, Microsoft Paint, and the freeware programs GIMP and Paint.NET.

Among these, Paint is the simplest program and the easiest to learn, and comes preinstalled on computers with Windows. If you’re a beginner to graphics editing, you may find it easier to learn Paint first and then build on your Paint skills by learning Photoshop.

(Incidentally, if you’re having trouble finding a Photoshop tutorial dealing with the subject you’re interested in, you can often find relevant information by looking up tutorials on how to perform the task in question in these other programs.)

2. Know Which Version of Photoshop You’re Using

There have been twelve different major releases of Photoshop so far, some bundled with other programs like Adobe Creative Suite. Fortunately, the essentials of Photoshop remain reasonably similar from one upgrade to the next, but there are some features unique to each upgrade. Because of this, before looking up tutorials, it’s a good idea to know which version you’re using.

In Windows, you can find this information by going under the Help menu and looking at the About Photoshop submenu. On a Mac, you can select Photoshop from the top menu and look under About Photoshop. On both a PC and a Mac, this information may also be displayed when you first open Photoshop, unless this option has been disabled.

3. Look for Tutorials with Screenshots or Videos

Due to the graphic nature of Photoshop, you will find it easiest to follow tutorials with screenshots or videos. You can find these by limiting your searches to image and video results. In Google, you can do this by selecting the Images or Videos tab when you type in a search phrase. You can also go straight to a video site like YouTube and search there.

With these tips on tutorial hunting in mind, what tutorials should you look for? The next six tips lay out a step-by-step sequence for learning Photoshop. These tips give you a preview of what you can learn in more detail by experimenting with Photoshop and looking up tutorials on the subjects discussed.

4. Learn How to Navigate First

Learning to navigate is one of the first steps to learning any computer program. There are five keys to navigation in Photoshop. Working from the top to the bottom of the page and from left to right, they are:

1. The menu bar
2. The options bar
3. The toolbox
4. The palettes
5. The status bar

The menu bar appears at the top of the page. It includes nine menus with the following functions:

1. File: For operations on files, such as creating files, finding and opening files, viewing information about files, saving files, importing and exporting files, and printing files.
2. Edit: For undoing and redoing actions, cutting and copying and pasting images, performing other manipulations on images, editing text, and managing shortcuts and preferences.
3. Image: For setting image mode, correcting image color and tone, adjusting image and canvas size, adjusting image resolution.
4. Layer: For creating and editing layers.
5. Select: For selecting images and layers and colors, editing selections, and loading and saving selections.
6. Filter: For applying special effects to images, such as blurring and sharpening.
7. View: For adjusting the look of your document when you’re viewing it on your screen and previewing how it will appear when printed.
8. Window: For viewing palettes, adjusting your workspace environment, and viewing multiple documents.
9. Help: For getting answers to frequently asked questions, registration information, and updates.

The options bar appears below the menu bar. It gives you quick access to settings for the tool you’re currently working with.

The toolbox appears on the left side of the screen. It provides a graphic button interface with tools for performing various operations on images and layers, such as selecting, moving, copying, drawing, erasing, coloring, editing, and adding text.

The palettes appear on the right side of the screen. They serve as quick-reference dialog boxes allowing you to access navigational view, document information, tool options, colors, editorial history, layers, channels, and paths.

The status bar appears at the bottom of the document window. It allows you to see the current magnification level of your view and to zoom in and out. It also displays other basic information, such as your document’s size or instructions for the tool you are currently using.

If you use a sample file to familiarize yourself with each of these features, it will go a long way towards building your basic Photoshop navigational skills.

5. Learn How to Manage Documents and Images Next

After you’ve gotten comfortable with Photoshop’s basic navigational features, the next step is to learn the basics of how to manage documents and images. Create a sample file and image by copying a photo or using Photoshop’s drawing tools to practice skills such as:

• Saving your file
• Using the duplicate command to save a copy of your image as a new file
• Using your Edit menu and History palette to review, undo, and restore changes to your file
• Using the Navigator palette and hand tool to manipulate your view of your image
• Using the new window command to view the same image in a new window from a different viewpoint
• Adjusting your image’s size and resolution
• Adjusting your canvas size
• Cropping your image

6. Learn How to Work with Colors

Once you’re accustomed to working with images, you can begin working with colors for your images. Basic Photoshop color skills include learning about:

• Basic color terminology, like color wheels, RGB, hue, saturation, and brightness
• The difference between color modes
• How to use the color picker tool to select and adjust colors
• How to use the color and swatch palettes to choose and customize colors
• How to use the eyedropper tool to select a color or see a color’s properties in your Navigator palette’s Info tab

7. Learn How to Use Selection Tools and Masks

The next essential skill to learn is how to use selection tools and masks. Photoshop selection skills you should learn include:

• Using the marquee selection tools in your toolbox, which enable you to select rectangles, ellipses, and rows and columns 1 pixel wide
• Using the lasso selection tool, which allows you to make freehand selections
• Using the magic wand selection tool, which lets you to make selections by color
• Editing selections
• Using masks of non-selected areas to work with selections
• Using channels to work with selections and masks

For maximum convenience, you should learn how to use selection tools both through the toolbox interface and through keyboard shortcuts.

8. Learn How to Work with Layers

After learning to work with image colors and selections, you can expand your horizons by learning to work with multiple layers of images. Layers work similar to the way transparencies are used in animation to keep the background the same while changing the foreground image. Photoshop layers enable you to keep your original image intact while making editorial changes on an independent level which you can then keep or discard. This lets you create a number of effects that would be difficult or impossible to achieve on one layer.

Learning to use layers includes learning how to:

• Create layers
• Copy layers
• Select layers to move from one to another
• Delete layers
• Change the order of layers
• Adjust the opacity of layers
• Hide layers to make them transparent
• Mask layers to make partial areas of layers transparent
• Move and transform layers
• Link layers and perform operations on multiple layers

9. Learn How to Use Painting Tools

Once you know how to work with layers, you’re in a position to get the most out of Photoshop’s painting tools. With Photoshop’s painting tools you can decorate your canvas by:

• Drawing with a variety of tools, including a pencil, paintbrush, and airbrush
• Drawing straight lines and arrows with the line tool
• Drawing curves
• Adjusting the thickness, pressure, spacing, and opacity of lines with the brush palette and fade command
• Using the paint bucket tool to fill areas with solid colors and patterns
• Using the gradient tool to create a series of adjacent colors where one gradually fades into the other
• Using the pattern stamp tool to paint in patterns
• Erasing areas and selections

10. Learn How to Use Retouching Tools

After you’ve created or edited an image, Photoshop lets you refine it with a variety of retouching tools. These tools allow you to:

• Copy desired areas to blot out blemishes using the clone stamp tool
• Blur out unwanted details
• Sharpen contrast to highlight areas
• Smudge adjacent pixels
• Lighten, darken, or saturate a region with the dodge, burn, and sponge tools

For More Information

Using this guide as a curriculum, you can delve into the details of Photoshop by looking up tutorials on specific subjects.

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