Confused? What next?

[SolidBrowser]

Hi, I am very confused at where I am at with Photography and Photoshop. I am 15 and want to have a job where I am taking photos and photoshoping them. I have been taking photos and photoshoping since I was about 12 and I have a Sony Alpha SLT A55V and Adobe Photoshop Elements 10. I have taken a basic photoshop/photography class in school and some on YouTube. I want to be really good at it ! Anyways, I was wondering if you guys could give you some advice on my pathway and helpme by maybe suggesting things or maybe I should take more courses or I am doing well and where I should go from here.... I will try and upload some of my work here

[SolidBrowser]

I am also having problems uploading some pictures, they should be up soon...

[IamSam]

Your doing just fine. As with all talents, passion, desire, and determination will drive your motivation. Practice until your exhausted and then practice some more. I say this all the time, do one tutorial per day, even if your not interested in the content........you will learn something that will help you later. Be patient, you will eventually find a direction and style that suits you.

Stay in School!!!

[ibclare]

IDK why you're having problems uploading images. The attachment manager is kind of a pain to use. It seems you used the regular upload icon first. Try that again. Make sure your images aren't too huge. There is a limit on what size you can post.

I agree with IamSam that you are off to a good start. Be patient. You can find tutorial sites online, some for free and some for a price. If you can find a PS class, it may seem slow to you at first since you probably have a lot of basic techniques, but there's always more to learn. Always. Ask anybody with years of PS about that!

[3headcat]

Im gonna be lazy here ind give you the same advice i give to Smallguy:


"there is nothing new under the sun" and "good artists copy great artists steal"

Browse the web for inspirational websites like : http://www.fromupnorth.com/ or http://abduzeedo.com/. save all the designs you like and mix them.
Choose object from one of them, pattern from the other, style of the third, composition of forth..etc.. and create your own design. It will be unique because your own style will add to that. and .. try to make it better ;)


Create flow charts: Sun - light- bright - energy - happiness - smile ..Your thought process will take you places you never expected.

Create fake customer in your head. Thing about what he want. What is the purpose of the design? Who supposed to like it? What kind of message supposed to be behind it? What kind of feeling its suppose to create? Excitement? Happiness? Happiness – energy – bright- Sun. Maybe Sun in a good idea for the main theme? There is a cool sun picture in your saved files. Looks awesome but it would be better with style from the other one.

Doodle. On paper and digitally. Open Photoshop, create a rectangle, copy it 10 times, move them around, skew them, play with filters , textures, blending mode etc. 9 on 10 results will suck but one on the will be interesting. Remember how you did it and use it later on. You will create your own style and eventually there will have no time to put all ideas in your head into action

Remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint
Good Luck

[SolidBrowser]

Okay thanks, you guys have inspired me and now I will do a tutorial everyday and get motivated!
I found this quote that I will use now; "The people who think they know everything know very little... The people who think they know little could know more than the person who thinks they know everything... or something like that!
Anyways you guys have inspired me... thanks!

[ibclare]

Good, "solid" quote. You have the perfect attitude. You'll do great with Photoshop. It takes patience, practice, and passion. Didn't expect that alliteration. The 3 Ps of learning!