Question: Photoshop Practise Sites?

[ElizabethM]

Hello dear users,
My name is Elizabeth and I am currently studying every detail of PS to embark on a future career with it. But I realised that while yes, I can watch many tutorials and memorise all the tools... I don't really grasp the concept if I don't create something with what I learned.

I admit, I'm a bit rusty in the design department so my mind isn't bursting with ideas of what/where/how I should start. So I was wondering if any of you dear people know of any particular sites (like this section of a forum) where I can find projects to practise from? Be it retouching an image, to manipulating something, to logo design. Anything that can help me practise.

Or an alternative question would be: If you're on the graphic designer career path or simply looking to improve, how'd you practise your skills? Because sometimes I just upload an image onto PS and just stare at it for hours thing, "Okay, where do I start?" Man to be young again and just pick any celebrity image to edit for your pure amusement. I need to get back into that zone! Haha many thanks and looking forward to having more fun times in this forum.

 

[IamSam]

Hello Elizabeth and welcome to PSG.

This is how I practice. Simply watching a tutorial is not enough, you need to actually re-create the effect featured in the tutorial. When I first started I set a goal for myself of DOING 5 tutorials per day. Doing this will will eliminate the the problem of figuring out where to start since the goal is already defined by the tutorial. I still do at least 2 tutorials a day from beginning to end.

Tutorials are ready made projects that will get you back into the zone and no matter if one tutorial is similar to another, you WILL always learn something! There is no magic pill, you have to do the work.

 

[ElizabethM]

Hello Elizabeth and welcome to PSG.

This is how I practice. Simply watching a tutorial is not enough, you need to actually re-create the effect featured in the tutorial. When I first started I set a goal for myself of DOING 5 tutorials per day. Doing this will will eliminate the the problem of figuring out where to start since the goal is already defined by the tutorial. I still do at least 2 tutorials a day from beginning to end.

Tutorials are ready made projects that will get you back into the zone and no matter if one tutorial is similar to another, you WILL always learn something! There is no magic pill, you have to do the work.

Hello Sam,

Thanks for the tips (and welcome)! I think I may have done exactly what you sugguested today. I'm currently watching some Lynda.com tutorials and I learned a little about creating custom shapes. I had the spontanious idea to just open up a picture and apply whatever I learned today from THAT specific tutorial until it looks nice.

It's not my favourite but you're right, it's slowly helping me step out of the rusty design phase and let ideas creep in. At least I start somewhere instead of just staring at my screen right? I setting a goal to study about 2/4 hours of photoshop a day (because each tutorial is about an hour and half long). Do you look for any specific tutorials or you just scroll through any PS site and find one that suits your fancy? Be it something as simple as text styles to detailed blending or something?

Sorry, I seem to have so many questions but you've already helped so much so thank you!!

 

[IamSam]

One thing I do is that I will do a Goggie image search on Photoshop Effects, then I will just basically pick random images and go the the website and do the tutorial. If you pick and choose, you will never accomplish anything. I've even just gone row by row.

Here are some of the tutorial sites I keep in my toolbar.

http://phlearn.com/

http://planetphotoshop.com/category/tutorials

http://www.psdbox.com/

http://design.tutsplus.com/categories/adobe-photoshop

http://www.iceflowstudios.com/

I'm a die hard Cory Barker fan, so I will do all of his tutorials. Most can be found at Planet Ps.

https://www.youtube.com/user/cbarker33

All of these are in addition to Lynda, which is a staple for learning Photoshop.

 

[Rich54]

I enjoy skin retouching, so for practice I'll do a Google image search for "acne" or "bad skin" and then play Photoshop Dermatologist to see how well I can clean up the images. You could also look at classic movie posters or music album covers and see if you can reproduce them. (I recently did my own version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper cover using a mix of celebrity photos and my personal friends.) And speaking of posters, I would recommend a book called How Posters Work, by Ellen Lupton. It contains several brief essays on poster design principles, as well as about 300 illustrations of terrific posters from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum that you could try to re-create yourself in Photoshop.

 

[ElizabethM]

One thing I do is that I will do a Goggie image search on

Photoshop Effects, then I will just basically pick random images and go the the website and do the tutorial. If you pick and choose, you will never accomplish anything. I've even just gone row by row.

All of these are in addition to Lynda, which is a staple for learning Photoshop.

Thank you so much Sam, you're heaven sent! I will definitely add those tutorials to my daily Lynda tutorials. (I'm planning on taking the Adobe Certification Exams, so ahh learning all I can)

I enjoy skin retouching, so for practice I'll do a Google image search for "acne" or "bad skin" and then play Photoshop Dermatologist to see how well I can clean up the images. You could also look at classic movie posters or music album covers and see if you can reproduce them. (I recently did my own version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper cover using a mix of celebrity photos and my personal friends.) And speaking of posters, I would recommend a book called How Posters Work, by Ellen Lupton. It contains several brief essays on poster design principles, as well as about 300 illustrations of terrific posters from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum that you could try to re-create yourself in Photoshop.

Oh that's actually really genius! Yes, I think I'm going to try my hand at playing Photoshop Dermatologist myself, thanks for the tip! Haha and recreating posters is an excellent idea too. That way I would have to really look at the image and see what type of effects are being used. Thanks a million you guys, I'll get right to trying all these out!

 

[Rich54]

Glad you liked my skin retouching idea. Here are some Before & After images that I did that you might want to try. (I'm not suggesting that my "After" photos are the shining example of perfection, but I'd be curious to see how somebody else deals with these challenges.)

 

[ElizabethM]

Rich54: Ahh! Hahaha just looking at your edits make me nervous. Okay I'll give it a go and post it up here (is this topic the right place for it or should I create a new one?) when I'm done!