How did YOU learn photo editing?

[LiQuid BioniX]

To everyone around here with experience with Photoshop, GIMP, or other editing software, where and how did you learn? 

 

I use GIMP for making Pixel Art, but I'm really looking to get in deeper and actually edit some photos for signatures and such. 

 

Any help from the vets of editing would be appreciated! 

[Frankenzer]

I learned photo editing from school  

[Is not JL]

School had some IEAward scheme, photoediting was a topic.

 

 

Messed around not too much but started making youtube thumbnails with it which is enough for me.

[Axilus Prime]

Learned to use GIMP for it with the help of a friend on another site.

[MCPO Mayh3m]

Learned photoshop on my own... plus some help from others around me.

[тυcкєя]

Well, I have learned it from a lot of things such as school, people, internet and online friends. People think that photo editing is a talent but, it's only knowledge.

[BaconShelf]

Learned photoshop through messing around on it in my lunch break at school (we have CS6 master collection)

 

When I did it graphics, I was showing everyone how to use it!

 

I'm also using 2D design as well

[Donut]

Learned Sony Vegas Pro 12, Photoshop and Adobe After Effects on my own and a little help from YouTube.

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

To everyone around here with experience with Photoshop, GIMP, or other editing software, where and how did you learn? 

 

I use GIMP for making Pixel Art, but I'm really looking to get in deeper and actually edit some photos for signatures and such. 

 

Any help from the vets of editing would be appreciated! 

 

I use Gimp all the time. To me it's really easy to use. 

 

I would take Computer classes years ago, which wouldn't allow Photo editing but I did it anyway behind the Teacher's backs 

 

It escalated to me taking Graphic Design classes. They did allow editing, and we did use Photoshop allot, but it was all scripted, and not allot of freedom in the work. I actually started doing actual editing and creation of Pictures around a year or two ago. I really hated Photoshop by then. Even though it did allow some cool features, to me it was really restricted. I found that Gimp was easier for me to use, and I've been using it ever since.

 

A Halo 4 forum started up last summer, and I used my editing skills, and made a bunch of pictures for the site. I would say that's what got me to make dedicated graphic pictures and what not.

 

Now it depends on what you're making for me to give some pointers. Like what exactly do you need help with? Or do you just need overall pointers on how to make stuff?

[LiQuid BioniX]

I use Gimp all the time. To me it's really easy to use. 

 

 

 

Now it depends on what you're making for me to give some pointers. Like what exactly do you need help with? Or do you just need overall pointers on how to make stuff?

 

 

Any overall pointers would be fantastic. The GIMP layout is completely foreign to me, and I'm a pretty extreme beginner when it comes to photo editing. 

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

Any overall pointers would be fantastic. The GIMP layout is completely foreign to me, and I'm a pretty extreme beginner when it comes to photo editing. 

 

Alright I'll try to throw a stone here

 

Okay you know when you see transparent images that have, lets say Master Chief, and then just a blank void for the background like this one below?

 

This is a PNG. You can make one of these, by making a new Transparent layer, fusing it with the background layer, and then deleting everything withing the Background layer, by pressing the "Delete" key. Then you can make whatever you want, and the empty background around you're image will be void of everything. I had trouble with this cause I could never figure out how to do this. I figured out that by doing the thing above, and then saving the image as a PNG you can make the image transparent.

 

When the save box appears, It will say "Select file type (by extension)" below with a little + right beside it. Scroll down till you see PNG Image ~ png. Select that, then save. An "Export file" box will appear if you have multiple layers activated. Just select "Export" and it will save the image with whatever transparency you decided to have in it. I'm not sure what the "Ignore" option does, so I wouldn't press it.

 

And there you go, a transparent image!

 

Now onto getting the area AROUND whatever you're trying to focus on to disappear legitimately. You can meticulously go around and erase everything around you're focus with the Eraser while Zoomed, Or use the other Selector tools to delete everything if you want. OR you can use the "Fuzzy Select Tool" to get rid of the area without having to do the other options. It will work most of the time.

 

What you do is select the tool, it is represented by a little 'Magic wand' of sorts. You can then alter what this tool selects in the Property panel. The Threshold bar will change how large the area the tool will select. Left to decrease and right to increase respectively. The "Feather Edges" checkbox will smooth out the selection and make it rounded. This will also give a fading effect to the edges of what you selected. You can also change how rounded this way works by activated scroll bar.

 

Now after selecting whatever is around the image, you can then press "Delete" and it will delete it of course. And there you go. Hope this helped. I'll try to give more advice later on if I can. 

[The Stig]

I learned how to Photoshop from my older brother, who learned by himself. He was self taught, and then showed me the ropes, and then left me to learn the more advanced stuff myself.

 

So I'm about 55% self taught, and my brother is 100%. He learned by just messing around and trying stuff out and now he wants me to do the same.

[Sikslik7]

I learned Photoshop in school for a required art class. I liked it so much I took the advanced class, which was pretty much rush through all the required projects, mass produce the easiest one for extra credit, and play on my Pokemon emulator for a month and a half, or do homework for other classes. Best class ever.

[BeckoningZebra1]

I don't know a ton about photo editing, I can unpixel something but that's about it.

[King of Winter]

This is unusual but I use Flash CS5.5 to edit all my pictures like my signature. Pretty much my cousin taught me how to use Flash MX and I began to animate, just stick figures though. When new versions came out, obviously new features did too, ones that made it easier to manipulate pictures. So what I did is got pictures from Google Images and edited them and animated them. I then realized that Flash could be used effectively for picture editing. Personally, I would take Flash over Photoshop most of the time because I usually do simplistic things, over the top things that you can do on Photoshop aren't really attractive to me, but Flash does have its limits since its a program meant for animation.

[Zandril]

I read the manual that came with the program. First manual I ever read. Then I realized I couldn't learn **** from the manual. So I watched videos on YouTube with the titles, Photoshop basics.

 

Then I realized I barely learned **** from the videos. So I had a friend teach me instead.

[Dalton]

I learned from my friends. A basic editing site is Picmonkey.com. If you know how to use the tools then you can make it an advance program, well at least the images come out good.

[Flippant Sol]

I mastered MS Paint with trial and error experiments.

[Tommy]

Taught myself.

[Maximum Clutch]

I learned Adobe Fireworks from a web design class at school

[Lolmenade]

I think my MS paint skills have improved over the years after putting nothing more than my blood, sweat, and tears into it.

 

[Akali]

you can practise and experiment with new things and features and do what you think is cool and maybe put some pics on here to give you our opinion with them

 

[Ghost Recon]

I use Photobucket and I learned from there help screen.

[Azaxx]

Please do not revive dead threads. Thread locked.