Photoshop (7) tutorials for beginners

These tutorials are merely the way I do things, many people will have found better, simpler, quicker (or all three) ways of doing things so just treat these as a starting point. The effects shown are generally highly exaggerated to show what happens more clearly. In real life be more subtle for better effects.

Before you start buy a graphics tablet

Hardware tutorials

Tutorial Description Further information
Scanning

Why do my scans look terrible Resolution & descreening

scantips.com
Basic Colour Why can't I print red ...or ... green ... or ... blue...  
Colour matching You want your prints to look vaguely like the superb image you have just created on screen - Oh Boy - Things don't get much more complex and you really need (expensive) additional hardware. Oh and even then they never will.

Setting up colour management

mac world

Photoshop tutorials

Tutorial Description Further information
Basic image enhancement What to do to EVERY image you use (levels and curves)  
Basic layers Without multiple layers you will get nowhere.

Layers primer photoshopcafe.com

web reference.com

Basic layers graphicsoft.about.com

Layer masks Hiding parts of an image  
Layer blending modes Which are the useful layer modes, and what do they do.  
Feathering Fading out an image  
Creating backgrounds Fuzzy backgrounds and starfields.  Quantum petshop
Extracting images from a background

The Colour range, extract and background eraser tools, using channels.

 
Spine spanning images Create an image to go across several box sets  
Making text readable Text against a non-uniform background can be very hard to read,  
Sharpening You need to sharpen images before you print them

Creative pro

Two pass sharpening

Everything you wanted to know

     
Shortcuts and quick tips How to do things quicker  General tips

H