Photoshop: Why?

WHY PHOTOSHOP?

When I decided to go back to school and take classes, I was really looking at the digital photography classes. But, to take the beginner's photography class, there was a prerequisite of Photoshop. I thought it was a little crazy (in my mind, photoshop was for digital scrapbooking, which I didn't care about at the time).  But, hello...Photoshop is first and foremost for fixing photos. Silly me.

So I signed up for the class. Kyle was extra excited because he has been using the simpler (and cheaper) Photoshop Elements program and now I was going to be able to teach him everything I learned in class AND get a huge discount on the program. Well, on the first day of class I fell in love with the program. I've been soaking it all in and now the teacher calls me her assistant because I help other students when they get stuck. Who knew?

RESOURCES:

In my college class at Santa Fe Community College, we are using two books.

They both include videos and have different explanations of how to use the software. I haven't decided yet which book I prefer, if I were to choose just one book. The blue book teaches you photoshop by walking you through projects that they show you in videos, using the sample photos included. The red book is more of a reference of how to use the software. We have been using both books this semester.

Another wonderful learning tool that Kyle and I have been enjoying is Photoshop Week on creativeLIVE.com. We received a discount by buying the videos the first week they were available. There are over 40 videos with accompanying PDFs. We really enjoyed all the instructors and felt these videos were well worth it.