35 basic tutorials to get you started with photoshop

If you’ve never had any experience with Photoshop, this tutorial from SitePoint will get you up to speed with Photoshop’s basic features.. This comprehensive tutorial goes over the Layer

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started

with Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a very powerful and versatile image editing/graphics

creation application that is the industry standard in its category Though

Photoshop’s interface is intuitive enough for an absolute beginner to learn basic image editing tasks such as cropping and resizing, to be able to fully master and utilize all of its tools takes a considerable amount of time

If you’re interested in honing your Photoshop skills to create spectacular compositions, this is for you In this article, you’ll find 35 basic Photoshop tutorials for getting started with Photoshop

General tutorials

1 Getting Started with Photoshop

If you’ve never had any experience with Photoshop, this tutorial from SitePoint will get you up to speed with Photoshop’s basic features

2 Adobe Photoshop Interface Tutorial

This tutorial outlines Photoshop CS2′s interface Even if you use an earlier

or later version of Photoshop, this tutorial is still helpful in familiarizing yourself with how Photoshop – in general – is laid out

3 You Suck at Photoshop (series)

This wildly popular and humorous screencast on Photoshop techniques by (probably) fictional character Donnie Hoyle is an excellent Photoshop series to follow if you like laughing and learning at the same time!

4 Photoshop’s Toolbox

This tutorial goes over the anatomy of Photoshop’s Toolbox

Photoshop tools and features

5 Retouch and Healing Tools

Photoshop has a host of tools and options for retouching and correcting images This tutorial goes over the tools at your disposal and what situations each tool excels in

6 Photoshop’s Pen Tool: The Comprehensive Guide

Photoshop’s Pen tool gives you the ability to draw objects in a vector-like fashion This thorough tutorial even comes with a practice sheet that will help you master the concepts of working with the Pen tool

7 Photoshop’s Painting Tools

Photoshop’s Painting tools allow you to draw and fill in objects with colors and color gradients This tutorial showcases Photoshop’s painting capabilities

8 Photoshop Color Replacement Tool

Sometimes you want to replace certain colors in an image With the Color Replacement tool – you can specify which colors you’d like to change and Photoshop will automatically replace them for you This tutorial goes through the color replacement process and discusses all the things you need

to know about the Color Replacement tool

9 Understanding Layer Masks

One of the fundamental skills to learn in Photoshop is the art

of masking (isolating certain parts of a composition) This comprehensive tutorial goes over the Layer Masking features of Photoshop

10 Photoshop’s Image Masking Tools

There are different methods of masking objects in your Photoshop composition This tutorial goes over the basic masking tools available to you

11 Layer Styles in Photoshop

Layer Styles are the effects and options you apply to a particular layer This tutorial discusses the concept of Layer Styles and how to utilize them in your Photoshop documents

12 Understanding Bevel and Emboss

Bevel and Emboss is a particular Layer Style There are many options you can tweak and change (such as the shading and the angle of light); this tutorial goes over what each option does

13 Understanding Drop Shadows

Drop Shadow is another Photoshop Layer Style that applies a silhouette to the objects in a layer In this tutorial, you’ll learn about the different options and settings of the Drop Shadow Layer Style

14 Introduction to Blending Modes

In this video tutorial, you’ll learn about the different Blending Modes available at your disposal

15 Photoshop’s Filters

Photoshop filters are simply effects applied to your image (much like the concept of using photographic lens filters) For example, the Blur filter unsharpens the focus of your images This tutorial goes over the Filters interface in Photoshop

16 Useful Applications for the Clone Stamp Tool

This tutorial goes over some excellent uses of the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop

17 Getting to Grips with the Vanishing Point Filter

Master the Vanishing Point filter (a Photoshop filter that adjusts the image’s perspective) with this excellent Photoshop tutorial

18 The Hidden Power of Photoshop Brush Tool

The Brush tool is a versatile drawing feature of Photoshop the mimics different art brushes and styles like water coloring, oil painting, or charcoal painting This tutorial covers some of the best features of the Brush Tool in Photoshop

19 "Background Eraser Tool" is the new Magic Wand

This tutorial goes over the usage of the Background Eraser tool in Photoshop

Common tasks and techniques

20 A Comprehensive Introduction to Photoshop Selection Techniques

In order to become a Photoshop master, you’ll need to understand how to select different sections and objects in your composition This guide goes over some techniques you can use to selectively isolate certain objects or groups of objects

21 Sharpening the Details

You’ll often need to sharpen photos for image correction In this video tutorial, you’ll learn about various sharpening techniques

22 Saving Images for the Web

One of the most powerful features of Photoshop is its ability to save compositions in a variety of web formats This tutorial explains the different options and settings of saving images for the web

23 Create Your Own Custom Shapes in Photoshop

Custom Shapes are reusable objects in Photoshop It gets stored in a library and you can access them later on from another Photoshop document In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create, import, and save your own custom shapes

24 Photoshop Smart Objects, smart but not always that smart

Smart Objects are instantiated objects – that is, you can create multiple instances of a source object and make a change to an instance of that object while still keeping the original object intact This tutorial goes over how to use Smart Objects

Enhancing your workflow and efficiency

25 Using Pen Tablets in Photoshop

You can use a Pen tablet (an input device that lets you draw images directly into an image editor) over a mouse to create more accurate drawings by hand This tutorial shows you the basic concepts behind utilizing a Pen Tablet to supplement your workflow

26 Automating Photoshop with Actions

An Action is a sequence of Photoshop tasks that you can repeat and reuse For example, if you find yourself constantly resizing images to 550 pixels

in width and then saving them in PNG file format, you can record a Photoshop Action that will apply these settings automatically This excellent tutorial covers the basics of creating and using Photoshop Actions

27 Using Palettes in Photoshop

Palettes are sets of tools and options that help you organize Photoshop’s interface In this tutorial, you’ll get a great primer on how to take advantage of using Palettes

28 Installing and Managing Brushes & Other Presets

You can install pre-made brushes (instead of creating your own) in Photoshop as well as save important settings for future use This tutorial will show you how to work with brushes and other Photoshop presets

29 Layer Comps in Photoshop CS

A Layer Comp is a version of your composition that you can switch back and forth to Learn a little about an actual use of Layer Comps

30 Photoshop Secret Shortcuts

Shortcuts enable greatly increases your efficiency In this excellent tutorial, you’ll learn about some of the lesser-known but tremendously useful Photoshop shortcuts

31 Manage your shortcuts in Photoshop

If you don’t like the preset keyboard shortcuts the Photoshop comes with out of the box, this tutorial will show you how to change and manage your Photoshop shortcuts

Learning by doing

32 Manipulate an Image with Scripting

Scripting allows you to automate and extend Photoshop’s features by authoring your own code Learn about Photoshop Scripting with this tutorial that uses image manipulation as a working example

33 Use Photoshop’s Filters to Make Simple Illustrations

Learn to use Photoshop Filters to transform a photo into an illustration

34 Custom made Seamless Texture Tutorial

Learn to create seamless textures in Photoshop

35 Simple organic shapes in Photoshop

This tutorial goes over a technique for creating simple organic shapes using several Photoshop tools and techniques such as the Shape Tool and Gradient Masks