After lusting after Photoshop for years, I finally discovered that our company has a license for it, and it could be installed on my machine. Have done so, but...whooo..that's a lot of buttons and dials, shiny buttons and..never mind.
This is Photoshop 7, and there's Photoshop Elements (whatever that is) available as well. Are there any good tutorials out there for Photoshop? I'll look for a manual (we even have a course in it, if I can figure out how to pay it directly), but thought I'd go to the folks who would know for sure..eager to get yelled at for 'postwork'..;) thanks.

Hi pakled, if you're going to do "postwork" then you can skip Photoshop Elements (it's aimed more for the home "digital camera" audience, though you can do some graphic work with it...).

As to the "where to start" question... i'd say go through the paper or online manual (F1) and look aroung. Experiment, and when you find something that seems confusing, ask us (we'll probably be confused too ;) just hide it better), or if you're looking to achieve a certain effect, just ask...

OPEN 24/7 (Sometimes in a row ;))

:)
retrocity

Essentially Photoshop Elements is the same as Photoshop 6, but less features, and Elements 2 would be version 7 with less features. Before i bought PS 7 i had purchased Elements 2 and it is fairly good for it's price. But hte full version of PS 7 is the real powerhouse. -LeFrog

Oh yes and experiment is the best way to learn :)

Oh yes and to experiment is the best way to learn :)

I like those "_____________ for Dummies" books myself. Though I have not looked at the one for photoshop others in that series have been a great help to me, clear, to the point, with detail shaved down to the essance. Also I think there were some good on-line tutorials at the Adobe website, the main thing is to go one step at a time.... try to tackle learn one tool in each work session. and experiment. and experiment. and experiment.

Go through the help files. There are a gazillion of them. If I had to recommend one book for Photoshop, it would be REAL WORLD PHOTOSHOP, which isn't just a excellent book about Pshop, but a pretty good graphics primer as well.

"Classroom In a Book" series is also good--it takes you through, step by step, doing projects aimed at particular functions. It's how I got through my first Photoshop anxieties.

Books are great! Listen to the people... but there is nothing like PRACTISE! And, of course, occasional on-line help... there are planty of helpers around here, including humble me :-) I can recommend open up an image you would like to play with and just start pushing the buttons all over :-) Remember, there is a History palette right above the Layers palette in a low right corner of your screen... you can click on an unwanted step in the list of steps you already made and delete them from this step on... very helpful thing. Also, there is a Fade function in Edit menu, I can recommend playing with its options anytime you applie something... you'll be amaised at how it lowers the stress of learning... and raises up your qualification, too :-) So, good luck! And push that damn button! :-)

thanks all..I just pulled up the interface and went..uhhhh...well, I'll play with it some..thanks for the ideas..