I wasn’t going to mention this resource here because it’s one that I generally only mention on my Digital Photography School and Digital Camera blogs. However this afternoon I had a ProBlogger reader ask me for some online resources on using Photoshop as they were increasingly using images on their blogs and wanted to be able to optimize and adapt them for blog use.
I generally would recommend people go out and do a photoshop course or get a good photoshop book or two – however I’ve also recently come across two quality e-resources for people wanting online tips. Both are paid resources and are quite comprehensive. The links that follow are affiliate links – but I’ve used both of the products and think they are both worth considering if you’re at a beginner to intermediate level of photoshop skills.
ProPhoto Secrets
The first is from a fellow Australian Shane Goldberg (pictured left) who has put together a number of resources that teach photoshop techniques.
Shane’s main product is ProPhoto Secrets. It’s a video based Photoshop tutorial system that you can get a free taste of through that link by signing up for a 7 tutorial taster. He also has one that is for Photoshop Elements users.
Shane has also written two e-books on Photoshop called Photoshop Made Easy – the first of which is free here \he’s currently offering for free and the second of which is available on special at the moment for $37 (get the free one first to get a feel for Shane’s style and to see if it’s what you’re after).
Shane’s resources are easy to understand and in a fun and laid back ‘Aussie style’.
Mark’s 101 Totally Awesome Photo Tips in Photoshop CS
A second Photoshop teacher that’s put together a useful resource is Mark Monciardini who has put together Mark’s 101 Totally Awesome Photo Tips in Photoshop CS (ie it’s not for PS Elements users). The name’s a bit of a mouthful but so is what he’s offering in the way of comprehensive photoshop learning.
Mark’s offering a DVD based learning system which contains 100+ videos. Once again they’re easy to use and I’ve learned a lot from them. They’re both PC and Mac compatible.
Both are paid products (although you get the free tasters with Shane’s videos) – but both also have money back guarantees and I’ve found them to be helpful.
Of course if you’re already an expert in photoshop techniques you’ll probably pass on these but if you’re just starting out with photoshop and want someone to run you through it they’ll both be worth consideration.
[…] Many people use Photoshop to prepare their images (we’ve been using it for many years) but it’s quite a complex programme to work with. If you’ve tried it without much success then you might find this post Photoshop Resources – Enhance the Images on Your Blogs over at ProBlogger to be helpful. small business […]
Wow, nice squeeze page for ProPhoto Secrets! Just a question…why are the links different? For example, “ProPhoto Secrets” has the link http://www.prophotosecrets.com/cmd.php?Clk=1491030, while “has one that is for Photoshop Elements users.” has http://www.prophotosecrets.com/cmd.php?Clk=1584938 ?
Woops, my bad. They both link to different pages (Just woke up, and the coffee hasn’t kicked in…thought the 2 links lead me to the same page)
I’ve used a couple of Mark Monciardini’s products before and they are fantastic.
Andrew
Darren, you are such a nice presence here on the web that one almost wants to click on your affiliate links just to be friendly back:)
You show your pic up there on top left, and radiating out is a ‘nice guy’ who’ s just there and has all to share. That’s cool!
I found it maddening where you mentioned in another post about people stealing/duplicating your blog content for their own. It bothered me that people would milk somebody’s generousness without consideration.
It just looks so cheap, & cowardly.
Doing a search on google for ‘problog’ and similar, yields a few blogs, at least, that exploit your success by parroting your style here. And they even emulate your logo. How pathetic. I just wonder if you know of any viable method to prevent that, or to stop them in the process? I’d be mad at somebody for stealing my content for all out there to see. Their first time visitors might end up believing that you (the original) are duplicating THEIR content, rather than vice verca. How bad isn’t that?!
Without knowing anything about the quality of the product, the squeeze page for the pro photo secrets has turned me off from the headline.
Reveals The Closely Guarded Photoshop Secrets The Pro’s Don’t Want You to Know!
Rubbish. The Photoshop community is absolutely packed with pros who give away or sell books, tutorials, run vidcasts, courses, CDs, filters, brushes, actions and so on. There *is no closely guarded secrets*. There is techniques and skills to learn, and this product may well cover them, but it’s a really cheesy, cliched headline that tries to claim something it cannot deliver.
Just my 2c worth, but I use Paint.NET to edit my photos. Of course, I’m only really cropping, resizing or adding blur effects (or editing out private data from screenshots) but I think it’s a great and easy to use free program.
if I need anything more complex, I use GIMP. I guess I’m just a bit too cheap to buy photoshop…
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.