My Photoshop History & Some Photoshop Tips Websites

When I teach Photoshop^TM*, you get to learn all the basics needed to get you started. Maybe after some number of days practicing Photoshop, you might think you are an expert already, but if you learn a lot more, the more you find out you do not know a lot.

I had my first computer in 1994. It was a 486 DX2 66Mhz. It was running Windows 3.1 and CorelDraw^TM* 2.0 and Pagemaker^TM* 4.0 (which was still made by Aldus then). With CorelDraw and Pagemaker, I though I could do any graphic challenge. Actually all the challenges I got that time, I was able to overcome with whatever tools I had. I bought a Genius^TM* hand-held colored scanner the same year,(Flatbeds were so expensive before, and hand-helds were a lot more cheaper.) and had no knowledge of any photo-editing software. But scanners are always bundled with photo-editing softwares and the one my scanner came with was ZSoft PhotoFinish^TM*. It was not the best photo-editing software in the world, but it was able to do all the challenges I met in photo-editing during those days.

My First I.T. job was a graphic artist of Web Philippines, Inc. When I applied they wanted to see some sample work, and I showed them whatever I had. They asked what softwares I used and I said CorelDraw, Pagemaker and PhotoFinish. They ask me why do I use PhotoFinish and not Photoshop? I said, I find PhotoFinish to be a very good photo-editing software. I guess they thought I liked this over Photoshop, but the truth is, I never used Photoshop that time. I started using Photoshop by accident. My computer bugged down and needed to re-install everything and I was chasing a deadline for some website for Web Philippines. My PhotoFinish diskettes (Yes, diskettes, I was using Windows 95 that time, installed using 12 diskettes!) were not working. And a friend of mine, let me borrow his Photoshop 3.0 CD. Feeling disappointed during my installation, I never wanted to use anything else but PhotoFinish because I found it to be a very powerful photo-editing software and never wanted to try something else.

After installing Photoshop, I was back to chasing my deadlines and was a bit irritated in getting used to Photoshop since how to do things were a bit different from PhotoFinish, and I still need to do some learning adjustments that made things harder, considering I was chasing a deadline. But as I started learning Photoshop step by step, I started to like it. The more I used it, the more I liked it. Then I bought a book on Photoshop, and the more I learned, the more I found out that I need to learn more. Up to today, I know I already know so much on Photoshop, that it is way past the knowledge of the average user, but I still think I do not know so many on how to use Photoshop. My hats off to Adobe for creating such a great software that could do so much.

Today, most of my Photoshop learning is through websites, and after learning the basics at Informatics, you could study further through these websites:

O	Eyeball Design The work that made Filipino Ryan Lacdao known worldwide for his excellent Photoshop skills. Even if Photoshop is a raster graphics software, he creates work that some think it was made in a vector graphics software. His website has many lessons in the tutorial section. Official Website: http://www.eyeball-design.com
O	Edgar Tadeo I first contacted Edgar Tadeo when my old company Action Online Co. Ltd. wanted to outsource a website project and we got him to do it Kenstar Travel. I don't know if that website is still alive ever since the website was transferred to Viaje's servers hosted on Compass Internet. Well going back to Edgar, he is a ink and coloring man for Marvel and Image comics. He has worked on projects like X-MenTM* and Silver SurferTM*. His website has a basic tutorial on coloring your comic drawings, or anime and manga drawings. Official Website: http://www.edgartadeo.com
O	Good Tutorials I'd like to thank Amor Lopez for discovering this site. Various people contribute to this site sharing what they know, sharing it to everyone. A good site with many Adobe Photoshop tutorials. Official Website: http://www.good-tutorials.com
O	Graphic Expo If you want to be a serious graphic artist, this once a year event, is one of the best to attend. It has a series of seminars every year, and this is where I learned a lot of the technical stuff you need to know on being a graphic artist. Official Website: http://www.graphicexpo.com.ph
O	Philweavers Philweavers is one group of Filipino Webmasters. Since in website designing, there is a heavy use of graphic softwares, there are many Photoshop users in this organization and a lot are sharing their knowledge on the mailing list. They also hold some workshops from time to time. Official Website: http://www.philweavers.net

If you have any Photoshop questions, you could email me anytime, but if I do not reply right away, I just might be busy, so please do not always expect an immediate reply. But as much as possible I will try to answer all your Photoshop inquiries.

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*Genius is a registered trademark of Genius-KYE Corporation, Taiwan.
*PhotoFinish is a trademark of ZSoft Corporation.
*Photoshop and Pagemaker is a registered trademark of Adobe Corporation.
*CorelDraw is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation.
*Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
*X-Men and Silver Surfer are a trademarks of Marvel Comics.