The Very First Post!

Welcome to the new Photoshop Fitness blog. This is where I will be demonstrating techniques, both old and new. We will start off with some basic lessons, because for some things, you just have to understand. You can’t fake it.

A FEW of the things in this blog will come from my booklet or instructional CD and DVD.

Then we will move on to working on individual images. I’m sure there will sometimes be some duplication of techniques, but I think that seeing something used multiple times, but in slightly different ways, will make the concepts more concrete. Besides, I expect (hope) people will be finding this place at different times, so it will be new for them!

A brief bio, and then we are off!

I started my portrait/wedding business in 1984.

I discovered Photoshop in 1992, when I bought my first scanner—it came with it, believe it or not! Photoshop 2.5. It was a daunting program so I did what I usually did when I wanted to learn about something—I went to the library. There were no books on Photoshop. I went to the bookstore—none.

I tried the Internet—just kidding! Those were the days of dial-up modems. So there was very little information out there. So I did the Classroom in a Book thing. It was alright as far as it went, but it taught me almost nothing about how to use Photoshop to correct and enhance the kinds of photographs that a protrait and wedding photographer would take.

I wasn’t interested in pre-press. I’m not even a commercial photographer, much less a graphic artist. So I had to learn on my own and from others in a similar position. And that’s a terrible way to learn—fumbling around in the dark. No one to teach me what I needed to know. Instead, all these lessons on how to make chrome letters and posterize photos.

Things are much better today. Lots of books, lots of tutorials online. But it’s almost TOO good. How does one choose? How do you know that you haven’t missed out on something really important or really helpful, when most photographer’s plan of learning is this scattergun approach?

I’ve been a member of the Digital Wedding Forum since 2001. There came a point about 4 years ago when a hardly a week went by without me hearing from someone there that I should write a book about Photoshop. So I finally decided to do something. It wasn’t a big book—I thought that a small booklet that emphasized the most important concepts for a wedding/portrait photographer would actually be more palatable. You’ll find a description in Feeding Your Muscles in the menu above.

But then I realized that, as photographers, many of us are much too right-brained for learning from a book. We need to be shown. So I started recording Quicktime movies to demonstrate techniques. The result is the two volumes that are described in Feeding Your Muscles in the menu above.

So why the name Photoshop Fitness? I am very much into fitness—the photos above are really me, with no Photoshop!  I decided to approach teaching Photoshop as if I were your personal trainer, trying to give you the skills and techniques you need to be in tip-top Photoshop shape. It allows me to combine two of my passions. I hope you will forgive all the muscle metaphors!

OK, let’s get started!