Question Graphic Design Basics

[Spirit]

I've always been frustrated at my lack of knowledge (and patience?) with Photoshop and other graphic suites like Gimp. While I know many cool visual tricks of the like, I've never found the right guide or tutorial for how to really kick off. I know many talented peope here on MH in the Graphics area, so I wanted to ask for some tips and other general do's and do nots.

 

[ninjasushi]

So it all really depends on what kind of graphic design you want to be working with. Are you doing print, web, or something else? Are you working in vectors? If so you'll be using illustrator or are you focusing raster images, where you'll be using photoshop.

Although I do use illustrator occasionally, I focus mainly on photoshop and I've found that this website has helped me alot. Some of the tutorials are paid but the free stuff is great too. The way that I learned photoshop was to google "photoshop signature tutorials" and just follow those and I eventually picked up a working knowledge of the program.

As for general tips I would say that whenever you're doing something, try and use non destructive editing so you leave the original source of whtever you're doing intact. So using layer masks instead of erasing part of an image, or importing render into a canvas as a smart image so you're not losing quality if you're sizing up/down.
I'm always more than happy to talk about design as it's a great passion of mine so hit me up for more info or anything

 

[Spirit]

Thanks for your thoughts @ninjasushi
I'll take a look and that part about using Masks instead of corrupting the base image really helped. It's where a lot of my attempts go wrong. Be sure to hit me up if you need any Literature or Photography tips

 

[ninjasushi]

Thanks for your thoughts @ninjasushi
I'll take a look and that part about using Masks instead of corrupting the base image really helped. It's where a lot of my attempts go wrong. Be sure to hit me up if you need any Literature or Photography tips

I wanna start doing photography when I get my camera back so I will definitely talk to you bout it
You can get me on skype, discord whenever. I have a pretty decent working knowledge of photoshop and can go over all the tools and the basics of how it works if you want. We should definitely collaborate on some signatures soon though!

 

[Kappa]

Phlearn youtube channel has some good tutorials. Half of them are specific tricks, but they have good practice and easy to follow. You can just scroll and watch what piques your interest. If you already know a lot of tricks, you should have a good understanding of what the tools do and how they can be applied anyway.