Several recent posters have mentioned a wish to dig into Photoshop. I think I have an idea of some of the stumbling blocks and wanted to see if I could simplify what it’s all about. (It really needn’t be complicated.) So here’s a stab at it – simple, yes – that’s how to get started. Questions welcome.
First question is, can I attach a document here? Looks like it… But I hope you are able to download it. I’ll put it on my web site when I remember how…
You might want to note the version of Photo Shop you are using for your illustrations and related text. The reason is some older versions do not have the latest AI and some other tools. In fact, my older desktop computer and Win 10 are not compatible with the latest version of PS.
You might also consider an appendix regarding PS Preferences because those settings do affect how PS performs.
You did touch ACR early on in your document, but ACR has many great features and tools that can save editing time in PS later. My suggestion would be to create a second tutorial document for ACR at some point.
Yikes Diane, I tried to set up PS by following your initial instructions and I think I just messed it all up. For some reason this does not feel basic to me.
@alice , what operating system and version of PS? Where did something go wrong and what was it? I’m basically assuming reasonably recent versions. There have been some changes in menus and Panels over the years, but the basic setup and operations should work on versions going way back. The AI stuff and Patch tool are recent.
My operating system is MacBook Pro Tahoe 26.6 and PS is 2026 version 27.8. I went in and made sure I hade photography as my workspace. I clicked on the “Hamburger” and remaining items and closed them. I now have on the far right the histogram/navigator, adjustments/libraries and layers/channels. Maybe I didn’t mess up too much after all?
You didn’t mess up at all! My suggested workspace is very basic, as most beginners won’t need the other items you have. You can drag any of their tabs off to the desktop and close them. I like to keep Layers on the left as it’s the primary one. Then it should be easier to follow the rest of the text. I’ll put up a revision later today with a few more caveats for people with older systems.
Diane, thank you for taking the time to do this, I really appreciate it! I think I’m going to take my time working through this and practice enough so I will remember what to do. I mostly work in LR but I know that PS is better and many of the selection and masking functions.
Again, you are most generous
Alice
