Hi everyone,
I am so new to all of this. I have only be exploring it since Saturday evening, and I am so overwhelmed. I have watched a bunch of video tutorials and I know I have so much to learn. I have hear on some of the tutorials that they have added new brushes to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, I have both programs, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to do it. I was able to find a few sites that offer free brushes, but it doesn't seem to be importing, or maybe I don't know where to look for them.
Can someone give me an idea how to do this or link me to a tutorial that can help.
Thanks so much. I am still finding my way around this site as well, but I think it will probably become by go to site for my digital scrapbooking needs.
I look forward to getting to know everyone.
Tina
A bit more experimenting and I finally figured it out.
Glad you could find what you need Tina! Photoshop is very challenging for beginners: It´s not intuitive at all. But sooner or later you get used if you try hard. I don´t know if you found these tutorials already, but the one labeled as "Photoshop: Beginner" may be useful to you.
Photoshop can be very intimidating in the beginning. I had a copy of Ps elements sitting on my computer for 3 years before I even braved it.. layers scared the crap outta me, lol.
Tutorials are really helpful.. what helped me was learning where all the tools were & what they did, playing around with settings. There are so many features in Ps.
I've been designing with it for over a year now and still have a lot to learn.
Hi Lorien,
I have found tutorials, but for some reason I couldn't find one for importing the brushes.
Anyway, I just posted on another topic about which program would be best to use. I have both PSE9 and CS5, and I am trying to determine which program I am going to use. I wonder if it would be easier for me to start with PSE9 until I get the hang of things and then move over to CS5. What concerns me is that I won't have the option to upgrade my Photoshoph, I am just not into paying the monthly fee for the creative cloud. On the other hand I would be able to upgrade PSE.
What might you recommend?
Hi Tina, there is also a wealth of tutorials here:
https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/forums/software-specific/photoshop/list-photoshop-tutorials-external-links
PSE and Photoshop serve their own purposes. PSE is a scaled down version of Photoshop. Photoshop does contain a lot more options. There are many that still use both. PSE for quick projects and Photoshop to do more. If you learn how to use the tools in one, you will be able to use the tools in the other, if the tool is there, since Photoshop does offer more tools.
As to brushes. It is always best to keep your brushes in the same folder. Load them when needed and unload them when not in use as brushes have a way of growing. If you start at the beginning to keep the brushes organized you will find it easier to work with and find.
To load a brush you first select the brush tool. Use the drop down arrow on the top menu to open or load a brush. It will allow you to search for the brush, which is where it is saved on your drive.
Enjoy Photoshop
Hi Tina! Welcome!
Personally, I would recommend that you start with the CS5...and you won't need to upgrade to the
cloud later on. CS5 is the full version of Photoshop and has many more options that the elements version.
You don't need to worry about 'importing' the brushes if they are in .abr format. Just double click on it and
Photoshop will load them in for you. It's very easy and you can do the same with styles, patterns, swatches,
etc as long as they are in PS formats.
So you won't feel so overwhelmed by it, choose one main thing you want to learn first and work on that
for awhile until you get comfortable with it...then pick another thing and go on from there.
The easiest thing to try first, would be to download a template of anything from here...an element you like or
a paper...make sure it says 'template' in the description so you will have it in PSD format. Double click it and
it should open right up in PS.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Once your template is opened...go up to the top on your toolbar and click on 'image
It will give you a drop-down menu....find 'Duplicate' click on that and it will duplicate your
template as a copy.
*** CLOSE OUT YOUR ORIGINAL ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR COPY ***
*** Do this every time so you never lose your original templates ***
From there...just click on whatever layer you want to start on and maybe start with just picking
a new color for each layer....or a pattern or style. It won't be long until you start having fun with PS
instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.
Have fun and good luck. You will find so very many wonderful people here that will help you along the way.
Judy,
I think I might have screwed up my brushes. I imported the ones I downloaded, but now I can't find the default brushes. When I click on the arrow to the right, and select a different batch of brushes it changes all the brushes to something else and asks me if I want to append
Here is a screen shot:
Here is the box I get:
I hope I didn't lose all my original brushes. Is there a way to get them back?
Kathie,
That is good advice about deciding what I want to learn first and focus on that for awhile. I feel like I am all over the place and am probably trying to learn to many things at one time.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to look at some general Photoshop Tutorials to learn how all the features work and not try to fit them into how I will use them for digital scrapbooking. My head is starting to hurt from all this stuff, and I don't want to get frustrated and end up giving up. That is my typical MO.
Just click reset brushes to load the original brushes. It will ask if you want to relpace the current brushes with the default brushes. This will bring back the original set of brushes.
Tina, I find for myself, that when I'm trying to learn new software, I do better if I just pick one thing, and learn how to do that. While I'm trying to learn that, I usually end up learning other things that I didn't even know I wanted to learn, just to figure out the one thing I did want to learn. And after learning just a few things, you will be surprised at how much you have learned and ways to apply them to do what you want to do.
I think it may be better for you to learn how to do something in PS that will help you with digital scrapbooking, since that is what you want to use the software for. And while you are learning things you want to learn, you will start to pick up on how to do other things that you may want/need for things other than scrapbooking.
Thanks Judy, I was worried I screwed up my program.
Hi Diane, it sounds like that is the consciences. Photoshop is such an in-depth program that I just don't even know where to start. I am trying to find some online tutorials that can help me learn the basics of the software, and then I can go from there. I am usually pretty good about finding my way around a new software, but this one is really deep, and there are so many menus and sub-menus to explore. I also think I need to limit my time exploring so I don't get to overwhelmed. I am the type of person that wants to learn everything and do it right now. Thanks so much for your advice.
OMG! I found a 6 hour Photoshop Tutorial to help me learn the program. I am only about 50 minutes in, but so far I have learned a lot of basic stuff, which I know will help me get around better.
Here is the link to the tutorial if anyone is interested.
This is just the first part there is a second part that is just as long. So guess what I will be doing this weekend.
Thank you so muc for sharing this link. I have been avoid Photoshop CS5 for months because I am used to PSP. I need to learn the program and starting at the basics seems like a good place to start. LOL
Deanna, like I already said I am only an hour into the tutorials, but so far I am learning a lot. Once you have a chance to watch it let me know what you think. I also found some other tutorial on YouTube, but this seems to contain the most information. The only thing that would make it better would be to have all the files that he uses for the tutorial, but I am leery about using someone else's files, so I am trying to recreate whenever possible or just using my own files.
Photoshop has a steep learning curve and took me years to learn at my own pace. But I still not have mastered it. I am lucky to have Scott Kelby as a neighbor and can pick his brain whenever I see him!! But there are so many useful programs out there to help you get through each step of learning. I always recommend PSE to begin with to get comfortable, but you can delve right into the full version as well.
Hi Stevenia, I agree Photoshop has a very steep learning curve, but I know if I stick with it I will learn what I need to in order to make fabulous pages.
I haven't had much time to go through the tutorial that I posted awhile back. I have been so busy I haven't even had time to even think about digital scrapbooking. I am hoping to have some time this weekend to get some pages done.
For information, CS6 is still for sale. Just do a search for it. Also If you have the cloud, you should be able to download CS6 for your computer. The main difference in the clound and CS6 is that some of the tools were combined to shorten your work time.
I am a PSP user too trying to move over to PSE10. It's not very user friendly even when you know the terminology. Getting there slowly...
Photoshop .... you learn to hate it before you learn to love it .... the best advice I give is to practice one technique at a time until you know where all your tools are as well as the steps on simple procedures, once that is done then go onto another. There is so much you can do now, even with the new elements. You will soon be creating your own brushes, patterns and shapes if you have photoshop itself. When you get frustrated at a step write it down either in a little book to keep beside the computer or in word .... the little book can be easier so you don't have to flip between the software
There is definitely a bit of a learning curve.
Photoshop has Simplified many tasks. It does have a learning curve, but if you start out slow and learn the basics first the rest will fall in place and it will make it easier to understand tutorials.