what are the coolest features you discovered?

[x-man]

What is some of the coolest features you have discovered while playing around/using Photoshop? Im just learning, and would like to know what other's experiences have been, and anything that you could tell me about/teach me so I can stay excited about it while Im tediously learning. Thanks!

[jumlm]

There are a lot of books that have been written about using Photoshop. I think that the author/photographer Scott Selby probably has the best books out. That's how I started.

I like the ability to combine half of two pictures and then fade from one to the other.

Another cool feathure is to take a subject and separate it from the background and then make the background black and white and leave the subject in color.

You can also enhance colors from hazy shades to brilliant shades.

Another feature is to copy a picture into separate layers and then apply a blur onto an overlaying layer causing a soft focus effect. It looks cool on babies pictures.

Then you can get rid of facial blems and make some look prettier or even thinnner and taller.

Have fun!

[;-)

.

[mfs27]

My advice is to buy the official Adobe Photoshop how-to-book, and go through the entire CD/book tutorial. They get you started out with the basics, then eventually teach you the cool stuff This book is amazing! A bit pricey, but worth every penny!

[POL Support]

making a photo sepia

[likbez]

Making my own 3D images. That is cool.

[Piotr]

I use the burn brush way to much....
it helps a lil to go to youtube and type in what you want to learn
like
change your eye color
or
hair color

[sanjaypande]

My favorite feature is layers. If you want to change a background color, for example, you can make different layers visible until you get the right combination.

I use gimp more than photoshop, since it is free and it works in Linux and Windows.

http://gimp.org

Amazon has a lot of photoshop books.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.am azon.com%2Fs%3Furl%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks%26field-keywords%3Dphotoshop%26Go.x%3D0%26Go.y%3D0%26Go%3D Go&tag=systemnotesor-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325"

Try a search for online tutorials, as there are a lot of good ones.

[alexander]

There are some great books out there for inspiration, I particularly found some of the books published by Friends of ED amazing, Photoshop Unleashed by them was incredible. I was in a bit of a creative rut, and those books definitely were able to get me inspired again.

[deathofrats]

My favorite is the gradient tool and the pattern tool It saves so much trouble when it comes to illustration since you do not have to buy the actual tones, and it makes the image appear much more professional.

[SYNRG]

Probally the clone tool, it helps with any white spaces or any area's you want to fill in, also the fill pattern tools, and being able to make your own patterns and brushes.

[That1TyGuy]

I love almost all of the features in Photoshop but my favorite are the feather tools and blending multiple images together so they can smoothly look like one picture.

[webmasterneo]

I love almost everything about Photoshop. I say almost because I don't think I've discovered them all yet. I specially like the cloning and the fill/pattern tools.

[That1TyGuy]

Yea, I'm like WebmasterNeo, I love EVERYTHING about photo shop. Even though the cost is outrageous to the normal budget of a normal person it is still very nice and you can do a ton with it. The possibilities are endless with the use of photo shop on any image.

[lovely16]

In Illustroter I Love Graphicstyle

[mikefootprint]

Too much to list! cs2 is great!!!