Adobe Photoshop is an amazing graphic design tool full of comprehensive, rich features. However, even if you are a master designer, there is always room to improve to your skills. Of course, this is even truer if you are relatively new to Photoshop. These are just a few tips that can help improve your Photoshop abilities.

Fundamentals

Photoshop offers a tremendous variety of capabilities; learning the fundamentals of the program, therefore, is essential before moving too far ahead. Learning the foundation of Photoshop will improve both your knowledge of the program and the quality of your finished projects. So if you are a beginner, avoid any advanced tutorials; instead, take time to get familiar with the basics of the program. Whether you are following a tutorial or working on a complex project, a firm knowledge of the interface, available tools and keyboard shortcuts will make things much easier.

Study

The internet is full of websites and blogs that publish Photoshop tutorials. Look through several tutorials on the same topic to see how different sites present the material. Some sites may provide videos; others, screenshots with written instructions, and still others, merely instructions without images. Different tutorials will work better for different people, so try a few until you find the one that works best for your learning style. Work through a few tutorials weekly and then attempt the concepts on your own. With Photoshop, completing the tutorial and working through the process several times will help you learn.

Experiment

Following tutorials is an extremely helpful way to learn, but it is also important to simply open Photoshop and begin testing out its various functions. Attempt to incorporate principles you learn from your tutorials, as well as any unfamiliar functions you find interesting. Photoshop may seem overwhelming at first, but experimenting and trying new things will greatly increase your comfort with the program.

Share

After experimenting and following tutorials, you may find it helpful to get feedback from more experienced designers. Many different forums and groups for graphic designers can be found online. These groups allow you to share your work with others that are interested in improving their skills as well.

Read

The graphic design field has an abundance of resources readily available online; unfortunately, that makes it easy to forget about offline options. Traditional print design magazines and books can sometimes offer more thorough and in-depth content than that found online.

Browse

Subscribing to online galleries that show work by other artists can be the perfect source of inspiration. Galleries are a great muse when you begin experimenting on your own, and they make it easy to browse through a large quantity of work quickly. If you subscribe to a gallery, you will receive updates regularly and have a continuous source of inspiration.

Replicate

Replicating the work of other designers can be a great way to polish and improve your Photoshop skills. Finding a design that you like and attempting to copy it for learning purposes only is acceptable. Of course, this is simply a practice exercise; you should never distribute the result, sell it or attempt to pass the work off as your own. Attempting to replicate a design gives you the opportunity to work towards a finished product goal similar to real projects.