the best way to learn photoshop is to read books first and get familiar with all the tools. Once you do that, then you can watch the many youtube videos that demonstrate all the tricks that photoshop can do. I've been working as a pro in photoshop for over 15 years and always find new features that I never new existed. Now with CS5, you can clone entire backgrounds with the click of a mouse, saving hours of production time.
I just clicked on every thing to see what it did. Took a while and got some mad results but it was well worth it.
In college our teacher pointed us to Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a book and lynda.com. If you need to see how the tools are used I highly recommend lynda.com Photoshop tutorials. There are a lot of free videos and tutorials online, but if you're serious about learning I would go here to learn from a professional. The courses are in depth, in logical order and have lessons walking you through the steps. The online tutorials leave you wanting more. I have been using Photoshop for about 7 years and use about 20% of what the program can do. Don't be overwhelmed by it. It is just a tool. If you're going to be doing a lot of web design layouts, Fireworks might actually be a better tool to use in the beginning, because you have more control of the layers.
School, tutorials, and competition. I'm entering a comp this week! I just got my ACA certification, so i have a shitload of free time in class atm to work on personal stuff and random tuts.
I'm learning photoshop on my own. In my opinion if you have enough patience you can successfully learn such things without anyones help.
i m learne photoshop using web resourse. if you wanna learn your self you can. but it takes years of times to convert to an expert. you can use tutorialized and psdtuts to learn advanced techniques in photoshop. if you know the basic it is easy to follow the web resourses like above. definetly try above websites.
Simply visit some tutorial website here are some nice websites for tutorials: http://www.ultimatedesignertoolkit.com http://www.psdtuts.com http://www.insanelyart.com
In my point of view, after getting some basic knowledge, try to edit pictures, templates, & share your problems with others through forums, you can become an expert in near future
you can go to this site for tutorials.. http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/12-beginner-tutorials-for-getting-started-with-photoshop/ photoshoptutorialforbeginners.com or go to the help section of photoshop you are using..there you will find most of your problems..
I started fairly young, just messing around retouching photos, then went through a ton of tutorials on Spoono and Good-Tutorials. Tutorials are really good because they teach you different tools, but don't rely on them forever, just pay attention, mess with settings, etc. If you don't know what a certain Photoshop tool does, just Google it and find as much information as possible, it takes awhile but if you stay with it you'll become proficient.
Trial n Error with the tools is the best way to learn. tutsplus.com is from my point of view is the best site from where one can learn from basic to advance.