9 Free Resources for Learning Photoshop

1. Adobe Tutorials
For a thorough introduction to the basics of Photoshop, starting at the source might be your best bet. Adobe provides tutorial videos that include everything from basic tool tours to step-by-step instructions on how to create a panorama. The commentary is a little vanilla, but it gets the job done.

2. You Suck at Photoshop
Mix together a healthy amount of sarcasm, a handful of cuss words, and a narrator apparently bitter about a recent divorce to Adobe's tutorials, and you get the more entertaining and appropriately named Photoshop tutorial out there: You Suck at Photoshop. Using creative examples (like how to Photoshop a "treacherous commitment band" wedding ring out of a photo), Donnie Hoyle gives step-by-step instructions for practical Photoshop tricks.

3. YouTube
If there's a Photoshop feat you're hoping to conquer, chances are there is a YouTube video that can help you. These ten videos will get you started.

4. Toolkit Tutorial
Photoshop icons can be mystifying to the uninitiated, but it's much easier to figure out how to work in Photoshop if you start with an awareness of its basic tools. This tutorial teaches you what all those little Photoshop graphics mean and when to use each tool.

5. Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet
Learning the keyboard shortcuts for the most frequent operations will save your time and your wrists. Print out a cheat sheet to keep by your computer for easy reference as you memorize.

6. Photoshop Forums
Sometimes it's best to ask. If you have a question about Photoshop, find it in an existing thread or create your own on this forum.

7. Special Effect Tutorials
Bored with cropping and color correction? Jump into dramatic layouts and artistic effects -- like "How to create a space girl photo manipulation" -- on this site.

8. Free Brush Roundup
Like painters, Photoshop geeks choose different brushes to create different effects on photos. Brushes determine the shape of the line that the paint brush tool and eraser create. Experiment with the free brushes that are rounded up on this site. This tutorial will teach you how to install them, and this tutorial will help you "brush up" on potential designs using brushes.  

9. Troubleshooting Photoshop for Dummies
Like most large programs, Photoshop occasionally freezes, freaks out, or otherwise ignores what you want it to do. Follow the steps in this free troubleshooting guide to fix the problem or to bail out by shutting the program down.