There are a lot of Photoshop Video Podcasts out there, many directly brokered by the iTunes store. I’m a great podcast fan for storing interesting speech for driving, for the train and tube, but the video podcasts are not such a great idea on any medium other than one’s laptop, or I suppose an iPad, though I’m not sure if the screen is big enough on that.
There are 2 axes they can be judged on beyond the simple quality. One is how far away from the product they stray — are they about Photoshop, or are we in the 3D effects of Photoshop Extended, are we integrating with Adobe Illustrator. The other noticeable dimension is the photo to artwork axis, with some of the talks being in a zone delineated by the advertising message, and using techniques that work only in relatively low resolution.
My needs as an aspiring amateur stop at presenting my photographs well, whether for club competition, or as a gallery wrap canvas of a family portrait that someone’s prepared to pay for. so I’m only going to point you at ‘casts which meet my needs most of the time, and don’t overwhelm the viewer with advertising — some is OK to pay for the content after all, but some casts are 75% advert 20%chat and 5% content. I may be missing really good content because I haven’t found it (yet), but there are ‘casts that I’m deliberately not mentioning too.
So what shows am I finding Useful?
- Adobe Photoshop Quicktips hosted by Justin Seeley
About 80 episodes that stick nicely to the point. Starts with CS2 and moves to CS3 about half way, but is careful to show the CS2 way, as well as the easier methods from the newer version. Website is under reconstruction as a WordPress blog. - Photoshop User TV in association with Photoshop User Magazine and NAPP
Presenters Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, and David Cross.
Some pretty good tips, occasional equipment reviews, and two ads per half hour show for the books and (North American) training courses they produce. The shows are weekly, and there is a back catalogue of over 100 hours to download if you can stand it, all the way back to October 2005. One thing that is very noticeable is how the tools have changed over even such a short time. - Photoshop Killer Tips host Matt Kloskowski (above)
Nice short focused tips, every working day. Lots of back-issues to work through. NAPP is mentioned at the start, but there does not seem to be any other funding plug.
You can find all these by searching for photoshop podcasts on the iTunes Store, and they’re all free. That’s enough to get you started. Happy viewing, and please suggest other ‘casts in the comments.