Little did I know when I was 5 years old and my parents gave me a Brownie Camera that I would grow up to be a professional photographer.

Believe me, I took lots of motel doors and clouds that vacation and then received my first economics lesson from my mother when I handed her the camera and asked for the photos in return.

"Where's your money for the developing?" Mom asked. Lesson delivered, lesson received!

But when the digital revolution came about and I bought my first Nikon D1x and then my Nikon D2x, I was thrilled that I didn't have to pay to see the photographs.

Well... didn't have to pay in cash, but I sure paid in HOURS in front of the computer as I slaved away learning Photoshop.

I admit that I didn't start out with Photoshop. I used Ulead's PhotoImpact first - and it's still a great little program for almost no money as opposed to Photoshop which is huge, expensive, but really delivers the quality when you know how to use it.

My own background is as a Family Portrait Photographer, Wedding Photographer, Bar Mitzvah Photographer, Bat Mitzvah Photographer, and Theater Photographer. My cameras quickly become an extension of my eye and mind, but I know that only about 40% of my effort is created on location - the other 60% is created with Photoshop.

And it doesn't really matter how great or expensive your camera is: I could still do great work with that Brownie Camera today (well, if I could remember how to load film in it. Film? What's film? Hey, just kidding, but the digital cameras are so great these days it's important to know that EVERY photo will be digital - either as it comes out of the camera OR after it is scanned (which introduces more noise and dirt) if you are going to use the power of Photoshop). 

As someone who has spent hours with the manual, asking questions at seminars, and attending classes in Photoshop, I that you watch someone using the program and learn step-by-step.

For instance:

Want to lighten an entire image? Use Control J to create a new layer and then change the mix to SCREEN and then adjust the amount.

And if you want only PART of the image lighted using that technique, now click Alt and the little icon for MASK and you'll see that the mask is filled with black (in effect not letting any light though). Not take your paintbrush, paint with white just on the part you want lighted and VOILA!

Now... be honest: was that REALLY the easiest way to learn how to do that? Wouldn't it have been MUCH easier if I SHOWED you with a short video?

Adobe Photoshop is a very comprehensive and complete program with hundreds of features, and if you are like most people, you will probably use less than 37% of the program's power.

So how do you decide what is important to learn?

1. Trial and error.

2. Search the manual for topics you THINK will be helpful.

3. Get help from someone who is already making money from photography and knows how to use Photoshop efficiently for enhancing images.

And since you can't afford the time of a pro photographer to help you (my own fee is about $3700 a day even without taking one photograph), get yourself the best video lessons around!

SO much better than slogging your way through a manual.