Photoshop and web design

September 13, 2010 3:00 PM

What is the best reference (book, class, web tutorial) for learning how to use PhotoShop in web design, specifically the creation of headers?

I took a class online to learn Dreamweaver and bought the book "Dreamweaver CS5, the Missing Manual," but I still needed additional training in creating header designs. I'm sure most professionals use Photoshop to layout their design and create visually attractive headers. Any guidance will be appreciated.

posted by jcbach to technology (6 answers total)

I'm not sure what you're exactly looking for in terms of headers, but here are 70 text effect tutorials and 100 general Photoshop tutorials.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:16 PM on September 13, 2010

The type of header you design will be dependent on whether your page is fixed or fluid, so you should keep that in mind. [Self-link, but somewhat helpful, I hope - you've also reminded me to write a tutorial just for PhotoShop that will work with the linked lesson(s)]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:43 PM on September 13, 2010

If you think you will need enough additional tutorials to justify the cost, I've found Lynda.com and safari books online to both be super-duper useful. For example, with safari, you could take all the suggestions people give you here for books and access them online for like 30 bucks a month (I forget the actual amount).
posted by OlivesAndTurkishCoffee at 5:07 PM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

In the nicest possible way, you appear to be mistaking one thing for another. Photoshop is a tool -- it doesn't make you creative any more than a set of scalpels makes you a surgeon.

If you had reached the point where you knew you wanted to make a certain type of image -- a design which looked like smoke, say, or which used a spiral, or had translucent images overlaid on each other, you could come here and ask specifically about those techniques: "How do I get a smoke effect in Photoshop?" and so on.

But you appear to be asking a more general question, "how do I make attractive and creative designs" which is in essence, nothing to do with Photoshop.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:09 PM on September 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

You are correct about Photoshop as a tool and I do need to be more specific. I want to create a header with the words, "Toledo Campus Ministry" and a graphic that includes the Jerusalem cross. I'm not sure about the background.
posted by jcbach at 6:25 AM on September 15, 2010

I checked out both Lynda.com and Safari Online. I especially like the looks of Lynda.com and a course by Tanya Staples entitled, "Photoshop CS2 for the Web Essential Training."
posted by jcbach at 6:31 AM on September 15, 2010