Learning how to use photoshop elements

I took a class on PSE through www.ed2go.com that was pretty good. I learned the hard way that the exact same classes can sometimes be taken for less money through a local school's community ed, so that is an option worth exploring. I want to say it was 12 lessons over 6 weeks, and I still refer back to my reference printouts from that class all the time.

What do you want to do in PSE?
alter photos?
Make collages?
Digi scrap?

There are a lot of free tutorials out there but if you want more structure and support a class may be the best. CZ had a couple of videos that helped me some basic ideas that got me started. I started with collages and went from there, researching what I needed when I needed it instead of trying to learn everything at once.

I took all of my PSE classes with Jessica Sprague. She is a fantastic instructor. Her classes are atTHIS LINK at her website.

It can be intimidating but it is definitely worth the time/money to learn how to use it.

The method you choose to learn should be determined by what type of learner you are. If you are a visual learner, then I highly recommend Cathy or Jessica Sprague. A bonus to learning from them is that they will give you tips and tricks applicable to memory keeping and photo editing.

If you absorb more by reading, there are several really good books, including Photoshop Elements for Dummies. I used it many years ago and found it very helpful, long before Cathy or Jessica had classes. It is not an expensive book and it was nice to be able to refer to it quickly rather than search for the answer on Google.

In the beginning I didn't use the Adobe tutorials much so I can't really speak to them except to say that I found them to be more helpful for an intermediate or advanced student. I think they are great to learn how to do specific things but not so much for a beginner.

Also, many of the digital stores and/or designers have tutorials on their message boards and blogs which I have also been found to be very helpful.

For photo editing, Scott Kelby's books, The Photoshop Elements 13 (or whatever version you have) Book for Digital Photographers, are amazing! For digi scrapping, Designer Digitals has some great free tutorials and I too learned quite a bit from Jessica Sprague. The old 2Peas digi board used to be fantastic! Asked a lot of questions and learned a bunch from the great peas over there. You could probably ask questions here too - I'm sure there are digi scrappers who can help you on this board too. 

I purchased a couple of books off ebay. I have PS11. I bought The Photoshop Elements 11 The missing manual and the one by Scott Kelby. I think between the two books and youtube I should be ok. 

I wanted to bump this because I noticed a free class on PSE listed today www.creativelive.com in case anyone can catch it. Usually after the live broadcast they rerun it later that day or on the following weekend.