The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

rolandpol

£500+ a day to learn photoshop is absurd.

if you truly are a noob then you won't learn much in a day. It'll take a long time.

i've been photoshopping for years (I develop websites as a foly/past-time) and my advice is to buy a book or join certain websites/communities and just stay at home and learn through trial & error.
It'll take a few weeks but you will definitely learn as much as you would do by paying silly money for a course.

eg. http://psd.tutsplus.com/

work your way through some of those and you'll be a pro in no time. only thing you really need is a willingness and commitment to learning.

fc123

rolandpol wrote: »

£500+ a day to learn photoshop is absurd.

if you truly are a noob then you won't learn much in a day. It'll take a long time.

i've been photoshopping for years (I develop websites as a foly/past-time) and my advice is to buy a book or join certain websites/communities and just stay at home and learn through trial & error.
It'll take a few weeks but you will definitely learn as much as you would do by paying silly money for a course.

eg. http://psd.tutsplus.com/

work your way through some of those and you'll be a pro in no time. only thing you really need is a willingness and commitment to learning.

It's about ''Best use of my time'' though.

Without turning the thread into a MeMeMe......If I have available 6 hours say, I should create and develop a new product....or I self teach myself a programme.
6 hours creating a new product could yield 30k or zero (cos that's how it works) or.....
I could faff around with 'help' (which I find unbelievably unhelpful and complicated) buttons driving myself mad/crazy learning how to import a pic or whatever. I currently do pics with word pic manager or something and can crop, enhance etc.

It's a time is money thing...which then sounds really ar££y..but YKWIM?

fc123

Here is some good practise.
Elle Mag are doing a writing competition. Subject '' What Style Means To You''. 900 words.
I know they are not looking for the old chestnuts like 'Style comes from within' and 'Style is a state of mind not a new season outfit from Selfridges' etc etc.

No link to comp as yet but here is front page scroll down a bit and look to the right.


And I will confess further. The reason I ended up doing what I do (and not something sensible like law which is what I was meant to do) was because I entered a BBC TV comp a long time ago and came 2nd.

I might give it a go myself.
Style means having your own outlet to sell it from....except I had to close mine due to avariscious propety unit trust playing games trying to prop up the market....perhaps not. A bit too heavy.

Dam I can't concentrate as they are shooting rabbits on the downs behind me again tonight. The pump pump echo of shotguns is such a vile sound.

dopester

fc123 wrote: »

It's about ''Best use of my time'' though.

Without turning the thread into a MeMeMe......If I have available 6 hours say, I should create and develop a new product....or I self teach myself a programme.
6 hours creating a new product could yield 30k or zero (cos that's how it works) or.....
I could faff around with 'help' (which I find unbelievably unhelpful and complicated) buttons driving myself mad/crazy learning how to import a pic or whatever. I currently do pics with word pic manager or something and can crop, enhance etc.

It's a time is money thing...which then sounds really ar££y..but YKWIM?

It is that time-to-money thing which gets me. As an example, in 2004 I was working on a project and was on a deadline for the content. We needed a cover design/artwork to go with it, and I knew I didn't have the time to do it, nor the design flair to make it look really appealing and special.

No matter how good the content, many people are inclined to judge books by the cover, so presentation is very important if you want them to buy or use. (ours wasn't a book though).

So I threw the work out to a designer forum. Deposited a bounty, and had the designers competing to provide their designs to my brief. Offering their ideas on the forums in low-res. One designer really caught what I wanted, and after asking for a few tweaks... the fee was released to her and I was sent the artwork to use, which was perfect. It really worked out well.

Random thread example from one of many design forums. There must be similar services for very capable freelancers on photoshop jobs, even minor ones.

Yes I'm all for learning photoshop and am reasonably good with it myself, but if I was seeking an extra special result, which would be complicated to achieve myself or beyond my creativity.... I'm not sure I want to waste money/time learning and using it.

Not when that money/time can be more profitable used elsewhere. Not when there are many skilled others who can be approached to get an advanced result at value prices.

Max_Headroom_3

That all sounds very impressive Dopestar. Actually I never did find out what it is that you do, sounds like you run a big company or something?

mewbie_2

dopester wrote: »

Not when that money/time can be more profitable used elsewhere. Not when there are many skilled others who can be approached to get an advanced result at value prices.

That sounds like an argument for never trying to do anything. The skilled others you speak of learnt their skill, and I am not talking about university / training course skills. That's a base but you need experience as well.

So how to break into something? Learn a bit, and try to sell it. Sell it cheap to start with, try to make contacts, get recommended. Not everyone needs an 'expert' - sometimes a keen amateur will do it - if they turn up on time, are polite and spend their time working.

It's not easy. But worth a shot for some, particularly people thinking of trying to branch out in these difficult times.

PasturesNew

The world is stuffed full of Media Studies students... I bet 75% of them do that stuff. Not a shortage of ability out there.

mewbie_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

The world is stuffed full of Media Studies students... I bet 75% of them do that stuff. Not a shortage of ability out there.

Not a shortage of ability. But you know Pastures there is a shortage of people who can actually turn up on time, and basically just do what they are asked to. Not something clever that they want to invent, not 50% work and 50% chat - just earn the money that they are being paid.

I am talking experts / consultants here - I don't expect permanent employees to ever achieve anything.

wigglebeena

SingleSue wrote: »

I'm one of the weird ones, I feel I have to justify every move I make when I go for my interviews at the job centre (ok it's not every 2 weeks but you still have to go from time to time).

I don't get the chance to watch those programmes either apart from the odd time when I am at my parents house and my mum has the telly on, too busy studying (ooppss that comes into the course bit of PN's post) or peeing about at the latest appointment or school meeting for the boys.

I hate not working, I hate not being seen as a worthwhile member of society (had it pushed down my throat the last 2 weeks from my aunt about how much better her children are than me and how much better my married sister in a minimum wage job is than me), I hate being thought of as some kind of dumb baby making machine despite with no brain at all and I hate having to rely on benefits, it's not my style and was never something I thought I would have to do when I started out on adult life.

Did you tell the ***** where to **** her *****? I would've.

PasturesNew

I spent today doing my thing ... wrote a tiny 9 page promo book (basic Word job as I don't have design skills)... uploaded that to three sites to see what happens. Then I tweeted a bit, blogged something, researched some stuff, wrote a draft of my next book and then nodded off.

I also checked the stats on an article I wrote yesterday and saw that it seemed to be doing well. Spent some time checking my ad stats too, turned off a couple of under-achieving campaigns.

Usual Sunday for me.