Five Great Podcasts

These are some Photoshop podcast that give you great advice, tutorials, and tips on Photoshop, and more.
creativecow.com
photoshopsupport.com
apple.com:
which is takes you to some iTunes podcast.
learnoutloud.com
youtube has some Photoshop podcast as well.

Ten Good Sites for Finding Photoshop Tutorials

tutsplus.com:

Some tutorials are free and some are premium which you have to join to access, $19 monthly, or $15 a month yearly.

photoshoptutorials.ws:

Photoshop tutorials, video tutorials, downloads, creative inspirations, and other tutorials.

photoshopstar.com:

Free Adobe Photoshop tutorials, Photoshop basics and tools, effects, freebies, graphic design, photo effects, text effects, web graphics, and web design.

goodtutorials.com:

Photoshop tutorials from different sites.

photoshoplady.com:

3D effects, abstract effects, drawing effects, photo effects, text effects, texture and patterns, and UI designs.

tutorialized.com:

Adobe Photoshop tutorials, photo retouch, scripting, web layouts, buttons, animation, and much more.

smashingmagazine.com:

Photoshop tutorials their categories are coding, design, graphics, ux design, wordpress, and community.

photoshopcafe.com:

Special effects, text effects, photo tutorials, textures, web design, misc, and they have video tutorials.

photoshopessentials.com:

Retouching, effects, basics, text effects, digital, tips and tricks, and free brushes.

pslover.com:

Tutorials from other sites.

Ten Resources for Stock Images

Shutterstock.com:

18,75,023 Royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, and vectors. Over eighteen million stock photos by subscription. 25-A-Day subscriptions are up to 750 hi-res downloads for one month is $249. Download anytime for one year 1 hi-res image $19, 5 hi-res images $49.

Corbisimages.com

Registration is free.

Bigstock.com:

Ten million photos and vectors. You can pay as you go $2.99, $4.99, $8.99, and $12.99 or you can stock up and save with credit packs.

istockphoto.com:

Photos, illustrations, audio, video, and flash

sxc.hu:

Free stock photos

epictura.com:

Stock images, Royalty-Free Image bank. $1 stock photos premium stock images over 5,000 photo CD's and photo subscriptions.

jupiterimages.com

fotolia.com:

16,201,239 Royalty-Free stock photos and the registration is free.

dreamstime.com:

Download high quality royalty-free images for as low as $0.20 and image or free images and registration is free.

freestockimages.com

100% free photos to download.

Ten Resources for Photoshop Textures and Brushes

Textures:

Free Photoshop Textures:

Wood, paint, floor, stone, fabric, architecture,  animal, sky, etc.

CG Textures

FBrushes:

Free brushes, patterns, and textures.

Lost & Taken

Graphic Mania:

High quality old paper bag textures

Design River:

Must purchase for commercial use.

Designer Daily:

Free for use as long as you don't sell.

Creative Fan:

Two million textures from different people.

UBrushes:

184 free Photoshop brush sets with over 5,000 plus brushes.

Brushes:

Brusheezy:

Free photoshop brushes, patterns and textures

My Photoshop Brushes.com:

39 free ornament Brushes

Brush King:

Free photoshop brushes, abstract, vectors, grundge and more.

Photoshop Brushes.eu:

High quality free photoshop brushes.

Photoshop Brushes.com:

Free textures and brushes.

PS brushes.net:

Free brushes, oriental, human, religious, music, landscapes, and much more.

Qbrushes.net:

Free photoshop brushes.

Adobe.com:

Photoshop brushes some free and some you have to buy.

Ten Rules of Composition

Rule of Thirds:

The thought is if you place points in the intersections or along the lines, in your photo becomes more balanced, thus the viewer of the image will interact to it more naturally. When viewing images people's eyes usually go to the intersection points more naturally rather than the center of the shot.

Golden Section Rule:

The image is divided into nine unequal parts with four lines. Each line is down so the width of the small part of the image relates to the width of the big part of the image. The intersecting points make the "golden" point of the picture.

Diagonal Rule:

One side of the photo is divided into two, each half is then divided into three parts. The bordering side is divided  so the connecting lines that make the points form a diagonal frame. The important elements of the photo should be placed along the diagonals.

Leading Lines:

Leading lines can be straight, diagonal, curvy, zigzag, radial, etc. Leading lines are lines in an image that leads the eye to another point in the image, or out of the image. Anything with a definite line could be a leading line, fences, bridges, or a shore line.

View Point:

View point is how you want the viewer to see your image. How you want your photo to be viewed. Instead of just taking the photo head on, take it from the side, the back, from far away, or from very close up and so forth.

Depth:

You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the background and middle-ground.

Framing:

By using natural frames such as trees, archways and holes placed around the edge of the composition you isolate the main subject from the outside world. This results in a more naturally focused main point of interest.

Cropping:

Often times a photo will lack impact because the main focal point is so small it gets lost in its surroundings. However by cropping close up to the focal point, you eliminate the background "noise", taking the viewers undivided attention.

Simplicity:

If your focal point is close, the background needs to be very simple to avoid distractions. Try to keep everything not important less interesting than the focal point.Particularly avoid lines or objects that lead the eye away from the focal point.

Texture:

People imagine what it feels like to touch what is in a photo. Texture is a good idea when taking pictures of rocks, walls, surfaces, someones hands, or leaves. To make a photo reveal texture make sure the light is coming almost exactly from the side of the surface so it creates shadows in key places.

Tutorials

I honestly don't understand the meaning of tutorials in school. I thought we were paying the teachers/instructors/professors to teach us not now to directions from a text? I personally am one of those people who don't learn anything from a tutorial. I learn by someone teaching me, showing me a couple of times how to do it, explaining it and myself practicing. Tutorials to me are just instructions in a book as if you were assembling something, you don't quite know how to do it nor understand the instructions you just follow them. And as for me, I don't comprehend things well, I have to be shown a few times some more than others then I have to practice more than once. I can't just read something and pick up on it; my mind unfortunately doesn't work that way. I just wish they would leave tutorials for guides of self teaching/studying and leave the classroom teaching/instruction to the teachers!

Recreation of a Movie Poster

 I have to recreate a movie poster. This should be interesting. I have to recreate the poster with my own uniqueness, from the font, text, title, background, people, etc. I've never considered the difficulties until now. I have decided to recreate Final Destination 3, which is going to be allot of fun on my part. I have researched the pictures and seen the DVD covers so I have an idea at least a thought process going. However I want this poster to be one of the best projects I've done thus far and possibly become one of my most proudest in the future. I find this poster may be a test of my skills that I've learned so far, to see how much I've learned, how much I've obtained, and maybe to see if I can stand on my own? perhaps? I don't know yet, but we are about to find out.