How do i start slowly teaching my friend how to edit her photos with photo software, without overwhelming her?

ok, so my friend saw a few pictures i had posted on facebook of some of our friends that i had edited [[colored their hair, other things in the picts, tanned them, whitened teeth, got rid of some acne, etc. basic edits]] and she asked me to do one for her [changed her hair from dirty blonde to black, tinted her eyes and her lips purple, lighened the photo, colored her phone from gray with a blue screen to red with an orange screen, and i tried very hard to get rid of the pixelatedness from her phone camera. lol]] and she loved it, and she said that she wished she knew how to do it, and i offered to help teach her how, and she accepted my offer. so i sent her links to both the corel website for paintshop pro [[which i use for 99% of my edits]] and also the adobe website for photoshop [[i have elements 7 and i rarely use it...it annoys me compared to my paint shop pro, even if my photoshop is newer...lol...[[i have psp XI, its 3 or 4 years old]]]]] and she said she was gonna download paint shop pro and photoshop from the free trials on the websites and go to bed, and i think im going to start helping her tomorow [[we have the day off school lol]].





but i realized, that while i love teaching people things,sometimes i mention too many things in the beginning and overwhelm them [[ive done it more than once with stuff :/]] and i just want to know, how can i try to teach her this over facebook IM and tell her what she needs to do, without totally overwhelming her?





thank you so much:]





p.s. does anyone know how different the new paint shop pros would be from a version like mine? thanks!How do i start slowly teaching my friend how to edit her photos with photo software, without overwhelming her?
TL; DRHow do i start slowly teaching my friend how to edit her photos with photo software, without overwhelming her?
Start with the easy stuff.





Resizing with emphasis on renaming modified files.


Using the level tool to set the black threshold, white threshold and mid-tone setting.


Later, you can introduce her to using layers and other tools needed to make corrections in skin texture or all out colour changes.





You do know that if she is a student she can buy the academic version of Photoshop in the student store, right? If she is a student in high school, with no student store, she can buy the academic version on line with her student ID.
begin with the basics and teach her what each tool does. [blur, dodge, burn, stamp heal....etc...]


Then go through things about the full image such as how to change the hue, color levels etc... of the full image. then you can show her how to do individual pieces. and how to select individual pieces.
i don't know anything about that program, but i can get you some tips about teaching people.


Start slowly and when i say slowly i mean one lesson per day. So pick a basic step %26amp; start with that. Get her to play with that step %26amp; go from there. When she gets a good feel for the program, teach her the next step.





Another good way is to get her to write the steps down so she remembers then. Like commands or where to find functions or whatever. Get her to write them down in her own words so she can practice. After a while she will start to remember where the functions are kept %26amp; what they do.





Patience is best. As they say...rome wasn't built in a day :D


Hope this helps x
Last question first: PSPP X3 has a new engine and is faster and has a couple of new tools but it's not so different that you'd notice anything different from your XI while doing the basics.





Teaching: She's seen what you can do and she's going to want to jump right in and do what you've done. I've noticed from the questions here on YA that a lot of people think the program does the photo editing and don't realize how much photo editing is hands on and takes practice. You're going to have to emphasize that the basic tweaks (resizing, levels, etc.) have to be done before the fun stuff. I'd introduce her to the Guided and Quick Editing workspaces in Elements and to the Learning Center (View%26gt;Palettes%26gt;Learning Center) and all the quick fixes (in the Adjust menu) in PSPP. She'll be able to instantly do something with her photos to make them look better and will be motivated to continue. She'll also be able to work by herself doing basic tweaks. She should also know how to use File%26gt;Save As.... and to give the edited photos' slightly different names so she doesn't destroy her original photos. She might want to print photos or upload to the web so resizing - Ugh! confusing! - needs to be gone over... probably more than once - but this takes a while to sink in so go easy with it.





All the fixes and resizing will give her a natural introduction to the workflow - the steps we do when we edit photos; first, the basic tweaks then the fun stuff can begin;-) Be sure to be sympathetic to the fact that she's not going to be familiar with a lot of the vocabulary of photo editing. If you toss in a ';photo editing word'; like ';workflow'; or ';levels'; or ';midtone contrast';, it's good to right away throw in the words normal people might understand like ';steps'; and ';light and shadows'; and ';the difference between the light and dark areas';. Next, I'd have her open and do the basic tweaks to a photo and then I'd take her through the Filters menu of Elements and the Effects menu of PSPP. These are always fun to do. With PSPP this would be the time to introduce the Makeover Tool and the Options bar - speaking of fun!!! She can play with this to her heart's content.





I guess the bottom line is to introduce the necessary stuff but to mix it up with fun stuff to keep her motivated. And always leave her with something easy she can do on her own without you. You have to go slowly and allow her to play with the tools and get a feel for how each of the programs works. Write down what you want to teach each time and allow plenty of time for her questions. As you help her learn the programs, things you didn't expect to will pop up so your basic lessons will always be more than you thought they were going to be. You're doing a great thing....have some fun yourself with it and enjoy the time you spend doing it.