Tips for Writing Photoshop Tutorials

January 14, 2010 by Rebecca | 0 comments

The Need for Tutorials

Nobody is born knowing how to use Photoshop. Good designers spend time playing with Photoshop and trying new things, but tutorials can also be a critical learning tool. The community of Photoshop users will always know more than any individual designer. Writing a tutorial is easy. Writing a good tutorial takes time and skill.

Evaluate Tutorials by Others

  • If you like a tutorial, ask yourself why you like it. Try to apply these attributes to your own tutorials when practical.
  • If you do not like a tutorial, what are the problems? Do the tutorials you write also have these weaknesses?
  • What tutorials have already been made by other people? If there are already 20 (or 100) tutorials posted on major sites that are almost identical to yours consider whether you are really contributing by posting your tutorial.

Before you Start Writing the Tutorial

  • Trying to remember what you did after you have finished can be difficult. Maybe you know you used curves, but you don’t remember the exact settings. Perhaps you know you tried a multiply layer, but you can’t remember whether you later deleted it. Do not overestimate how much you will remember.
  • Keep the PSD file. Even if you decide not to write a tutorial this will make it easier for you to create something similar in the future.
  • Make adjustments using a separate Adjustment Layer rather than by adjusting the layer itself. This also makes it easier if you decide later in your design process that want to change or get rid of that adjustment.

Writing and Testing the Tutorial

  • Explain each step clearly. Make it look good is not a step. Add noise is not helpful unless you give your readers information about how much noise to add. A better alternate is I used #00033. Depending on your photo you may need to choose a lighter color.
  • Remember to explain why you are doing each step. The picture looked washed out so I increased the saturation by 10.
  • If a step requires a certain program and version, but there is an alternate method for achieving a similar effect including this alternate will increase the number of people who find your tutorial useful.
  • It is better to error on the side of explaining too much than to explain too little. Someone can always skim past the part they already know. They cannot read your mind to learn the information you did not include.
  • Proofread your tutorial. Most people will forgive the occasional typo, but make sure that the tutorial is readable.
  • Check that the images load and the links work. If you are posting the tutorial to your own site validating your pages and checking them on Browsershots or a similar site will help ensure that the most people can use your tutorial.
  • Humor doesn’t always translate well in written form especially when it is being read by a stranger. Insulting your reader is not an encouragement for them to come back to your site (or even finish reading the tutorial).
  • If you are using Photoshop decide whether to provide a PSD file. Providing one may increase people’s interest in your tutorial, but it is likely that at least one person will take the PSD and simply paste a picture into it. If you do provide a PSD provide the terms for using it just as you would for any other resource.
  • The internet is international. If you are posting in English be aware of regional variations. Making a Flat in Photoshop is going to confuse some Americans and other English speakers for whom the term is apartment.
  • After you have written your tutorial follow it to ensure you get the expected result. Minor typos can have a major effect and often they are not as easy to catch as coding or general typos. The difference between Teh and The is obvious. The fact you meant 3, 16, 8 and accidentally typed 3, 26, 8 on your color balance settings may not be as apparent.

The Practicalities of Posting

  • Choose a title that helps someone quickly figure out what the tutorial will teach them. Creating A Dark and Stormy Night is a much more helpful title than Scary Tutorial.
  • Mention what resources people will need at the beginning of the tutorial. Having to track down a texture in the middle of a tutorial can be frustrating.
  • Labeling your tutorial based on the level of expected knowledge is a good idea.
    Mention the program and version. Let someone using Photoshop 7 or Paint Shop Pro X know whether your tutorial will work for them.
  • If you use other people’s resources credit them. Check their terms of use and do not make their resources available for download if it goes against their terms of use.
  • Take advantage of social networking. If you have a Twitter account, Tweet your new tutorial. If you have a del.icio.us account, bookmark it.
  • While promotion is good, spam is not. Do not comment on someone else’s tutorial for drawing birds with the comment, Nice. Check out my tutorial for making planets. Commenting on other sites or tutorials can increase how many people see your tutorial, but excessive self-promotion tends to backfire.
  • Submit your tutorial to tutorial collection sites. Make sure you submit them to the best category and think carefully about your description. This is a time for concise accuracy rather sounding like sounding like the subject line of a spam email.
  • If your tutorial is posted somewhere that allows for comments check them and respond to questions. Be honest about your skills and experience. I have never used that program so I don’t know is an acceptable response.
  • Being on the internet sometimes means dealing with spam, rude people with entitlement issues, and outright trolls. Chances are that a particular tutorial will attract any of these people, but it is always a possibility.

Photoshop Tutorial Links

This is a heavy edited version of the list I initially posted on Literary Spring.

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