photo manip.

obviously you all know i suck booty at photomanipulations, if you haveseen the challenge site, i was just wonder if any of you knew a good way to learn how to improve on this talent i wasnt given

A HUGE but often overlooked truism about working on anything in Photoshop:

"The majority of your work has to do with making good selections. After that, it's pretty much up to your design sense."

Interpreted....learn every possible method and tool for isolating what it is you want to manipulate, and when to use which method(s) most efficiently, predicated by the object and content...lasso, magic wand, adjustment layers, paths, color range, Find Edges, Alpha Channels, eraser, quick Mask....everything...after that, most of what you'll want to do is gravy.

There's nuthing much to teach... Its your own creativity to make that photo into whatever it is you want it to be.

Example : Shadowness.com

The pretty models used are from photos, extracted and airbrushed and cleaned up. Then made to look like humanoids with 3dmax...

Its all in You