It just takes practice and time. I've been using Photoshop for over 13 years now since version 2.5... and before layers.

Dunno... that's been an odd question asked to me before, and one I can't really answer without some direction of the question.

But the best thing... jump in on some of the open battles in the Arena, such as the Kung-Fu thread, or the others... and then pick up clues and tricks from all of us in the Arena via our critiques - just keep an open mind. We're all there having fun doing stuff that most clients would never pay for... so there's a bit of experimentation going on there too.

Hint #1... avoid filters. They "cheap" an image imho.