Do you think that photoshop cs3 tutorials are enough for becoming a professional or do you need a specialized course?

Tutorial is not enough. you need:

1- Knowledge: to understand methodologies behind the article.

2- Practice: find a simple case to practice each small order in Photoshop and cover all aspects of using the tool.

3- Experience: find a big case as a project to gain the experience of interacting with the market/customers.

 

tutorials is a just a references for designers' experience to enhance yours.

It needs an instructional course with a hard project to work on to become professional .

Tutorials are a great way to get started and get familiar with Photoshop, but specialized courses teach you the essential skills you need to work professionally, it would teach you all the possible ways to do any effect instead of following one method that may not apply in all situations.

 

They also cover the very basics like preparing the document, shortcuts for a smooth workflow and teach you the basic knowledge of things like what's the difference between color codes, what's masking, and so on....

 

Basically, the right professional courses - which teach the essential skills, instead of just listing what each tool does - will make you capable of using the software to achieve your desired goals independently, while tutorials act as guides to achieve a specific effect.

 

So if you had trouble following a tutorial, like the background was too complex to extract from, or you're not getting the desired final look, the knowledge you gain from professional courses will help you identify the problem and fix it yourself, or use a different tool for the same outcome.

Yes. When CS3 was out, there were profesionals already. Later versions as Adobe CS4,5,6...are only corporate try to sell something "new" or different. CS3 works perectly on Windows XP but having some minor issues with VISTA or7 and its32bit package meaning it can not use more than2/3 GB of system RAM (memory) while later64bit versions are able to use much more and it allows work on bigger files... still, it doesnt mean you can not be a pro with CS3!!!