Adobe Photoshop Advanced
Course Outline
Advanced Level
Photoshop is so much more than an image-editor: its layers, channels, paths and adjustments, combined with actions and histories, make it a veritable power tool for all those dealing with photographic imagery. From enhancements to special effects, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
Useful to you if:
you need to produce professional-standard enhanced retouching, repairs, or complex photographic effects.
Before the course, you should:
- be using Photoshop regularly and confidently;
- be using layers, paths and channels with ease;
- be familiar with shortcuts, filters and the main palettes and menubar options.
At the end of the day’s course you will:
- have produced a complex layered file, special typographic effects, and a photo-montage with cloning;
- be armed with advanced tips on how to improve workflow;
- be confident using actions, masks, and adjustment layers;
- be aware of integration issues between this and other software;
- know some expert-user keyboard shortcuts.
Course contents (may vary slightly):
Fundamentals recap
- Title bar window spec.s
- Colour wheel, colour channels
- Histograms, modes, colour management
- CMYK-RGB conversion: issues
- System requirements, scratch disks
- Palette management
Tools and Palettes
- Options, browsing
- Vector tools
Paths and selections
- Cutouts, considerations, paths to selections
- Multiple path export, channel - path - export
- Selections: modifying, transforming, colour range, variations
- Alpha channel selections and combinations
- Bump maps, masks, calculations
- Perspective straightening
Colour conversion
- Colour mode conversion, gamut warnings (view)
- Colour sampler; info palette
- Adding to swatches
- Specials; procedure for 5th colours
Layers
- Layer effects, layer modes, layer styles
- Changing order
- Masking adjustments
Adjustments
- Levels, curves, adjustment layers
- Shadow/highlight, histogram
- Correcting colour casts; variations (parameters)
- Spot colours, duotone specifics, EPS and DCS
- Info palette, colour sampler
Restorative work
- Blur/gaussian blur (web + focal considerations)
- Noise: dust and scratches, sharpen/unsharp mask
- Channel separations
- High pass, blending options
Simple effects
- Photographic edges, neon type, photo-montage
- Layer modes, styles
- Realistic reflections, shadows
- Plug-ins, filters
- Posterisation, solarisation, Inverting
- Brush effects, history brush
- 3d, filters, plug-ins
- Distortion warps
Resolution
- Print requirements vs web requirements, JPG standards, PNGs etc
- Pixel dimensions
- Canvas size, crop tool specifics
Workflow
- Quick colour selection
- Drag-dropping multiple layer, folders and layers, position on paste
- Best formats, optimising for web: 1-4 up, droplets
- Actions: recording, saving, setting up batch process
Saving
- Save options, file formats for inDesign, web etc
- Placing in Illustrator
- Archiving, printing
- Keyboard shortcuts
Project achievements:
- Complex layered files
- Special typographic effects
- Photo-montage