Photoshop

Photoshop allows designers, photographers and web creators to produce all kinds of graphics by manipulating and composing scanned or drawn images, using powerful layering and masking techniques and a wealth of special effect filters.
 

 
Learn how to optimise your images for print or for the web.
 
BASICS
·          Overview of the Photoshop CS3 interface
·          Bitmaps and vectors explained
·          Image modes
·          Image size and resolution
·          Image colour concepts  

BASIC TOOLS AND COLOUR
·          Overview of the Photoshop toolset
·          Brushes and brush types
·          Adjusting brushes
·          Choosing colours by eye
·          Numerical colour
·          Pantone colour
·          Do's and don’ts of choosing colours
·          The background image
·          Erasing and canvas colour  

SELECTION
·          Essential image navigation shortcuts
·          The marquee tools
·          Adding and subtracting selections
·          Automatic selection using the wand tool
·          Automatic selection using the quick selection brush
·          Manual cut-out techniques
·          Transforming a selection
·          Understanding selection edges
·          Refining selection edges
·          Saving and reloading a selection  
 
 
LAYER MASKS
·          Introduction to the power of layer masks
·          Creating a layer mask from a selection
·          Modifying a layer mask using the paintbrush tool
·          Tricks for modifying mask edges for cut-out
·          The gradient tool and masks  

LAYERS - COMBINING IMAGES
·          Layer blending modes
·          Layer opacity
·          Transforming and distorting layers
·          Working with multiple layers
·          Creating montages  

IMAGE ADJUSTMENTS
·          Destructive verses non-destructive techniques
·          Using adjustment layers
·          Levels explained
·          Colour balance and colour balance considerations
·          Hue and saturation
·          Selective adjustments using masks  

FILTERS
·          An overview of filters and their uses
·          Pixel (100%) view and what it means
·          Advantages of using smart filters
·          Image sharpening in detail
·          Image blurring
·          Selective filtering 
 
 
LAYER EFFECTS
Overview of layer effects Applying drop shadow Applying other layer effects
STEPS TO PREPARE AN IMAGE FOR END USE
Opening an image using Adobe Bridge Scan resolution and dpi explained in depth Reference to colour bit depth Cropping and sizing (the quick way) Image adjustments using levels, colour balance and hue/saturation Further correction to images using Shadow/highlight Re-touching using the clone tool Re-touching using the healing tool The new Clone Source Palette
 
FILE FORMATS
Considerations when choosing a file format Common file formats explained