Fundamentals of Photoshop CS4

Objectives

This course is designed for anyone who needs to understand the fundamental features and uses of Photoshop and the best way to incorporate these into their work as a designer, photographer or retouching artist.


Pre-requisites:

Experience of the Windows or Macintosh operating system or previous attendance on the equivalent training course.


Course Includes:

A comprehensive set of reference notes covering course topics, follow-up telephone support and, for training on Transmedia premises, lunch and refreshments.


Course Outline


Photoshop fundamentals


What file sizes to expect; system requirements; file format differences such as raster/bitmap (e.g. TIFF) v. vector files (e.g. EPS)


Image input


Display and output: discussion of scanners, monitors, desktop printers, image setters and film recorders in the context of image quality and resolution


Colour theory


Additive and subtractive; perceptual colour - the eye, the monitor, the printed page; colour gamuts; device independent colour; Photoshop's CMYK preview mode; spot colours; duotones, bit depth - 8 and 16 bit


Application basics


The toolbox and panels; the colour picker; view modes; keyboard shortcuts; Navigation panels; using Adobe Bridge to find, sort and open images; N-up and multiple document view with tabs


Selection techniques


Creating selection areas; adding to and subtracting from Using quick selection and refinement tool; feathering and anti-aliasing; Quick Mask
Using the magnetic tools; the magic eraser tools to make cut outs; the Extract command


The use of painting tools


The standard brushes; custom brushes; linear or radial gradient fills; creating custom gradient styles


Retouching


Cloning images; using patterns; smudging, blurring and sharpening; cropping; repairing scratches; negative to positive, heal tool, shadow & highlight tool, match colour tool, red eye tool and vanishing point filter


Using the History panel


As an Undo; for effects; using the History brush and the Art brushes to create natural media effects; RAM and hard disk (scratch disk) issues


Content-Aware Scaling


Resizing images while retaining the correct proportions for your subjects






Image adjustment


Using the Adjustments panel for live, nondestructive image adjustment
Brightness, contrast, gamma, hue/saturation; colour balance for shadows, highlights and mid-tones; levels and curves; the black and white conversion tool


Output generally


Re-sampling and printing; resizing and adjusting resolution to the most appropriate values for printing; screening issues; file formats for export


Adding type to an image


Adjusting text; adjusting text appearance; using text effects commands; rendering text; text as a selection; text distortion and warping, text on a path


Layers


Converting a selection path to a layer; controlling layer transparency; creating montages using components from different modes; defining and using Adjustment layers; placing guides and using grids; layer styles and layer management, layer comps; creating and using layer smart objects; introducing video & 3D smart layers (Photoshop CS4 Extended only)


Creating special effects with filters


Including soften, sharpen and numerous forms of distortion; transforming areas of an image, including rotate, stretch, skew, flip and alter perspective; using the Free Transform function; using non-destructive smart filters


Warping and Gradients


Using the interactive image warping window, creating and editing gradients


Rapid processing of images


Recording sequences of editing steps using the Actions panel; Batch processing images


Web graphics


Optimising for the web using the comparison area to check quality of image output; Image Slicing, web panels and choosing the most appropriate file format (GIF, PNG and JPEG), Flash export


Creating a web photo gallery


From existing images using customisable HTML templates