Adobe Photoshop is the premiere image manipulation tool for both print and the Web. If you are planning on working with images in any way, you need to know it.  This course introduces digital imaging concepts and techniques using Adobe Photoshop CS3 , and is aimed at anyone wishing to acquire a thorough understanding of the most important features of this powerful program. The course is based around real-world practical examples for both print and screen based production. By the end of this course, you will be able to use Photoshop with conidence and produce high quality and great looking images.

Outline

Fundamental concepts

• The Photoshop Workspace - navigation, the tools, palettes etc.
• All about pixels, resolution and colour depth.
• Understanding and using colour modes

 Basic techniques

• Using brushes - tools and techniques.
• Deining colours using  a range of methods.
• Sampling a colour from an image.
• Using colour libraries.
• Multiple undo and snapshots using History.
• Using gradients and patterns.
• Using the Crop tool.
• Changing image size and resolution.
• Rotating images.

 Retouching techniques

• Fixing and copying content using the Clone Stamp tool.
• The Healing brushes and the Patch tool.
• The History brush.
• Red-eye correction.

Selection techniques

• The Marquee tools
• The Lasso tools
• The Magic wand
• The Quick Selection tool
• Using the Reine edges command to improve a selection
• Using Quick Mask to improve a selection
• Adding, Subtracting and Intersecting
• Saving a selection

Composition and design techniques

• Working with Layers
• Transformations - scaling and rotating.
• Using Colour Fill layers.
• Creating a Montage with Layer Masks.
• Image correction
• Using the Brightness/Contrast command.
• Using the Levels command, how to interpret a Histogram.
• Using the Colour Balance command to modify colour casts.
• Adjusting Hue and Saturation
• Non-destructive edits with adjustment layers.

Working with type

• Working with type layers.
• Formatting type.
• Type warp.
• Converting text to pixels.
• Efects and Filters
• Working with Layer Styles - drop shadows,
• glows, bevels etc.
• Using ilters - corrective and creative iltering
• techniques, using the Filter Gallery.

Masks

• Layer masks - generating masks based on selections
• Working with Vector masks.
• Clipping Masks

Efects and Filters

• The Vanishing Point ilter.
• Warp transformations.
• Smart Filters: converting layers, modifying parameters, masking.
• Layer styles - creating styles

Adjustments & Retouching

• Using the Info palette.
• Selective adjustments.
• Retouching with ilters and masks.
• Levels and Curves in detail.
• Working with Histograms and Color Samplers.
• The Black and White command.
• Photo Filters, Highlights and Shadows and the Channel Mixer.
• Opening iles as Camera Raw

Channels

• Understanding colour channels.
• Saving selections as channels.
• Alpha channels - channel operations and other techniques.
• Using channels with Filters

Production

• Importing and exporting images
• Integration with other applications
• Web graphics - using the Save For Web command
• Printing - recognising non-printable colours, converting images