Photoshop for Photographers

Wed, October 26th, 2011, Joe Kennaley and Henry Baker will host a series of classes on photoshop and photoshop techniques you need to know when working with photography.

The class will meet at Baker Studios at 926 Main St in Walpole. The class will start at 7:00 pm and run till 8:30 pm. If you need to set up your computer, arrive at 6:30 to get plugged in. The techniques covered will be common photoshop techniques for retouching and manipulating photographic images. The techniques covered will span a number of releases of photoshop.

The class will be designed for the instructors to demonstrate retouching techniques on their computer and project these techniques onto a screen. The class will then be encouraged  to perform the same techniques.

To get the most out of this class, you should be able to follow along and perform the exercises. You will need your own computer with a reasonably current version of photoshop.

You can download a current version of Photoshop CS5 from the Adobe web site. This trial version is good for 30 days.

If you are buying a version of photoshop, the current version is CS5 and the software prices at $699 through the Adobe Store.The education version is considerably less. If you are a student or teacher or have a student in your family, you should be able to take advantage of the student pricing. You can find the discounted versions of this software on Journeyed.com and other web sites that sell software to the education marketplace.

If you are buying older versions of photshop on line, you are running the risk of buying illegal software.

The current release version of Photoshop is CS5, Photoshop CS was released in 2003. Since then their have been five more releases.

Your system should have no less than Photoshop CS installed on it.

Class 1 - covered basic set up options for Photoshop including the selection of the sRBG color space. The class reviewed all of the tools in the tool bar and those tools that are necessary when retouching photographic images.

The class explored the common panels that are used when retouching images, specifically the Layers Panel (with an explanation of layers), the Adjustments Panel, the Actions Panel, and the History Panel.

The class explored methods of navigating when working with photoshop. How to enlarge or minimize the image they are working on; how to position the image with the hand tool; use of the selection tool to select an area of the image; how to create another layer from a selection and work on the selection layer; use of masks to allow the merging of information from a lower layer.

Next week we will take a couple of images submitted by the class and review techniques required to make requested corrections to the image. The class is encouraged to submit an image and a description of what they would like to do to the image.

The second class - Each member of the class will be supplied a set of images and we will all follow along as a number of retouching techniques are used to perform the requested changes.

Homework

A review of what was covered during the class.

Visit You tube to review these videos. The address of the videos can be pasted into the address bar of your browser and you should be able to see the video.

The interface - Review the photoshop interface. Check out the general layout. The application bar, default palettes, the toolbar and the image screen
- http://www.youtube.com/user/bigrockdesigns#p/a/u/2/D9NuKmwfKO8

Navigating an Image - the various concepts you should use while viewing an image on the screen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tdARo8l6HU

Introduction to Brushes - http://www.youtube.com/user/bigrockdesigns#p/u/11/JxD2jvp37Ds

Selections - If you want to edit it, select it. How to make selections
- http://www.youtube.com/user/bigrockdesigns#p/u/8/XEN_SqFS87U

Understanding Layers - what are layers, concept when working with layers
- http://www.youtube.com/user/bigrockdesigns#p/a/u/1/NEBLozb_n5M

When watching these You Tube Videos, try to follow along while working with photoshop.

Watch the videos in full screen mode. Look to the right hand corner of the video for the option that will allow you to make the video full screen. The icon for going full screen is the four arrows pointing to each corner of the screen.

Don't hesitate to pause the video while you try to duplicate what you were shown.

For next week - each member should email us an image and describe the correction or retouching you would like to do to that image.