Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 for Photographers

The Course:

The course has been designed to introduce the concept of workflow; i.e. how to deal with large numbers of images in a non-destructive, efficient way and how to structure the application of image management, enhancement and manipulation. The aim is to allow you to work towards a perfect final image. Essential techniques are explained and discussed during the course, with the emphasis being upon understanding the software and its capabilities rather than simply learning a set of mouse clicks and keystrokes. Throughout the day you will be encouraged to practice and experiment with the techniques described.

Equipment:

No equipment is necessary; each course member will have access to a laptop computer, and the relevant software and files. Delegates may bring some of their own images on cd or flash memory sticks so that they can experiment upon them with some of the techniques that are introduced during the course. Please only bring image files, as it is not possible to load other data onto the computers.

Course Outline:

Workflow:
The importance of workflow
Directory Structure
Image Storage

Camera raw:
What is it?
Why should I use it?

Raw Conversion:
White Balance
How to use the histogram
Correcting Exposure Errors
Avoiding Clipping

Rotating and Cropping:
The Crop Tool
The Rotate Tool
The Straighten Tool

Image Resolution:
Resolution explained
How to downsample
Why you should never upsample, (but how to do it anyway!)

Tone and colour:
Introduction to adjustment layers
using levels to adjust colour
using levels to adjust contrast
using the brightness/contrast adjustment layer

Cleaning up the image:
Introducing the clone stamp
Introducing the healing brush

Advanced adjustments:
Introduction to layers
Introduction to brushes
Blending modes
Targeting adjustments using layer masks
Painting with light, non-destructive dodging and burning

Preparing the image for output:
Sharpening the image
Image mode
filetypes, .jpg .tif .psd

The above list gives an outline to the proposed structure of the day, however each course is slightly different as it aims to address the needs of the delegates. Consequently, discussion often leads along a path that will introduce some concepts not mentioned above.