Photoshop CS6 for the Digital Photographer

About This Course

Adobe's Photoshop CS6 is a powerful software solution providing support and specialized editing tools for digital photographers and graphic artists. In this course, you'll master techniques to make the most of your digital images and add a professional polish to your work. Designed for those with no image-editing experience, this class will take you from novice to accomplished photo editor.

In Photoshop CS6, Adobe has combined the power of their award-winning technology with sophisticated tools that produce dynamic results. This course offers simple, step-by-step instructions for correcting flaws, enhancing the final product, adding text, and preparing images for email and the Web. Along the way, you'll learn how to use the tools that make this software so popular and unique in the world of digital image editing.

As the high-end program in Adobe's collection of photo-editing software, Photoshop CS6 gives users all the tools they need to create outstanding digital images. Because this course is specifically targeted at photographers, you'll come away with a collection of useful techniques and quickly start seeing amazing results in your images!

Note: For students who have taken Photoshop for the Digital Photographer with CS3 or CS4

As of January, 2011, Our Photoshop for the Digital Photographer course has been substantially expanded, rewritten, and updated and is now offered in a two-course format. If you've previously taken Photoshop for the Digital Photographer, here are some things to keep in mind if you're considering the new CS6 courses.

Photoshop CS6 for the Digital Photographer will be a review for most of you. It's updated and expanded and includes CS6-specific content, covering some subjects in more detail, but overall the basic information doesn't change that much from version to version. You'll find these additions to this course:

• More detail on sizing, shaping, and image resolution
• More extensive coverage of raw files and using the Camera Raw tool
• More information on using Histograms

The second course, Photoshop CS6 for the Digital Photographer II, builds on the first course and is a mix of some material from previous versions of the course and completely new topics, along with the new CS6 features. This material will be primarily new for returning students.

So which class to take? If you've taken one of my Photoshop for the Digital Photographer courses and feel comfortable with Photoshop and CS6 for basic work, you'll do well in Photoshop CS6 for the Digital Photographer II. If you'd like a refresher with updated material for CS6 and some expanded coverage, you may want to start with Photoshop CS6 for the Digital Photographer. And, of course, students new to Photoshop should start with this course as well.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Beverly Schulz.

Beverly Schulz is a freelance photographer and a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography's Professional Photographer's program. She teaches a number of classes in digital photography and has more than 25 years of classroom instruction experience. Her writing and photography have been published in a number of magazines. She has traveled extensively and participated in onsite photography workshops as well as independent photo quests. In addition to teaching and photographic work, she provides consulting services for digital photographers and clients.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Photoshop CS6 is an excellent package for photographers to enhance and edit digital images. In this lesson, we'll introduce online training, see how to download images for you to use in class, and start with a tour of Photoshop CS6. This class starts at the beginning, with the various tools for displaying images, and is designed to bring even the inexperienced user to a comfortable level of editing and enhancement.

Friday - Lesson 02

In this lesson, you'll see the power of Photoshop with quick corrections and the ability to crop and rotate your images. You'll like the new Crop tool in CS6! We'll also discuss the various file formats for digital images and how to use them to your best advantage. You'll learn how to make changes and save different versions of your images so you'll have everything you need for future editing.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

As we continue our study of Photoshop, you'll learn how to prepare your documents for printing. To get the best quality print, you want to be sure that each image is the right size and resolution. We'll define terms, explore menus, and look at ways for you to be sure your prints will be just the right size. You'll see how to use the Crop tool with more control and feel confident about printing when you finish this lesson.

Friday - Lesson 04

Whether you want to use your image on a website, in an email, or for a large print, you need to be sure the size is right. If it's for the Web, you'll want it small enough to load quickly, but still sharp and clear. If you need an enlarged print, you'll want to be sure it has all the quality of the original. This can be a stumbling block for some new Photoshop users, so we'll take our time and practice with several images to help you learn all the steps. We'll also go over how to use Photoshop's tools for artistic cropping so your images are both artistically and technically the best they can be.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

One of the most powerful features in Photoshop is layers, and in this lesson, you'll have a chance to create a new file and copy another image into it, exploring the basics of layers as you go. You'll also see how to set color options for many of the Photoshop features and adjust color in your images.

Friday - Lesson 06

As you continue to build your knowledge of layers in this lesson, you'll also see how to work with color. Photoshop has a huge palette of color options that you can use in your images, and the color tools are amazing! You'll see how to easily replace, brighten, and enhance color, and even remove it for stunning black-and-white work. These features are among the many sought-after highlights of Photoshop, but beware! You may find yourself tinkering with images even after the lesson is over.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Light is the essence of photography, but it isn't always cooperative. In this lesson, we’ll discuss ways to enhance and even create better lighting after you've taken an image. You’ll see how to use Brightness and Contrast to improve your images, and you'll have a chance to work with Levels and Curves, two of Photoshop’s best features for correcting lighting and color tones.

Friday - Lesson 08

Even if you don't shoot in raw image format, Photoshop has a set of sophisticated editing tools for you to use! Camera Raw is Photoshop's editor for processing raw images, giving you the opportunity to adjust white balance and exposure in all kinds of file formats, and leaving your images with startling clarity and dynamic color. In today's lesson, you'll see how to adjust your images quickly and easily, just like a pro. If you're not quite sure what raw files are or if they're something you'd like to use, we'll walk you through the process, and you can decide what's best for your type of work. Either way, you'll learn more about Photoshop and what it can do for you!

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Mixing words and pictures is an important part of digital photography, and Photoshop gives you lots of ways to make your text as dazzling as your pictures. In this lesson, we'll explore Photoshop's text tools, and you'll find out how to add text to your images, including the new text preview option in CS6. You'll also begin your study of the powerful selection tools, with the Quick Selection tool, the color-based Magic Wand tool, and the flexible Lasso tool.

Friday - Lesson 10

As we continue our study of selection tools, today you’ll learn how to create silhouettes and creative backgrounds to set them off. You’ll see how the Marquee tools let you select perfect squares and circles for use in framing and highlighting your images. You'll practice using feathering to see the difference it makes, especially when you want to create a soft, blended background in your image. You'll also see how to use the Marquee tool to create borders and frames around your pictures. To wrap up our study of the selection tools, we'll also explore the many options in the Select menu.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In our last lesson on the selection tools, you’ll work with a combination of tools for detailed and exacting work when you need it most. You'll also learn some advanced techniques for using the selection tools together. We'll work extensively with the Add to selection option and see some shortcuts for making selections easier. As a final addition to your knowledge in this area, you’ll have a chance to explore and work with features on the Select menu.

Friday - Lesson 12

In our last lesson, you'll learn how to put many new tools to work! We’ll discuss Retouching and Correcting tools, and you’ll perfect your skills with the Red Eye tool, the Clone Stamp tool, and both of the powerful Healing Brushes. We'll also discuss when to use each tool for the best results. The power of Photoshop will come to life as you use these tools in your final assignments.

Requirements

Internet access, email, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

This course is written with Windows software, but Macintosh users will find the software is quite similar and are welcome in this course. Mac users will need to be comfortable with the normal Windows/Mac conversion for keyboard differences. Photoshop Extended is NOT necessary for this course, but can be used. All coursework and examples are based on Windows using standard Photoshop CS6 software.

Students should feel comfortable acquiring digital images, either with a digital camera, using images scanned onto CDs, or scanning film prints. Basic computer skills, such as using a mouse, creating and accessing folders, downloading and saving files will be briefly reviewed in this course, but should be familiar to students.

In addition to Internet access for classroom participation, students will need Adobe's Photoshop CS6 (Windows Vista/7/XP), Adobe's Photoshop Extended CS6 (Windows Vista/7/XP), Adobe's Photoshop CS6 (Mac OS X), or Adobe's Photoshop Extended CS6 (Mac OS X) installed and functioning to take full advantage of the course.

Windows requirements:

• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
• Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3; Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (Service Pack 2 recommended); or Windows 7
• 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash-base)