Beyond Basic Photoshop

Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne)
31 March-01 April 2012
21-22 July 2012
22-23 September 2012

This intermediate weekend course is designed for photographers and artists already proficient with the basic concepts of digital imaging who now want to significantly extend their Photoshop editing skills and understanding. It provides a detailed visual investigation of Photoshop’s unique tools and techniques, where the aim is to help you to work more confidently, creatively, and efficiently as a Photoshop artist. Topics covered include:

Editing Photoshop
• Prioritising Photoshop’s tools
• Levels: Colour and density correction fundamentals
• Curves: The ultimate adjustment and editing tool
• Smart Objects: Image conservation and preservation
• Expanding Photoshop’s capabilities with third party plug-ins

Managing Photoshop
• Customising Photoshop settings
• Choosing the right colour space and bit depth
• Working creatively with channels and layers
• Organising adjustment layers
• Navigating layer masks

Compositing Photoshop
• Combining images from different sources
• Selection techniques
• Layer blending modes
• Luminosity masking
• Creative image distortion and retouching

Specialist Photoshop Techniques
• Eliminating digital artefacts
• Superior B&W images from colour originals
• Smoothing skin tones, hand colouring, and cross processing
• Batch processing with Photoshop actions
• Designing image editing workflows

The course is organised around a series of ‘beyond the basics’ demonstrations which present essential information and custom solutions to practical imaging problems. Traditional photographic techniques are updated and basic digital imaging workflows established, while key concepts such as nondestructive editing and Photoshop specific techniques significantly extend the practice of creative digital production. Detailed course notes are provided.