Adobe PhotoShop's tools (the brush) airbrush and eraser) have been programmed to respond  to the pressure sensitive tablet This enables the user to attain not only precise control, but a much more natural feel for spontaneous drawing and painting.  Though the instructor doesn't require students in this course to purchase a tablet, if you are serious about  PhotoShop, and believe it will become an important part of your career, a tablet would be an excellent investment (you can avail yourself of a significant student discount... check with campus technology resources or check Wacom.com, the leading manufacturer of pressure sensitive tablets for use with PhotoShop). Pressure sensitive tablets are made for either  Mac's and PCs. Gary will be demonstrating the Wacom GraphireTablet from time to time during class. It's a duo platform USB tablet that works with both Mac and PC computer platforms. If you're interested in learning more about pressure sensitive tablets, talk to your instructor.

At issue in the Macintosh Labs is that all of the iMac computers use USB ports rather than standard serial device connections. This is terrific if your personal computer  is also equipped with a USB port. Then you could carry your tablet with you and plug it in wherever you happen to be.

Student Qualifications: This is a basic-level to mid-level skills course for students with little or no previous experience with PhotoShop 5. However, even those with mid-level mastery of PhotoShop basics could benefit from taking this course. Because PhotoShop has broad applications and a vast tool set, users often become specialized around a specific and limited set of capabilities. Even experienced users often feel they are not using the program to its fullest potential. Furthermore, many users do not fully comprehend the complex application of such issues as pixel resolution and how it applies to commercial printing. Those who use PhotoShop as a Web design tool need more experience learning how to maximize print quality. Those who use PhotoShop for printing, tend to be insecure in Web applications and leveraging color palette reduction and file compression options to improve Web site performance. Then there are those users who wish to use PhotoShop for the myriad of multimedia applications, CD-ROM interactive media, digital video editing, etc., all of which have their own image format considerations. Consequently, all of these students will likely benefit from this course.

Course Logistics: This course is based on a hands-on workshop learning model. Student assignments as well as class lessons can be executed on the Library's Mac Lab or on Communication Department Lab Computers which have PhotoShop 5 onboard.

Student Requirements: The student is required to complete the 5 assignments which include:

1. The Color Photograph: Scan, Retouch, Color balance and Optimize the Resolution for Target Application
2. The Web Banner: Combine and Compose Imagery and Optimize for Efficient Web Deployment
3. An Original Image (Poster): This assignment serves to provide experience in working with PhotoShop’s array of image manipulation filters.
4. The Halftone: Scan, optimize and convert an image to Grayscale and then to a Halftone Bitmap.
5. Layered Illustration with Background Texture and Compositional Elements Gathered or Created by the Student

    B.    Working with Resolutions

1. Determining optimal scan resolution for print
2. Determining optimal scan resolution for multimedia and the Web

    C.    Anti-aliasing: Understanding and utilizing one of PhotoShop’s most powerful features which interpolates contrasting pixel colors to render smoother gradations in color and better rendering of type elements. This feature contributes to more pleasing results when re-sizing graphics and changing resolution.

    E.    Identifying and Working with Color Palettes

1. Mac Palette
2. PC Palette

    F.    The PhotoShop 5 Tools

1. Marquis Box
2. Marquis Ellipse
3. Lasso
4. Magic Wand
5. Cropping Tool
6. Type Tool
7. Hand
8. Zoom Tool
9. Paint Bucket
10. Graduated Fill Tool
11. Line Tool
12. Eye Drop Sampler
13. Pencil
14. Paint Brush
15. History Brush
16. Airbrush
17. Smudge Tool
18. Stamp Pad Tool
19. Path Tool
20. Dodge (and Sponge) Tool
21. Measure Tool

    G.    Working with Foreground and Background Color

    H.    Editing Modes

1. Standard
2. Mask

    I.    Working with Layers

    J.    Working with Paths

    K.    Working with Channels

    L.    Type Manipulation in Adobe PhotoShop 5

1. Creating Type Layers
2. Applying Layer Effects
3. When it’s appropriate to render the type layer
4. Personal Tips and Tricks (including using type exported from FreeHand)

    M.    Layer Effects

1. Emboss (outer and inner)
2. Drop Shadow
3. Inner Shadow
4. Outer Glow
5. Inner Glow

    N.    Image Editing

1. Cutting
2. Copying
3. Copy Merged
4. Paste
5. Paste Into
6. Clear
7. Fill
8. Stroke
9. Free Transform
10. Transform

    O.    Image Manipulation

1. Modes

1. Bitmap
2. Grayscale
3. Duotone
4. Index Color
5. RGB
6. CMYK
7. Lab Color
8. Multichannel

                    2.     Adjusting an Image

1. Levels
2. Auto-levels
3. Curves
4. Color Balance
5. Brightness and Contrast
6. Hue, Saturation and Lightness
7. Desaturation
8. Replace Color
9. Selective Color
10. Channel Mixer
11. Invert
12. Equalize
13. Threshold
14. Posterize
15. Variations

                    3.     Duplicate

                    4.     Apply Image

                    5.     Calculations

                    6.     Image Size

                    7.     Canvas Size

                    8.     Crop

                    9.     Rotate Canvas   

                    10.     Histogram

                    11.     Trap

    P.    Layer Manipulation

1. New
2. Duplicate Layer
3. Delete Layer
4. Layer Options
5. Adjustment Options
6. Effects
7. Type
8. Add Layer Mask
9. Enable Layer Mask
10. Group with Previous
11. Ungroup
12. Arrange
13. Align Linked
14. Distribute Linked
15. Merge Layers
16. Merge Visible
17. Flatten Image
18. Matting

    Q.    The Select Menu

1. All
2. Deselect
3. Reselect
4. Color Range
5. Feather
6. Modify
7. Grow
8. Similar
9. Transform Selection
10. Load Selection
11. Save Selection

    R.    The Filter Menu

1. Artistic
2. Blur
3. Brush Strokes
4. Distort
5. Noise
6. Pixelate
7. Render
8. Sharpen
9. Sketch
10. Stylize
11. Texture
12. Video
13. Other

    S.    The View Menu

1. New View
2. Preview
3. Gamut Warning
4. Zoom in
5. Zoom out
6. Fit on Screen
7. Actual Pixels
8. Print Size
9. Show/Hide Edges
10. Show/Hide Path
11. Show/Hide Rulers
12. Guides
13. Snap-to Guides
14. Lock Guides
15. Clear Guides
16. Grid
17. Snap-to Grid

    T.    Windows and Palettes

1. Cascade
2. Tile
3. Arrange Icons
4. Tools
5. Navigator
6. Info
7. Options
8. Color
9. Swatches
10. Brushes
11. Layers
12. Channels
13. Paths
14. History
15. Actions
16. Status Bar

The course is held over an 8-week schedule. There are two classes per week.

Objective: Convey to students what the instructor’s expectations are to successfully complete this course.

1. Introductions among Classmembers
2. Distribute Course Syllabus and Explain Course Requirements, Materials and all Pertinent Information Students will need to Successfully Participate in this Course
3. Premier and Describe the Official Course Web Site, and explain how students will use it in conjunction with class activities
4. Portfolio Review of Instructor’s Works which represent the varied projects assigned to students
5. Assignment: Bring a photograph to the next class for scanning

Introductory Assignment:
Please copy an image supplied by the instructor to your hard drive for our introduction to basic PhotoShop tools.

Introductory Assignment Instructions:
Download the Introductory Assignment Image of the two men in a vintage car.
Please copy an image supplied by the instructor to your hard drive for our introduction to basic PhotoShop tools.
This assignment is all about getting comfortable with the basic tools in PhotoShop which allow you to manipulate and retouch photographs. In this assignment, you will create a mask image of an object which will enable you to remove the background of the photo..
In this first assignment we will use the following tools, working on this image right along with the instructor.

In this first assignment we will use the following tools, working on this image right along with the instructor.

• Retouching tools
• Masking Tools
• Clipping Paths
• Image contrast and color tools
• Working with Layers and Layer Properties such as transparency and opacity

Requirements: Students must have two or more photographs they wish to scan and manipulate and a portable disk on which to store the file. Elements of both photographs will be combined into one photograph.

Objective: Supervise students’ progress on their photographs and provide individualized guidance and remedial help for those in need. In this session we are going to learn how PhotoShop’s anti-aliasing feature works to improve image quality.

1. Anti-aliasing: Understanding and utilizing one of PhotoShop’s most powerful features which interpolates contrasting pixel colors to render smoother gradations in color and better rendering of type elements. This feature contributes to more pleasing results when re-sizing graphics and changing resolution. Also explained: how anti-aliasing is effected by resolution.
2. Sharpening Techniques: Sharpening tools and the Unsharp Mask tool.
3. Blurring Techniques using the blur, smart blur and Gaussian blur tools
4. Noise Filters: Removing dust, speckles using the smudge and rubber stamp tools.
5. Successfully blending the natural with the retouched areas of the image: Using the Noise Filters

Click here to retrieve pieces for a lesson which will help you learn the principles of this portion of the class. Download the pieces to your hard drive on your workstation.

Outer Bevel
Inner Bevel
Pillow Emboss

Requirement in this Class: Students will add type element to their composition and an appropriate effect that will contribute to the effectiveness of the image. This will complete the first class project.  See the Gallery to view the students' Postcard Design Project!

1. PICT: Picture format that supports grayscale and anti-alias full-color imaging
2. EPS: Originally developed by Adobe Systems, it stands for Encapsulated PostScript. CMYK color formatting which contains both high-resolution imaging data and a low-resolution image for placement in page layout software such as Quark Xpress, PageMaker, FreeHand, Illustrator, Corel, et. al. The Eps file must accompany the page layout document wherever it goes so the raster image processor or print imaging system renders the high-resolution data.
3. TIFF: Tag Image File Format. Featuring virtually the same image and color management characteristics as an EPS, this format was developed by Aldus Corporation (now Adobe), to allow smaller, more manageable page layout file sizes once high resolutions images are placed in the document. As with EPS, these files must accompany the page layout document. The printer/image processor gets its high-resolution data from the Tiff image, not the page layout. Some applications allow you to imbed the image files into their documents thereby relieving you of managing multiple files.
4. JPEG: Stands for Joint Photographers’ Engineering Group, a consortium of companies involved in computer imaging software and hardware development. JPEG is a file compression scheme that allows smaller file sizes while maintaining full-color bit depth. JPEGs display using your computer’s full-color reproduction capabilities and system palette.
5. GIF: Developed by CompuServe, one of the early adopters of graphical interfaces developed for on-line communication. This format uses a palette limiting compression scheme which simply reduces the number of colors required to render a graphic. Because GIFs don’t utilized antialiasing, color gradations are re-rendered using a dithering scheme of image pixels.
6. BMP: A Microsoft image format utilizing RGB color palette. Because Microsoft focuses on the business productivity marketplace, which outputs to color output devices such as inkjet and laser printers, Microsoft determined there was no need to confuse users with CMYK color management tools found in professional graphic software packages. BMP images are automatically converted into CMYK when you print a Microsoft document. The conversion occurs in the background and utilizes device data in a process invisible to the user.

Expectations: Students will save their image in two different formats for the following target application: high-resolution printing and the Web.

1. Mac Palette
2. PC Palette

1. RGB and CMYK Color
2. Indexed Color (reducing colors for smaller file sizes)
3. Dithering
4. Grayscale
5. Duotone
6. Bitmap

Assignment: The Web Banner: Students will be required to create a photographic or rendered image through a combination and composition of imagery. They then must optimize the result for the most efficient Web deployment.

Requirements: Students must bring image elements to class, either found or created, that can be combined to create an advertisement for the Web. The theme is provided by the instructor.

Objective: Students will learn the practicalities and applications of PhotoShop’s filters, among them:

1. Artistic Filters
2. Rendering Filters including

1. Render Clouds
2. Render Lighting Effects
3. Render Lens Flare

1. Sketch Filters
2. Stylize Filters
3. Texture Filters

Assignment: An Original Image (Poster): This assignment serves to provide experience in working with PhotoShop’s array of image manipulation filters.

Requirement: Students must bring imagery that can be used in a original composition. It can contain photographic, drawn or painted images. The design objective is to create a poster, so have a theme ready for class or the instructor will provide one.

Lesson and Objectives: We will cover the art of grayscale and bitmap image creation using PhotoShop 5. Students will learn how to:

1. Scan a black-and-white image and/or color image for grayscale manipulation
2. Optimizing the grayscale image through the use of contrast and brightness controls.
3. Sizing and cropping the image
4. Manipulating the sharpness of the image through the use of sharpen and blur filters
5. Using PhotoShop’s layers feature to change depth of field or to add emphasis and drama to an image.
6. Duo-tone, tri-tone and quad-tone options
7. Stochastic screening a black-and-white image (bitmap conversion using dithered halftone feature), re-importing the image into a layered RGB file, changing layer from normal to multiply, and colorizing a layer underneath the image layer
8. Choosing the best file format for its target application, including TIF, GIF, and EPS.

Assignment: The Black and White Image (halftone): Scan, optimize and convert an image to Grayscale and then to a Bitmap image.

Student Requirement: Students must have an appropriate image with which to work. Students will scan the images in class, manipulate them according to the lesson and choose the best file format with which to save the image on disk.

Lesson: Determined by students’ progress on the assignment

Student Requirement: Students must be prepared to present final image for evaluation.

See Memories of a Lifetime for samples which illustrate the basic concept of this assignment.

Lesson:

1. Collecting objects and images found and created for our layered composition.
2. Scanning 3D objects using a conventional scanner
3. Using digital photography
4. Creating a background texture
5. Using drop shadows and embossing filters on objectives to enhance their appearance and create dramatic effects
6. Using lighting techniques with the Render Command
7. Using Lens Flare
8. Using levels of transparency to create depth

Assignment: The Layered Illustration with Background Texture and Compositional Elements Gathered or Created by the Student. The student must plan, collect and execute a layered composition using a background texture, photographic elements, 3D objects), and possibly some uniquely created elements, either drawn or painted.

The Theme: This will be a personal, visual, biographic depiction of your entire life up to now. It must contain images and objects that symbolize important memories or milestones in your life. It can contain images of your parents, significant people in your life present and past, found objects such as buttons, badges, athletic equipment (baseball, perhaps), old shoes, a piece of sheet music, images from a movie that was important to you, the lyrics to a song, a photo of a pet, a childhood sketch, a favorite book. Use your imagination.

Lesson: The lesson for this class will be determined by the level of sophistication in the students’ works and their desire for more creative opportunities and variations.

Student Requirement: Students must make significant progress on his assignment during the class.

Lesson: The instructor provides insight into portfolio presentation, both traditional and Web-based.