Photoshop CS4: Introduction

DAY ONE

Photoshop essentials

• The Photoshop interface
• Working with tabbed windows
• The Arrange menu
• Customising panel layout
• Using the Navigator panel
• The Zoom and Hand tools
• The Rotate View tool
• Using the History Panel and multiple undo
• The History Brush and Snapshots
• Using guides, grids and rules

The characteristics of a Photoshop file

• Pixels and paint programs
• Image resolution, dimensions and file size
• Understanding colour channels and modes
• Understanding file formats

Setting basic image characteristics

• Working with Adobe Bridge
• Creating new documents
• Cropping and rotating artwork
• Changing image resolution and artwork size
• Changing the Canvas Size
• Making colour mode conversions
• Saving and exporting files for web and print

Correcting an image

• Understanding image Histograms
• Using the Info panel
• Levels command
• Checking for colour casts
• Adjusting colour balance
• Editing colour Hue and Saturation
• Replacing object colour
• The Vibrance command

Defining selections

• Lasso, magic wand and marquee tools
• Quick Selection tool
• Selecting by colour range
• Feathering selections
• Modifying and transforming selection shape
• Saving and loading selections

Retouching techniques

• Dodge and burn tools
• Sharpen and Blur filters
• Focus tools
• The Clone and Heal tools in CS4
• Repairing imperfections and removing details

Questions and answers

DAY TWO

Working with paint and colour

• Using the Eyedropper tool
• Mixing paint and fill colours
• Print and web safe colours
• The Pencil and Paintbrush tools
• Adding solid colour fills
• Adding gradient fills

Working with layers

• Adding transparency to objects
• Buidiing a multi-layered document
• Moving, scaling and rotating layers
• Linking layers
• Locking and protecting layers
• Creating Layer groups
• Merging and flattening layers
• Exporting layered documents

Creative techniques using Layers

• Creating Layers for Paint and Fill effects
• Layer opacity and blends
• Adding layer effects
• Adding drop shadows
• Glow and emboss treatments
• Introducing layer masks

Shape and text layers

• Introducing vector shape layers
• Polygons, lines and custom shapes
• Working with the Text tool
• Adjusting character attributes
• Text anti-aliasing

Special effects with filters

• Using Photoshop filters
• Working with the Filter Gallery
• Using Smart Filter Layers
• Fading the effects of filters
• Using the Liquify command

Printing and optimising documents

• Printing from Photoshop
• The Save for Web command
• Understanding image compression and optimization settings

Questions and answers