Photoshop Elements

This ten-hour, four day workshop will start with the very basics of graphic editing and move to more complex editing tools in Photoshop Elements. Students will be shown how to import, export, and edit bitmapped graphics files (like those created by digital cameras) and then encouraged to play.

The current version of Photoshop Elements is 6.

Recommended preparation: familiarity with computers.

Recommended book: Teach Yourself VISUALLY Photoshop Elements 6 by Woolridge (view at Amazon)

To register for this course, WCC faculty and staff should contact Brian Richardson. Seats are also available for members of the community. Contact the Office of Continuing Education for costs and availability.

Overview

Drawing versus Bitmap graphics
"It's Just a Bunch of Dots"
Modes
Resolution

New Document

canvas size
resolution
mode
Impact on quality and size of document
Scanners and Digital Cameras

The interface

tools on the left side
Palattes on the right
option bar on the top

Viewing a Document

Zooming in and out
Fit to Screen
Using the space bar or hand tool to move around

Editing a Document

resizing
cropping
rotating

Simple Editing

Auto Fixes
highlights, midtones, and shadows
Red Eye

Painting tools

setting color with color pickers
setting color with eyedropper
setting airbrush, pressure
paint bucket
pencil
choosing brush type
changing brush sizes with keyboard (with "[" and "]")

General Transformation Tools

smudge
blur
sharpen
burn
sponge
dodge
erase

Transforming Pictures

rotating
skewing - scan be used to correct perspective (see example)
distorting
stretch
slant
free transform
nudging
escaping or confirming transformation

Cloning

setting the source (option/ALT and mouse click)
cloning
impact of different brush settings
aligned or not

Filters

Artistic
Blurs: Gaussian

Selecting

marquee: rectangle and oval
lasso: free, polygon, magnetic
magic wand: tolerance, continguous
adding and subtracting selection areas (shift and option/ALT)
saving and applying selection areas
inverting selection
feathering a selection

Copying

moving from one document to another

Layers

What is a layer?
Adjustment Layers
Content Layers
Changing the order of the layers
Make layers visible, invisible
Group, Flatten, Rename layers

Drawing Tools

Free form pen tool
bezier curves: hinge and rounded
Object tools

Text tools

vector versus bitmapped text
Type Tool: options: color, font face, points
Blend Mode
Change Fill (option-delete to change)
Transform Type with Free transform (scale, skew)
Moving the text box (command-drag)
Point text versus paragraph text
Warped Text
character tab on palettes
paragraph tab on palettes
font measurements in points versus pixels (pt vs px) also cm, in, mm
anti-aliasing (makes font smoother, crisper, stronger, etc., more useful for smaller font sizes)
Setting leading, kerning (use option + arrows to increment)