The Lessons

An introduction to Photoshop.
Below is a Course Outline with Scheme of Work for each lesson. Click on the Lesson Number to be taken to that lesson's page.


Lesson 1

Introduction to Photoshop INTERFACE.
Tool Bar, Menu Icons and Items.
Overview of how program works and the main concepts.
Documents and Images and using the Tools to work on them.
More detailed focus on SELECTIONS.

Lesson 2

Recap on first class.
Introduction to BRUSHES and LAYERS.
Types of Brushes. Eraser as Brush. Brushes and Selections
interacting. Bounding Box, Scale, Flip and Rotate.
Understanding Layers and how they interact with each other.

Lesson 3

COMPOSITING an image. Creating a new image using elements from several other images. Introducing colour, hue, lightness and darkness adjustment. Delving deeper into Layers and Selections. Saving final image and the options available, Sourcing images, copyright and using your own images.

Lesson 4

TEXT and EFFECTS. The Text Tool and Text Layer. How Text behaves and is worked with. Text as Vector and Bitmap. Text and Text Effects. Photoshop Effects. Filters. Plug in effects. Layers and effects. Introducing effects to Photographs. Turning a Photograph into a Drawing etc.

Lesson 5

Design a Flyer or Poster. The Rules of Good Design and Layout. DTP. Combining Colour, Image and Text and putting all of the acquired knowledge so far to use with a goal to be achieved.

Lesson 6

Repair a Damaged or Old Photograph. Introducing the Clone Tool and Healing Brush. A very useful Photoshop skill to develop. Many use Photoshop exclusively for retouching work such as this.

Lesson 7

Photographs. Sourcing images. Digital Cameras. Mobile Phones. Scanning. Film / Negative Scanning. Pixel Myth. Resolution. Image Types. Compression. Preparing Photographs for Printing, Enlargement, Emailing and for the Web.

Lesson 8

Photographs and Enhancement. Levels. Curves. Colour Balance. Saturation. Hue and Contrast. Auto Enhancement tools.

Lesson 9 and Lesson 10

Working on your own images, ideas, designs. With individual help and guidance. Advice on what books, learning CDs, advanced classes and where to go for more help.