Getting to Grips with Photoshop – An Online Course

Temporary Intro

This course isn’t quite finished: 

  • Modules 1 – 8 are more or less complete although I have still to tweak them and add more video content. (I apologise for the awful voice on the few videos that are already there!!)
  • I still have to add the ‘Have a Go’ section to some pages.
  • Module 9 hasn’t been started yet!

Initially, this was an online course delivered during lockdown using GoToMeeting software. It was designed to introduce the basic concepts of Photoshop and to introduce some of the editing tools which Photoshop offers. Sessions lasted about an hour and a half and took place on a weekly basis. The course was (and is) completely free. This is a reworked online version of this course. It is aimed at beginner and novice users although more experienced user might also find it useful. It is based on Windows computers although most things will be very similar on Macs.

The material is delivered in several ways:

  • via text and illustrations.
  • via short videos.
  • via onward links to external sites which give more information about specific topics.
  • via a number of tasks for course users to complete.

The content on this site does not cover every aspect of Photoshop or even of the topics covered. That would require a much more extensive course! It concentrates on some of the more commonly used aspects of Photoshop, what can be done with Photoshop and why these things are worth doing. It is an individual and personal view which reflects the way I approach post-processing.

Bear in mind that Google is your friend. Whatever you want to know about using Photoshop can usually be found with a Google search. Always start your search statement with the word ‘Photoshop’ and follow it with a very specific aspect of Photoshop. For example, the search term, ‘Photoshop Levels Tool‘ will return much more targeted results than a search such as ‘Photoshop Colour‘.

Photoshop does not give up its secrets easily and there are no silver bullets where you will transform your image with a single click. In most cases you will have more success with a series of small, subtle adjustments which, together, will result in much improved images.

Course Outline

Module 1 – Getting Started

  • The Photoshop Workspace
  • Set up the Workspace
  • Preferences
  • Keyboard Shortcuts

Module 2 – Basic Operations

  • Open Images
  • View Images
  • Resize and Save Images

Module 3

  • Photoshop Workflow

Module 4

  • Adobe Camera RAW

Module 5 – Basic tools

    • Tools to Replace Content
      • Spot Healing Brush and other Brush tools
      • Clone Tool
      • Content-Aware Fill
    • Adjustment Tools
      • Levels
      • Curves
      • Hue, Saturation and Luminance (HSL)
      • Black and White
    • Crop Tool

Module 6 – Layers

  • Layers Intro
  • Layer Types
  • Working with Layers
  • Layers Example

Module 7 – Masks

  • Marquee Tools
  • Lasso Tools
  • Magic Wand
  • Colour Range
  • Pen Tool
  • Luminosity Masks

Module 8 – Using layers and masks

Module 9 – Putting it all together

This will include several walkthroughs which exemplify several of the topics included in the course.

Navigating the Course

Every page in the course has a sidebar with a menu headed ‘Modules’. This gives immediate access to the main sections of the course.

Directly underneath the Modules menu, there is a search box. Enter whatever you are looking for on the site.

Some pages will have a second sidebar menu, with entries relevant to that module.

There are previous and next links at the bottom of each page showing the content of the previous and next pages.

‘Read More’ links will take you to external sites which will open in a new window. Close that window to return to the course.

Every page has an icon at the bottom right which, when clicked, will return to the top of that page. The icon will not be visible until you have scrolled down a little.

 

 

Getting Started