It's no secret that Photoshop is the preferred application for many digital photographers when editing their photos. It's also no secret that Photoshop has a reputation for being very difficult to learn. If you've held off of using Photoshop or you're feeling uncomfortable and uncertain about how to do the main editing tasks, this class is just for you.

We'll start out by taking a tour of the Photoshop interface, learning about each tool in the toolbar, the various palettes, and how to setup Photoshop to work for you.

Next, we'll take on some of the most essential tasks - color settings, image sizing, saving, and file formats. From here, we'll explore the main editing features of Photoshop, including filters, image sharpening, printing, and creating web galleries.

By the end of this four week class, you'll feel confident in using Photoshop to accomplish the tasks you regularly face with digital image editing, and be ready to tackle the more advanced features offered in other classes like Mastering Layers, Beyond Color Photography in Photoshop, and Photoshop Masking and Selections.

This course is a combination of video and written instruction. You'll have assignments in weeks 2, 3, and 4 that will be critiqued by Jon. The opportunity to learn from your own images and those submitted by your classmates will have your skills growing faster than you ever imagined. More importantly, you'll have fun doing it!

Lesson One - The Photoshop Interface

We'll start with a tour of the Photoshop toolbar showing each of the most common tools and what they're used for. Next, we'll move over and look at the main palettes - layers, history, adjustments, and more. Finally, we'll go through the menus to show where the most important features area, and wrap up with showing how to customize the Photoshop interface to make the things you need easier to find and use.

Lesson Two - Image Basics

Week two starts with understanding the Photoshop color management features - if you've ever been frustrated because your photos don't look right when viewed on screen or print, this week will be like winning the lottery! We'll also talk about resolution and how to size your images for different uses like screen or print.

Lesson Three - Common Editing Tasks

It's time to learn how to use Photoshop to make color adjustments, crop images, convert to black and white, and apply filter effects. We'll also go into image sharpening to show you how to make your images look their best. This week will also give you an introduction to using layers in Photoshop - perhaps the most powerful feature available.

Lesson Four - Finishing Touches and Output

Now that you've done all that work on your photos, you want to share the results! We'll go over creating web galleries with Photoshop, printing your images or preparing them to be printed through places like MPix and others, as well as some creative techniques like applying borders and edge effects to your images.

Jon Canfield is a full time photographer and writer living in the Northwest with his wife and two labs. Primarily a landscape and nature photographer, Jon has taught workshops around the world. His photos and articles have appeared in Shutterbug, Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, PC Photo, and other magazines, and he has written 6 books including Camera RAW 101, The Digital SLR Guide, ProShow Visual QuickStart Guide, Print Like a Pro, and Photo Finish. Jon is an HP Creative Influencer and does consulting work for PANTONE, Canon, Inkpress, and other companies on printing and color management. Jon’s work can be seen on his website at www.joncanfield.com

Click here to see what is in Jon's camera bag.

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