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Photoshop Elements PROFORMANCE
"...Advance your creative potential..." |
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| Instructor: Robin
Nichols Duration: 4
Weeks Cost:
US$195 |
Overview
Watch Robin's introduction
video
Following on from our expansive Photoshop Elements PRIMER, PROFORMANCE takes you into advanced image making techniques with a simply-written and very extensive advanced online course covering a wide range of hot Elements topics. From HDR image-making to creating awesome special effects using selections. PROFORMANCE is an informative and helpful 4-week online course taught by professional instructor Robin Nichols.
Photoshop Elements, now in its seventh version (for PC), is a complete winner because the tools it contains are sophisticated yet remain accessible, even for newcomers. In this class you'll be expected to understand the basics while you develop new skills to develop your photos for maximum visual impact...
Brief Outline
Lesson One: Exploring the creative potential of Photoshop Elements with special effects. Learn all about learning how to work with the text tools.
Lesson Two: All about selections and layers, various masking techniques, Adjustment Layers and notes on achieving good color calibration workflow.
Lesson Three: Creative Blend Mode use, picture sharpening techniques + working with RAW files.
Lesson Four: Making custom photo album pages, all about printing, print materials, alternative media and much more. Advanced techniques using high dynamic range (HDR) image making techniques + creating cool Online Galleries, looking at various online services plus heaps more more special effects and tools.
Course Outline:
Week 1: Exploring the creative potential of Photoshop Elements
In this first lesson we take a look at how to create some arty-looking special effects using filters and we try brush-based manual painting techniques to add a hand-made look to pictures.
Learn how to get round the complexities of Elements' text based tools to make your own business cards, and heaps more useful DIY stuff. Though not a page layout program, Photoshop Elements is still a design powerhouse capable of making impressive stationary, advertising material, even magazine page layouts, advertising flyers, and more.
Week 2: All about Selections
There comes a time when your picture making needs a step-up in complexity. Understanding the art of selections is one of these benchmarks. In this lesson we look at selection types and how best to use them to create a new level of powerful picture effects. Another major step-up for your general understanding is to get your head round layers in all its forms. Here we explain the terminology, how it works and, more pointedly, how it can help you create new and more ambitious projects.
Week 3: Masking techniques, Adjustment Layers and Color Calibration
Though not reckoned to be as powerful as Photoshop CS3/4, Elements nevertheless has a range of terrific features, some of which can be adapted to bring its performance up several notches higher than it's technically supposed to be able to achieve. In this lesson we check out how to make masks and adapt these to add tremendous editing control over the picture creation process. Hard to describe in words, Blend Modes add yet another degree of creative control. Not only as a means to 'save' underexposed pictures, but also to add a distinct WOW factor to the tones and colors in them. We also run through techniques for processing RAW files. We discuss how to keep your software up to date (i.e. to match new RAW camera file formats) and the best processing workflows and data storage contingencies to follow.
Week 4: Making Custom photo album pages. Printing techniques
Both the PC and the Mac versions of this software have excellent wizard-based
templates for making photo album layouts and book pages for scrapbookers, mums
and dads and kids. Here we go the hard way, looking at how to add multiple images
and text to pages manually. Why? Because it gives us a deeper understanding of
the layer process, plus it gives us greater control over the final design and
'look' of your projects. Finally the wrap up for this class - packed with very
smart techniques including learning how to combine two differently-exposed frames
to make one eye-popping high dynamic range (HDR) picture. We also look at the
intricacies of optimising photos for use on the Web, creating some great online
galleries, online services and plenty more impressive Elements special effects
and tools.
Course Requirement:
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0/7.0 or 8.0 for PC, and version 6.0/8.0 for Mac.
- A PC or Mac with plenty of RAM (at least 1Gb RAM is essential, 2Gb is far better) and a fast processor (Pentium 4, 2Ghz+ CPU or Dual Core is recommended).
- We cater for users of Windows XP, Vista and Mac OSX+
Instructor: Robin Nichols
 Like many photography teachers, I’m in the envious position of being able to combine one of my life’s passions, photography, with my job. And, even though I tend to spend way too much time in front of the computer, it remains one of the best jobs in the world...
Though born in the UK, I’ve spent the past 20 years in Sydney. I began work in Australia as a cameraman in the audio-visual business, then a freelance photographer. More recently, I worked as a contributing freelance writer for several photo-centric publications, then as a full-time magazine editor for more than eight years. For the past eight years, I’ve run my own publishing business, Better Digital Magazine, producing Australia’s best-selling specialist digital photo techniques publication: Better Digital magazine.
With this publication I’ve aggressively pursued the goal of producing clear, well-illustrated publications written in simple English and have continued to develop this plain-speaking style in other specialist magazines such as Better Photoshop Techniques and Digital PhotoART (a project-based publication with a distinct ‘scrapbooking’ style).
When I’m not travelling, writing for one of my publications or conducting photo tours and workshops, I teach digital photography and Photoshop Elements classes at Sydney University.
There’s nothing I like better than showing newcomers how to fine-tune their compositional skills and then how to get the best from the resulting digital files using a program like Photoshop Elements.
My work can be seen in Better Digital magazine, or online:
www.robinnichols.com.au and www.betterdigitalonline.com
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