Adobe Photoshop Course: Level 1

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses online and in-person. Please check the delivery format of each class before enrolling.

Please note that course materials (excluding prescribed texts) are shared electronically within 48 hours of course commencement. Printing is not available.

This two-day Adobe Photoshop introductory training course focuses on optimising and creating digital images. You'll learn how to add finishing touches to your photographs to render superb images and use the powerful editing techniques to create images for web and graphic design.

Your own Adobe Creative Cloud account is required for this course. You will also need your own device. For further details, see 'Before the course'.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• recognise and understand fundamental aspects of Photoshop
• create your first document
• navigate images
• understand the concepts of file formats, file size, colour modes and image resizing
• make effective selections in an image
• work with layers
• resize images using a variety of techniques
• select, use and work with colour
• create and format text layers
• draw and format standard and custom shapes
• understand the process of saving
• retouch and repair artefacts in images
• print and understand printing techniques
• use the Help menu and access online help resources.

Content

Getting to know the application

• Starting from the desktop
• The welcome experience
• Dark versus light interface
• The workspace
• Understanding panels
• Working with the panel dock
• Working with panels and panel groups
• Panel techniques
• Understanding the tools panel
• Working with the tools panel
• Resetting the tools panel
• Understanding the options bar
• Opening an existing file

Your first document

• Creating a new document
• Customising and saving workspaces
• Understanding the rulers and ruler tool
• Understanding the preferences dialog box
• Saving a document

Navigating images

• Understanding the document window
• Navigating with the zoom tool
• Navigating with the hand tool
• Navigating with the navigator panel
• Understanding screen modes
• Working with tabbed documents
• Arranging multiple documents
• Working with multiple documents

Digital image basics

• Understanding file formats
• Understanding image size versus resolution
• Understanding file size
• Understanding colour mode

Making selections

• Using the marquee tools
• Understanding the lasso tools
• Using the lasso tool
• Using the polygonal lasso tool
• Using the magnetic lasso tool
• Using the quick selection tool
• Using the magic wand tool
• Growing a selection
• Add to or subtract from a selection
• Saving a selection
• Understanding the refine edge dialog box
• Refining hard-edged selections
• Redefining soft-edge selections
• Selecting with colour range
• Moving and copying selections

Working with layers

• Understanding layers
• Understanding the layers panel
• Creating a new layer
• Working with layers
• Adding images to layers
• Working with layers
• Working with the background layer
• Changing the layer stacking order
• Changing layer opacity
• Transforming layers
• Organising layers into groups

Resizing images

• Understanding resizing and resampling
• Resizing an image for printing
• Using the print dialog box to resize images
• Resampling an image for email or web
• Guidelines for cropping images
• Understanding the crop tool options bar
• Cropping images
• Cropping images to a preset size
• Applying a non-destructive crop
• Using the crop tool to add a border

Colour

• Understanding colour
• colour fundamentals
• Understanding the colour panel
• Applying colour with the colour panel
• Selecting colours using the swatches panel
• Selecting colours using the eyedropper
• Selecting colours using the hue cube
• Identifying a colour using the eyedropper
• Using the brush tool to apply colour
• Changing brush styles
• Creating a custom brush
• Using the mixer brush

Working with text

• Understanding vector-based text
• Adding point text
• Changing text size
• Changing text colour
• Changing the font family
• Installing typekit fonts
• Editing text
• Creating a custom path frame
• Adding text inside a custom path frame
• Filling text with an image
• Creating and applying paragraph styles
• Creating and applying character styles
• Creating a watermark

Shapes

• Drawing a standard shape
• Drawing a custom shape
• Arranging shapes
• Drawing a straight line
• Selecting and editing shape layers
• Understanding guides
• Understanding smart guides
• Using smart guides to position shapes

Retouching and repairing

• Understanding the retouch and repair tools
• Removing blemishes
• Reducing wrinkles
• Removing stray hairs
• Whitening teeth
• Intensifying eye colour
• Removing red eye
• Sculpting with liquify
• Removing unwanted objects and wires
• Moving objects using content-aware
• Using the clone stamp tool

Saving

• Understanding saving
• Saving layered files
• Saving PSD images in another format
• Understanding the save for web dialog box
• Optimising photos for the web – Part 1

Printing

• Printing single images
• Understanding the print dialog box
• Using the print dialog box
• Understanding printing marks

Getting help

• Understanding the help menu
• Investigating new features
• Using online help
• Searching for online help
• Accessing online tutorials

Intended audience

Suitable for beginner's wanting to learn the basics of digital imaging and apply these skills to areas such as photography, graphic design and web design.

Prerequisites

This introductory course assumes little or no knowledge of the software.

Delivery modes

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught training using your own device
• Online training via the platform Zoom

Delivery style

Face-to-face classes

These classes run in a classroom and you will need to bring your own device with Adobe Photoshop installed. You should ensure it is fully charged as access to power is limited. Please note that the University does not carry any responsibility for your lost, stolen, or damaged devices whilst on the University premises.

Online classes

You will need your own device with Adobe Photoshop installed. We also recommend using a computer with a larger screen, or two screens/devices. A small laptop screen provides limited space, and it can be difficult to manage following the facilitator’s screen and using your own software.

Materials

Course materials are provided electronically.

Before the course

You will need an Adobe Creative Cloud account to participate. If you do not have an existing account, you can purchase an Adobe Creative Cloud account here. Please bring your account login details with you to class.

Recommended operating system: Windows or Mac
Recommended software for PC: Adobe Photoshop CC 2023
Recommended software for Mac OS: Adobe Photoshop CC 2023

Download the BETA version through your Creative Cloud to access the AI features.