Course Description

This course was written by Ron Lacey and will be taught by Sonja Shea, Peter Mayer, & Vikki Long. Digital Darkroom with Photoshop Part 2 will build on the basics you learned in the Digital Darkroom with Photoshop Part 1. More advanced editing techniques as well as cool special effects will be covered. You will need a copy of Photoshop CS2 or 3 to take full advantage of the class. This is a 5 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area. LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details. LVS students are eligible to receive software and hardware at a discount. Follow this link for details. Students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available specifically for LVS by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration. Show off your LVS Online spirit with an item from the LVS Store If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.

Course Requirements

You'll need a copy of Photoshop CS2, CS3, or CS4 and of course a digital camera. Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students have the option of using the Student Upload Area or free web hosting made available for LVS students. Details are provided in the classroom. If you prefer to use your own web space, you must know how to upload your files to a server. Free tutorials are available: Basic HTML page WS_FTP SmartFTP Students should have working knowledge of their operating system and must understand directories and paths: Free Windows Class Here Directory Structure Tutorial Here Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Winzip Tutorial Here Windows Compression All lessons are available in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view/print the lessons. Plan to devote 3 - 4 hours per week on the lesson and assignment.

Course Prerequisites

Digital Darkroom with Photoshop Part 1

Course Excerpt

LESSON 1 Local Adjustments, Selections and Masks The ability to tweak colour, contrast and brightness within a select area of an image is one of the greatest advantages of digital photography. In the traditional darkroom we called it burning and dodging. Burning would darken a particular area and dodging would lighten up a tone. We could use complex developing solutions or simply a piece of card board with a hole in it to burn in an area or a coat hanger with a cardboard disk taped to it to dodge an area. Results were often unpredictable and techniques and skills had to be learned over time often wasting much expensive photographic paper and chemistry. Photoshop on the other hand allows us far more precise and predictable results without breaking into a sweat. Adjustment Layer Masking In Darkroom Part One, we discussed adjustment layers and the advantages of working with them rather than applying the edits directly to your background image. Another advantage of using adjustment layers is you can apply a layer mask to them. This enables you to apply the adjustment to the image selectively, that is just the area that needs fixing while leaving the rest untouched. A mask is a greyscale image in which black completely blocks out the affect of the adjustment layer and white is effectively transparent allowing the the adjustment to be applied. Shades of grey lessen the effect depending on how dark the shade, the darker the less the effect is applied. When you create an adjustment layer you automatically create a mask for that layer, by default the mask is white thus none of the effect is masked out. The adjustment layer mask is shown represented on the layer palette by the box to the right of the mask (figure 1.01). To select the mask, click on it with the mouse. If you were to paint on the image with a brush now you would be painting on the mask not the image it's self. When a layer mask is selected you'll notice that the foreground and background colours in the colour palette become black and white and your available colours are restricted to grey scale. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

Upon completion of this class you will be able to do things with your images that even a skilled photo finisher with a well equipped darkroom would find difficult, time consuming, and often impossible.