Course Description

With so many third party filters available for Photoshop Elements, people tend to forget about the ones native to the software. Native filters are the ones you will find under the Filters menu. These filters can produce some dramatic effects whether used alone or combined with others, how to use these filters is the focus of this course.. One more problem is often these filters aren't very intuitive, so even if you have noticed them, or even experimented with them, you may not know what the sliders and settings mean, or when you might want to use a particular effect. Over the six weekly lessons, we will cover quite a few of these filters to enhance photographs, create paintings and make your text stand off the page. I believe in learning by doing so we'll be creating images as we go to learn more about these filters. Lessons will include making paintings from filters, beveling text and adding texture to photographs using the Lighting Effects filter, using the Texturizer and Displace filter, using the 3D Transform Filter, and much more. This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. 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 must have Photoshop Elements installed on your Mac or PC. This class works with most versions of Photoshop Elements. You also need a good understanding of layers, working with text, and other basic Elements skills. Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac 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; on this class that may vary according to how much experimenting you choose to do with actions and the other subjects of the class.

Course Prerequisites

This is an intermediate course. You need to have Photoshop Elements installed on your computer. You also need a good understanding of layers, working with text, and other basic Elements skills. You also need to understand basic Mac or Windows commands, as well as basic Elements operations such as opening an image, creating a new one, and working with photos.

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1 Using the Filter Gallery Using the Correct Camera Distortion Filter General Filter Tips and Tricks The Adjustment Filters The Blur Filters Making a Line Drawing Soft Focus Technique Lesson 2 Artistic Filters Brushstroke Filters Noise Filters Using Luminosity Blend Mode to Reduce Texture Lesson 3 Pixilate Filters Distort Filters Polar Coordinates and Lens Flare: a Reflective Bubble Lesson 4 Render Filters 3D Photo Cube Textures with the Clouds and Fibers Filters Saving Custom Patterns as a Set Sketch Filters Woodcut Effect Lesson 5 Stylize Filters Using Find Edges for a Cartoon Look Adding Antique Craquelure Effect to a "Painting" Texture Filters Adding Canvas Texture to a "Painting" Lesson 6 Video Filters Other Filter Category Line Drawings with High Pass Half-Painted Image Sharpening with High Pass Seamless Backgrounds using the Offset Filter Law & Order Effect Placing Objects Behind Other Objects Adding Mist and Fog to Photos

Course Excerpt

Woodcut Effect A nice woodcut effect can be created using Photocopy, the Paint Brush tool, and the Paint Daubs filter. Here are the steps I used for this woodcut flower. Step 1. Open the photo to which you want to apply the effect. CMD/CTRL + J to duplicate the background layer. Step 2. Run the Photocopy filter on the duplicate layer. My settings were Detail 7, Darkness 50, but your settings may vary with your image. Name this layer photocopy. Step 3. CMD/CTRL + CLICK on the New Layer icon to create a new blank layer below the photocopy layer. Hide the background layer. We really don't need the background layer anymore; it is just there to use as a reference for the colors. IMPORTANT! Even though you cannot see it in the layers palette screenshot, the photocopy layer is set to Multiply blend. This makes the white areas transparent so all that is visible on the image are the black outlines. Step 4. Choose the Paint Brush tool (B) in the toolbox. In the options bar, choose a brush, a brush size, and set the Mode to Color. Lower the opacity to between 60% and 75%. To start, you might want to choose a soft-edged brush with fairly solid color to fill in the background colors. For my image, that was the light pink on the petals and the light green on the leaves. Step 5. Make sure the paint layer is the targeted layer. Set your foreground color and begin to paint. This works best with a graphics tablet because of the pressure sensitivity, but I am on my laptop so am just using the mouse. Vary the opacity as you need to as you work, especially if you are using a mouse rather than a graphics tablet, and keep in mind that you can change the brush size on the fly by pressing the left [ bracket key to make the brush smaller or right ] bracket key to make the brush larger. Change colors for shading as you work, and you might want to consider using different brushes too. I switched to a brush from the Dry Media library that ships with Elements to add the darker shading colors on top of the light background colors. When you look at the paint layer by itself (temporarily hide the photocopy layer), you will be able to see the transparency grid through the paint. This is normal and when we save the image at the end of the exercise as a JPG you won't see the grid anymore. Step 6. When you are done painting, keep the Paint layer targeted and run the Paint Daubs (Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs) filter on it. I used Brush Size 19, Sharpness 0, Brush Type Dark Rough, but you may find other settings better for your own image. The Paint Daubs filter blends the painted edges together a little more and helps blend your colors. Continued... Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.

Course Goals

By the end of this two part course, you will have an understanding of the filters and effects available to you in Photoshop Elements and be able to combine them for lovely artistic effects---without any third party plug-ins!