For further information, contact Jed Gibbs MA by email: jgibbs@totton.ac.uk
Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard, ideal for anyone wanting to gain employment or work with professional software.
14 Sep 11 - Introduction to course.
Creating a composite photo-montage image with balloons reflected in a lake.
Photoshop digital manipulation at the weird and wonderful world of worth1000.com
21 Sep 11 - Making Selections exercise.
28 Sep 11 - Basic Layers exercise. Creating a postcard of where you are from, where you have visited or where you would like to go...
05 Oct 11 - Making a selection using QuickMask. Creating a scene using QuickMask.
12 Oct 11 - No session due to Open Evening
19 Oct 11 - Typography exercise. Introduction of Magazine Cover brief and example covers.
Jed will be assessing previous exercises and providing feedback verbally and via eMarkbook.
26 Oct 11 - No session due to Half Term
02 Nov 11 - Gathering reference material: 9 general magazine covers + 9 specialist covers of your chosen area eg gaming, fashion, music, wildlife, photography. Using Bridge>Window>Output to create an Acrobat pdf of the 9 covers on one A4 page. Use quality settings of 150ppi and 50% for a good balance between quality and file size.
Jed will be assessing previous exercises and providing feedback verbally and via eMarkbook.
09 Nov 11 - No session due to Open Evening
16 Nov 11 - Continue with Magazine Cover brief. Creating an A4 page at 200ppi showing a range of fonts and text fx for your magazine cover designs. Using Text Warp tool. Using Liquify filter to distort Rasterised text or to retouch photographs.
23 Nov 11 - Continue with Magazine Cover brief. Jed will be assessing previous exercises and providing feedback verbally and via eMarkbook.
30 Nov 11 - Continue with Magazine Cover brief.
07 Dec 11 - Continue with Magazine Cover brief.
Set Calendar project for over the holiday weeks to sketch ideas and take photographs.
14 Dec 11 - Last session before Christmas holidays. Hand-in for Magazine Cover project.
- Photoshop layers explored with the Dress Up exercise featuring Liz & Elaine
(right-click and save zipped files to your hard disk).
- creating distinctive text effects using filters and bevel and emboss
- retouching images using the clone tool, patch tool and history brush
- replacing a sky using the magic eraser tool
- Using a graphics tablet
- Using gradients with a layer mask to blend two layers
- Stylise filters and fading the filter
- Working with Adjustment Layers & Levels
- Enhancing with Curves
Are there any resources or materials required?
The software is installed on the college computers. For students wishing to do additional work from home free 30 day trials are available from Adobe. Student rates for the software are available and will be discussed on the course.
No previous experience required but some content may be challenging as the software is for professional-level use.
DOWNLOAD An Idiot’s Guide To Photoshop from 
Download free fully-working 30 Day trial versions from Adobe (click the 'try' link)
Pugh.co.uk can supply a wide range of software including Photoshop CS5:
- an 80% reduced student edition for students on qualifying courses (2 year degree courses or full-time secondary school)
- or teachers and non-qualifying students (this course) can buy an educational edition of Photoshop CS5
(check the Adobe collections if you are also interested in Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash). The software is fully working but there are restrictions on 'personal use' rather than for profit and usually no reduced price upgrade path, for example when CS6 is eventually released.
Alternative free open source software for Windows, Mac and Linux: GIMP alternative to Adobe Photoshop
5 alternatives to Photoshop (see comments for more, including Aviary from worth1000.com)
Dozens of books for CS3, CS4 and CS5 versions of Photoshop are available. A free Safari Books Online account will let you compare before buying, or you may decide as I did to subscribe to Safari. Follow a Safari link next to any book in the ad widgit below to get a free 10 day account. (If the slightly temperamental widgit is empty please refresh the page... )
Online video training is available from Adobe, Lynda.com, VTC and Total Training
