Learning Adobe Photoshop 2024

Module 1: Photoshop 2024 Basics

Module 2: Photoshop 2024 Advanced Exercises

Module 3: Photoshop 2024 Applications

The tutorials are designed to be used on screen next to the software package using Adobe Acrobat Reader, from a tablet or printed.   Assignments are provided at the end of each chapter and the multi-user version provides projects at the end of each module.   Support files that provide all the images and data required to complete the activities are included with the product.

Module 1

Introduces the Adobe Photoshop basics including layers, workspaces, drawing tools, selection techniques (the Object Selection tool, the Quick Selection tool, the Magic Wand tool and the Quick Mask tool), modifying images, applying filters including the Liquify filter, creating artistic sketches, combining shapes and photographs, adding text to designs and applying Glyphs, adjusting the look of photographs, using masks and Adjustment layers, using the Puppet Warp tool, replacing colours in images, using Content Aware Scaling, and saving files in different formats and for the web.

Module 2

Covers advanced Adobe Photoshop features including cloning parts of images, applying Content Aware Move and Content Aware Fill, using the Remove Tool, applying full and partial blur filters to images, using smart filters, the Smart Sharpen filter and Camera Raw filters, refining selections, selecting skin tones, improving photographs of faces, replacing skies and applying neural filters to improve skin tones, adjust facial expressions and to colourise old photos, working with perspective, using Artboards and Frames, creating accurate designs and using the Curvature Pen tool.

Module 3

Provides some applications of Photoshop including the use of reflection and the Symmetry Tool, using Brush types and the Mixer Brush, creating three-dimensional objects such as spheres and boxes, creating and saving 3D styles, creating graffiti on a brick wall and on a building using the Channels panel, displacing one image into another to add depth and motion to a 2D image, creating animations and applying animation exercises using frames and the Timeline panel, creating videos for YouTube and other media, creating shapes with the Pen tool and using the History panel.

Module 1 Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 1: Introduction to Photoshop

This chapter introduces the Photoshop basics such as the screen sections, the Tools panel, Zoom tools, the navigation techniques, adjusting workspaces, the screen interface and how to use layers, including how to turn layers on and off, add new layers, delete,layers, name layers, change the layer order and change the layer opacity.

Chapter 2: Selecting parts of Images

This chapter demonstrates how to select parts of images and photos. This includes using the Edit Marquee tools, the Lasso tools, the Object Selection tool, the Quick Selection tool, the Magic Wand and the Quick Mask tool, which are used to select a cat in one photo and transfer it to another.

Chapter 3: Modifying Images

Demonstrates how to modifying images and photos using the Liquify Filter and the Filter Gallery.

Chapter 4: Drawing Shapes

Demonstrates how to use the drawing tools such as rectangles, ellipses, lines and custom shapes, then adding effects to those shapes. Students are shown how to combine photos with shapes, for example, placing a photo within a frame shape.

Chapter 5: Adjusting Shapes

Demonstrates how to combine shapes and photos together to create designs. As an example, students are shown how to magnify a cat's head then draw a magnifying glass over it.

Chapter 6: Creating a Detailed Sketch

Demonstrates how to use the drawing and painting tools to create the following artwork. The Brush tool is used to create the outline of the sketch, the Paint Bucket tool is used to fill the sections with colour and layers are duplicated and modified to produce the road lines and white posts..

Chapter 7: Adding Text to Designs

This chapter shows students how to enter text and apply effects to that text such as colour, text warp, style effects, 3D effects, typing text along a path, using Glyphs and more detailed text formatting. Text is then added to photos and images, for example the following poster is created:

Chapter 8: Adjusting the Look of Images

Shows students how to edit and improve photographs using many of the tools that Photoshop provides. Some of the tools used include the Blur tool, the Sharpen tool, the Smudge tool, the Sponge tool, the Dodge tool, the Burn tool, Gradient Fills, the Red Eye Reduction tool, Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layers, Colour Balance Adjustment layers and removing background tools.

Chapter 9: Combining Photographs

Demonstrates how to use the Photomerge tool to combine multiple photos. Students are then shown how to adjust the combined photos to improve the panoramic effect and how to use the Crop Tool to exclude parts of the combination that are not needed.

Chapter 10: Creating Clipping Masks

Introduces students to the concept of masks so that just wanted parts of images are displayed. Different types of objects are used as masks, including marquee selections, custom shapes and text.

Chapter 11: Adjustment Layers

The applications of Adjustment layers are demonstrated to improve the appearance of photographs. The examples covered are Exposure layers, Levels layers, Brightness/Contrast layers and Black & White layers. For example, dark buildings in a photo are lightened whilst maintaining the original sky colour.

Chapter 12: Colour Adjustments

Students are shown some of the professional colour adjustment tools that Photoshop provides to repair the colour in poorly taken photos. The Match Colour tool the Vibrance tool and the Curves tool are used to repair the following photo of a building which had a bluish tinge to it.

Chapter 13: Manipulating Images

Some of Photoshop's handy tools to manipulate images are demonstrated. This includes the Puppet Warp tool, the Replace Colour tools, the resizing images and canvas options and the Content Aware Scale tool. The following cat is selected from a background then manipulated, recoloured and resized.

Chapter 14: Saving Files

Students are shown a variety of different ways Photoshop documents can be saved and exported, including saving TIFF files, JPEG, PNG and GIF formats, the Export command, saving individual layers and using preset canvas sizes.

Project 1: Create a Poster

The Multi-user version provides a project that gets students to apply the Photoshop skills that they have developed to produce a poster on a topic of their choice.

Module 2 Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 15: Repairing Images and Moving Content

Students are shown how to repair scratch marks and to remove an object (a cat) from the front of the car using the Patches tool and the Healing Brush tools. A sticker is removed from the front of the car, other scratch marks repaired and the cat is moved away from the front of the car using the Content Aware Move tool.

Chapter 16: Removing Objects From Images

The Clone Stamp tool is used to manually remove a cat from in front of a car. The car is then cropped to straightened. The Content Aware Fill tool is then used to automatically remove a dingo from an image of dingoes and the Clone Stamp tool used to complete any minor adjustments.

Chapter 17: The Remove Tool

The Remove Tool is used to remove a cat from in front of a car, remove dingoes from the shed in the background of an image and earrings from a portraint of an girl, backgrounds and skin imperfections.

Chapter 18: Refining Edges

This chapter demonstrates how to use the Select and Mask dialogue box to accurately make selections of objects in a photo, in particular how to select difficult areas such as people's hair or animal's fur. The edge detection brushes and colour contamination tools are used to select a girl in one background and place her over another. Also, how to select skin tones automatically is demonstrated.

Chapter 19: Advanced Layer Uses

This chapter demonstrates how to use layers to enhance the photograph of a face, including softening skin tones, whitening teeth, highlighting eyes and changing eye colour.

Chapter 20: Generative Fill

This chapter demonstrates how to use Generative Fill to create scenes from scratch, changing backgrounds in an image, removing unwanted objects from images, replacing an object with another suggestion, changing clothing in portraits and creating patterns within text.

Chapter 21: Applying Filters

Filters including Motion Blur, Gaussian Blur, Reduce Noise and Sharpen are applied to a photo to improve it. The use of Smart Filters is demonstrated which allow applied filters to be edited at a later date, and lighting effect filters are applied to the image, then edited. The Smart Sharpen and Shake Reduction filters, along with Iris Blur, Tilt-Shift and Field Blur filters are also demonstrated.

Chapter 22: Sky Replacement and Neural Filters

In this chapter students are shown how to use the Sky Replacement tool to replace skies in photos and then to edit and enhance the replaced sky. Also, Neural Filters are applied to photos to improve skin tones, change facial expresssions and old black and white photos are colourised and repaired.

Chapter 23: The Camera Raw Filter

The Camera Raw Filter allows images not taken in the camera raw format to use the greater artistic control and flexibility of the RAW format. To illustrate this, a JPG image is adjusted using the Camera Raw Filter, including removing objects, adjusting the exposure, etc. Another image is enhanced using the Dehazing option.

Chapter 24: Applying Artistic Filters

Demonstrates how to use the filters within Photoshop to create artistic sketches. A shipwreck viewed through the porthole of another ship is created.

Chapter 25: Working With Perspective

In this chapter students are shown tools that allow the editing of photos, whilst maintaining the 3D perspective of the photo. The Ruler Tool and the Lens Correction filter are used to straighten an image, Generative Expand is used fill in gaps resulting from the straightening process and the Vanishing Point filter is used remove shadows from the right side of the following building.

Chapter 26: Face-Aware Liquify Filter

The Face-Aware Liquify Filter is used to adjust the eyes, nose, mouth and face shape of a portrait.

Chapter 27: Using Artboards and Frames

The Artboards feature is used to create advertising materials for a hair salon that can be viewed for different screen sizes such as mobile phones or tablets. Students are shown how to create an Artboard file, add content to the Artboard, add extra Artboards, duplicate an Artboard, adjust the size of an Artboard, change the content and export Artboards to Photoshop files, PDFs or image files such as JPEG or PNG.

Frames allow partitions to be created on the canvas and this is demonstrated by creating a one-page flyer for the hair salon.

Chapter 28: Creating Accurate Shapes

This chapter demonstrates how to create three-dimensional boxes using Rulers, Grids and Guide lines. The following product box for a software company is created.

Chapter 29: The Curvature Pen Tool

This chapter demonstrates how to use the Curvature Pen tool (which is a simplified version of the Pen tool covered in Module 3) to draw straight paths, curved paths and paths that combine straight and curved paths. Shapes that are created are converted to filled shapes, outlines and selections. A trace of Piggy Bank image is used to practice the Curvature Pen tool.

Project 2: VicSports

The Multi-user version provides a project that requires students to create two pages for VicSports, a government organisation set up to promote sport in schools. Students are required to produce the first page of a web site and an advertising collage poster.

Module 3 Chapter Descriptions

Chapter 30: Reflections and Symmetry

Demonstrates the use of reflections to add depth and realism to images, and the Symmetry tools that Photoshop provides.

Chapter 31: Displacing Images

Demonstrates how to add depth and motion to an image by displacing an image with curves into a 2D flag.

Chapter 32: Creative Text Effects

Demonstrates how to combine text effects into a scene with lighting effects. Gradients are used to create a realistic text shown and the Lens Filter is used to create the lighting effect.

Chapter 33: Graffiti on a Brick Wall

This chapter demonstrates how to create a brick wall from the Texturizer filter then adding some graffiti text to it using Generative Fill and applying some lighting effects.

Chapter 34: Using Channels to Move Parts of an Image

In this chapter students are shown how to add some graffiti text to a building so that the text matches the perspective of the building. The text is then moved behind some branches and snow using the Channels panel to make the text look part of the original photo.

Chapter 35: Creating Animations

This chapter shows students how to create videos and Animated GIFs within Photoshop. A time-lapse photography animation and the following animated logo for a decorating company are created.

Chapter 36: Blur Animations

In this chapter students are shown how to use blur effects within an animation to create a short animated advertisement.

Chapter 37: Timeline Animations

This chapter demonstrates how to use the Timeline panel to create animated GIFs. Bouncing icons and an animated mask are created.

Chapter 38: Creating Videos

This chapter demonstrates how to use the Timeline panel to create videos that can be exported for uploading to YouTube, smart phones, tablets or media players. The supplied video clips of the day in the life of a cat are edited, have transitions added to them and have a music sound track included before the clips are exported.

Chapter 39: Artistic Brushes

In this chapter students are shown how to use the different brushes that photoshop provides to create artwork. The different brush types and settings are demonstrated and students practice using brushes by colouring in the following image.

Chapter 40: The Mixer Brush

Demonstrates how to use the Mixer Brush tool to mix brush colours and canvas colours. Students use the Mixer Brush tool to convert a photo of a 1000 year-old church into artwork.

Chapter 41: Creating Balls and Spheres

Demonstrates how to quickly create spheres using the Lens Flare and Polar Co-ordinates filters that can be duplicated, resized and have their colour adjusted. Layers are linked so that the sphere and its shadow can be adjusted together.

Chapter 42: Creating 3D Styles

Demonstrates how to create accurate three dimensional objects by applying a range of styles to them. Those styles are then saved so that they can be applied to other objects and text.

Chapter 43: The Pen Tool

This chapter shows students how to use the Pen Tool to draw straight paths, curved paths and paths that combine straight and curved paths. The use of the ALT or OPTION key and the CTRL or COMMAND key in conjunction with the Pen are also demonstrated. Shapes that are created are converted to filled shapes, outlines and selections.

Chapter 44: The History Panel and History Brush

Students are shown how to use the History panel to remove previous steps or remove individual steps, save snapshots at particular stages of a production, create new documents at particular stages and how to use the History Brush tool.