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Courses >
Digital Photography & Digital Video > Photoshop Elements 8 for the Digital Photographer
Syllabus:
A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in
a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date
for each course at least two months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the
end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of
the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released.
You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the
interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will
automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we
strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of
its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson.
Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to
complete all of your course work, including the final exam.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
Photoshop
Elements is an excellent package for photographers to enhance and edit
digital images. In this first lesson, you'll find out how to download
the images you'll use throughout the course and start learning the
basics of Photoshop Elements. We'll take things one step at a time so
that even if you're a new user, you can get comfortable editing and
enhancing digital photos. We'll also look at what's new in Elements 8.
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| Friday - Lesson 02 |
Today we'll
discuss the many file formats digital images can take and how you can
use them to your best advantage with Photoshop. You'll learn how to
save updated originals and copies of your images and how to use Edit
Quick to produce fast results. You'll see how to crop and rotate images
to get just the look you're after, and you'll practice using the
Straighten tool for one-step corrections.
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| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
Digital images
come in all sizes! In this lesson, we'll discuss image resolution,
pixels, and recommendations for resizing pictures with excellent
results. Whether you want to create flawless prints or send your photos
quickly by e-mail, you'll discover how to optimize your images for the
best results. You'll see how the Crop tool, Options bars, and a 3:2
ratio can change the look of your pictures.
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| Friday - Lesson 04 |
Photoshop
Elements gives you lots of options for printing your documents, and
we'll explore all of them in this lesson. You'll find out how to add
temporary colorful borders and how to print images to just the size you
want. You'll also practice saving photos for use on the Web using
Photoshop Elements Save for Web feature, and you'll have a chance to
try out the Photoshop.com Web site for Adobe users. In addition, we'll
look at the Organizer and see how you can print multiple photos on a
page.
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| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
Most of the time,
photographers have plenty of images to work with, but sometimes you'll
want to create a new file as a foundation for your images. You'll learn
how to do that in this lesson. You'll also see how to use Elements 8's
new tabbed windowing for quick access to your open images. From there,
you'll add color and then move a photo onto your background. In the
process, you'll discover how to use the Layers feature.
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| Friday - Lesson 06 |
Ever wondered how
professional photographers can make the colors in some images look out
of this world? Today you'll find out how they do it! You'll work with
color adjustments in your images, including hue and saturation. You'll
also create black-and-white images from color images using Elements
Black and White Conversion feature, and you'll pick individual colors
to replace with others. Color Variations is a wonderful visual tool
included in Photoshop Elements. You'll learn how to make quick changes
with this!
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| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
Light is the
essence of photography, but it's not always cooperative. In this
lesson, we'll discuss ways to enhance and even create better lighting
after you've taken an image. You'll see how to use Brightness and
Contrast to improve your images, and we'll cover techniques for
lightening shadows. You'll also have a chance to work with the
histogram, Levels, and Color Curves—all excellent tools for correcting
lighting and color tones. Through all this, you'll see how Elements
keeps track of your changes and lets you go back through them if you
want to undo something.
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| Friday - Lesson 08 |
Adobe includes
Organizer, a powerful organization package, with Photoshop Elements.
Today we'll look at how Organizer works to keep track of your images.
We'll also cover strategies for using both folders and Organizer, as
well as connecting with Photoshop.com online. You'll see how to sort
your pictures, add tags, and collect them for use in projects like
scrapbook pages and greeting cards.
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| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
Creative projects
often pair photos with text. Photoshop Elements gives you plenty of
text tools, and in this lesson, you'll explore them and add text to
your images. You'll see how Photoshop Elements uses layers with text,
and you'll get tips on how to master the Layers panel. You'll also get
acquainted with the powerful selection tools, including the color-based
Magic Wand tool and the flexible Lasso tool. With these, you'll
discover the power of Feathering selections and copying selections
within an image.
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| Friday - Lesson 10 |
Today you'll
learn how to create a silhouette image using the Quick Selection tool.
You'll also practice using the selection tools in a reverse mode for
tricky selections. We'll see how the Marquee tools let you select
perfect squares and circles for use in framing and highlighting your
images. You'll also work more with Feathering and see the difference it
makes, especially when you want to create a soft, blended background in
your image. Finally, we'll go over how to add colors with the Gradient
tool.
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| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
In this lesson,
we'll finish up with the selection tools by exploring the Selection
Brush tool, which lets you do detailed and exacting work. You'll also
learn some advanced techniques for using the selection tools together.
We'll work extensively with the Add to selection option, and we'll
preview our work with Mask Mode. You'll have a chance to experiment
with some of Photoshop Elements' filters and color options, as well as
the settings in the Magnetic Lasso tool. As a final addition to your
knowledge in this area, you'll have a chance to explore and work with
each item on the Select menu.
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| Friday - Lesson 12 |
For our final
lesson, we'll discuss Retouching and Correcting tools, and you'll
perfect your skills with the Red Eye Removal tool, the Clone Stamp
tool, and both the powerful Healing Brushes. You'll learn when to use
each tool for the best results. The power of Photoshop Elements will
really come to life for you as you use these tools in your final
assignment.
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This
course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide
you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your
questions. The instructor for this course will be Beverly Schulz.
 Beverly
Schulz is a freelance photographer and a graduate of the New York
Institute of Photography's Professional Photographer's program. She
teaches a number of classes in digital photography and has more than 25
years of classroom instruction experience. Her writing and photography
have been published in a number of magazines. She has travelled
extensively and participated in onsite photography workshops as well as
independent photo quests. In addition to teaching and photographic
work, she provides consulting services for digital photographers and
clients.
Requirements:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 for Windows or Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 for Mac
(software must be installed and fully operational before the course
begins); Windows XP w/ Service Pack 2 or 3/Vista/Windows 7 or Mac OS X
v10.4.11, 10.5.7 or v10.6; Internet access; e-mail; and the Internet
Explorer or Netscape or Firefox Web browser; Note: This course is
written for the Windows version of the software. Mac students are
welcome, but will need to make standard Windows/Mac keystroke
conversions. Mac students should also know that Lesson 8 of this course
is on Elements Organizer, but Adobe did not include the Organizer in
the Mac version of the software. No substitute material is provided for
that lesson for Mac users.
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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Bring
out the best in your digital photos and images with Adobe Photoshop
Elements 8. An award-winning package designed for photo enthusiasts,
Adobe's Photoshop Elements provides the tools for making quick fixes as
well as detailed improvements. This course is designed both for those
with no previous image editing experience and those upgrading to
Elements 8 from an earlier version of the program.