CLASS SCHEDULE

  

Week 1 (1/21 - 1/27)

TOPICS

  • Introduction to the Class
  • Introduction to Digital Imaging and Photoshop
  • The Breadth and Depth of Photoshop: How many ways to zoom?
  • The Photoshop Environment: Tools, Palettes, Inspectors, and Menus
  • What does it mean to go digital?
  • What's a pixel?

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

  • Buy the book
  • Begin play and experimentation

Week 2 (1/28 - 2/3)

TOPICS

  • Rulers, Guides, and Grids
  • The Photoshop Toolbox: Overview of the Photoshop Tools
  • Image Size, Canvas Size, and Resolution
  • Painting and Drawing in Photoshop
  • Raster vs. Vector graphics
  • Layer Basics
  • Working with Brushes
  • Editing and Customizing Brushes
  • Working with Color

RESOURCES

Exercise #1: Digital Painting

Exploring the topics listed above and demonstrated in class, use Photoshop to create a simple digital painting. Your painting can be abstract or representational. Explore the brush tools and customizing brushes, working with colors, working with layers, and the other tools/techniques demonstrated in class. Use the type tool to add your name to the bottom right corner of the painting. The dimensions of your digital creation should be set to 775 x 425 at 72 ppi. Save the exercise as a Photoshop (.psd) file and name it with your name + e1 + .psd (ie "karlclevelande1.psd") and put it in the Exercise 1 folder on the shared drive.

  1. Sample of a digital painting (representational)
  2. Sample of a digital painting (abstract)

LAb/Homework

  • Read Chapters 1 & 2
  • Finish Exercise 1

Week 3 (2/4 - 2/10)

TOPICS

  • Working with Adobe Bridge
  • Cropping, Sizing, and Straigthening Imagery
  • Image and Tonal Range Adjustments
  • Understanding the Histogram
  • Levels, Curves, Brightness and Contrast
  • Image Transformations: Scale, Rotation, Distortion
  • Dodging and Burning
  • Shadow/Highlight Adjustments

RESOURCES

Exercise #2: Tonal Range Collage

Create a photo-collage containing six versions of one image, varying the tonal range of each version. Begin by finding a photo or using one of the sample photos provided in class. Copy the photo into (at least) six layers. Adjust and manipulate the tonal range of the photo to create six different versions. Explore the image adjustment capabilites in Photoshop (including IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > LEVELS and IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > CURVES).

You should include: 1) the original image, 2) the image with a corrected tonal range, 3) a high-contrast version, 4) a low-contrast version, 5) a posterized or threshold version, 6) a version wherein you creatively manipulate the curves.

Finally, resize or "transform the scale" of each image so that all six will fit onto a canvas no larger than 780 x 440 at 72 ppi. Finally, save the file, name it with your name + e2 + .psd (ie "karle2.psd"), and put it in the Exercise 2 folder on the shared drive.

LAb/Homework

Week 4 (2/11 - 2/17)

TOPICS

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

Week 5 (2/18 - 2/24)

NO CLASS THIS WEEK

We will not be meeting this week (Week 5, 2/18 or 2/20). Monday (2/18) is President's Day and a holiday. On Wednesday (2/20), I will be at a conference in San Franscisco.

Week 6 (2/25 - 3/2)

Topics

  • Understanding Color
  • RGB vs. CMYK
  • Additive vs. Subtractive Color
  • Correcting and Manipulating Color
  • Color Balance and Hue/Saturation
  • Removing Color Casts
  • Photo Filters
  • Colorization Techniques
  • Blending Modes and Colorization

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

Week 7 (3/3 - 3/9)

Topics

  • Working with Selections
  • Adjusting Selections
  • Feathering Selections
  • Saving and Loading Selections
  • Refining Selection Edges (Refine Edge)
  • Quick Mask Mode and Painting Selections

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

  • Read Chapter 5
  • Prepare for Quiz next week. Make sure you can login to Blackboard and take the Practice Quiz

Week 8 (3/10 - 3/16)

Topics

  • Quiz #1 (Wed)
  • Introduce Picture Puzzle Project
  • Working with Layers
  • Layers and Blending Modes
  • Layer Styles and Effects
  • Locking Layers
  • Linking Layers
  • Merging Layers
  • Compositing in Photoshop
  • Working with Masks and Channels
  • Creating and Manipulating Layer Masks
  • Quick Masks vs. Layer Masks
  • Understanding Channels
  • Converting Selections to Masks

Exercise#3: Adding fish to the Fishbowl (compositing with Layer Masks)

Exploring the topics listed above and demonstrated in class, use Photoshop to create a composite image using layer masking. Select at least 3 photographs (from the underwater photos provided in class) and combine them into one image collage. Use one of the underwater photos as the primary background (such as the diver). Then add additional fish to the photo by masking out fish from at least two other photos and bringing them in as layer masks into your main document. In other words, tear two fish out of their original context and recontextualize them in your new underwater scene. You will then need to match the colors, tonal range, and lighting of your photos to fit within your new scene using levels, curves, color balance, or other methods.

The dimensions of your digital composite should be set to 800 x 600 at 72 ppi. Save the project as a Photoshop (.psd) file and name it with your name + e3 + .psd (ie "karlclevelande3.psd"). Put the file in the Exercise 3 folder in the class folders on the shared drive (K drive).

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

SPRING BREAK (3/17 - 3/23)

SPRING BREAK - Go HAVE FUN!

Week 9 (3/24 - 3/30)

Topics

  • Review Picture Puzzle Project
  • Picture Puzzle Techniques
  • Photoshop Compositing Techniques
  • Working with Masks and Channels continued
  • Gradient Masks
  • Using the Extraction Filter
  • Correcting and Enhancing Photographs
  • Adjustment Layers

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

Week 10 (3/31 - 4/6)

Topics

  • Review Picture Puzzle Techniques
  • Typographic design in Photoshop
  • Type adjustments and the character palette
  • Paragraph type vs. point type
  • Using Layer Styles with type
  • Warping Type
  • Type on a Path
  • Type Masks
  • Type and the Picture Puzzle

RESOURCES

LAb/Homework

Week 11 (4/7 - 4/13)

Topics

  • Vector Drawing Techniques
  • Bitmap vs. Vector Graphics
  • Paths
  • Understanding the Pen Tool
  • Editing Paths
  • Creating Vector Shapes
  • Converting Vector to Raster
  • Type on Vector Paths or in Vector Shapes
  • Vector Masks
  • Smart Objects

LAb/Homework

Week 12 (4/14 - 4/20)

Topics

  • Introduce DVD Cover Design Project
  • Layer and Compositing Techniques
  • Gradient Masks
  • Understanding Blending Modes
  • Working with Adjustment Layers
  • Clipping Masks
  • Quiz #2 (Wed)

LAb/Homework

Week 13 (4/21 - 4/27)

Topics

  • Review DVD Cover Design Project Techniques
  • Advanced Layer and Compositing Techniques
  • Smart Objects
  • Filters and the Filter Gallery
  • Smart Filters
  • Blending and Masking Adjustment Layers, Filters and Effects

LAb/Homework

Week 14 (4/28 - 5/4)

Topics

  • Introduction to Photoshop for the Web
  • Introduction to Web Interface Project
  • Slicing Imagery and the Slice Tool
  • Optimizing Imagery for the Web
  • Understanding File Formats
  • Camera Raw

RESOURCES

Lab/Homework

Week 15 (5/5 - 5/11)

Topics

  • Review Final DVD Cover Design Projects (Wed)
  • Review Web Interface Project techniques
  • Integrating Photoshop with Dreamweaver
  • Animation in Photoshop
  • Actions and Automation

LAb/Homework

Week 16 (5/12 - 5/18)

TOPICS

LAb/Homework

Optional Saturday Lab (5/17 - 10 am - 2 pm)

I will be opening the OCeanside campus digital media labs (in the 4600 building) on Saturday for any students seeking extra lab time.

Finals Week (5/21)

TOPICS

M/W Class: Due 5/21 at 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday Night Class: Due 5/21 at 7:00 p.m.

  • Optional Quiz Online This Week