IMHO, for a "basic" class, you should not be using PS 7, as there is too much functionality to trip over. Photoshop Elements would be a better choice. And it has a red-eye tool.
* hit q to exit quick mask.
Need: Select/Inverse here, eh?
* select image> adjustments> channel mixer. turn red to 0 and blue and green to 50% each.
M
Need: Select/Inverse here, eh?
heh. I switched my default. good catch mac. makes my life easier. 🙂
IMHO, for a "basic" class, you should not be using PS 7, as there is too much functionality to trip over. Photoshop Elements would be a better choice. And it has a red-eye tool.
I always think it’s better to learn HOW things are done, opposed to what tools will automatically do the steps for you. If you can teach red-eye reduction, you can teach your students a practical use for quick-mask, desaturate and brush techniques. And they’ll use those techniques to remove a lot of red eyes. From there, you can teach them how to change eye color, remove "blood-shot red eye" and then dimples and pimples on the face.
What’s scary is that someone who’s going to teach a class is worried about learning how to remove red-eye.
I guess if the class is for the casual Digital Photo Manipulator, than PSE is fine. However, do to the poor job of properly marketing PSE by Adobe, many people probably feel they’re getting ripped off if they don’t learn full-on Photoshop. I’ll bet if you offered both PS and PSE, no one would sign up for PSE because they want to learn how to "Photoshop".
I’ve complained about this subject before, so I won’t continue the argument here.
Cheese:
I think you have several good points here. I wouldn’t want to go on a class where the instructor needs to ask this. Then again, if it’s for real beginners, maybe this is "advanced" stuff.
There is also some snobbery about PSE and PS 7. I use the latter because I want masks, paths and channels. But I have PSE available too.
I know of several parents and friends who have asked "How the heck can I do this that or the other without spending $700". I tell them to use Elements, but the perception is that it’s a watered down version of Photoshop. They don’t understand that it’s not watered down, it’s boiled down to give them what they want and none of what they don’t need.
I’ve never used it, but I’ve read enough about it. I think it’s negative perception is caused by it’s reputation as the free-software that came with the camera someone bought. Surely it can’t be good if it’s free, right?
I think the instructive interface of Elements is a wonderful evolution of the product, and certainly Photoshop should have the same pervasive help added to it.
As a trainer/consultant of publishing software (including especially Photoshop), I have yet to meet anyone, myself included, who knows it thru and thru.
I was conversing recently with an acknowledged expert who was blissfully unaware that drop shadows could be generated automatically at a click. He described the new layer/fill with black/gaussian filter method with great ease. When I showed him the layer style of drop shadow, he first glazed over, then looked panicked.
Yet, without question, he was expert at Photoshop and making great, color-corrected output.
Photoshop Elements very nicely weaves in the How-Do-I? stuff that new and experienced ones really need.
Mike Witherell in Washington DC
Cheese:
Ever heard the words "he knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing"?
Once in a while this applies to a product as opposed to a value system.
Colin,
Never heard the quote before, but I understand where you’re going with it. Unfortunatly, people don’t understand that bundled software is never "Free", yet they perceive free as bad, when it comes to a products quality.
"…yet they perceive free as bad, when it comes to a products quality"
That’s because many past bundled software packages bear that perception out, in spades.
I agree Phos.
It’s a bad idea for PSE to be bundled in software. It lowers the perceived quality of the program.
Plus there’s no explanation as to what was removed from PS to make the price drop from $700 to $100. That ratio would make me nervous too. If I was looking at a $700 printer and someone recommended I buy a $99 printer, I would have a hard time accepting their reasoning.
Although I have to say that I have rigorously used every piece of bundled software I’ve ever received. The CD’s make good coasters.
Yeah, an when that thirty dollar printer runs out of ink, it makes a great tax write off if you donate it to goodwill; (and PSE is a great gift idea!).
Jan,
No offense meant. Judging by the questions people ask the most here, the more popular subjects seem to be (in no particular order):
1. Replacing elements of one image with that of another (e.g. putting someone else’s head on someone else’s body or changing the background.) This would be a place to teach clipping, masks and extracting.
2. Red eye – Desaturation, channels, brushes.
3. Text – Layers, text effects, fonts.
4. Prepping files for print and for the web – DPI, sizing.
5. File types – JPG, TIF, GIF
6. Transparency – Masks, Alpha channels, layers, and file type associations.
7. Removing dimples, pimples and scars – healing brush, clone brush, smudge tool
Best of luck to you. I’ve often toyed with the idea of teaching beginers PS at a community center so that parents, grandparents and teens can learn the basics of digital photo manipulation. My only problem is that I’m a terrible teacher.
Strong suggestion, Jan:
Make sure that you get across to students that creating accurate selections is one of THE most important skills to master. Without being able to do that, all other work will look sub-par.
Once they get that, explain the symbiotic and parallel relationship between all the ways to approach getting those accurate selections, and when to use which techniques. For instance: Sure, you could go into Quick Mask mode to paint around an elliptical areathose glowing pupils, for examplebut it’s certainly more efficient to use the Elliptical Marquee Tool; Conversely, you could use multiple Elliptical Marquee selections to isolate all the holes in a photograph of a cheese grater, but looking at different channels or creating an Adjustment Layer Mask will likely be easier and more efficient. Make sure they get at least a rudimentary demonstration of the Path Tools capabilities, and an explanation about why and where they might want to use them. Demonstrate how to use and combine the various techniques for selections. Explain how to save as Alpha Channels ANY selections that take more that a few minutes to make…it’ll save them a lot of frustration later. Teach them about non-destructive editing through the use of Adjustment Layers. Explain how, brush softness, feathering distance and Gaussian Blur distance is related to image resolution, and how to get a decent idea of how much of either to use with a given selection or mask.
Once they understand why accurate selections are so important, then they can concentrate on fine-tuning their, extraction, compositing, and color and tonal correction skills. Without first having a firm grip on those (and all the other, myriad) selection concepts, they’ll never be completely happy with their results of anything else they do.
Get a little sand filled egg-timer and get them into the habit of Saving Early, and Often. Perhaps some lessons in attentive, logical filenaming and management (like where they are saving to, creating separate folders for each project, logical directory heirarchies) wouldn’t hurt either.
Gotta go with phosphor. Selections. Selections. Selections.
Teach them at least 3 or 4 different ways to do selections. Some of the easiest are the marquee tools, the quick mask, the layer mask and paths (teach them the pen tool, they’ll bless your name down the road!).
Everything else is gravy and will fall right into place.
Thank you.
You Are Fairly Intelligent too.
