Course description
Overview: Students will learn skills that go beyond those covered in the Photoshop Basic Skills 1 course. This course will give students a firm grasp on Photoshop concepts that are applicable to almost every facet of using the application, including Web design, preparing photographic images for printing, and illustration.
Prerequisites: Before taking this course, you should complete the Photoshop 6 Basic Skills 1 course or have equivalent knowledge.
Performance-based objectives
Lesson objectives help students become comfortable with the course, and also provide a means to evaluate learning. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
* Use Quick Mask mode, alpha channels, and layer masks to isolate image areas.
* Create clipping groups to use one layer’s contents to mask another’s.
* Create vector paths as tools for selecting images, for creating transparent areas in images to be used with other applications, and for drawing shapes.
* Create color swatches, gradients, and patterns, all of which can be saved and loaded in sets for convenience.
* Create layer styles that can apply effects, colors, patterns, and gradients in one step.
* Use the Background Eraser and the Extract command to create complex masks quickly and accurately, even for images with indistinct edges and very fine details.
Course content
Lesson 1: Masking and Layers
Editing Quick Masks and Alpha Channels
Layer Masks
Grayscale Masking
Clipping Groups
Lesson 2: Vector Paths
Vector Path Concepts
Creating Vector Paths
Editing Paths
Using Paths for Masking
Lesson 3: Swatches, Gradients, and Patterns
Swatches
Gradients
Patterns
Lesson 4: Layer Types and Styles
Fill Layers
Drawing and Painting Shapes
Layer Styles
Lesson 5: Advanced Masking
The Background Eraser
The Extract Command