Photoshop CC Projects

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Photoshop CC Projects

The idea behind Photoshop CC Projects is to take regular Photoshoppers, (photographers rather than artists), to a new level of creativity. Though essentially designed as a follow-on from my Photoshop CC Essentials course, Adobe Photoshop CC Projects is open to all levels from experience beginner, up.

The idea is to learn how to create stunning images, not necessarily by trying to be cleverer in post-production than everyone else (that can get complex and time consuming) but by showing students how to create something quite different with the minimum of fuss.

That said, Photoshop itself is a complex program so the style for this class is to concentrate on the important aspects of the program, relevant to the goal, while not getting bogged down in excessively complex techniques.

I have split this two-month course into four sections so students have a clear two weeks to look, listen and experiment before diving in to complete each assignment.

These take the shape of a mix of tasks, from simple, but highly visual tricks for a quick WOW! result, to several assignments (notably in lessons 3 and 4), where you might need several attempts (and a lot of patience) to achieve the final result.

Adding Clouds in Photoshop

In short, there’s something for all levels and ambitions…

Lesson ONE

Saving Workspaces in Photoshop
Setting up the Look of Photoshop – the GUI and its preferences

Camera RAW basics: Using the ‘before’ and ‘after’ edit review mode

Camera RAW Radial filter

Camera RAW Graduated filter

DIY foodie labels using clip art, images and fonts

Homage to American artist, Roy Lichtenstein: Creating an art comic strip

“After Roy Lichtenstein”

Lesson TWO

Working the Camera RAW Adjustment Brush

Auto painting: the Art History brush

Creating an infra-red look – in colour

Working with Custom Brushes: Adding clouds to a landscape

Working with Custom Brushes: Adding weather to a landscape or city view

Contrast manipulation: Creating a fake HDR look

Homage to artist Man Ray: Using Blend Modes to create a (Man) Ray-O-Gram

“Ray-O-Gram”

Lesson THREE

Creating an infra red effect in black-and-white

Simple layer manipulation: Creating a defocused, miniature effect
Perfecting your selections with the Pen tool

Perfecting selections with the Refine Edge tool

Perfecting selections with the Quick Mask
Working with Vector Objects for captions, text, layout and more

Homage to UK artist David Hockney: Creating a Polaroid print effect

“Create other-worldly colour with infra-red”.

Lesson FOUR

Movie Poster: Simple font manipulation

Movie Poster: Hand colouring, selecting, simple masking

Introduction to the process of making a complex montage

Technique: Aging and warping paper

Technique: Aging text

Technique: Adding coffee stains – more Photoshop brushes

Technique: Sourcing, loading and using (more) custom brushes and textures

Technique: More brush fun – adding translucent tape effects

“Add strong visual impact to your photos using one of Photoshop’s free specialist brushes.”

Instructor: Robin Nichols

Like a few others involved in the industry, I’m in the position of being able to combine my life’s passion, photography, with my job. And, even though I spend too much time in front of a computer, it remains one of the best occupations in the world…

Born in the UK, I’ve spent the past 30 years in Sydney. I began work in Australia as a cameraman in the audio-visual business, then as a freelance photographer. In the nineties I worked as a contributing freelance writer for several photo publications, then as a full-time magazine editor for more than eight years. In 2000 I started my own publishing business producing Australia’s best-selling specialist digital photo techniques publication: Better Digital Camera magazine.

With this I aggressively pursued the goal of producing clear, well-illustrated information written in simple English and continued to develop this plain-speaking style in another specialist magazine, Better Photoshop Techniques. During this time as a magazine editor I also wrote several books on software post production and web design.

Nowadays I mostly teach in Sydney and run specialist photo tours and workshops to photo-centric locations such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Ethiopia, Japan, Bali and Cuba. When not travelling I run photo workshops, teach digital photography, video and post-production classes online and in face-to-face classes locally through Sydney University.

My work can be seen online at:
www.robinnicholsworkshops.blogspot.com