About the Course

Photoshop CS3 Techniques for Photographers takes photo editing to new heights. This course is designed for photographers who have a comfortable working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and want to take their knowledge to the next level. The course will cover a wide range of topics, from fine-tuning global tonal and color adjustments, to using advanced techniques to take full control of your images and edit various areas of the image independently. By the end of the week, you will have a new bag of tricks filled with techniques you can use to make the best prints you have ever created.

The week will begin with a review of the techniques that should be used for your basic workflow of editing, color correcting and spotting. From there you will start to work with advanced techniques for getting as much information out of your images as possible, including making targeted image adjustments with masks, selections and layers. The last two days of the course will give you time in the afternoon and evenings to apply the many techniques you have learned to produce the best prints you have ever created.

By the end of the course you will be amazed at the level of control you can exercise over your images and you will have a great time learning to make the most of your images!

What You’ll Learn  

• Review of Photoshop preferences, color settings and custom workspaces
• Monitor Calibration and suggested calibration utilities
• Workflow using Bridge CS3, Camera RAW and Photoshop CS3
• Advanced Camera Raw
• Black & White Conversions Using Camera RAW
• Cropping, Resizing & Correcting Perspective
• Advanced image retouching techniques using layers, opacity and the clone source overlay tool
• Advanced selection techniques including the new quick selection and refine edge tools
• Real world applications of selections
• Selections and Masks
• Masks and painting on masks
• Adjustment layers for targeted image corrections, including the new curves and B&W conversion tools
• An introduction to layer blend modes
• Adding text layers to your images
• Advanced sharpening techniques
• Digital selective focus techniques
• How to make a High Dynamic Range image
• How to make a Panorama
• Black & White Images with hand color tinting
• Highlight Recovery
• How to scan your images
• Much, much more!

Who Should Attend?

This is an intermediate level course on Photoshop CS3 and is designed as the next step after taking Photoshop CS3 Fundamentals for Photographers. Prior to taking the course all participants should have a comfortable working knowledge of Photoshop and the Windows operating system. If you aren’t sure whether you meet the prerequisites for this course, please feel free to contact our office.

What Should I Bring With Me?

 We recommend that you come prepared with the following items for this course:

• Hal will be teaching this course with the aid of “Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a Book” by Tim Grey.  It is highly recommended that you purchase this book and bring it with you.  He will be referring to the book extensively and feels it would be beneficial for you to come with your own copy. It is not absolutely necessary that you do, however it would be greatly beneficial for you in both the short and long run.
• Yourself, ready to learn and work in a digital darkroom!
• Your digital SLR camera. All of the class time will be spent in the digital darkroom, however the Lepp Institute is located on California’s beautiful central coast and there is time before and after class to create images.
• About ten to twenty of you’re own images (preferably digital files - make sure CD's, flash drives or portable hard drives can be read by Windows machines) to work with during the course.
• If you need them, a good pair of both reading & regular glasses.

Schedule-At-A-Glance

Here is an outline of the topics to be covered so you'll have an idea of what to expect: