Back in the classroom for Week Eight and a look at Photoshop.

This is a photography course not a photoshop course so we were looking at the basics.

This is what we covered.

The College uses CS3 and the first thing we were shown was how to set up and save your own Workspace. Next, using photos provided, we looked the following in turn. Remembering to always work on a copy.

1) Levels:
Image - Adjustment - Levels
Input Levels to be precise. With white at the RHS 255 and black at the LHS 0. Midtones are in the middle!

By pulling in the black the picture becomes darker and the white, lighter. You adjust the midtones last. This can whiten whites and blacken blacks.

When you make an adjustment in Levels the Histogram becomes striped. There are now gaps in the picture. So if you want to adjust differently you must always go back to original.

2) Shadows/Highlights:
Image - Adjustment - Shadows/Highlights
Click on Show More Options
Here you can adjust the Shadows, Highlights, Colour Correction and Midtone Contrast. The downside of this is the changes happen to the whole image. If you want to only work on a small section of the image you need to use ...

3) Dodge and Burn:
The Dodge Tool looks like a lollypop. Right click will give up the Burn Tool (hand) or the Sponge Tool.

The Dodge Tool blocks light and hence makes things lighter and the Burn Tool makes things darker. You can set the brush diameter and the hardness. We were recommended a large soft brush (300 pixels) with Exposure below 10 per cent.

The sponge saturate or desaturate colour.

4) Variations:
Image - Adjustment - Variations.
This is used to remove or add a colour cast from an image. If you are removing you add the opposite colour cast. Set the bar to Fine unless you want some wacky colour effects. Alternative is Image - Adjustment - Colour Balance but you have less control.

5) Curves:
Image - Adjustment - Curves
You can choose the whole image or just the Red, Green and Blue and put in Fixed Points but again less control over the changes.

6) Hue/Saturation:
Image - Adjustment - Hue/Saturation.
With these bars you can change the Hue (colour), Saturation (intensity of the colour) and Lightness. This time you can work on the whole image or chose primary and secondary light colours separately.

These tools can help correct minor errors in the images but the emphasis has been to get it right in the camera.