getting good at photo shop. For me, at least when it comes to adjustments is getting comfortable with the most powerful adjustment. The most powerful adjustment is curves by far, but so many people are not comfortable with it because they never have good instruction in it. And they never have time to practice that they don't get very good at. Well, if you want to see the kind of change you can make once you actually practice enough that you're comfortable, let me show you what I did to this particular picture, which is of my wife. Happy ever Face down on the pavement, I do a series of photographs of my wife doing yoga around the world. If you want to see that Siri's It's called The World is my yoga mat in its on instagram. He'd find pictures like this, but I'm gonna turn off a series of adjustments to show what the original picture looked like after I was done in camera raw. Then I wanted it to be quite different, so I ended up adjusting it primarily using curbs, and this is what I was...

able to end up with. Let's just take a look at what's in there. I'm gonna turn off a bunch of adjustment layers. You'll find that every single adjustment layer is a curves adjustment layer. I'm gonna show you this mask is an overlay. I don't think we've done that yet. But if you ever have an adjustment layer that's active and it has a mask with some paint in it on your keyboard right above the returner, enter key will be the backslash key, and if you press it, you'll get a colored overlay. Anything is covered in red is what's not being affected by that adjustment. So in this case, this adjustment effects the background. Not my wife, Karen. I'm gonna turn on its eyeball and let's see what it does to the image, all right, looks to me like it's adding contrast most of the time. Contrast is two dots, one for a bright part, one for a dark part. Make them further apart. Let's look at this curve and see if that happens to be the case. It is exactly two dots. If I were to hover my mouse over the dark portion of this picture, you would see a circle and curves, and it is exactly on top of a dot that was there too dark in this picture that dot was moved down to darken. Then I move my mouse under the bright portion of the picture, and it's very close to a dot that's already in their that Dot's been moved up the slightest bit to Brighton to make a bigger difference between the brightness of those two areas. The next curve up has the same mask, but that one, if I turn it on, makes the colors between those two areas look more different. Doesn't the lighter areas look more bluish when I'm done? Well, that is most likely two dots, one for the bright area, one for the dark and on the blue curve. I betcha. I move part of it up to make it more blue to see that more blue. This one hasn't moved, so it didn't change the amount of blue in the dark areas, and I might have tweaked green or red. But I think it's primarily in the blue. Go to the next one up, turn on its little overlay with backslash key. Anything covered with red will not be affected. So this is affecting my wife skin. If I turn on the adjustment layer, do you see my wife skin changed in color? That's because they didn't like the way it was looking in. Often times. What I do is I find another picture of a person, and I have hundreds of pictures of my wife doing yoga. So I just open up a bunch of references and I can write down the RGB numbers for the skin I like and shift her skin to that the next one up effects on Lee her feet. If I turn it on and off, it's making her feet more colorful. It's making them closer and color to the color of her skin again. Write down the numbers of the skin tone and change the area. Want tohave match it. The next one up is affecting just her head. If I turn on its eyeball, do you see? It's adding contrast. That is two dots on a curve, one for the bright area, one for the dark and the bright one was moved up. You can see it right there, just two dots. Then we have this one, which is working on Lee on the dark pants when it comes to black objects, you can cheat, and I changed the color of my wife's black pants. How the heck did I do it? Well, all I did was hero at a curves adjustment layer to show you, you just click on the color that you're thinking of. Do you want to add more blue? For instance? Move your mouse onto the brighter area of a black object and just pull up, and if you pull up, you should end up changing the amount. But in this case, I actually have. This has gotta down pointing arrow. It doesn't need there, and we'll be able to change the color of a black object. You just need to leave the the lower left dot alone, click on the main brightness of the image and move it up. If I came over here and did the same with let's Say Red, then we're gonna end up with instead of blue pants kind of purple ones. But we can do that with black objects, but in the end, it's getting comfortable with two main adjustments. They are curves and hue and saturation, and I hope that I've started you down that path today

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lessons 1 - 6 - Handbook 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Lessons 7 - 12 - Handbook 2: How to Use Camera Raw

Lessons 13 - 18 - Handbook 3: Making Selections

Lessons 19 - 24 - Handbook 4: Using Layers

Lessons 25 - 30 - Handbook 5: Using Layer Masks

Lessons 31 - 38 - Handbook 6: Using Adjustment Layers

Lessons 39 - 44 - Handbook 7: Color Theory

Lessons 45 - 51 - Handbook 8: Retouching Essentials

Lessons 52 - 59 - Handbook 9: Tools Panel

Lessons 60 - 64 - Handbook 10: Layer Blending Modes

Lessons 65 - 70 - Handbook 11: How to Use Filters

Lessons 71 - 74 - Handbook 12: Advanced Masks

Lessons 75 - 81 - Handbook 13: Using Smart Objects

Lessons 82 - 86 - Handbook 14: Photography for Photoshop

Lessons 87 - 93 - Handbook 15: Advanced Photo Retouching

Lessons 94 - 98 - Handbook 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify

Lessons 99 - 105 - Handbook 17: Advanced Layers

Lessons 106 - 112 - Handbook 18: Actions

Lessons 113 - 117 - Handbook 19: Troubleshooting Issues

Practice Images 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Practice Images 2: How to Use Camera Raw

Practice Images 3: Making Selections

Practice Images 4: Using Layers

Practice Images 5: Using Layer Masks

Practice Images 6: Using Adjustment Layers

Practice Images 7: Color Theory

Practice Images 8: Retouching Essentials

Practice Images 9: Tools Panel

Practice Images 10: Layer Blending Modes

Practice Images 11: How to Use Filters

Practice Images 12: Advanced Masks

Practice Images 13: Using Smart Objects

Practice Images 14: Photography for Photoshop

Practice Images 15: Advanced Photo Retouching

Practice Images 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify

Practice Images 17: Advanced Layers

Practice Images 18: Actions

Practice Images 19: Troubleshooting Issues

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Ben Willmore

As a photographer, Ben Willmore has shot in all 50 states and explored over 80 countries. He has been pushing Photoshop and Lightroom Classic to their limits since the beginning.

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topics covered in this class

Adobe Photoshop Beginner Fundamentals Photo Editing

Ratings and Reviews

Noel Ice

I am an avid reader of photoshop books, and an avid watcher of photoshop tutorials. I have attended (internet) several hundred of presentations. In the course of this endeavor, I have found my own favorite photoshop websites and instructors. Creative Live is probably the bargain out there as well as among the top three internet course sites. I have to say with great enthusiasm that the best Photoshop instructor is Ben Willmore. There are many great ones, but truly, he is the best I have come across, and, as indicated above, I have watched literally 100s of tutorials on Photoshop. I have seen all of Ben's courses, I think, and among them, this one is the best by far, and that is saying a lot, because that makes this course the best course on Photoshop to be found anywhere. I am going back and watching it twice. Not only is it comprehensive, but Ben is so familiar with his subject that he is able to explain it like no other. This is crème de la crème of Photoshop classes. I have been wanting to write this review for some time because I have been so thoroughly impressed with everything about this class!

ford smith

Highly recommended if you want to take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Ben Willmore is clear, concise, and professional. He also has a good speaking voice that is not distracting but also keeps you engaged. Lastly, I would recommend that as you become more advanced, increasing the speed of the video (one of the options given on the menu)...especially if you've gone through the course once before and maybe want to watch it again. The double speed is very efficient as you become more advanced in Photoshop. Thanks for the help Ben!

a Creativelive Student

Wow. I cannot communicate the value of this course!! The true value in this course is how the instructor identifies workflows you'll need before you'll ever realize it, repeats important information without it becoming annoying, and explains the "why" behind the techniques so well that even if you forget the exact method, you can figure it out via the principles learned. Excellent value, excellent material, excellent instructor!!!

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Adjusting Skin Tones

Adjusting Skin Tones

Lesson Info

45. Adjusting Skin Tones

Lessons

Introduction To Adobe Photoshop

Bridge vs. Lightroom

Tour of Photoshop Interface

Overview of Bridge Workspace

Overview of Lightroom Workspace

Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents

How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders

Developing Raw Images

Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs

How to Save Images

Using the Transform Tool

Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Selection Tools

Combining Selection Tools

Using Automated Selection Tools

Quick Mask Mode

Select Menu Essentials

Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Align Active Layers

Creating a New Layer

Creating a Clipping Mask

Using Effects on Layers

Using Adjustment Layers

Using the Shape Tool

Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool

Masking Multiple Images Together

Using Layer Masks to Remove People

Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky

Adding Texture to Images

Layering to Create Realistic Depth

Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Optimizing Grayscale with Levels

Adjusting Levels with a Histogram

Understanding Curves

Editing an Image Using Curves

Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment

Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode

Editing with Blending Modes

Color Theory

Curves for Color

Hue and Saturation Adjustments

Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment

Match Colors Using Numbers

Adjusting Skin Tones

Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw

Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush

Retouching with the Clone Stamp

Retouching with the Healing Brush

Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools

Extending an Edge with Content Aware

Clone Between Documents

Crop Tool

Frame Tool

Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools

Paint Brush Tools

History Brush Tool

Eraser and Gradient Tools

Brush Flow and Opacity Settings

Blur and Shape Tools

Dissolve Mode

Multiply Mode

Screen Mode

Hard Light Mode

Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes

Smart Filters

High Pass Filter

Blur Filter

Filter Gallery

Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

Combing Filters and Features

Select and Mask

Manually Select and Mask

Creating a Clean Background