Adobe® Photoshop® CC® Bootcamp

Lesson Info

Introduction to Selections

Selections are probably one of my favorite things because when we combine it with all the things that we've already learned leading up to this with our layers, our layer tools, our masks, blend if and now with selections, we just keep piling on more possibilities for our editing in Photoshop. So selections in a nut shell, what are selections? Selections allow you to isolate areas of your image and edit them without affecting other areas, of the image as a whole. Some might think, well isn't that the same thing as masking? Well in a way, yes and actually these selections can be used hand in hand with masking. They just make it a little bit easier in the masking process. These are called local adjustments and they're useful when you want to segregate two different areas so just a little reminder here what global is and what local is. A global adjustment is something that affects the entire canvas or the entire image. So think about an adjustment layer, curves adjustment layer, gradient m...

ap, gradient that has no blend modes, it's set to the middle or no, I guess I should say no masks on them at all. That is something that is affecting the entire canvas. When we go into a local selection, a local selection is something that is isolating that one very specific spot and that can be done with selection tools in combination with things like masking so that one area is locally edited and not affecting the global canvas as a whole. These are things like cutouts and sometimes these can be even very simple, subtle things that you're gonna see as we go through this presentation so this right here is what I call power house editing. When you can make a selection, you can make a mask for it, you can add blend if to it, you can add blend modes to it, you can add opacity to it, you have all kinds of possibilities for one simple and single layer in your photograph that allows you to do so much and there are a lot of programs and plugins out there that do allow you to do selections but not many of them do 'em quite as well and quite as easily as Photoshop, especially when we start to get into things like select and mask. So here is a background layer and with this background layer, I can then put anything I want on top of this background layer and I'm gonna do that with things like selections so here is a photograph of my wife where the background is transparent around her head and I want to put any background behind her. Now if you saw the before image of this, it was taken in my basement with one light next to her, with a power outlet behind her head and the windowsill right above her head and it doesn't look very attractive for the shoot but you know, I didn't have a big studio at the time, I didn't have any capabilities to do that so instead I just took her portrait, put it on top of that background and made it a more flattering portrait for her instead of it being in my basement studio, if you want to call it that. But what you can see is that we still have a nice edge and you can still see hair, you can still see what you would normally see in a regular photograph, it's just a very nice, clean selection. Here's another opportunity where you can use selections. This is in Yosemite, looking in tunnel view, looking down tunnel view, gorgeous morning to shoot, the only problem was we didn't have a very good sunrise, nothing beautiful was happening but I had a good quality image that I could use there. If you look at the top of this image, it's all a very white, blown out kinda bright sky. Typically this would be a photograph that you'd be like you know what, I'm just gonna dump it, I'm just gonna trash it but if you have clouds from another image, which in my defense, these clouds were also taken in Yosemite about five hours later, we can then transpose these clouds into this image and make it a little bit more attractive. We need to combine these things in multiple ways though, we can't just apply that sky there and think that everything's gonna be you know, peaches and cream, we have to make it look like they're gonna blend together, that light is gonna match so it's not just take that cloud and just put it in the background there. Now many people have reservations about doing things like this but the idea is that if I waited long enough, those clouds could be there, right? Okay, we'll just call it that, there's your justification, if you waited long enough, you'd have those clouds. So you don't need to throw away a good image like this just because the clouds are bad. Just take cloud photos and put them in there and I've included five cloud photos in this pack that you can download with this course so if you don't have clouds, you can go ahead and use some of mine to transpose them into some of your images that might not be as great as you'd want them to be. Another thing, this is a photo in San Francisco of a bridge, I think that's rather popular, Golden Gate bridge and I like the photo but it just didn't have the feel that I wanted to get out of it so I used selections in a different way. I didn't use selections in a way that I took the sky out and replaced it with a different sky. I used selections for the dark areas in the image, the mid tones in the image and the highlights in the image to push and pull them individually so that I could separate those highlights, mid tones and shadows in my photograph on masks through selections. It's a lot easier to do than you would think. And the result is something a little bit more like this so here was our before, here's our after. Very subtle application but separating the highlights, mid tones and shadows in the image to go ahead and segregate those areas so that I can edit them individually on curve's adjustment layers. So selections don't necessarily have to be used to make, to pull the sky away from an image or to separate a foreground from a background in say a portrait or something like that, they can be used even in subtle ways like this. So we're gonna go ahead and hop into Photoshop and we're gonna start with the absolute basics of some of the selection tools that you have available to you in Photoshop.

Adobe® Photoshop® CC® is a valuable tool for photographers, but it can also be intimidating. In this all-inclusive 20 lesson course, you’ll go from opening the program for the first time to creating images that really stand out. Join Blake Rudis, Photoshop® expert and founder of f64 Academy, as he shows you how to maximize your use of Photoshop®. Topics covered will include:

Week 1
• Class Introduction & Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, Setup Interface, Cropping and Layers
Week 2
• Layer Tools, Masks, Selections, Clean-Up Tools and Shapes & Text
Week 3
• Smart Objects , Transforming, Actions, Filters and Editing Video
Week 4
• Custom Creative Effects, Natural Retouching, Portrait Workflow, Landscape Workflow, and Composite Workflow

Don’t let the many aspects of Photoshop® prevent you from maximizing your use of this amazing app. Blake will help you develop the confidence to use your imagination and create the images that you will be proud to share with your clients.

Software Used: Adobe® Photoshop® CC® 2018

Lessons

Bootcamp Introduction
The Bridge Interface
Setting up Bridge
Overview of Bridge
Practical Application of Bridge
Introduction to Raw Editing
Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface
Global Tools Part 1
Global Tools Part 2
Local Tools
Introduction to the Photoshop Interface
Toolbars, Menus and Windows
Setup and Interface
Adobe Libraries
Saving Files
Introduction to Cropping
Cropping for Composition in ACR
Cropping for Composition in Photoshop
Cropping for the Subject in Post
Cropping for Print
Perspective Cropping in Photoshop
Introduction to Layers
Vector & Raster Layers Basics
Adjustment Layers in Photoshop
Organizing and Managing Layers
Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes
Screen and Multiply and Overlay
Soft Light Blend Mode
Color and Luminosity Blend Modes
Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes
Introduction to Layer Styles
Practical Application: Layer Tools
Introduction to Masks and Brushes
Brush Basics
Custom Brushes
Brush Mask: Vignettes
Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn
Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation
Mask Groups
Clipping Masks
Masking in Adobe Camera Raw
Practical Applications: Masks
Introduction to Selections
Basic Selection Tools
The Pen Tool
Masks from Selections
Selecting Subjects and Masking
Color Range Mask
Luminosity Masks Basics
Introduction to Cleanup Tools
Adobe Camera Raw
Healing and Spot Healing Brush
The Clone Stamp Tool
The Patch Tool
Content Aware Move Tool
Content Aware Fill
Custom Cleanup Selections
Introduction to Shapes and Text
Text Basics
Shape Basics
Adding Text to Pictures
Custom Water Marks
Introduction to Smart Objects
Smart Object Basics
Smart Objects and Filters
Smart Objects and Image Transformation
Smart Objects and Album Layouts
Smart Objects and Composites
Introduction to Image Transforming
ACR and Lens Correction
Photoshop and Lens Correction
The Warp Tool
Perspective Transformations
Introduction to Actions in Photoshop
Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
Making Your First Action
Modifying Actions After You Record Them
Adding Stops to Actions
Conditional Actions
Actions that Communicate
Introduction to Filters
ACR as a Filter
Helpful Artistic Filters
Helpful Practical Filters
Sharpening with Filters
Rendering Trees
The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters
Introduction to Editing Video
Timeline for Video
Cropping Video
Adjustment Layers and Video
Building Lookup Tables
Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type
ACR to Edit Video
Animated Gifs
Introduction to Creative Effects
Black, White, and Monochrome
Matte and Cinematic Effects
Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades
Gradients
Glow and Haze
Introduction to Natural Retouching
Brightening Teeth
Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool
Cleaning and Brightening Eyes
Advanced Clean Up Techniques
Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization
ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits
Portrait Workflow Techniques
Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization
Landscape Workflow Techniques
Introduction to Compositing & Bridge
Composite Workflow Techniques
Landscape Composite Projects
Bonus: Rothko and Workspace
Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos
Bonus: The Mask (Extras)
Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR