Practical Photoshop is a workshop designed to help photographers adopt more efficient approaches to master digital imaging. It achieves this by showing students how to tackle real world imaging problems through creative solutions with the computer. By introducing faster ways to solve imaging problems, photographers can spend less time working on photoshop and get back to shooting more.

The workshop also encourages participants to develop their own aesthetics styles in digital imaging to complement their shooting styles.

A key feature of this workshop is that we will be using images shot on editorial and commercial assignments to illustrate the benefits of digital imaging. Through works that readers may have seen in magazines such as beauty and fashion spreads, students can understand thoroughly what goes behind the scenes to achieve the final image.

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Suitable for students who are:
Beginners and serious amateurs with basic or little knowledge of photoshop and digital imaging but keen to learn more.

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Prerequisite for the course
Participants must have at least basic computer knowledge with the ability to navigate through folders, find, open and save files..

No formal instruction of Photoshop, Lightroom, or manual mode photography is needed. Participants should have a camera that allows them to shoot RAW files to benefit fully from this course.

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Lesson ONE: The Digital Workflow
(1) Various ways for photographers to adopt and adapt the right shooting style and digital workflow
(2) Basic understanding of tonal and color adjustments and other quick ways to see immediate results.
(3) What You Should At Least Know
- Crash course on the fundamentals of digital imaging and photoshop so students can see great improvements to their images rightaway
(4) Understanding what makes great prints of fine art quality and how to shoot to achieve that
(5) Digital interpretation of the Zone System by Ansel Adams
(6) Preparing the RAW files for more sophiscated digital imaging

HOMEWORK assigned:
Participants will be given shooting assignments to come up with raw images suitable for their practice and also for presentation during the final lesson.

Lesson TWO:
Solving shooting problems with photoshop techniques
(1) An overview of common problems encountered during shooting and how they may be overcome easily by photoshop.
(2) Photo merging and masking techniques for stitching panaromas, fixing blown-out skylights and facial highlights etc.
(3) Using curves and advanced blending options to bring back colors and tonality.
(4) Effective selection techniques for edging out, photo montages

Problems tackled:
(A) How to digital remove unwanted reflections in product photography through a combination of photoshop and shooting techniques
(B) How to correct common visual errors inherent in architectural photography - for example converging or diverging verticals through photoshop
(C) How to get wider panaromic shots when you are restrained by camera angle and shooting positions.
(D) Blown out highlights and murky shadows are typical in digital photography. Learn how to coax more tonalities out of your images through masking, selection, curves and blending options.

Lesson THREE:
Digital Imaging for Beauty, Fashion & Portraiture
(A) understanding how digital imaging requirements are different for Fashion and Portraiture.
(B) Quick and simple tricks to improve how a person look in photographs
- example, removing pimples and blemishes through cloning, healing etc
- example, liquifying to make people look slimmer and better in photographs
(C) Digital makeup application
- the equivalent of applying makeup digitally