Total Training Masters Collection - Advanced Adobe Photoshop CS2
Jacquelin Vanderwood
March 2006
In this Advanced Adobe Photoshop CS2 DVD set hosted by Deke McClelland, there are 8 hours of tutorials which takes the viewer beyond the normal into pure mastery of Photoshop. With Deke's professional teaching manner and knowledge, he guides the viewer into areas of Photoshop that only the advanced user has dared to tread covering topics such as customization, advanced levels and 16 bit, Bridge and camera raw, HDR, sharpen, monochrome, duotones, spot colors and gradient maps, advanced retouching techniques, vanishing point, and smart objects. In this intuitive series of lessons you'll find out information about new advanced features in CS2 and how and when to use them effectively. As always, Total Training is definitely leading the way when it comes to conveying important aspects and features in a product. As a long time user of Photoshop, I always learn new and important information when doing these reviews and each time they put out a new series of teaching DVDs, I can't wait to see what hidden jewels lay in wait for me to learn. If you truly want to be an expert in the field of design in any profession you are in including graphic design, animation, photography or other areas, using Total Training Masters Collection will get you there far quicker than attending a class because you have the classroom at your fingertips. I can never say enough good things about Total Training in any product they produce because they are very good at what they do best which is teaching.
Following is a list of all the exciting and advanced features available in Photoshop CS2:
In Prologue called Setting Up Shop which is 25 minutes long, you'll learn to customize Preferences, optimize color settings, learn to customize keyboard shortcuts, work with different color spaces, also customize the Info palette, change background colors and save the Preferences settings.
In the second lesson called Advanced Levels and 16 Bit which is 46 minutes in length, you'll be introduced to Levels and 16 Bit followed by learning about the Levels command and restoring an image after adjusting Levels, then learning more about Shadows and Highlights, and setting the black point to match a target and in turn also the white point. Then you'll learn about how to adjust flesh tones by setting the gray point, and finally downsampling and saving for print.
In the next lesson which is The Bridge and Camera Raw which is 43 minutes long you'll be viewing .DNG images in Bridge, how to use the White Balance and Color Sampler Tools, adjust temperature and tint, and exposure and shadow levels along with brightness, contrast and saturation. From there you'll learn about cropping and upsampling images along with viewing image metadata, how to open and save .DNG images and how to edit multiple image all at once in Camera Raw, how to copy and paste Camera Raw setting, and then how to access and purge cache files.
In the third lesson entitled The Wonders of HDR spanning 37 minutes in length you'll learn about applying the Levels and Curves command for 16 Bit and 8 Bit images, you'll be learning about HDR and downsampling with the image processor, how to use the Merge to HDR command, adjusting the exposure and how to save HDR images, and downsample HDR and adjust HDR Hue and Saturation.
For the fourth lesson which covers The Art of Sharpen at 51 minutes you'll learn to create a custom sharpen, how to apply the Unsharp Mask command, how to adjust basic Smart Sharpen settings and adjust the advanced settings, how to create a more accurate Smart Sharpen, using the Fade command, correcting motion blur, sharpening with the Emboss filter, color sharpening in Lab Color mode, and also in Fade command.
In the lesson you'll be learning Adding Blur and Removing Noise at a length of 39 minutes and it will cover how to use Smart Sharpen to fix motion blur, how to use the Dust and Scratches filter to get rid of stray hairs, adding a layer mask to bring back detail and how to use the layer mask to paint away noise inside the skin, using the Remove Noise filter, blending layers in the Layer Style dialogue box, removing compression artifacts with the Reduce Noise filter, working with the new Surface Blur filter, and getting rid of whiskers using the Average filter.
In the sixth lesson which is 54 minutes and entitled Mixing the Perfect Monochrome you'll be learning to use the Channel Mixer to create an autumnal effect, mixing channels and adjusting blending options, converting an RGB image to grayscale automatically, creating a grayscale image using the Channel Mixer, using Color Range to create a layer mask, balancing source channels, punching up luminosity values using the Curves command, flattening a converted grayscale image, converting to grayscale in the Camera Raw dialog box, cropping and adjusting the Curves of a grayscale image, editing Curves in the Camera Raw dialog box, and compositing versions of a grayscale image.
Next in lesson seven you'll learn about Duotones, Spot Colors, and Gradient Maps which is 47 minutes long. This lesson covers monochrome and multi-ink monochrome images, converting images to duotones, adjusting a duotone curve to balance the inks in an image, editing a duotone, loading a preset duotone, inspecting the independent channels of an image, adding spot colors to an image, saving an image, using gradient maps, working with Deke's predefined gradients, and modifying Adjustment layers.
In lesson 8 covering Advanced Retouching Techniques at a length of 46 minutes, you'll learn about rotating a canvas and using variations, creating a gradient selection and filling with History, painting with the History Brush, using the Healing Brush tools, using Color Range to generate a selection to make a patch, filling in seams of a patch with the Healing Brush, retouching using the History Brush, cloning and fading, adding noise with the Healing Brush and fading opacity, moving and transforming a selection from one image to another, adjusting the Levels of one image to match another, merging two layers using the Healing Brush, using the Liquify filter to retouch and an image, and softening transitions and bolstering shadows.
In lesson 9 which is about the Vanishing Point at 61 minutes you'll learn about preparing to use the Vanishing Point filter, creating a grid, adding planes to a grid, editing an image inside Vanishing Point, healing transformed areas, retouching using the Stamp tool, pasting and compositing with Vanishing Point, adjusting masks for better composites, accounting for different perspectives, and pasting text into a Vanishing Point.
Finally in lesson 10 entitled Smart Objects at a length of 37 minutes you'll see how to place an Illustrator file as a Smart Object, using Illustrator to edit the contents of a Photoshop file, importing an image in a composition, converting a standard layer to a Smart Object, duplicate and transform Smart Objects, applying Warp transformations to Smart Objects, modifying Smart Objects in the Liquify dialogue box, changing the color of Smart Objects, applying a color overlay to a single Smart Object, and grouping layers and making final transformations.
As you can see, this DVD covers a tremendous amount of information necessary to become an expert and it is well worth investing in this product reach that advanced level to become a master in Photoshop.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
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