Recently I signed up to my very first online Adobe Photoshop training class from Mr Symonds, Introduction to Adjustment Layers and Masks. Currently he offers three photoshop classes with two more in production and I am definitely keen to take them all. If you want to see why I feel that way, you absolutely have to go and check out his portfolio.
Although a basic introduction to PS, the intro to layers and masks class is comprehensive and most definitely worth the price tag. I have learnt the foundation skills of photoshop to make me feel much more confident in posting blog pictures. Below I am showing you a photo that I edited after the class.
I have been training my eye more and more to see the things that can be improved. You see, Damien's classes focus on 'clean processing' (click the link for an explanation). And it is really not something you get the hang of straight away. In the edit below I had a couple of main aims. One was to remove the strong yellow cast on his fast and cool down the hot areas of skin. The other was to bring out some of the shadows so that the contrast on his face was less noticeable.
The workflow I used to achieve this edit was by no means perfect. And I doubt that I could recreate it again exactly. I definitely have a keen interest about learning good clean processing and Photoshop skills.
I highly recommend that you join Mr Symond's free Facebook group, Ask Damien. Through which I have learnt a bucket load of information. Some of the things I have been learning include:
- Never look at skin when adjusting white balance, skin is unreliable as it can take on colour casts.
- Fixing those colour casts.
- Sharpening for export, being either for the web or print.
- Channel clipping - like what is it? haha.
- How to make a collage, a simple and effective way to make them.
Honestly I could go on all day providing you links, but I will leave it up to you to find all the goodies :)
Let me know if you have any questions!
I need to find some time to do this course. Obsessed with his FB page!
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the class but that photo you posted looks very orange to me. I am on an Android device and everything else I look at looks great so I know it's not my device. What's up with that. I see awful orange colors on a LOT of Damien's students work.
ReplyDeleteSorry I should have said both photos. In fact the edited one doesn't look any better color wise just more washed out and flat.
ReplyDeleteThis picture was taken at 'golden hour' which is where the strong orange colour comes from. It is an hour touted by photographers to be the best, but amatuers such as myself aren't yet able to harness that light properly. My main aim was to lessen the amount of shadow on the left side and reduce the strong yellow/gold cast on the right. The whole right side of his face was clipped in the red channel. I used techniques that I learned to attempt to make the skin more normal. I have no doubt that I have done everything all wrong, but I never would have even attempted it in photoshop prior to the class.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow. This is no reflection on the class, it is his simplest class. The editing this photo needs is pretty complex. That's why in a few weeks I will be calibrating and doing the raw class.