today, we're gonna talk about tonal adjustments and adjustment layers. What I mean by a tonal adjustment is one that is not designed to a just color instead is designed to adjust the brightness of your picture, so that means you want to brighten it, darken it, add contrast, reduced contrast, were. Do anything that's not related to color. Eso. Let's just don't dive right in and get in a photo shop and do as much as we can. Now the first thing to think about is if you're going to be adjusting the extremes of color, meaning things that are very close toe white or very close to black. And your original image was captured as a raw file, not as a J peg, not as a tiff, not a something else. But it captured the raw data that your camera's sensor collected, and you have all of that data available. Well, then you want to adjust. That image will. It's still a raw file, and that means you should do things in Adobe camera raw. I'm gonna show you an example. Here I have a raw file that I'll double c...

lick on, which brings it into camera and If you see how bright the highlights or bright areas are, it looks like there's pretty much almost no detail down here with just the exception of a few lines. Well, if I take this image all the way into photo shop, but I just choose open image ignoring camera now, there's nowhere nearest much information available here because there's a large number of things that happened to the picture once it gets into photo shop. And it just what happens is, let's say in the highlights. Your images met out of three pieces red, green and blue. Well, if there's only information that your camera captured in one of those three colors, that information doesn't usually make it the Photoshopped camera rocket still use it, but Photoshopped can't. It just wasn't sent there only where we had information and all three colors would get something. And so let's see what happens. We attempt to adjust this. I'm just going to actually use the camera raw filter, and you can get that from the filter menu with. The difference is I'm not working on a raw file because the moment and images all the way open into Photoshopped. It's no longer a raw file. It's only raw before it went through Adobe Camera once it came out the other side. It's a normal image now, so if I do the camera raw filter, I want to get this highlight detail to show up. So I'm gonna bring the highlight slider all the way to the left, and I noticed that it pretty much didn't do anything. Then we learned a trick. If you happen to have watched the class on camera on, that is, if you lower this the highlights all the way down and you wish you could go further, you could take the exposure slider in lower it and see how much you can get. And you can see that there is a little bit of information there in the brightest part of the picture. But by the time I've done, this theme is just starting to look rather dull. Now there's a lot I could do to it, and I'll just move around some sliders to try to brighten up the rest of the picture and tried to adjust it overall. But I don't find this toe Look all that great. Now I'll click OK and I'm gonna open that image a second time. I'm gonna go over here and I'm just so it doesn't complain. The image is already open. Let's go over here and duplicate this image. I'll call it non wrong, and then I'll close the original before I duplicated it. All right, then, let's go back to bridge. Let's open that image one more time. A double clicking since it's a raw file comes into camera and I'm gonna do the same process. I'm gonna bring the highlights down. I'm gonna bring the exposure town and right away. Right now, I can tell that the image looks more normal when I do this. It doesn't look quite as hazy and and just not as it's nice looking. And so I can go over here like, for instance, on the other one. I needed to bring my whites up dramatically to make the rest of the image look normal. Now I don't At this point, I didn't move these anywhere near us far. I did move the highlights as far as I could in the exposure down, But once I've done that, the other sliders I didn't need two minutes later all that much I'll click open image, and now we have two images that we could look at side by side. Then here, I'll tell it to tile them to up so that right next to each other. And so this is adjusting the exact same picture. The image on the right was ignoring camera. The image on the left was taken advantage of all the information that was contained within that raw file, and I dramatically prefer the image on the left. I might adjust the blue sky, little bits, a little overdone for my tastes. But there's a simple control in camera where you could, like, um, bring down the saturation on the blues, and that would be no problem. So I show you this because we're about to get into tonal adjustments and Photoshopped and I want to make sure that you are aware that that doesn't mean that I'm replacing Adobe Camera raw with these features and Futter shop. I try to get as much out of my images as I possibly can in adobe camera or light room. Light Room has the same features as camera when it comes to adjustments, because that's the only time when it can look all the way to the original data the camera captured. Once an image is opened in photo shopped. A lot has happened to it to simplify the data that is there and just make it ready for photo shop. In the process, you lose some and your highlights and shadows that you could have taken advantage of had you adjusted that image in camera raw.

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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Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

Lesson Info

32. Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

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