Lessons
Bootcamp Introduction
16:22 2The Bridge Interface
13:33 3Setting up Bridge
06:55 4Overview of Bridge
11:29 5Practical Application of Bridge
27:56 6Introduction to Raw Editing
11:00 7Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface
07:39 8Global Tools Part 1
16:44Global Tools Part 2
20:01 10Local Tools
22:56 11Introduction to the Photoshop Interface
07:13 12Toolbars, Menus and Windows
25:07 13Setup and Interface
11:48 14Adobe Libraries
05:57 15Saving Files
07:39 16Introduction to Cropping
12:10 17Cropping for Composition in ACR
04:44 18Cropping for Composition in Photoshop
12:40 19Cropping for the Subject in Post
03:25 20Cropping for Print
07:34 21Perspective Cropping in Photoshop
07:11 22Introduction to Layers
08:42 23Vector & Raster Layers Basics
05:05 24Adjustment Layers in Photoshop
27:35 25Organizing and Managing Layers
15:35 26Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes
21:34 27Screen and Multiply and Overlay
09:15 28Soft Light Blend Mode
07:34 29Color and Luminosity Blend Modes
12:47 30Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes
07:43 31Introduction to Layer Styles
11:43 32Practical Application: Layer Tools
13:06 33Introduction to Masks and Brushes
04:43 34Brush Basics
09:22 35Custom Brushes
04:01 36Brush Mask: Vignettes
06:58 37Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn
06:53 38Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation
07:52 39Mask Groups
05:52 40Clipping Masks
04:11 41Masking in Adobe Camera Raw
07:06 42Practical Applications: Masks
14:03 43Introduction to Selections
05:42 44Basic Selection Tools
17:41 45The Pen Tool
11:56 46Masks from Selections
04:22 47Selecting Subjects and Masking
07:11 48Color Range Mask
17:35 49Luminosity Masks Basics
12:00 50Introduction to Cleanup Tools
07:02 51Adobe Camera Raw
10:16 52Healing and Spot Healing Brush
14:56 53The Clone Stamp Tool
10:20 54The Patch Tool
06:38 55Content Aware Move Tool
04:56 56Content Aware Fill
06:46 57Custom Cleanup Selections
15:42 58Introduction to Shapes and Text
13:46 59Text Basics
15:57 60Shape Basics
07:00 61Adding Text to Pictures
09:46 62Custom Water Marks
14:05 63Introduction to Smart Objects
04:37 64Smart Object Basics
09:13 65Smart Objects and Filters
09:05 66Smart Objects and Image Transformation
10:57 67Smart Objects and Album Layouts
11:40 68Smart Objects and Composites
10:47 69Introduction to Image Transforming
04:34 70ACR and Lens Correction
09:45 71Photoshop and Lens Correction
14:26 72The Warp Tool
11:16 73Perspective Transformations
20:33 74Introduction to Actions in Photoshop
09:27 75Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
05:06 76Making Your First Action
03:49 77Modifying Actions After You Record Them
11:38 78Adding Stops to Actions
04:01 79Conditional Actions
07:36 80Actions that Communicate
25:26 81Introduction to Filters
04:38 82ACR as a Filter
09:20 83Helpful Artistic Filters
17:08 84Helpful Practical Filters
07:08 85Sharpening with Filters
07:32 86Rendering Trees
08:20 87The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters
15:08 88Introduction to Editing Video
06:20 89Timeline for Video
08:15 90Cropping Video
03:34 91Adjustment Layers and Video
05:25 92Building Lookup Tables
07:00 93Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type
15:11 94ACR to Edit Video
06:10 95Animated Gifs
11:39 96Introduction to Creative Effects
06:08 97Black, White, and Monochrome
18:05 98Matte and Cinematic Effects
08:23 99Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades
12:20 100Gradients
04:21 101Glow and Haze
10:23 102Introduction to Natural Retouching
05:33 103Brightening Teeth
10:25 104Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool
08:07 105Cleaning and Brightening Eyes
16:58 106Advanced Clean Up Techniques
24:47 107Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization
14:47 108ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits
21:27 109Portrait Workflow Techniques
18:46 110Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization
12:17 111Landscape Workflow Techniques
37:36 112Introduction to Compositing & Bridge
06:59 113Composite Workflow Techniques
34:01 114Landscape Composite Projects
24:14 115Bonus: Rothko and Workspace
05:15 116Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos
07:05 117Bonus: The Mask (Extras)
05:18 118Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR
04:54Lesson Info
Cropping for Print
So the other thing that we're gonna talk about is cropping for, specifically for what happens in camera. And in talking about that, we're also gonna be talking about what happens in post, or in printing, I should say. So we'll close this down. So when we're cropping for print, there's a couple things that we need to consider. And one of the things that I want us to consider, here, when we open these up, just gonna open up these images. They're all DNG files. Is the difference between a Micro Four Thirds camera and a full-frame camera. So, you see this right here. This is taken, this shot right here, by itself, was taken with a full-frame camera. The same exact shot on the same exact tripod with the same exact millimeter lens was shot with a Four Thirds camera. So, in our cameras, we are doing some form of cropping. Because this is a Four Thirds sensor, we have to understand that that sensor is smaller than a full-frame sensor. So what it does is it, they say they there's a doubling fac...
tor on your lenses, that your lens, that it was 24 millimeter, is it now 48? Well, it's not necessarily 48 millimeters. It's still a 24-millimeter lens, but the sensor, because it's smaller, is doubling the size of what it's seeing. It's zooming in a little bit farther into that, into what the lens is showing it. So, here's the full-frame version, which would be the closest that we can get to a negative, a 35-millimeter negative. And here's Micro Four Thirds. How this plays in is that every one of these cameras, and all these sensors, have a different aspect ratio for the size of the image that they shoot. Some of those aspect ratios are very helpful and conducive for print, and some of them are not. So here's a good example. This is a Micro Four Thirds image. This is an APS-C image. And this is a full-frame image. One of the biggest questions I get when it comes to cropping or when it comes to saving for print is, I get an email that says, hey, I just, I shot this image, I absolutely love it, I just uploaded it to my favorite place to print, and guess what, it's cropping all this stuff off. Why is that happening? What I see is what I want. Well, what you see and what you want are two different things. We can't always have that. So what we have to consider here is that when we crop specifically for print in mind, we can still use the crop tool that's in Photoshop to help us out with that. Because we're using things with a ratio. Now, these ratios here are four by five, five by seven, two by three, sixteen by nine. We can change this to whatever we want, though. So if you're about to print and your print is a 20 by 24, we didn't see 20 by 24 there, did we? No. So if we click here and go 24, tab, 20, that would be what would happen if I was to print this image this image as a 20 by 24. I'm going to lose something. I have to lose something. Now, you would say, well, why wouldn't you just go ahead and then just print it as a 24 by and maybe make that aspect ratio fit a little bit better? And I very well could. But let's say I'm doing a gallery exhibit and I want all of my images to be 20 by so that it looks like they're all part of the same portfolio where there's no differences and everything's perfect and level on that wall. 24 by 36 might throw off that 20 by 24. So now what happens, we don't throw it out and say, let's pick another image, we just see what can work for us with an 24 by 20 photograph. What crop can work for us? Where would it work and where can we still get a compelling image at 20 by 24? Now, that's with a full-frame image. If I were to look at this full-frame image in say, 8 by 10, okay? That's an 8 by 10 on a full frame. I'm losing some on both sides. My hardest transition actually came when I went from working with a full-frame camera or working with a Micro Four Thirds, I used to be an Olympus shooter, to going to a full-frame camera. I skipped the whole APS-C in between, I skipped that whole crop, and I went right to a full-frame camera. So if we look at this, this is an APS-C. And this is a Micro Four Thirds. Look at the difference here. Look at how much less is being cropped off at an 8 by 10 with a Micro Four Thirds. Look at how much more is being cropped off with a full-frame camera or even an APS-C, like we would see here. So, any time we're working with this, and this is not, I don't want you to think that this is now going to be an 8 by 10 image. It's not, okay? So we need to look at this. Let's look at this photograph. If we press command or control on our rulers, and we look at the crop here, we've got this set to an 8 by 10. You would think that when we are done with this, it would be an 8 by 10, right? Well, look at the rulers on the top. It's going from zero to just over 26, meaning that this is a little bit over 26 inches wide. And it's a little bit over, almost 17 inches tall. So if I were to commit to this and say, this is the 8 by 10 that I want, and press enter, it is an 8-by-10 aspect ratio image, but it is not an 8-by-10-inch photograph. So when you send it to your printers, this, you could still send this to your printers, and it would print just fine on an 8 by 10 photograph. How we know that this is not an 8 by 10, other than looking at the rulers, is if we go to Image, and we go to Image Size. This image size is telling me how many pixels wide my image is, but I can change that at any moment and change that to inches. So this is still a 22 by 17 image. It's still a very large image, it's still 300 resolution, it has not been changed to 8 by 10. The only thing that has changed in this photograph is that we are now able to print this in a good, comfortable 8 by 10 aspect ratio with this size image. If you were to physically still see this photograph, it would still physically be 22 inches wide and we know that by using the image size pane. So if we went, if we just press Okay on this and commit to this, we're not changing anything, okay? The same thing is true with any of the images that we do. If we do something like a four by six. This is a perfect four by six because an APS-C camera and a full-frame camera are both a two-to-three ratio, which is the same thing as a four by six. So this four by six would be perfect. But does that mean that we have a four-by-six image? Absolutely not. Because if we press command or control R, and look at our rulers on this, it's almost 20 inches by almost 13 inches. So that's one of the hardest things to wrap your head around when it comes to cropping, especially when it comes to cropping for print. Because what I do is, I don't leave my images up to the printer to crop my photograph. I crop it here in Photoshop first. So when I want a four by six, I come into Photoshop, I ensure that I have four by six selected, so that I know that this is the four by six that I'm gonna receive. Or the 8 by 10, or the 20 by 24, or whatever image size that might be. Because when you send it to the printers, they might give you a thing that you can use to move the crop around, but it's not nearly as effective as what you can do here in Photoshop. Especially when you can change the size of things. And also, it doesn't give you the grid lines there. If you were to go to your favorite printer, upload your image, it's gonna say, it's gonna crop in like this, well what are you losing? You're losing a lot of the ability to see the golden ratio or the triangles, or the rule of thirds. They don't necessarily have those on those printing websites or whoever you might be printing through. So the thing to take away here is that this is not a direct correlation to image size. This is just changing the aspect ratio of the current image that you're working on.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Robert Andrews
Blake Rudis is the absolute best in teaching photoshop. His knowledge and how he presents the instruction is clear and concise - there is NO ONE BETTER. Yes, his classes require some basic skills, and maybe I'd organize the order of (or group) the classes in a different order, but, let me be clear - if anyone is to be successful or famous in the Photoshop world, it should be Blake Rudis. I strongly recommend his teaching. I started photography and post processing in 2018, and because of this class, I'm know what Im doing. The energy you get when you create something beautiful is profound, it makes you bounce out of bed (at 4AM) like a 5 year old, to go create. It's a great ride! Thanks Blake, & Thanks Creative live.
a Creativelive Student
Amazing course, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a beginner's course for photographers. The problem isn't Blake's explanations; they're top. The problem is the vast scope of this course and the order in which the topics are presented. Take layers for example. When I was first learning Photoshop (back when we learned from books), I found I learned little or nothing from, for example, books that covered layers before they covered how to improve/process photographs. These books taught me how to organize, move, and link layers before they showed me what a layer was actually for. Those books tended to teach me everything there is to know about layers (types of layers, how to organize them, how to move them, how to move them two at a time, how to move them two at a time even if there are other layers between the two you're interested in, useful troubleshooting tips, etc. ) all before I even know (from a photographer's point of view) what it is the things actually do. The examples of organizing, linking, and moving mean everything for graphic designers from Day One, but for photographers not so much. Blake does the same thing as those books. Topics he covers extremely early demand a lot of theoretical imagination for a photographer who doesn't already know quite a bit about what he is talking about. Learning about abstract things first and concrete things later only makes PS that much harder to understand. If you AREN'T a beginner, however, this course is amazing. I thought it would be like an Army Bootcamp, taking you from zero and building you into a fit, competent Photoshop grunt. Now I think it's more like Army Bootcamp for high school varsity jocks. It isn't going to take you from the beginning, but the amount you'll get out of it is nonetheless more than your brain can imagine. I've been using PS for years to improve my photographs, and even to create the odd artistic composite or two. The amount I've learned in the first week is amazing, and every day I learn something -- more like many things -- which I immediately implement to improve my productivity and/or widen the horizons of what I can achieve. If you ARE a photographer who's a Photoshop beginner, I'd take very seriously the advice Blake gives in the introduction: Watch one lesson, and practice the skills and principles you learn in that one lesson for two weeks. THEN watch the next lesson. You can't do that of course without buying the course, so it's up to you to decide whether you'd like to learn Photoshop and master Photoshop all from the same course. Learning it first and mastering it later will cost more money, but I think you'll understand everything better and have a much more enjoyable ride in the process. As for me? I'm going to have to find the money to buy this course. There is simply way too much content in each lesson for me to try to take on all at once, but on the other hand I don't want to miss anything at all that he has to share.
Esther Gambrell
WOW!!! I've been purchasing CL classes for several years now and have watched HOURS of "How-To Photoshop" classes, but this is the first one I've actually purchased because of the AWESOME BONUS content!!! SERIOUSLY??!!?!? A PLUG-IN??? But not only that, Blake is SO easy to understand, and he breaks down concepts in different ways to connect with different people's learning styles. I REALLY appreciated this approach because I am a LEFT-BRAINED creative that has an engineering background, so I really connected to what Blake was saying. THANK YOU FOR THAT! There are TONS of Photoshop courses out there, but I found this one to be the most helpful in they way Blake teaches concepts so that you know WHY you're doing what your doing. I feel like he taught me how to fish with Photoshop to feed me for a lifetime instead of just giving me a fish to feed me for one day. This is the BEST overall PS course out there!!! Thank you!!!!