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
Screen and Multiply and Overlay
So the first blend modes that I wanna talk about here are gonna be screen and multiply. Because as we discussed with screen and multiply, these blend modes are related in a way. That screen makes sure that white stays and black gets dropped out and multiply makes sure that black stays and whites get dropped out. So what you see in front of you in this diagram is you see a cyan layer below and you see a gradient with white square, a gray square and a black square. And the really crazy thing about this though, I promise you that this little midtone it not a gradient. See, this is where color and color interaction is really crazy. Now I don't know about you, but for me this side looks lighter and this side looks darker and that's how the things that we talk about with color interaction, how colors interact with one another, that whole square is actually gray, it's 128 gray. So, I know that's gonna be throwing off your eyes, but I promise, trust me, I promise you that is a gray square. So ...
if we were to go into our blend modes and change this to screen you'll see that white stayed. So the whites of this gradient that we have here stayed and all of the black area showed through. If you look at how we talked about, it's not just about white and black, it's also about that gradation that happens too. So if we look at this gradient that we have here, this gradient shows us from white to black and every tone that happens in between. So it's not just white stays and black goes away, it's also about every value that's happening in between there as well and how that subtle application is going to apply itself to the underlying color. Now on the flip side of that, if we change this to something like multiply notice how black stays and white goes away. That's multiply, that's screen. So this is not as actually a practical application, when would you find yourself working with gradients and squares and... But what you need to gather from this is the repeated pattern that we see there, is that black is going to stay with multiply and allow itself to feather itself into the lights and the lights will stay with screen and allow themselves to feather themselves into the shadowy areas. So if we were to open up an image and see how the practical application would work on this, this is, we're in Seattle, beautiful Seattle skyline, but you see how this image is darker. Now there's things that we could do with an exposure adjustment layer, we could definitely go on with an exposure adjustment layer and make this image brighter. But one of the things that we can also do is look at this in terms of screen and multiply. If I were to press command or control, J and just duplicate my background layer and make an exact pixel copy of that and change that to screen, it's gonna brighten the whole image up. It's using all of the data within that image to brighten that entire image up. At the same time if I go to multiply it's gonna make it all darker. So what's the difference right here between using a exposure slider and using something like the screen and multiply? Well let's take a look at that. If I were to take an exposure slider and to get the exact replicated copy of that, if I were to just bring this up and make this darker it's not the exact same thing of what's happening with this here. Because this is assessing all of the values in the image and it's doing its math that's happening in the background, the calculation that's happening in the background to darken the image based off of the values that are happening within that image. Whereas what an exposure is doing is it's saying, just make the whole image darker or just make the whole image brighter which is not the exact same thing as something like screen or multiply. So when we use screen versus something like exposure to try and get the same value notice how when we bumped up that exposure look at this image, it's getting really bright. If we were to look at this under a histogram and see the histogram of that it would probably be pretty blown out on that top portion, whereas screen has done a successful job of maintaining some of that while also boosting the brightness of the image. Another place that you're gonna see things like screen being used is gonna be with what we call grunge layers or maybe they aren't called grunge layers, maybe I just call them grunge layers, it looks pretty grungy. (laughter) But this layer is nothing more than a texture. So, I'm not sure if you're like me, but when I'm going around on my photo shoots I don't just look at everything for face value and shoot the stuff around me, I also, I take out my cell phone, I use my cell phone for these, and I take texture shots. So if, like dumpsters are perfect for texture shots because the bars that go in to lift that dumpster up and dump the bucket out always leave these really deep scratches on it which can create some really cool effects. This texture that you're seeing here is actually the toaster oven tray that we have in our house that just makes a beautiful kind of vignetted, textured look for your images. And if you download this course I'm giving you, I believe, 30 of my grunge textures plus 50 of my regular textures to go along with this. So if you're not like me, you don't run around looking at broken, dilapidated things, then now you have access to some of my stuff. I probably have over, I don't know, 10,000 images of these, so, kinda crazy about it. But what these allow us to do is if we take a texture layer and we make it really high contrast, high contrast meaning there's a lot of white information and a lot of really dark information in that and we add this right onto the top of our layer stack and we change this to something like screen, watch what happens. It's gonna leave all of that white data and what does it drop out? The black data as it transitions into those midtone areas. So if we look at the before of this, the white data that's being transposed onto my image creates a very quick, very nice look on my photograph. Now, there's another cool thing that we can do here and this is a calculation that's happening very easily by clicking on any layer and pressing command or control, I, that's going to invert that layer. What happens when we invert this layer? Well let's change this back to normal and we'll press command or control, I. I'm essentially now getting two options for this, aren't I? So I've got the option that was set before and now if I change this to screen I get a much better quality. So what I would do here is if I'm putting this grunge or texture layer on top of my image, I'm gonna run through these paces. I'm gonna set it to screen and then I'm gonna press command or control, I, which version do I like better? I think I like that version a little bit better. And at this point I might move this around and do something else with it to give it that old photograph feel. Now, literally on the flip side of this, see what I did there? If we change this to multiply it's gonna drop all the white information out and leave the black information and make it look like someone stepped on a negative or something like that, not be quite as great. But if I press command or control, I, I get a totally different look that might be a little bit creepy. So while this has its own calculations going on with multiply and screen, I can also change that calculation by doing the inverted process for that image. Now, command or control, I is literally everything that's on the opposite side of every color in your image on the color wheel. So when we press command or control, I to invert our blacks and our whites, we get the opposite of black and white, but if I press command or control, I on this background blues become yellows, yellows become blues, so that's how that inversion is working. There's a lot that can be done with the inverted image, is what I call it, there's a ton of stuff that's available to you in that data right there within every layer. Press command or control, I to get that back. Now, beyond that we did say that there's some other applications as well, or some other layer tools. So if I change this to screen I also have the ability to drop down the opacity. So I don't have to just take that for the face value of what it is. You can combine these things, that's the beauty of these things as being different applications that can be plugged in at the same time. Just like your phone can be a phone, but it can also go on to any other application that you have and have multiple applications running at the same time, so can your layers. So now when we get into the fifth dimension of this layer, it's not only a layer that's in the layer stack on top of everything else, separated, if we think about it that way, it also had an opacity change that allows it to be less opaque and it also has a blend mode that allows everything to be different based on whether we use screen or multiply to remove things and add things to that image. A lot of stuff is going on with this one layer right now. Now, we didn't do any masking with this, masking is next, this is only just the layer tools of opacity, blend modes and fill.
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!!!!
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