Lessons
Day 1
1Adobe Bridge Basics
27:08 2Sorting Images in Adobe Bridge
29:24 3Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 1
29:42 4Processing Images in Adobe Camera Raw Part 2
34:57 5Image Processing Q&A
08:13 6Contrast and Color
18:15 7Adjustment Brush and Auto Mask
16:19Adobe Camera Raw Optimized Images
11:09 9Lens Profile Corrections
20:36 10HDR Pro Part 1
23:05 11HDR Pro Part 2
20:49 12Panoramas Part 1
28:37 13Panoramas Part 2
22:02 14Intro to Photoshop
13:23 15Interface Overview
11:37 16Essential Adobe Photoshop Adjustments
10:33Day 2
17Flat vs Layers
34:49 18Simple Composites with Photomerge
22:53 19Stack of Prints Panorama
15:42 20Combining Exposures Composite
08:28 21Layer Mask Composite
23:51 22Selections and Masking Part 1
26:18 23Selections and Masking Part 2
16:04 24Adjustment Layers Part 1
18:51 25Adjustment Layer Part 2
23:20 26Creating a Postcard Layout
26:52 27Hand Drawn Photo Layouts
17:39 28Creating a Layout with Hand Drawn Frames
30:55 29Working with Frames and Textures
14:54 30Customizing Frames and Textures
24:33 31Saving for the Web
11:02Day 3
32Correcting for Noise
17:48 33Camera Profiles and Split Toning
19:30 34B&W Toning
25:24 35Post Crop Vignetting
11:05 36Selective Clarity
14:49 37Dust Spot Removal
29:57 38Content Aware Fill Part 1
22:46 39Content Aware Fill Part 2
21:59 40Healing Brushes: Basic, Spot, and Clone
26:02 41Retouching: Removing People
11:40 42Retouching: Building and Clone Source
20:12 43Other Retouching Techniques
22:00 44GIF Animations
14:51 45Creative Masking
15:24 46Displacement Mapping
16:44 47Creative Filters and Smart Objects
27:42 48Finishing Techniques
10:56Lesson Info
Retouching: Removing People
Let's look at an example here I'll throw away some layers because we haven't since we didn't make those layers we can't use them and let's see about getting rid of stuff here now usually again I wouldn't work directly on the layer that contains my picture because if I screw up I don't want to do anything is permanent so I create a brand new empty layer and whenever you would do that we work on an empty layer we need to go back to those tools we were just using because with default settings they won't work on an empty layer because what happens is if I go into let's say the um the healing brush there's a setting of the top of my screen called current layer what current layer means is that's what it's going to copy from when it works that's the only thing that will be able to copy from so it will be the equivalent to turning off the eyeballs on all other layers as if they didn't exist and if I do that turn off all the other eye balls that is what it has to copy from there's nothing there...
so with default settings are retouching tools will not work if I create an empty layer I need to come up here and change this setting from current layer to a choice called either current and below are all layers I usually use current in below current and below is going to copy from the layer and working on in whatever's under it and I like that because sometimes I'll have some layers on top that how would I describe are just some what I would call utility layers? Maybe I have a box covering up my picture that is indicating the crop I'm going to use for a particular use, but I have more of the picture in there just in case it's used for other things, but I have maybe I went up here and I made a selection to say when I print this for whatever my most ideal uses, I'm only going to print that much of it so I select inverse to get the opposite and I create a solid color layer say let's put black in there so that when I'm actually working the image I want to view it like this so that I'm thinking about my end result but I don't want to throw away this other stuff because I want to make sure that when I'm done it's usable for just about anything and so I'm going to keep that I'm still going to be touch it but I turn this on because that's what I'm working for right now because the print on thinking about working with is that and so I might have that layer in there in the end when I print this image that layer will never be turned on that layers just a reference for me, I might also create another layer, and I'll just call this here he is that need work because I'm about to close this picture right now, it's fresh in my mind so I know what I need to work on, but it might not be fresh when I opened it again. So click on my foreground color and I'll choose red to paint with and I'll come in here and just paint over the areas that I know I need to work here there blatantly obvious because they're people but that's not always the case. This might just be odd detail over here on the rock that I didn't have the time to retouch out, but I caused the problem or whatever I need to do it. So I made a layer here called areas that need work, and I could turn this off and on. So the next time that I opened this document in photo shop, I turned that on and, uh oh, yeah that's what I needed to work on, but when I'm here retouching, do I ever want to pay attention to those red blobs? No. So that's why, when I have these tools I use setting called current and below, and that means ignore the layers that are above ignore the stuff up there, and so these mike it turned on and off, but that certain stages but they're useful to have for me sometimes, but they'll screw things up if I end up using the setting called all heirs and that's why I use currently below makes sense also, I might have adjustment layers up there that might not be finalized and that khun mess things up if I have it set to all layers. All right, so current and below I have to change all three tools so that they can work on an empty layer. So I go to my clone stamp tool. I said it to current in below I go to my healing brush tool I said it to current in below. Then I go to my spot healing brush tool, and I wish it had a choice called current and below it doesn't, it does have one here that's, a terrible looking ah icon, it means sample from all layers I need that turn on, but it would copy from these layers that are above because it doesn't have the choice of current and below. I wish it did so any time I'm going to work on that empty layer, I need to go to the my three retouching tools I need to set them. Now they're going to stay set too that's only have to do it once and it's only if somebody comes into my machine and messes with it sent it back because otherwise I never haven't sent to current layer almost never I should say all right so now let's get in here and let's see if we can get rid of these guys first I'm going to try the tool that does the most automation which is my spot healing brush I'm gonna hope it works cross my fingers and just do this now if this person is bumping into some rocks I never kiss the rock by stopping right where that retouching actually needs to stop I either blatantly overlap or I make sure I don't get us close is kissing it okay, now I'm gonna go over here and because if you only kiss it it's going to try to blend in with that color and it's gonna not look right because it won't know there should be an abrupt trends vision there if you actually overlap and go into that object a little bit he might realize that hey there needs to be an edge there I shouldn't just blend now that doesn't look very good so what do I do? I break it up I go to my clone stamp tool and I break this into pieces how copy from over here on the left and I'll just put it in come up here where his head is and I'll copy some rocks just make sure it's the proper brightness and, uh color okay, so now we got a head a body in some legs now let's see if my spot healing brush will do better not sure if it will, but there's a better chance of it after it mess up if I break it into pieces let's cover the whole thing then go for the middle, go for the top and then be critical and come in here and fix things that don't look right give it three chances that keeps putting brown dirt and where you're thinking you need green stuff after three choices then I switched to the normal healing brush to say fine if you're not going to pick the right area copy from, I'm going to force you to copy from somewhere and the problem is right now I need green stuff to come through right here all the way across here and then have something here and we have these rocks kind extending into the green so I get a copy from something I need something that is the texture of rocks transitioning to the texture of greenery so I condemn side to copy from somewhere doesn't have to be the same brightness let's see if I could do it from here even though the problem is this isn't son because it's in sun the shadow's order different and everything. It might not look appropriate, but I'm gonna try it just to see. And then I can extend out here to cover up those little areas I do. Ok, then I might go back to my spot healing brush. Then they get to fix little areas. Might not quite look right to see if it can do it. If it can't, I might manually switch over to another tool. We're getting some ideas far as how I'm thinking. I want to use, uh, spot healing brush, if possible, because it's next no work. If it makes it more work, then I break it up. And after three tries, if it really fails, then I start doing things more manually. And if everything fails, I have to go in resort to the, uh, clone stamp tool, which is the completely manual retouch here. We need more rock. So let's, give it a another chance. I think it's gonna mess up, though. Yeah, it just looks weird. So I'm gonna have to either go to the healing or the normal clone stamp. And here, it's, a matter of finding what in the surroundings would be appropriate to fit there and they're the brightness has got to be right colors got toby, right, everything. In the closer I copy from the more obvious it will be that there's a duplicate right near it, so you have to be very careful, so let's, look at a few things we could do one is instead of using these tools, oftentimes people get stuck using a particular tool just because their mind is stuck there and so what I can do instead is make a selection like this. I can go to the edit menu and choose copy merged because this area that I'm copying from might be made out of more than one layer there's the layer underneath and the layer I'm working on, whereas if I just choose the normal copy, it only thinks about the one layer I'm working on copy emerged this is if I combine them together copy merged, then I'll choose paste watch what happens in my layers panel brand new layer and then I used to move tool move it over how it actually lined up on both ends. When I counted over, I thought I was going to rotate it, I thought I was going to rotate it to get it to fit oftentimes have to scale and or rotate now the edge, though, is to obvious is that a crisp edge on it? I can use the eraser tool with a soft edge brush and if I could get that too I need to make it all the way around cause it had a chris badge on it, okay? And then after that it's, a matter of if I liked what I have right now to get it onto my retouching layer, which is below, I could go to the layer menu and there's, a choice called merge down. And that just means I made this one chunk manually, copying on its own layer, moving it around. I'm just gonna deposit it now onto the layer below and it's down there. And then it's, a matter of looking for repeats so I can see a repeated bush repeated rock it's, a matter of covering those up and that sometimes can be done. Not in this particular case it's right at that transition, but sometimes could be done with the spot healing brush where you just go on paint over something. But in this case, I think it's too specific of detail for it to be able to do a good job.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Ben, thanks again for this course. I have taken and purchased quite a few of your courses to date. I keep thinking I will only watch to make sure I am on the right track and you always bring more to the table than the last course. Your teaching methods are the best, sorry to all the other instructors from Creative Live, but you are very easy to understand and you speak in layman's terms so we all can understand. I am following your instructions and working along with your files and it is the best! It is hard to keep up with you even when I watch you on one computer and work with the same files on another computer, to do what you are doing...impossible but I gain so much by trying. You provide so much info on each topic, it is amazing. Thanks to Karen for the PDFs, she does a fantastic job and also, for her templates/layout documents. Thanks again and to anyone who thinks this is too much money for all the videos, the exercise files and the instruction PDF, I am sorry to say but you are mistaken.
John Taylor
Like all of the Creative Live courses, excellent training. Ben does a great job of explaining the entry part of Photoshop. A lot of things cleared up in my head and i like his easy pace into this complex program. Thanks Ben.
Cecily
I had several "lightbulb" moments with this class, after many years of photography and when you think you know it all, you don't :) Ben Willmore is an excellent tutor, with his many years of experience teaching PS, he obviously knows the types of things a lot of us struggle to understand. I learnt a lot about Bridge, and have since implemented these things into my everyday workflow, so much easier to sort out what I want to keep etc.. Thanks so much Ben and Creative Live. Thanks also to Ben's wife for her amazing work creating the Guide etc. Even though being in Australia, I pay more for the courses (the conversion rate, the aussie dollar is low at the moment) it's very worth it to me. I have paid more for courses here, and learnt next to nothing. Thanks again.