Video Training Review - Photoshop CS3 One-On-One: Part II – Beyond The Basics With Deke McClelland From Lynda.com.

If you have seen the Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-On-One book review that I did back a while ago, you will have some idea what all of this one-on-one stuff is all about. The Photoshop CS3 One-On-One training video's from Lynda.com are like the book, but on steroids. The DVD contains over 30 hours of one-on-one training. Because it is available online in three parts, I've broken my review into the three individual reviews that correspond with the three parts of the online training system.

For Part II, Photoshop CS3 One-On-One: Beyond The Basics contains over ten hours of video training covering nine lessons that will take you to the next level of Adobe Photoshop CS3 as taught by Deke McClelland; the award winning author and Photoshop Hall-of Famer. Exercise files accompany the tutorials on the DVD as well as with the premium subscription which will give you all you need to learn the topics that are beyond the basics of Photoshop.

Lesson 10 "Masking Essentials" (75 minutes) builds off of establishing a base layer and working with the Color Range command. You will learn what to do when the Color Range falls short as well as selecting a base channel. Soon you will begin to see what you can really do with Layer Masks.

Lesson 11 "Sharpening Focus" (73 minutes) begins with some parlor tricks for edge-enhancement as well as explaining what sharpening is all about. You will learn how to use the Unsharp Mask, learn about the Radius value, and learn how to gauge the best settings. You will also learn about USM vs. Smart Sharpen, as well as whether to leave More Accurate on or off.

Lesson 12 "Blurring and Averaging" (84 minutes) starts you off with answering the question "Why the heck would you want to blur?" You will also learn of the Gaussian Blur, the Linear Box Blur, Surface Blur, the Motion Blur filter as well as other techniques for averaging skin tones and smoothing blemishes.

Lesson 13 "Layer Essentials" (45 minutes) explains the usefulness of Layers and the Layers palette. You will learn how to move a layer, erasing with a Layer Mask, how to combine Layers into a Clipping Mask and adding a frame and expanding the canvas.

Lesson 14 "Groups and Layer Comps" (42 minutes) shows you how to organize your layers and how to assemble a base composition. You will learn how to add adjustment layers, create a layer group and group selected layers. You will also be introduced to layer comps and how to save your layer comps.

Lesson 15 "Opacity and Blend Modes" (83 minutes) quickly shows you the kind of power there is in blend modes. You will learn the difference between Opacity and Fill Opacity as well as how to change the values. The author also explains the lightening modes, contrast modes, comparative mode, composite modes and the brush only modes.

Lesson 16 "Transform, Warp, and Liquefy" (87 minutes) will explain how to scale a layer to fit a composition, replay the last transformation, and what are skews and perspective style distortions. You will learn of the envelope-style Warp function, the Liquefy command, how to adjust brush settings, and how to incrementally undo undesirable effects.

Article Author: T. Michael Testi

T. Michael Testi is software developer, a writer, and a photographer. He also blogs at PhotographyTodayNet and at All This and Everything Else.

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