Multimedia JournalismMultimedia JournalismDigital Photography

Making things better with Photoshop

Sec. C1 – Feb 23, 2009

Topics we’ll cover today

• Your picture stories (comments, critiques)• Adobe Photoshop– The basics– In-class demonstrations and assignments: The only way to

really learn most software is to play with it yourself.

• Useful links and information• Assignments for next time

Picture Stories

• How does your piece meet the criteria of a picture story?

• What basic rules of composition did you try to follow?

• Was there anything you would have changed or done differently?

Photoshop Basics• In this class, we will go over the use of some tools

and actions, as well as image sizes, saving files, etc.• Photoshop, like any powerful piece of software,

can become very complicated very quickly. Allow this site to become your friend:– http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop• Here you’ll find help files, FAQs, text and video tutorials, and

everything else you’ll need to learn how to make the software do what you want it to.• The search feature will give you acces to lots of tutorials like

the one I’ve created for this class.

Photoshop Basics

In-class assignment• Photoshop gets very complicated very quickly. We’re going to learn

by doing.– How do you get the second image from the first?

Go to www.news-geek.com/jo540/photoshop and open Photoshop on your computer. Save IMAGE 1 and COYOTE to your desktop.

In-class assignment• Photoshop wants to teach you how to use it.

In-class assignment• Go to Flickr and select an image from your slide show

(this will be your practice “title” image—you may choose another one later to edit on your own)

• Save the image to your desktop and then open it in Photoshop.

• Follow along as we use various tools and presets to alter our images. We’ll add text, visual effects, and picture frames.

• http://bustudentshowcase.ning.com/ will show you some examples of basic title images others have created.

Useful Links– General Photoshop:

• http://www.photoshopgurus.com/tutorials/tutorials.html• Lynda.com, TotalTraining.com, etc. – Include free and pay detailed

tutorials.

– Cool how-to’s:• http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-great-photoshop-tutorials-for-cle

ver-beginners/• Youtube – Type in just about any “how to ____ in Photoshop” phrase and

search, and you’ll probably find that more than one person has created a simple tutorial on just that effect.

– Other:• Photoshop is going to be an industry standard for a very long time, so I

prefer that you attempt to use it for this class. If there is other software you are more comfortable using, however, you may use that. You may also use online photo-editing tools such as: picnik.com or pixenate.com

Assignment for Next Week• Create a “title image” graphic for your picture story

– Also: Crop/adjust photos in Photoshop and upload to Flickr. Organize the images and add titles/captions. Post revised story to blog.

• Bring three audio/still news story ideas to class. One audio/still story will be due March 16, the second on March 23.– Examples/Pointers:

• Telling Stories w/Sound Poynter Course• Kanzi the Bonobo• The Donner Party• Extreme Drug Resistant TBA• Trip to New York• Mexican Wrestling• Lens-BU Student Project• DIGITAL ARTWORK: Various projects