This six-week course is designed for the photographer (as opposed to the graphic designer) desiring to acquire skills necessary to digitally manipulate image files. While every photo and every photographer is different, it is no exaggeration to say that, in the vast majority of cases, using Photoshop can improve any image. Used by professionals and nonprofessionals alike, Photoshop is the ultimate playground for bringing out the best in your digital images and transforming them into anything you can imagine! Although Photoshop CS4 is a deep and powerful program, its benefits are immediately accessible to the motivated beginner if he or she is given its most user friendly features first and shown the correct path going forward. Students will be shown how to make their images of people, nature, landscape, architecture, products, etc. yield maximum impact, detail, and technical quality in an efficient and nondestructive manner. The goal is to teach the correct principles behind the techniques so that going forward students can confidently progress on their own. Students who complete the course will be well grounded in the most important and powerful features of Photoshop and exposed to the fundamentals of image editing on a professional level.

MPW’s computer lab is equipped with Windows based computers, which for Mac users means the difference of only a couple of keystrokes. Class size is limited so that a small student/instructor ratio ensures individual attention. Students do not work from a book. They spend the majority of each class session working in Photoshop on high-end image files along with the instructor in real time. Classes are interspersed with brief theory sessions in which new concepts are introduced and discussed. This is immediately followed by computer lab time where students are provided with customized Photoshop exercises to demonstrate the theory. Students are provided with a class textbook and videos for use at home to reinforce class topics.

The instructor is available to answer questions about class work or individual needs before, during, and after class as well. Outside work is encouraged as the course includes one bonus all day session to allow students to apply the Photoshop techniques learned in class to their own images and make prints up to 13"x19" using MPW’s Epson printers.

It is assumed that students have basic computer skills and photographic experience/knowledge. Students should also have a copy of Photoshop CS for use at home.

The enrollment of this Class is limited to 9