Digital Skills-Week 1

After the Christmas holidays and some weather troubles, we are now starting out next brief, Digital Applications. Quite different from my previous modules this year, the way this brief will work is that, each twice a week will, as a class, will be taught several techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator which we will screenshot and annotate in an InDesign template that we have been provided with. This template, come the end of the module, will be printed and handed in for submission. 

For this first week, we looked at many of the basic tools used in Photoshop, and how and where to use them. Fortunately for me, I am not very proficient with Photoshop so this was a great learning experience for me.

Firstly, we were taught a range of skills for touching up an image, adjusting levels to change the intensity of the darks, lights and midtones, using the burn tool with a soft brush to make the lips darker and selecting areas like the teeth and using the the hue and saturation colour channels to change the colour pixels in that area.

We then looked at using blending modes and gradients together to change an image more dramatically.

We looked at using the replace colour options to change the colour of a background without changing the shadows present or going anywhere near the brush tool.

We were then shown how to create the popular over exposed look by changing the levels of an image dramatically.

We also taught how to use clipping masks in a basic way and the were taught about the 'Colour' blending mode, a mode which only effects the colour pixels in an image.

After that we were shown the basics of creating our own brushes, and that the brushes panel, however daunting it may first seen, is actually quite simple to navigate.

Next we were shown how to use the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tool to remove an object or shape from its background so that it can be moved separately on to a new document or manipulated on its own.

Lastly, using many of the techniques we were shown, we created the basic elements for an Absolut Vodka poster.