The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Learn how to achieve an effective color balance in your Photoshop images and optimize them for print output. Students explore professional techniques for working with scanned, film, and digital source material, learn how to control, correct, and enhance the color palette of digital images for print media. Course projects emphasize developing a technical knowledge and an artistic understanding of color calibration for professional-quality digital imaging.

LESSON 1 Color Fundamentals Lesson One builds a conceptual foundation for color correction. You'll explore what color correction is and learn why it's an important part of the digital imaging workflow. You'll learn how RGB and CMYK images are constructed by pixels and color channels and displayed on your computer or other output devices, and gain an introduction to main correction terms to know. Projects will explore the resolution and linear dimensions of images as well as auto correction tools. You'll also pool 5-10 photographs of your own, which you will evaluate for issues and correct later in the course.

LESSON 2 Color Settings in Photoshop Configuring Photoshop and your other hardware and software applications is key to getting good color results. Lesson Two introduces you to how to set up color profiles, manage your settings, and set up Photoshop Working Spaces to respond to different projects and workflow scenarios. By the end of this lesson, you'll understand how to work with your own images and those of clients with accuracy and consistency. The projects challenge you to utilize working spaces and synchronize colors settings across CS applications.

LESSON 3 Measuring Color Lesson Three equips you with a scientific approach to evaluation using Eyedropper Tool and the Info palette. You'll learn how to correct grayscale and color images using expert calibration curves that you've created yourself, and explore how linearization and neutralization are achieved. The basics of color calibrating monitors and other devices are also explored. In the exercise, you'll practice measuring RGB values, and creating target-based correction curves.

LESSON 4 Color Image Evaluation Now it's time for the nitty-gritty of colors-identifying diffuse and specular highlights, color casts, midtones, and shadows. Photoshop Levels histograms are explored in detail to help you evaluate these key image components. With professional evaluation techniques, you'll know where your images need to be corrected and how to proceed. The lesson and projects run you through a range of imaging scenarios to help you build your skill in evaluating images.

LESSON 5 Correcting Color Accurately Lesson Five covers techniques for colors, ranging from the most efficient to the most exacting. For quick-fix scenarios, you'll learn how to correct images beautifully with just a little work using Levels. For high-profile or critical scenarios, you'll learn a systematic approach to mangement of colors that removes the guesswork. You'll also explore some of the more subjective areas of correction-how to make skin tone look "right" and when color casts might be used for effect. The exercise puts you through your paces via a range of color correction scenarios.

LESSON 6 Finishing Up Your Color Images Correction of colors isn't the final step in producing your images-once your images are corrected, you still have many important production steps to carry out. In Lesson Six, you'll learn how to sharpen your final images, convert them to CMYK for printing, and preview and proof your print images on-screen. In the exercise, you'll practice working on these production tasks and apply everything you've learned in the course to correcting your own collection of images.