Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Advanced

Follow industry pro Deke McClelland as he plunges into the workings of Photoshop, from Smart Objects and sharpening to smart selections.

The third part of the popular and comprehensive series Photoshop CS6 One-on-One follows industry pro Deke McClelland as he plunges into the inner workings of Adobe Photoshop. He shows how to adjust your color, interface, and performance settings to get the best out of your images and the most out of Photoshop, and explores the power of Smart Objects, Shadows/Highlights, and Curves for making subtle, nondestructive adjustments. The course dives into Camera Raw to experiment with the editing toolset there, and returns to Photoshop to discuss toning, blur, and blend modes. Deke also teaches tried-and-true methods for sharpening details and reducing noise, as well as creating quick and accurate selections with Quick Mask, Color Range, and Refine Edge commands.

23. Shortcuts and Settings

• Loading the dekeKeys keyboard shortcuts
• Remapping your Macintosh OS shortcuts
• Adjusting a few general preferences
• Using the visual HUD color picker
• The interface and performance settings
• Adjusting the color settings in Photoshop
• Welcome to One-on-One

24. Smart Objects

• Three ways to place a Smart Object
• Copying and pasting from Adobe Illustrator
• Transforming and warping a vector object
• Blending a Smart Object into a photograph
• Blurring with a nested Smart Filter
• Editing a Smart Object in Illustrator
• Creating "true clones"
• Duplicating a group of clones
• Breaking the Smart Object link
• Styling and blending Smart Objects
• Editing originals; updating clones
• Removing people from a scene with Median
• Smart Objects

25. Shadows/Highlights

• Correcting for lens distortion
• Introducing Shadows/Highlights
• Mitigating halos with Radius values
• Enhancing the effects of Midtone Contrast
• Creating a "bounce" with Gaussian Blur
• Sharpening on top of blur
• Masking a group of Smart Filters
• Reducing the density of a layer mask
• Luminance meets sharpening

26. Using Curves

• Introducing the Curves adjustment
• Adding and editing points on a curve
• Winning Curves tips and tricks
• Correcting a challenging image
• Selecting and darkening highlights
• Neutralizing colors and smoothing transitions
• The new automatic Curves function
• Using Curves

27. Camera Raw

• Opening and editing multiple images
• Correcting white balance
• The revamped Exposure controls
• Working with archival images
• The Spot Removal and Graduated Filter tools
• Painting edits with the Adjustment Brush
• Tone Curves (and why you don't need them)
• Straighten, crop, and geometric distortions
• Applying manual lens corrections
• Vignette, chromatic aberration, and fringe
• Selective hue, saturation, and luminance
• Working with JPEG and TIFF images
• Camera Raw Smart Objects
• Editing Camera Raw images from Bridge
• Camera Raw

28. Duotones and Colorize

• Creating a professional-quality sepia tone
• Introducing the Gradient Map adjustment
• Loading a library of custom gradients
• Creating a custom quadtone
• Colorizing with blend modes and Opacity
• Creating a faux-color, high-key effect
• Duotones

29. Noise and Detail

• Introducing the Reduce Noise filter
• Correcting a noisy photo
• Smoothing over high-contrast noise
• Protecting details with an edge mask
• Adjusting overly saturated shadows
• Correcting with High Pass and Lens Blur
• Brushing away blur and sharpening
• Creating texture by adding noise
• The Camera Raw Detail panel
• Correcting noise and detail in Camera Raw
• Adding noise grain and vignetting effects
• Noise vs. Details

30. The Blur Gallery

• Creating depth-of-field effects in post
• Modifying your Field Blur settings
• Editing and exporting a Field Blur mask
• Adding a synthetic light bokeh
• Using the Selection Bleed option
• Creating a radial blur with Iris Blur
• Creating "fake miniatures" with Tilt-Shift
• Combining multiple Blur Gallery effects
• Blur Gallery

31. Blend Modes

• Using the Dissolve mode
• Multiply and the darken modes
• Screen and the lighten modes
• Cleaning up and integrating a bad photo
• Blending inside blend modes
• Overlay and the contrast modes
• A few great uses for the contrast modes
• Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, and Divide
• Capturing the differences between images
• Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity
• Blend mode shortcuts
• The Fill Opacity Eight
• Using the luminance-exclusion slider bars
• Blend Modes

32. Color Range and Quick Mask

• Introducing the Color Range command
• Selecting a complex image with Color Range
• Refining a selection in the Quick Mask mode
• Viewing a mask with or without its image
• Painting directly inside an alpha channel
• Correcting fringes around a masked layer
• Turning a layer into a knockout
• Color Range

33. Refine Edge and Layer Masks

• Laying down a base layer mask
• Introducing the Refine Edge/Mask command
• Edge detection and Smart Radius
• Using the Refine Radius tool
• The transformative power of Refine Edge
• Perfecting a mask with overlay painting
• Combining Quick Selection with Refine Mask
• Bolstering and integrating hair
• Refine Edges

34. The Pen Tool

• Pixel-based masking versus the Pen tool
• Drawing a straight-sided path outline
• Moving, deleting, and adding anchor points
• Dragging control handles to modify curves
• Converting a path outline to a vector mask
• Customizing a geometric shape
• How to position points and control handles
• Drawing smooth points with the Pen tool
• Duplicating and scaling a vector mask
• Cusp points and the Rubber Band option
• Setting anchor points in the pasteboard
• Using the Convert Point tool
• The Pen tool