ITS recently held online introductory Adobe Photoshop classes for Faculty and Staff. While the department periodically hosts Photoshop classes, this was the first time that the material was presented in an online learning format. As with so many things during the age of COVID, it was as much a learning experience for the instructor as it was for those who attended.
Photoshop, created in 1988, is the industry-standard image editing software application. In fact, the software has become such a staple in the graphics editing world that the term “photoshopped” is used universally to indicate an image that may have been manipulated or retouched. Photoshop is the go-to software for photo editing, cropping and retouching, creating composite images, digital art, and even making flyers and posters – and that is just scratching the surface of its capabilities.
Because Photoshop is such a huge piece of software, the class was divided into two separate two-hour sessions. Attendees were encouraged to have Photoshop preinstalled, to download the sample files, and to follow along on their computers during each of the classes.
The first session focused on getting to know the interface, basics of tools and color, and selecting. Attendees were challenged to use these skills to create their own Cold Bernie meme. Cold Bernie, as you may recall, became a very popular internet meme following the Vermont Senator’s hand-knitted mittens and chillin’ style at this year’s presidential inauguration.
The second session dove deeper into Photoshop, focusing on using layers to create a composite image. For this session, participants rustled up an earthly desert ranch scene dotted with cows and converted it into an alien planet complete with a portal, UFO, and cloned radioactive bovine creatures.
Adobe Photoshop is available to all faculty and staff as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. It is available for the Spring 2021 semester only to students who are taking courses that require it or who are working on-campus jobs. Pomona’s license includes desktop applications as well as the suite of Adobe software for mobile devices, such as Photoshop for iPad. Adobe Fonts are also included.
Information on installing Adobe Creative Cloud can be found in our new KnowledgeBase. If you missed the ITS Introduction to Photoshop class, the recordings are available via RITG Events under Past Events. The classes are 2 hours long and are intended to be hands-on, so a copy of Photoshop and the desire to play are recommended for best results!
In addition to ITS’s classes, Adobe’s online tutorials are an amazing resource that includes general and specific lessons on many of the features available in the software. These tutorials are accessible from within the Adobe Creative Cloud app.