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​Lesson 1 sections:   1-1   1-2   1-3   1-4   1-5   1-6   1-7   1-8   1-9   1-JFF   1-IDEA

Lesson 1 - Content Aware - Photo Retouching​

Week 1 • Spring Semester 2020 • Jan. 6-12, 2020
  • Face-to-Face Class: Jan. 7: 3:00-5:30 in EDUC 170 - Mac Lab
  • Assignments for lesson 1 are due on or before Jan. 13, 2020
Almost magical, Photoshop's content aware collection of tools allows you to paint, replace, or move things in an image.  For example - in this image, entitled The Giantess Sleeps, these tools were used to create the impression of a giant sleeping upon the landscape.  The home in the lower left corner provides scale to the image. 

Original image, "Cottage in Glencoe" by Al [link] - used with his permission for a Caedes.net fantasy landscapes contest.

​​Before jumping into the 1st lesson, visit the Class FAQ section in the menu above.  
Picture
The Giantess Sleeps by Nathan Smith ©2013 - uses the clone and content aware tools in Photoshop.
What is the experience I want you to have?
You've learned many skills already in the Beginning Photoshop and Graphic Design course.  The advanced course lessons will each cover a variety of topics and content - building upon and reviewing previous learning, and teaching new skills.

I want you to be able to take these skills and knowledge and produce an image or design a graphic that is professional, and of value to you personally!  This will become your first portfolio exhibit!
Lesson Description:
In this lesson we'll go over the course syllabus and goals, how to communicate with me, how to submit assignments, the final project for the class, and then focus on content aware tools.  You'll learn how to do the advanced retouching skill of using frequency separations.  To finish, we'll review some of the basic design principles we learned in the Beginning Photoshop and Graphic Design course. Then to wrap it up, I'll share some tutorials on how to restore old photos - a task Photoshop is perfectly suited for.
Don't get overwhelmed! Suggested plan to accomplish lesson 1:

All assignments, rubrics, required readings, exercise files, etc. are in Week 1's module in Canvas. For this 3 credit advanced course you should plan on it taking approximately nine hours each week. (see Estimating study hours) I strongly suggest dividing that time up over the week, rather than trying to accomplish everything over a weekend. Most former students that have struggled in this course put off starting on the lesson until the weekend. Please, don't do that! It will overwhelm you, and it certainly won't be any fun! I want you to take each week on in reasonable chunks, and have fun learning and experimenting! Here's how I would suggest breaking this up over this week:

Monday: Go through the course syllabus, this page, and 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5.
  • This is the course introduction material that is important for you to know and understand.This will most likely take around 30-45 minutes If you have any questions or need clarification on anything, be sure to contact me in Canvas! Be sure to carefully go through 1-5, which are the final project portfolio instructions for the advanced course!

​Tuesday: Go through 1-6, a review on the content aware tools.
  • I have provided a lot video tutorials on the content aware tools for you to review, if you need them. They are good, and will take you deeper into these tools than the beginning course did, especially the five required videos at the beginning of the section. Spend some time watching any that will refresh you (you don't need to watch them all!)  At the end, there is an exercise file where you'll need to take a photo of a butterfly with torn wings, and your task is to use the content aware tools to restore the butterfly. Hint: You'll need to learn about the clone source panel to be successful with this one! Today may take 1-2 hours. Required exercise file to be submitted: A01-06_Your_Name.PSD

Wednesday:  Go through 1-7, which is a brand new skill - frequency separation retouching.
  • Watch the two videos at the beginning of the section (about 25 minutes). Take what you've learned and apply it to the exercise of retouching the photo of a middle-eastern woman. This may take about an hour to complete. Required exercise file to be submitted: A01-07_Your_Name.PSD

Thursday: Go through 1-8
  • Read through the short summaries about contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. (about 30 minutes) Then move on to 1-9 on photo restoration.  Take what you've learned and restore an old photo (either the exercise file I provide you, or an old photo of your own). Required exercise file to be submitted: A01-09_Your_Name.PSD

Friday - Monday: Each week, the Just For Fun section (1-JFF) is completely optional! There's so much I want to share with you! There's some great stuff there, but it's not required. I'd suggest taking a look at anything that particularly interests you in that section.

The lesson 1 idea starters (1-IDEA) is there to spark ideas, and get you started thinking what you'd like to do for your first portfolio exhibit for the advanced course.

The portfolio exhibit 1 challenge: Can you create a portfolio exhibit that shows your skill at retouching, manipulating, or restoring an image?  Lesson 1 is all about retouching, manipulating, and restoring images using the content aware tools. For your portfolio exhibit, focus on creativity and design! Come up with an exhibit that demonstrates your use of these tools! The IDEA section contains a few ideas on how you can put creativity, design, and the tools you've learned into practice. When you've completed your portfolio exhibit for lesson 1, please do the following:
  • Save your portfolio exhibit photoshop file as Portfolio-1_Your_Name.PSD, and submit it in Canvas.
  • Export your portfolio exhibit as a web friendly JPG image and add it to your online portfolio, along with the accompanying description, citations, etc. (See Portfolio in the Weekly Lessons for more detail and instructions on this).
  • When you submit your portfolio exhibit in Canvas, also put the URL for your online exhibit in assignment comments.
Real World Experience - An Opportunity To Work on a Real Project!
  • Find an old family photo that needs restoration, restore it, and share the restored version with your family! You'll have better success if the image is at least a thousand pixels on its shortest side. It's actually harder to work on a low resolution photo.
  • ​​I had fun doing this myself. You can see my portfolio exhibit here! I shared this with the rest of my family on Facebook.
Lesson 1 Reading Assignment
  • Undergraduate Students: Visual Language for Designers - pages 1-41 (Section 1 - Getting Graphics)
  • Graduate Students: Visual Language for Designers - pages 1-41 (Section 1 - Getting Graphics)

The following are questions that may be included on the midterm test.
  • Why is vision the dominant sense for acquiring perceptual information? (for those with intact vision systems)
  • Why is it important that designers of visual content understand how our brains perceive visual information?
  • Define each:
    • Sensory Memory
    • Working Memory
    • Long-Term Memory
  • What is bottom-up visual processing?
  • What is top-down visual processing?
  • What are some of the visual primitives our our brain processes during bottom-up processing?
  • How does our brain encode information into long-term memory?
  • What are schemas? How do schemas help us?
  • What is automaticity?
  • What are mental models?
  • How can dual coding help us remember things better?
  • What are some audience cognitive characteristics the chapter spoke of?
  • How can understanding these mental processes help designers?
Page last updated June 14, 2020.  This lesson combines my own work (images, text, videos) which are ©2020 by Nathan Smith.  All other images, videos, and cited text sources are curated from the internet, and are publicly available.