Sean Bagshaw has released another excellent video series: Photoshop Essentials for Outdoor Photographers. This course looks at the tools, adjustments, filters, and techniques most useful when using Photoshop to develop nature and landscape images. It’s appropriate for many different skill levels. For beginners it unravels the complexity of Photoshop in order to start using it in an organized manner and to focus on learning those features most useful to outdoor photographers. For intermediate users it offers new ideas to get the most the out the different Photoshop functions and likely explores new ones. And by these criteria, I would have to consider myself only intermediate when it comes to Photoshop (at least compared to Sean) since I found this course full of things I didn’t know. A short list includes the adaptive wide angle filter, ideas for using smart objects, motion blur, highlight recovery with the shadows/highlights adjustment, and lots of new stuff relating to image transformations and perspective control. The bottom line is that you don’t have to be a beginner in Photoshop to appreciate this course. Even seasoned users will benefit from a wide range of new material they will likely encounter here. There’s also nearly an hour’s worth of actual workflow footage that strings together the methods taught in the different chapters so you can see how these techniques can be creatively combined.
I’ve had a close working relationship with Sean for many years and I’m happy to be able to offer this course on my Panels & Videos page. To a large degree, luminosity masks and the TK7 panel are directly built on many of the concepts Sean discusses in this course. Pixel-based masks aren’t all that hard to understand once you know how Photoshop works. So, for some photographers, this course might be an excellent prerequisite for successfully incorporating more advanced techniques, like luminosity masks, into their workflow. You can watch samples here.
Right now there is an automatic 25% discount for all customers when you purchase Photoshop Essentials on my website. This is a limited-time introductory offer. Previous customers should also check their email from last Tuesday, June 9 for additional savings.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this course. Not only will you learn new ways to use Photoshop, but you’ll also likely be more excited to get outside and take pictures. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Good Light Journal 