Syllabus -Introduction to Adobe Photoshop CS series
By Dr. Pelham Mead

Welcome
Description of Course: This is an introductory blended online course for students who wish to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop CS series. The course covers everything from the simplest tools, and how to use them, to layering and how to work with layers. Each week (13 weeks), one or more photo projects will be due by the Monday of the following week. This course is all about hands-on participation, and some discussion about obstacles in completing the weekly photo project. Students taking the course will need a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3. It is available free for 60 days online at http://www.adobe.com/photoshop. Skills as well as concepts in solving photo problems will be assessed so there will be quizzes, a midterm and a written final project based on previous projects and the concepts learned.
This course is good for students who want to learn how to create quality graphics and manipulate photos. Students must make a commitment of at least 5 hours a week to complete their photo assignments. Some assignments are short, and take only 30 minutes, and others are more complex, and will take 2 hours or more. All samples are provided in .pdf format so that they cannot be copied. Each week is a Module, and will be found in the Blackboard Documents
Instructor Information
Dr. Pelham Mead
Office: eTeachUSA online
e-mail : See Blackboard e-mail system
Note: For course related issues, please use the e-mail system in Blackboard.

Textbook and Supplemental

No Textbook is required, however if you want a more detailed description of some of the projects like the Melon Man project, you can find it in Adobe Photoshop in the Classroom series 4,5, 6, 7, or 8.
Most of the project descriptions will be done in the classroom, however if you miss the class you may be able to find a similar project on the Internet.

                Module Submissions

All submissions will be via the Blackboard lockbox feature. This will apply a time stamp for your protection that your submission was in on time 12:00 midnight on each Monday. When I open your submission, Blackboard will automatically send you a receipt via e-mail that your project was received.

                Topics Included in this Course

Toolbar skills: oval, square cutters, lasso tool, magic wand tool, painting, erasing, lifting and placing objects. Working with fonts and lettering. Shadowing, bevel, and other shape additions. Shadow reduction techniques. Working with black and white photos or converting color photos to black and white. Editing and repairing old photos. Working with layers, flattening layers, and overlaying layers.
Special printing techniques, automatic tasks, fitting more than one photo on a page and setting printers for different photo paper. These are a few but not all the skills and concepts that will be taught.
The Course structure

This course runs the entire semester, including online orientation. The course is a combination of hands-on photo projects that teach certain Photoshop tools and photo editing concepts. Each week is a different module or Module and will be contained in a folder in Blackboard’s Documents section listed as Module 1 which is week one and Module 2, and so forth. Thirteen Modules plus a midterm test and a Final written test compromise 15 weeks total.

You will be required to log on to Blackboard everyday, and sometimes several times a day, especially when you are having difficulty understanding the project. You are being evaluated on how many times you log on so feel free to log on as often as possible. If you have a question about the course in general then post your comments in the Instructor’s Office Folder. These are general questions that everyone can read and understand. For specific project related or personal comments use the Blackboard e-mail. That way your e-mail wouldn’t get lost in my regular NYIT mail.

Check the course master Calendar to know what project is due each week. When you project is finished you should use the Blackboard Assignment Section to send it to me. Do not use my personal e-mail to attach projects. It is possible sometimes that a particular .jpg photo may be too large to attach to an e-mail. In that case, try to .pdf the .jpg photo to reduce the size of the file.

As in a regular course, attendance is mandatory. If you fall behind three projects then you might want to consider withdrawing from the course. If you project comes in late on Tuesday when it is due on Monday there will be a penalty of dropping your grade by one letter grade for lateness.

Communication Tools

Since this is a Blended Online course you will have the opportunity to meet with me once a week for one hour to help you through the assignment for the week. You do not want to miss this session since I will not in most cases be giving you a step-by-step account of how to complete the photo project. I will give you specific requirements and you will have to figure them out by yourself if you do not come to the weekly class labs.

We will not be using the Chat function because of the difficulty of setting a time for everyone. You can however use chat among yourselves when working on a project at a group. There will be a few group projects for you to work on during the course.

WHITEBOARD
The whiteboard can be a useful addition to chat.

e-mail.
Remember to use the Blackboard e-mail system so that I can tell who is sending me a message and not get it confused with my regular office e-mail.

Assessment

Projects=5 pts. Each= 65 total
Quizzes= 5 pts.x3= 15 total
Discussion on line, participation=15
Final exam=5 pts.
Total= 100 pts.

Projects for the Course

Module 1-Melon head project- using cutting and pasting tools
Using a Mr. Melon head we cut and drag eyes, mouth, nose, ears and hat onto another canvas.

Module 2-Bear Mountain bridge project- Editing tools
With a photo of Bear Mountain bridge (located in New York), remove the bad parts of the photo and the cones on the road using edit skills, cloning, painting, erasing and color matching.

Module 3-Scotland Girl project- Editing, shading, erasing, cloning skills
A project that takes an hour or more in a pastel painting on a sidewalk in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mission is to remove the cracks in the sidewalk from the girls head.

Module 4-Limo Project- Editing, color matching, erasing, text skills
You have a bus-limo photo and you want to remove the bus lettering and put in NYIT letters instead. Then find photos of 3 people and reduce them in size to match the limo dpi and insert them in the limo windows.

Module 5-College Banner project- Web banner skills-
In this project you will put together a Web Banner using several photos and text layered on top. Flatten the layered photo into a .jpg and you are done.

Module 6-Coyote project- drawing skills, pen and brush
This is an Adobe in the Classroom book project from Book 4 or 5. It forces you to use the pen and drawing skills in Photoshop. I have taught this dozens of times and there were some errors in the book that had to be adjusted when doing the project.

Module 7-Draw bridge project- editing, cutting and drag and drop skills
The Amish in Pennsylvania do not like you to take their photos, however, I caught this Amish horse and wagon entering a covered bridge. Use your erasing skills and remove them from the photo.

Module 8- Church steeple project- using the magic wand
This is the steeple of the “Fish” church in Stamford, Conn. It is a perfect detailed project for using the Adobe Photoshop “magic wand tool.” Students will use the magic want to fill in the pipes and stairs in the tower and then Control key, left mouse down and drag to another blank canvas of the same dpi as the original photo.

Module 9- Layer slicing with a hat- creating the ultimate 3-D effect with layer slicing
This is a fun project that creates a baseball hat into a 3-D effect by using layer slicing techniques.

Module 10- Lighthouse Project- more discrete editing skills-
This photo needs to be made lighter and improved the shadows with special skill tools.

Module 12- Lilies Project- easy replication of cut and drag tools-
This is a quick project that emphasizes the use of the clone tools.
NOTE: Modules after Module 12 are in additional to the regular assignments and considered Optional for extra credit. Do not work on Modules 13-19 unless you have permission from the instructor.

Module 13- NY City layered Project- cut and drag skills
I combined two projects, a banner with fill in boxes and the Gates Project seen in Central Park a few years ago where an artist places beautiful gates of orange fabric gates all over Central Park. Cutting and dragging skills apply here.

Module 14- Printing skills Project- auto and manual printing of photos different sizes
How to print more than one photo on a page. How to do proofs for photos and how to use the automatic features in printing in Photoshop.

Module 15-Venice Boats Project- editing, special paste option tool
This is another old Adobe Photoshop in the Classroom project in which the special paste function is used with great results of a Venice photo.

Module 16- Watermarks Project- creating watermarks on paper
Watermarks are fonts created in black and white that are washed out to become a letter watermark background.

Module 17- Copyrighting- how to digitally embed copyrighting
This is a free tool for the first time in which you can embed digital copyright material to protect your photos from being illegally used.

Module 18- Loading Brushes Project- How to do
Brushes are also like ink stamps. Many different sizes and figures can be loaded into the brush menu and used.

Module 19- Assorted small projects supplement- a few small projects combined-
Some extra bonus work available for bonus credit if you finish you projects early each week.