Photoshop
Book Review: Photoshop Elements 12
Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love Photoshop CS, but my school will no longer support the cost of a license. At first, I refused to teach image editing, feeling like any program I used would be inferior to what I should be teaching. I continued with the decade-old CS (not the up-to-date CS 5). No problem with that. Students loved it, found it easy, extended learning to home–and that’s when the problem arose. They–of course–had to buy the upgrade and wondered why I was using such an old program.
#10: Drawing in Photoshop
Photoshop reputation as a photo editor ignores its many other tools that enable you to draw like a pro with a wide variety of brushes, textures, and scintillating extras. This side of Photoshop is perfect for creative projects that tie in with many different classroom lesson plans.
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#5: Photoshop Basx
As with all lessons in the Photoshop series, this is available in the book, 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I on publisher’s website as an ebook)
Before I continue, I’m going to cover some basics (I heard y’all. I should have done this weeks ago).
Open Photoshop. Notice the tool bars at the top. These will change depending upon the tool you choose from the left side. These are the crux of Photoshop. We’ll cover about ten of them in fifth grade. The rest will have to wait. The right-hand tools are used independent of the left-hand tools. They are more project oriented.
- Click the File Browser tool (top right-ish). It shows you the folders on your computer. From here, you can select the picture you’d like to edit (or use File-open)
- Select a picture and notice how it displays all data—file name, size, date created, author, copyright and more
- Click on several tools on the left side and see how the top menu bar changes, offering different choices. Go to Help. Have students view several of the ‘How To’ wizards available. Make sure they try ‘How to paint and draw’, ‘How to print photos’, ‘How to save for other applications’. Then have them select the ‘Help’ files. This takes them to the Adobe CS website and exposes a vast database of questions and answers. Encourage them to explore, engage their critical thinking and active learning skills. Remind them this is where they can find answers independent of teacher assistance.
- Open a picture of the student’s choice. Show class how to zoom in and out (right-side toolbar). Explain pixels.
Show students how they can take the paint brush and color just one pixel if they are close enough. This is
how experts remove ‘red eye’ in photos. - Introduce the History toolbar (right side) as an undo feature (like Ctrl+Z in Word). Have students open a new blank canvas and draw on it. Now use the history tool to toggle between the canvas before and after drawing on it by clicking between the original picture and the last action taken (at the bottom of the History list).
- Have students click through several tools on the left tool bar and show them how the top toolbar changes,
depending upon the tool selected. (more…)
#4: Photoshop for Fifth Graders: The First Step is Word
Before we get into Photoshop, we’ll start with a program your fifth grader is most likely comfortable with: MS Word. For basic image editing, Word does a pretty good job, so we’ll start with a project using Word’s tools:
- Open a blank document in MS Word. Insert a picture with multiple focal points (see samples).
- Duplicate the image once for each focal point.
- Click one image to activate toolbar.
- Crop each duplicate to show just one of the focal points (more…)
#4: Photoshop for Fifth Graders: The First Step is Word
Before we get into Photoshop, we’ll start with a program your fifth grader is most likely comfortable with: MS Word. For basic image editing, Word does a pretty good job, so we’ll start with a project using Word’s tools:
- Open a blank document in MS Word. Insert a picture with multiple focal points (see samples).
- Duplicate the image once for each focal point.
- Click one image to activate toolbar.
- Crop each duplicate to show just one of the focal points (more…)
Photoshop for Fifth Graders: the Basics
As with all lessons in the Photoshop series, this is available in the book, 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I on publisher’s website, Amazon.com or Scribd.com as an ebook)
Before I continue, I’m going to cover some basics (I heard y’all. I should have done this weeks ago).
Open Photoshop. Notice the tool bars at the top. These will change depending upon the tool you choose from the left side. These are the crux of Photoshop. We’ll cover about ten of them in fifth grade. The rest will have to wait. The right-hand tools are used independent of the left-hand tools. They are more project oriented.
- Click the File Browser tool (top right-ish). It shows you the folders on your computer. From here, you can select the picture you’d like to edit (or use File-open) (more…)
#9: How to Look Like a Photoshop Pro–in Fifth Grade
Before trying this lesson, start with Photoshop for Fifth Graders: The First Step is Word, Autofixes, cloning, and cropping. Don’t worry. It’s not hard–just the basics.
Ready? Let’s start with what Adobe Photoshop is–a grown-up KidPix, and the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.
Adobe Photoshop has an impressive collection tools to add pizazz to pics. Have students open their school picture for this project (I’ll use a horse). They love working with their own image.
- #1: Artistic Renderings—artistic overlays that add flair to pictures. Go to Filter—artistic and it brings up dozens of choices. Try some (it gives a preview of the result) and select a favorite.
- #2: blur and smudge tools on left tool bar to soften the background, and sharpen a focal point.
#7: Fifth Grade Cropping in Photoshop
Before trying this lesson, start here and here and here, with background training on image editing. Don’t worry. It’s not hard–just the basics.
Ready? Let’s start with what Adobe Photoshop is–a grown-up KidPix, and the default photo-editing program for anyone serious about graphics. This series of projects (available in 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom Volume I) introduces students to a traditionally-challenging program in an easy to understand way, each scaffolding to the next, thus avoiding the frustration and confusion inherent in most Photoshop training.
There are three ways to crop in Photoshop:
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