NICF-Basic to Intermediate Adobe Photoshop CC (SF)
1.1: Who You're Talking for and Who You're Talking to
- Understand the client's needs; the client pays the bills and hires you to communicate for them.
- Address the client's goals for the project, focusing narrowly on them to streamline workflow.
1.2: Discovering Client Goals
- Clearly define and narrow down project goals with the client.
- Use an "elevator pitch" to summarize the project in a short, simple sentence (seven words or less).
- Client's goals are the number-one priority.
1.3: Finding the Target Audience
- Develop a demographic for the project and identify the target audience.
- Focus on a target demographic specific to the project.
- Identifying a demographic helps you focus on who you want to get your message to.
- Consider income, education, age, hobbies, concerns, cares, and passions when identifying the target audience.
1.4: The Golden Rule for Client Work
- Effective design helps convey the client's vision.
- The client has the final say and makes the decisions-even if you disagree.
- Always help the client realize their vision for the project.
1.5: Research and Investigate
- Research involves "searching again" to find out about competitive products, the problem you're solving, and the target demographic.
- The more research, the better information you'll have.
1.6: Think
- Thinking is a critical phase that most often mistake as the beginning.
- Brainstorm: Generate a large quantity of ideas without critical analysis.
- Avoid judging ideas, getting stuck, planning, or thinking about time/budget during brainstorming.
1.7 Pick and Plan
- Pick a solution from brainstorming and plan it out.
- Define project scope (amount of work) and project deadlines.
- Project scope is the most important thing to establish.
- Project deadlines is the client's most important element.
- Avoid project creep: A poorly designed project plan that lacks clear specifications and deadlines.
1.8: Feedback Loop
- Establish a system for constant input and approvals on the project direction.
- Share iterative work to reassure the client and allow for early input and changes.
Principles of Design
- Balance: A distribution of equal visual weight.
- Alignment: An arrangement forming a straight line.
- Unity: A harmonious arrangement of elements.
- Emphasis: Visual prominence in a design.
- Contrast: A juxtaposition that accentuates difference.
- Pattern: An orderly repetition of an element.
- Proportion: Scaling objects in relation to each other.
- Movement: A directed path of optical motion.
2.1: The Principles of Emphasis or Focal Point
- Emphasis describes the focal point to which the eye is initially drawn in a design.
2.2: The Principle of Contrast
- Contrast creates visual interest and a focal point by creating differences in the qualities of elements.
- All contrast creates some emphasis.
2.3: The Principle of Unity
- Unity (harmony) requires that elements look like they belong together, sharing similar traits.
- Lack of unity can prevent a focal point and emphasis.
2.4: The Principle of Variety
- Variety uses different elements to create visual interest but should be used sparingly to avoid chaos.
2.5: The Principle of Balance
- Balance is the arrangement of things in an image should not be evenly distributed and comes in symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial forms.
- Symmetrical balance: Mirror image on both sides; formal and mechanical feeling.
- Asymmetrical balance: Achieved with different elements on each side; counterbalance with space.
- Radial balance: Circular balance radiating from the center.
2.6: The Principle of Proportion or Scale
- Proportion (scale) describes the relative sizes of things; manipulating it can create emphasis.
2.7: The Principle of Repetition and Pattern
- Repetition is repeating an element, conveying importance, movement, or energy.
- Pattern happens when different objects repeat in a sequence.
2.8: The Principle of Movement and Rhythm
- Movement refers to visual movement; can be the eye naturally follows across an image or feeling.
- Rhythm refers to the visual “beat” in the design and are both subjective, so clarify with the client.
2.9: Avoid the Clichés (Copyright Issue)
- Avoid using copyrighted material without permission to protect the creator of original works.
- Obtain royalty-free images from reputable sources; do a background search before using any image.
3.1: Starting To Work in Adobe Photoshop
- It includes menus, toolbars, and panels that give you quick access to a variety of tools and options for editing and adding elements to your image.
- Primarily work with bitmapped digital images (pixels) and vector graphics (smooth lines).
- The Tools panel contains selection tools, painting and editing tools, foreground- and background-color selection boxes, and viewing tools.
- Zoom tool is used, magnification and also Scrubby Zoom option available.
3.3: Sampling a Color
- Use the Eyedropper tool to sample a color from the image.
- Photoshop uses a foreground color and background color when you paint on a layer.
- Set tool properties using context menus, the options bar, panels, and panel menus.
- Context menus contain commands and options appropriate to specific elements in the work area.
- Hidden tools can be accessed by pressing and holding the mouse button or using keyboard shortcuts.
3.5: Undoing Actions in Photoshop
- Use Undo to reverse actions and Redo to restores the undone step.
3.6: More About Panels and Panel Locations
- Photoshop panels are powerful and varied and you can open a closed panel or close an open one by selecting the panel name in the Window menu.
- First use selection tools to select part of an image, making selections base on size, shape and color.
- Geometric, Freehand, Edge-based and Color-based selections.
- Magic Wand Tool selects all the pixels of a particular color or color range.
- Tolerance option sets the sensitivity of the Magic Wand tool.
- Quick Selection tool automatically finds the edges and is more aware of image content.
- Auto-Enhance improve quality selection.
4.4: Moving a Selected Area
- After selecting you can move images/ content using the move tool.
- Object Selection tool identifies and selects the object for the background.
4.6: Manipulating Selections
- You can move selections, reposition them as you create them, and even duplicate them.
- Repositioning a selection marquee while creating it.
- Moving selected pixels with a keyboard shortcut
- Use Lasso tool to make selections that require both freehand and straight lines
4.8 Rotating a selection
- You can rotate the content by using the rotate option with a bounding box.
- Use Magnetic Lasso tool to make freehand selections of areas with high-contrast edges.
4.9a,b,c
- Selecting from a center point
- Resizing and copying a selection
- Cropping an image