ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP

I've designed this workshop for mixed-media artists who have little or no experience with digital editing software. But the video lessons have lots of hands-on projects that artists of all media at every level can have fun with and learn from.

As I said in the Welcome Video, I have no vested interest in Adobe and Photoshop Elements, other than that I've used their products for years during my long career as a graphic designer. The original Photoshop is the industry standard for graphic design, and it is complex and expensive.

But Photoshop Elements, which we will be exploring, is made for those of us who need a helpful tool to work with digital images in our artwork. You could think of it as "Photoshop Light" - easier to learn, and far less expensive. And it offers a fully-functioning 30-day free trial. This gives you plenty of time to evaluate it, play with the projects in this workshop, and then decide if it's right for you.

Here are first steps:

• Check to see if your operating system will support Photoshop Elements 2021. In general, you will need Windows 10 if you have a PC and OS10.4 of higher if you have a Mac. There is a PDF list at the bottom of this lesson. If you don’t know which Operating System you have, you can find out here:

Windows

Mac

• Download the Free 30-Day trial - there is a step-by-step video lesson in the first section about how to do that.
• 
  
•  Download the Practice Pictures. These are found in the lesson called Your Practice Photo Folder. You can, of course, work with your own photographs any time, but these are the photos that I used in the lessons. They are from Unsplash, and they are copyright-free.
• 
  
• If you have already downloaded Photoshop Elements 2021, you can skip down to the section called Working With Adjustments if you like.

OTHER TUTORIALS

There are hundreds of tutorials about how to use Photoshop Elements. Some are free from Adobe. I have given you links to those in the Resources section at the end of the workshop. They are great once you have learned the basics and gained some confidence.

I suggest that you go through this workshop at your own pace, get your confidence up about using the basic skills and tools, and then branch out into other tutorials that focus on specific things such as type or color balance.

WHAT MY NEXT PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS WORKSHOP WILL COVER:

Coming in February of 2021, I'll offer the next level of PSE Elements in which we will work with the Expert Mode and learn how to use layers and blending modes among other things.

But for right now, there is lots to learn at the Quick Mode level. I think you're going to have fun with this, both for your mixed-media art and your personal digital photos!

.