1. Computer Graphics
Enhancing Photos with Adobe Photoshop – Level 1

2. What You’ll Learn… Stuff You’ll Need…
Basic photo processing and enhancement techniques using Photoshop
Stuff You’ll Need…
Adobe Photoshop
Digital camera, digital photo or scanned image

3. What You Should Know… About Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most powerful computer graphics tools on the market. Since the release of version 1.0 in 1990, Photoshop has been at the very forefront of the computer graphics industry. Professional photographers, illustrators and graphic design artists all use Photoshop in their everyday work!
While digital photo manipulation is an obvious application, Photoshop’s drawing, painting, digital filter and text features make it a popular tool for commercial art, graphic design and even original illustration.
Ask anyone who’s ever used Photoshop and they will tell you that it’s features and capabilities are virtually “bottomless”. So much so, that even Photoshop masters will tell you they are constantly learning new techniques and capabilities. But don’t be intimidated! Once you begin to get familiar with Photoshop, you’ll find that most of its tools and features are really very easy to use. And, because Photoshop is used by so many professionals and serious hobbyists, you can find free online tutorials for almost anything!

4. What You Should Know… Drawing and Painting
When using any computer graphics application, you should understand about bitmap graphics or “painting” applications, and object-oriented graphics or “drawing” applications. Like many computer graphics applications, Adobe Photoshop has tools to do both and you are likely to integrate both kinds of tools in many projects.
Vector Graphics and Drawing
In computer graphics an “object” is a graphic element that is drawn by the computer based on its assigned mathematical properties. The process of creating objects is also called vector graphics or object-oriented graphics. Objects are made up of graphic “primitives” such as lines, curves, circles and squares – each with properties such as size, position, etc. Because each object is drawn by the computer based on its mathematical properties, it’s easy to manipulate the object as a unit – moving it, or making it bigger for example. Architects frequently use object-oriented graphics programs (you may have heard of “CAD” which stands for computer-aided drawing). In CAD, among the properties you assign to a rectangle (representing a room, for example) is it’s dimension. Changing the size of a room is as simple as giving the computer new size instructions. It redraws the rectangle based on this new property.

5. What You Should Know… Drawing and Painting (continued)
Bitmapped Graphics and Painting
Bitmapped graphics are collections of points arranged in a pattern. These points are called “pixels” (short for picture element) and have properties of size, color and intensity (or brightness). A digital photograph is an example of a bitmapped image. If you zoom in very close, you’ll be able to see the square-shaped individual pixels (you’ve probably noticed that digital cameras are often advertised by their megapixels - a megapixel is one-million pixels).
Find out the maximum image size on the SmartLab camera (it will look like ####X####) – multiply the two numbers and divide by 1 million – you now know the camera’s resolution in megapixels!
Creating or modifying bitmapped graphics is called “painting”. In Photoshop, there are many, many tools that “paint” or modify pixels.
Painting tools provide tons of creative flexibility because they modify an image pixel-by-pixel – the smallest possible element in any digital image. Unlike CAD though, there are no “objects” that can be changed as a unit. It’s a little like real painting.
Photoshop offers some drawing tools as well. Plus, there are some very clever ways to use painting tools that combine the best of both worlds - allowing you modify groups of pixels all at once, selectively or even in layers. More on this later…

6. Research/Questions
Compare and contrast “bitmap” and “object-oriented” graphics.
Give an example of “bitmap” and “object-oriented” graphics.
When is it best to “paint?” When is it best to “draw?”
Where does the word “pixel” come from?
Describe where Photo Shop could be used in the real world?

7. Click here to activate the History pallet
What You Should Know…
Depending which version of Photoshop you’re using, your workspace may look a little different than shown in this tutorial. That’s okay, all recent versions of Photoshop basically function the same way and you can do the activities in this Learning Launcher with CS2, CS3 or CS4.
You may also find that the default workspace on your STEM Lab computer is missing one or more of the panels or pallets you want to use. For example, the workspace below doesn’t show the “History” pallet, which is one of the most useful pallets because it allows you to undo work just by clicking on a previous step. You can activate any pallet by clicking on it under the Window pull-down menu.
Click here to activate the History pallet

8. What You Should Know… Respecting People
In this Engagement, you’ll learn how to morph a picture of in some fun and crazy ways. Some people, like Mr. Ochs do not mind if you make him look like an ugly alien. But not everyone will feel the same way. The purpose of this activity is to have fun with photo editing and learn about Photoshop, not to be disrespectful or hurt anyone’s feelings.
Please do not morph anyone’s photo without their permission, and keep it clean (you know what I mean)! You can have a lot of fun without being mean or hurting anyone’s feelings. Please respect those who do not want you to take their picture or to morph their photos.

9. Note
Just painting (pen tool) on a picture is NOT a good use of your time.
Photoshop is capable of so much more!
Be adventurous, try something new!

10. Do It! Copy & Paste the following link into the internet
Complete the first four Get Started with Photoshop tutorials
Get to know Photoshop
Change the image size
Work with layers
Adjust the image quality

11. Do It!
After completing the first four tutorials, follow along and complete the Edit your first photo

12. Do It!
Once you’ve completed the five tutorials listed in the previous two slide, look on the Photoshop Support Center for a topic that interests you and follow along!