A Photoshop Reference: Essential Adjustment Layers

This is a very in-depth video tutorial that focuses on (5) essential adjustment layers that photographer's will typically use in Photoshop. He covers when and how to use (1)Levels to set your white/black points, (2) (3)Curves for setting midpoint and for adjusting color balance within tonal ranges (highlights,shadows,midpoints), (4)Selective Color for adjusting color balance in existing colors (the reds/the yellows/etc.) (5)Hue/Saturation to increase/decrease the intensity (saturation) of existing colors. He briefly shows how to mask out the effects of these adjustments, but the main focus is how/why to use the adjustment layer. He gives a good start on the use of Curves, which is confusing at first for many of us.

Release Date: February 20, 2006

Duration: 57:32

Again, dial-up folks -- it would probably take a long time to download this video, but if you want to start the download and go eat dinner or go to bed and see if if it's available when you return...


http://www.radiantvista.com/archive/video_tutorials/6/

Anyone give it a look? Was it helpful to you or ?

I downloaded it but haven't had time to view it yet. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a bit less hectic than the earlier part of the week. I do like the tutorials on this site. They are well thought out, easy to understand, and very thorough.

Janet

It is a day later than the post above. I've watched the tutorial. It is a good one for basics; but could have been broken up into several segments, one for each area covered in this rather long, comprehensive guide. Nevertheless, it is really good for an overview of what ails a picture.

I've watched the tutorial. Found it very detailed although a bit long. It's probably something I might go back to for specific techniques especially on the Selective Color section.

Well this bored me to death, skipped through it immensly, hardly invigorating nor exhilarating

cool video, but he could have been a whole lot more concise with it. I had to skip through it a lot.

Hmmm, interesting reactions -- all from experienced Photoshop users so far. I agree that he takes a long while to get started doing the work, -- he explains what he's going to do, then shows it -- which is a teaching strategy. I looked at it as a possibly good place for beginners / not-yet-intermediate users to pick up tips on using the most-used adjustment layers. I know that it was years before I tried Selective Color, and now I "can't live without it".

Any other reactions from people who have been using Photoshop for less then a couple of years, or real newbies? Any lurkers want to become a member just to give an opinon? ;)

I've been using PS for less than 2 years. Probably like most everyone else - I'm self-taught on it... picking up tips and clues here and there, a couple books, ... or just experimenting to see what works. But I'm a visual learner and hands on - so this was far more valuable to me than reading a "do this, click here" type of tutorial. Some things I do differently, and I'm comfortable with it simply because it's how I've always done it. But this video (and some of the others, I love the critiques for instance - if for nothing else but to remind me to pay better attention to composition) was enormously useful to me. And I enjoy the style - not really a polished professional scriped performance - more like a classroom environment. They strike me as good "teachers" (I work with teachers) - they're calm, knowledgeable and I don't feel overwhelmed with information.

Hmmm, interesting reactions -- all from experienced Photoshop users so far. I agree that he takes a long while to get started doing the work, -- he explains what he's going to do, then shows it -- which is a teaching strategy. I looked at it as a possibly good place for beginners / not-yet-intermediate users to pick up tips on using the most-used adjustment layers. I know that it was years before I tried Selective Color, and now I "can't live without it".

Any other reactions from people who have been using Photoshop for less then a couple of years, or real newbies? Any lurkers want to become a member just to give an opinon? ;)

also.....i think it's a GREAT video for photographers, especially digital, who want to go deeper into the post processing and get there hands dirty with image editing like ps. so im sure many ppl will love that video you posted.