Digital Darkroom and Retouching
From capture to finished image: organizing and culling, raw processing of tone, color and detail, local adjustments and masking, Photoshop layers and selections, portrait and product retouching, compositing and multi-image techniques, output for screen and print, and the ethics and law of image manipulation.
PHOT-202 Year 2 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 2 min
Offered by HSM University · Photography
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Describe the digital darkroom workflow, software, hardware and non-destructive editing principles
- Import, organize, cull and back up images with consistent folders, file names, metadata and collections
- Process raw files with appropriate profiles, white balance, exposure, tone controls and curves
- Adjust color with vibrance, HSL, color grading and custom profiles, and convert to black and white
- Apply lens corrections, perspective correction, sharpening and noise reduction for clean detail
- Use brushes, gradients, AI and range masks, and dodging and burning to guide the viewer's eye
- Work non-destructively in a pixel editor with layers, adjustment layers, masks, selections and blend modes
- Retouch portraits naturally with healing tools, frequency separation and dodge and burn while respecting identity
- Retouch product images for accurate color, clean cut-outs, consistent backgrounds and focus-stacked detail
- Create HDR merges, exposure blends, panoramas, stacks and composites with matched light, perspective and color
- Prepare master files and derivatives for screen and print with correct size, sharpening, color space and format
- Evaluate the ethics and law of image manipulation and disclosure, and present a digital darkroom portfolio
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 2 min total · final exam
- 1 The digital darkroom 25 min · quiz
- 2 Importing, organizing and culling 25 min · quiz
- 3 Raw processing: profiles, white balance and tone 25 min · quiz
- 4 Color adjustments and black and white 27 min · quiz
- 5 Detail: lens corrections, sharpening and noise 25 min · quiz
- 6 Local adjustments, masking and dodging and burning 25 min · quiz
- 7 Layers, masks, selections and blend modes 25 min · quiz
- 8 Portrait retouching 25 min · quiz
- 9 Product and commercial retouching 25 min · quiz
- 10 Compositing and multi-image techniques 25 min · quiz
- 11 Output for screen and print 25 min · quiz
- 12 Ethics of image manipulation and capstone 25 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
From capture to finished image: organizing and culling, raw processing of tone, color and detail, local adjustments and masking, Photoshop layers and selections, portrait and product retouching, compositing and multi-image techniques, output for screen and print, and the ethics and law of image manipulation.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 2.