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Class Introduction

Lesson 1 from: Filters and Smart Objects

Lisa Carney

Class Introduction

Lesson 1 from: Filters and Smart Objects

Lisa Carney

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Lesson Info

1. Class Introduction

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

(audience clapping) Welcome gang, welcome. So, filters and smart objects. This should be very exciting. And what we're going to try to do today is look at filters in a completely different way. This is not your grandma's filter class. And what I mean by that is we're not gonna go through the filter list and say, okay, let's try this filter, let's try this filter. What Simon and my goal is is to actually have y'all kinda look at filters in an entirely different way. And what I mean by that is perhaps taking your render filter and use it for creating hair or fabric. And what I mean by render filter, I mean flames. Like, not use it for how it necessarily Photoshop, in all its brilliance, had intended. And, what I'm really excited about, about having Simon here, as Kenna has said, we've worked together for well over 20 years, on and off, and he was always, I don't know if I've told you this, but he was always known as the filter guy, because he, do you mind? I'm going to tell some storie...

s here. You outing me? I'm outing you a little bit. Right on. He would sit in the backroom with his rock and roll music blaring, I mean blaring, and practice all the filters. And why I think that's a really good point to bring up is he was practicing the filters. So he's not on a job where there's a deadline, and you're really pressed for time, and you're stressed out. He's playing and I would really like y'all to consider some of the stuff we're going to show you. And try it not when you're on a job. But just practice, like create stuff, come up with some ideas, do some artistic interpretations, because then what happens is you're learning it without pressure, and then when you have a job and you're under the gun, you're like, oh, right, I know what filter to pull out. Because I'm going to tell you this stuff is not as fun to do when your client is breathing down your neck and you're freaked out, okay. So, I want that to be a takeaway. And, is there anything you wanted to add? Yeah, filters, what I really dig about 'em. Photoshop's fantastic at taking photographs and then you manipulate 'em. So, you cut 'em out and put them on different backgrounds. You make 'em different colors. Add hair, darken, noise stuff, but with filters what really seduced me about it is that you start with nothing and then these filters create things out of nothing. And that was the real magic to me. And that's where I really got lost in the backroom with it, just had the music on playing, figured out what each thing does, and then like, okay this does that, that goes in the bag of tricks. This does this, this goes in the bag of tricks. And now, you can use 'em to enhance things easily, but then when I come to a job and there's just nothing there in the photography, I'm like, okay, well I can make this thing using these three things back here, and then you got something from nothing and continue on melding into the photograph. And that to me is just elegant, it's just real... And you get a start point, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Start with great, start with nothing, start with a path and then add a bunch of filters together and then you got beauty. I dig that. You said something there that I think is really important to reiterate. It's a bag of tricks. What we're hoping to give you all here is a bag of tricks. Now, when you look at this, you're going to see we're going to look at dark images, light images, fluffy images, chrome-type, and while they might not look like they go together, they're ideas for you to have to put in your arsenal for later, okay. So you ready to go? Yeah, when you guys start playing with them, you see how to stack them up. And that's where you were saying, instead of just going down, this does this, this does this, take this, make this over here, then a next level up over here, so this one we're going to go take a lens flare. Then we're gonna go make it into a sphere, make a brush out of that, make bubbles out of that, and then down it goes, so this is the fun part. This is lovely. Yeah, it's going to be good. Hopefully, y'all enjoy this as much as we do. So cool, so for the introduction what we're gonna look at is we're gonna kinda take a background look. So we're gonna look at backgrounds and how to create backgrounds from literally nothing. Paint, and some filters, and again it's all in the idea of having tools to build with and to create your own scene. And there's a few reasons for this for me is I don't about you, I get really tired looking for stock, especially for a job, it can be exhausting. And, this way you can create your own imagery and, or, use stock as a, I don't know, guiding start point. What else do we want to talk about this, oh, the flame for rendering I think is fantastic. That's really fun and creating highlights. So we're going to start here. We have to talk about some technical issues first. Alright, don't be scared. We're going to talk about some technical stuff. And, I wanna iterate at this point, I know I said the technical word. (Simon laughs) So here's some stuff about smart objects. This is a filter and smart objects course. And we're gonna talk about smart objects throughout the entire class, sparkled in but I'm gonna try not to scare you too much with the smart objects. So keep listening for the Smart Object conversation. Now, on filters, what you'll see on this screen here and on your screen at home is, there is a little bit of a bug I've discovered in Photoshop. And I'm sure they'll correct it when they do. Sometimes your filter is gonna preview all of these, the artistic, the distort, the noise, the sketch, the stylized, the texture, out in the menu here. Sometimes it will not preview here. Don't panic, there's no panicking. It'll be in the filter gallery. So for you when you're working, if you open up your Photoshop either two 17, 'cause I find this bug in both of them, by the way. If your two 17 opens and it looks like this, it's all cool, it's in here, it's in the filter gallery. If your two 18, 2018, pardon me, if that opens and it looks like this, don't panic, it's right here. So on my laptop computer, which is not my retouching station it often looks like this, okay? So I just want to be really clear, it's not a big deal and in that spirit, throughout this course, we're gonna talk about some plugins that are a little buggy, but they're beautiful. They're absolutely beautiful and they're worth their pain. And one of the things that we wanna I'd say discuss, about being a professional is technology develops at the rate that it develops. And there's some bugs sometimes, and I know I will occasionally hear folks be uh, dammit it's doing this. And you know what, no, it's technology, no panicking, just go with it and embrace it because then I think you can enjoy the process a little more. Would you agree? Yeah, be friends with the goofiness. Yeah, that's a good way of saying it. Well, thank you. Well, you're kinda goofy so that kinda suits. I do wanna mention that there is some companion material for the course and I think I should explain it a little bit of how we set this up. So the companion material you'll see looks very much like these pages here where it's not 100% annotated. It's really the guide for you guys to remind you about what we talked about and ideally how I would approach this is you would re-watch this and write notes on the paper as you go, 'cause it'll solidify the data and the information in your mind. And so, I don't want you to expect, it's not a book, it's a companion handout. In addition, there will be files. These fully, fully layered files and you can deconstruct them 'cause I think that's really helpful to look and see how someone built the file and do it yourself and not guess.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Filters & Smart Objects Companion Handout (57 pages)
Rendering Hair How To Handout
Autumn Render File
Autumn Road Demo FIle
Flame Hair Layered File
Finishing Station Logo Demo File
Winter Look Demo File

Free Bonus Material

Alien Skin Discount Code

Bonus Materials with RSVP

Adobe Stock Contributor

Ratings and Reviews

user-3b9448
 

Oh my word! this must be the best money I have spent in years on my photoshop education. This class is amazing, just so very informative and I have only watched 2 lessons! Finally understand what the jargon around brushes means and how to adjust the settings to get what the gurus can do with brushes. Love this class - thank you Lisa and love: "Don't panic" :-). If you like photoshop and spend loads of money on other people's actions and overlays and "stuff", you need this class. Brilliant.

Pat Saizan
 

This is one of the best courses I have taken on Creative Live. Just amazing. This is geared towards intermediate to advanced Photoshop users. So happy to see an advanced class!! Very happy to see Alien Skin being used as a part of this course. Highly recommend this course.

a Creativelive Student
 

I can't say enough about this class. I am looking forward to watching this again and applying all I have learned at my leisure. Lisa Carney is am amazing instructor and I loved Simon as well, they did an awesome job! Just the handouts alone are well worth the price of the class. Thanks for another class filled with excellent content and lots of laughter. I own all of her classes and will certainly purchase any other's she instructs. Way to go Lisa! Well done and Exceptional!

Student Work

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