Course description

You know your way round Adobe Photoshop: layers, basic selections, masks, adjustment layers and simple retouching. This course takes those skills further, into the methods a working designer uses every day. You learn to build files that stay editable from first draft to final delivery, make selections and masks that hold up on hair and fine detail, correct and match colour with confidence, retouch naturally, and combine several images into one believable scene.

The course follows one realistic job from brief to delivery: a magazine advert, a web banner and a retouched portrait for a small tea shop. Along the way you cover Smart Objects and Smart Filters, blend modes and layer styles, Select and Mask and channels, gradient and vector masks, Curves and Levels, healing, cloning and frequency separation in outline, shadows and grain for a composite, type and shape layers, sharpening, noise reduction, actions and batch processing, and exporting for screens and print. Generative AI features get a brief mention; the core is the manual methods, where you decide every step.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Iselin, a freelance designer in Bridport, as she works on the Kiltarn Tea job, with help from Galen, a retired newspaper picture editor. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key and a cheat sheet, plus step checklists, cards, layer stack diagrams, a shortcut card to fill in, a glossary and practice images made for the course.

What you'll learn

• Review and a non-destructive workflow: finding commands in any version, Smart Objects in depth, adjustment and fill layers aimed with clipping and masks, and a working file you can hand over.
• Advanced layer work: groups in large files, blend modes by family, fill versus opacity and advanced blending, layer styles for real jobs, and clipping stacks.
• Selections in depth: choosing a method, painting and colour-based selections, the Select and Mask workspace, hair and soft edges, and channels-based selections in outline.
• Masks in depth: painting masks with control, gradient masks, vector masks, density and feather, and quick masks, alpha channels and saved selections.
• Colour and tone: Curves in depth, Levels and the Histogram panel, targeted colour adjustments, matching colour across images, and Camera Raw as a filter.
• Retouching: retouching that stays natural and fair, healing and patching, cloning and Content-Aware Fill, frequency separation in outline, and dodge and burn on separate layers.
• Compositing: planning a composite, scale and perspective, contact and cast shadows, matching colour, light and grain, and a multi-image composite from start to finish.
• Type and shape layers for design: type for design work, saved text styles, warped text and text on a path, shape layers and frames, and layout with artboards and guides.
• Filters, sharpening and automation: Smart Filters, sharpening with control, reducing noise, recording and editing actions, and batch processing with the Image Processor.
• Exporting and the final project: exporting for screens and for print, then a final project: a product advert composite and a natural, agreed portrait retouch.

Who it's for

Anyone who has finished Adobe Photoshop for Beginners: Edit, Retouch and Combine Images with Confidence, or has the same skills, and wants to go further: designers, small business owners, photographers and makers who edit their own images. You need Adobe Photoshop on a desktop computer, with a mouse or a pen tablet. A printer helps for proof prints in Section 10.

What this course is, and isn't

This course teaches Photoshop methods, and it isn't made or endorsed by Adobe. Tool, panel and command names were checked against the titles of Adobe's official Photoshop help pages on 2 November 2026. Those pages didn't show a version number, and their full text didn't load for checking, so no keyboard shortcut or default setting is given as fact; the lessons show you how to find them in your own copy. Photoshop is updated often, so names and places can change. Every practice image, including the portrait, was drawn or computer-generated for the course and shows no real people or products. Iselin, Galen, Sibylla and every other person in the course are fictional, and so is Kiltarn Tea.

What will I learn?

• Build layered files that stay editable, with Smart Objects, aimed adjustment layers, named groups and numbered versions
• Use blend modes by family, fill and opacity, advanced blending, layer styles and clipping stacks on real jobs
• Choose the right selection method and refine hair, fur and fine detail in Select and Mask and with channels
• Paint, gradient, vector and quick masks with control, and adjust density and feather without repainting
• Correct and match colour and tone with Curves, Levels, the Histogram panel, targeted colour adjustments and Camera Raw as a filter
• Retouch products and portraits naturally and fairly with healing, cloning, Content-Aware Fill, frequency separation in outline and dodge and burn
• Plan and build a believable composite with matching scale, perspective, contact shadows, light, colour and grain
• Set type and shape layers for design work, with saved text styles, text on a path, frames, artboards and guides
• Sharpen and reduce noise with control, and save time with actions, Batch and the Image Processor
• Export for screens in sRGB and for print with bleed, then complete a product advert composite and a retouched portrait

Frequently asked questions