Photo Editing
Master professional photo editing techniques to enhance colors, refine details, and create stunning visual narratives. From basic adjustments to advanced retouching, gain the skills to make every shot look its absolute best.
Retouch your first professional photo in our intensive 4-week course
Designed for aspiring photo editors, this comprehensive four-week course on Seed LMS guides you step-by-step through Adobe Photoshop and modern AI workflows. You will develop the essential skills of non-destructive editing, advanced selection, professional skin retouching, colour correction, and digital compositing while building a professional post-production pipeline. Beyond the core four weeks, you’ll receive a full month of free, one-on-one mentorship to polish your final composites, troubleshoot your layers in real-time, and confidently build your photo editing portfolio. Choose from our curated pool of 10 exciting photo editing briefs, refine your skills, and graduate with high-quality, commercial-grade images.
Course Outline
Week 1: The Canvas – Interface, Layers & Selections
Topic A: Setup & Digital Basics
- The Workspace: Customising toolbars and panels for efficiency.
- Resolution & Colour: Understanding DPI (Print vs Web) and Colour Modes (RGB vs CMYK).
- File Formats: When to use PSD, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.
Topic B: The Power of Layers
- Layer Stack: Backgrounds vs Layers.
- Adjustment Layers: Changing brightness and colour without damaging pixels.
- Layer Masks: The “Black hides, White reveals” principle.
Topic C: Selection Tools
- Marquee & Lasso: Basic geometric and freehand selections.
- Object Selection & Subject Select: Using Photoshop’s internal AI to isolate objects instantly.
- Refine Edge: How to select difficult areas like hair or fur.
Week 2: The Surgeon – Retouching & Healing
Topic A: Content-Aware Tools
- Spot Healing & Patch Tool: Removing acne, dust, and small distractions.
- Clone Stamp: Manually duplicating pixels for precise repairs.
- Content-Aware Fill: Deleting large objects and letting Photoshop “fill in the blanks.”
Topic B: Portrait Retouching Basics
- Smoothing Skin: Balancing texture while maintaining realism.
- Dodge & Burn: Using light and shadow to add depth to faces.
- Eyes & Teeth: Enhancing details and brightening smiles naturally.
Topic C: Liquify & Transformation
- Liquify Filter: Subtle adjustments to shapes and proportions.
- Perspective Warp: Correcting “leaning” buildings or distorted products.
Week 3: The Artist – Colour, Light & Compositing
Topic A: Advanced Colour Correction
- Levels & Curves: Mastering the histogram for perfect exposure.
- Hue/Saturation & Selective Colour: Changing the colour of specific objects (e.g., changing a red car to blue).
- Camera Raw Filter: Applying high-end photographic “looks” within Photoshop.
Topic B: Introduction to Compositing
- Match Colour: Forcing a foreground subject to adopt the lighting of a background.
- Blending Modes: Using “Screen,” “Multiply,” and “Overlay” for textures and light hits.
- Shadow Construction: Manually painting shadows to ground an object in a new environment.
Topic C: Brushes & Textures
- Custom Brushes: Installing and using brushes for smoke, clouds, or grit.
Week 4: The Future – AI Workflows & Social Delivery
Topic A: Innovative AI Workflow (Using Gemini)
- The AI Creative Director: Using Gemini to generate “Mood Boards” and colour palette descriptions.
- Prompt Example: “Suggest a colour palette for a luxury watch advertisement that feels ‘Midnight’ and ‘Premium’. Provide the Hex codes.”
- The Problem Solver: Describing a difficult edit to Gemini to get a step-by-step Photoshop workflow.
- AI Concept Art: Using Gemini to write detailed prompts for Photoshop’s Generative Fill.
Topic B: Photoshop Generative Fill
- Generative Expand: Changing a portrait (9:16) into a landscape (16:9) by letting AI “dream” the rest of the scene.
- Generative Remove: Using AI to delete complex objects from busy backgrounds.
Topic C: Exporting & Professional Delivery
- Export for Web: Optimising for Instagram/Facebook without losing quality.
- Print Prep: Setting up bleeds, margins, and converting to CMYK.
Mentorship & Portfolio Polish
After four weeks of core instruction, students enter a free 1-month mentorship delivered online via Discord. This phase shifts the focus from learning new tools to applying them to industry standards.
- Project Polish & Portfolio Building: Finish or redo your 2 required projects. High-quality submissions ensure better scores and a stronger portfolio.
- Weekly 1-on-1 Sessions: Each student is assigned a dedicated mentor for a personalised 30 to 60-minute weekly guidance session.
- Open File Reviews: Present open project files via live screen sharing for direct mentor critiques and feedback.
- Live Debugging: Join dedicated livestreams where instructors actively troubleshoot settings and fix your project errors in real-time.
- Final Premiere: Submit your fully rendered images or video for the Virtual Viewing Party to watch and critique final reels with the class.
- Certification & Next Steps: Complete the course evaluation and submit all final polished projects to finalise grading and unlock your Certificate of Completion.
