This 2-day course is an introduction to Adobe Photoshop for forensic professionals. Students will gain understanding of Adobe Photoshop, the Photoshop workspace, tools and techniques, and will explore best practice procedures. The course is an ideal combination of instructor-led demonstration and hands-on practice.
Who Should Attend
This course is exclusively designed as an introduction to Photoshop for professionals working in law enforcement and digital graphic forensic analysis. Photoshop is often a prerequisite for many other software programs, and it assists forensic professionals in image enhancement, clarification, identification, comparison, and authentication. Photoshop is the one program that everyone in every area of digital media and analysis should know.
Prerequisites
Practical working knowledge of computers and basic Mac OS X or Windows skills. This course or equivalent experience is required for Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Forensic Professionals
Course Outline:
Note: The curricula below comprise activities typically covered in a class at this skill level. The instructor may, at his/her discretion, adjust the lesson plan to meet the needs of the class.
Lesson 1: Understanding Digital Images
- Pixels: what are pixels and why are they important?
- Image size vs. resolution
- Video vs. stills
- Aspect ratio
- About color
Lesson 2: Photoshop Environment
- Restoring preferences
- The Photoshop Workspace
- Tools, menus, panels, option bar
- Resetting
- Saving and customizing workspaces
- Navigating images
- Essential shortcuts
- Discovering image attributes
- The History Panel
Lesson 3: Selections
- Why Selections are important
- Selection tools properties
- Determining the best selection methods and tools
- Exploring selection methods
- Moving selected areas
- Manipulating selections
Lesson 4: Masks
- Mask properties
- Mask locations
- Masking techniques
- Clipping masks
Lesson 5: Layer Basics
- About layers
- The Layers Panel
- The layer, paths, and channels panel set
- Layer properties
- How lyers work
- Selecting layers and layer assets
- Arranging layers
- Adjustment layers vs. adjustments
- Blending modes
Lesson 6: Marking Images
- Inserting notes
- Including text in an image
- Adding frames, arrows, and other symbols
Lesson 7: Best Practices for:
- Saving in the right format
- Compression
- Versions
- Tracking changes
- Following proper processing
- Creating an audit trail