Program Description

An Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Photoshop, a photographer and publisher, Phil can teach the ins and outs of digital and film photography, and image manipulation using Photoshop or Elements. Kids do not need to own cameras to work with images.

Students can get up and running quickly with Photoshop (or Adobe Elements, [a less expensive but quite useful image manipulation program]), with a few easy-to-learn techniques. These include:
• Setting up your Workspace
• File Formats, Size/Resolution and Saving Your Work
• Making and Refining Selections
• Adjustment Layers (Hue/Saturation, Curves, Levels etc.)
• Masks
• Adding text to images

Here’s how it works. After creating a Custom Workspace and learning about JPEG vs TIFF vs PSD, students then learn how to use various selection tools. A good selection is the foundation of a believable collage. For example, a student might want to put dragonfly wings on a selfie. First, she must “select” a pair of dragonfly wings on Google Images, then drag them onto the image of herself. Now she wants to make her sweater red, so it’s time for an Adjustment Layer. And now she wants to be flying over a lake with her new wings. No problem!

Publication of students’ best work in a magazine can be factored into the price and is encouraged, as this is a great way to showcase their accomplishments. Phil has self-published numerous publications, working with regional printers on a variety of presses. He uses Adobe InDesign as a layout program.

If your school has a darkroom, Phil can teach developing and printing black and white negative film, and making prints from camera-less sources such as pinhole cameras made from oatmeal boxes.

Phil can teach these techniques to educators too. Please contact for custom rates.