Gry Garness: Photoshop Training & Consulting On-site, London

PHOTOSHOP CS2 & CS3 (february 2007 onwards) ON-SITE TRAINING & CONSULTING, LONDON AREA Photoshop needs to have good preferences, settings, workspaces and presets in order to work well. These have to be considered carefully to suit your type of work. In a 3-hour session I can make all these custom setups on your system, tailored to your workflow and your personal preferences. I listen carefully to your specific wishes and I make sure you have old files backed up, with screenshots of all the settings, so that you can use them on other computers. You will be taught how to work with the new settings, and how to change them if you need to. All this can be combined with general Photoshop training. I have listed some of the things that I can do for you or your company, and how they can greatly improve the efficiency of your work.

The default Colour Settings in Photoshop are not particularly beneficial for Photographers. After a short review of your typical inputs and outputs, I'll save a custom setup designed for your most commonly used colour spaces, and make some proof setups. In the Preferences you can determine how the application behaves with regard to file saving, memory usage, cursors and more.

Efficiency: Actions are not just for running a batch processes. Tasks consisting of 3 or 5 steps are repeated countless times a day. You can save hundreds of hours a year by using Actions. I start by installing my core set, and then edit these for your typical workflow. Some people work in a linear way, and others with lots of variation and perhaps more intuitively. I try to accommodate these differences. Tool Presets are also time-saving, choosing your favourite brush for an oft-repeated task, with the right opacity and colour - all in one click. Make your own custom crop sizes and ratios without having to venture into Image Size. After finding out how you work, I can create these kind of customized presets for you.

Interface: Photoshop often overwhelms people, and as each version gets bigger, the interface needs tidying up. I'll help you do this, without losing anything important.

Workflow: Most people's Photoshop workflow can do with a bit of a re-think, and I find that most users are not aware of some very smart features. I can help you get a perspective on your workflow, making sure things are happening in the right order. Adobe Bridge needs to be harnessed in order to behave itself, but when treated right, its a really good application which has won the highest approval for wuality and workflow in recent surveys.

On your Mac, there are a few maintenance procedures that keep a Mac sweet. The folders may also need a bit of re-jigging. Spending ages finding files? Keywording and metadata can help you find files quickly, searching on terms that are not in the filename.

Presets for your printer are time-saving and they ensure that you haven't left out that one little crucial detail. If you don't already have a custom-made profile, we start with choosing the right paper, using the right profile and finding the setting with the best linearity. In this way we get the best out of the printer's own canned profiles. I can give you recommendations for good custom profile services.

Apart from these things... I may be able to help with many other things. Just ask, and I'll give you an honest answer. Photoshop is my speciality, and I don't pretend to be a colour-management-consultant or a Mac genius. However, colour is an area that I have a good understanding of, and I can recommend some good solutions. Although Photoshop is my main application, I am not entirely unfamiliar with InDesign and GoLive. I am Mac-centric, and this is why the consultation service is limited to Mac users only. However, I'm happy to teach Photoshop for PC users.

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