Modifying pictures well is a skill - whether changing colour, influencing mood, montaging or retouching - they all need patience and trade-craft. I've come to realise that there is no perfect way to do a particular task, although some are better than others. Often though, the composition of the picture will dictate the best approach.

As the years have past I've refined my use of Photoshop, dropping many of the basic techniques I first learnt in favour of more powerful and flexible ones. For me a nondestructive approach is best, all your work can be changed easily and none of your work is glued - ie. something you did 40 minutes ago cant be changed without losing stuff you want to keep. Layers, masks and adjustment layers are the way forward, if you are not using them ask yourself why?

All courses cover the major features of Photoshop thereby unlocking the key to the program - in addition you will receive information on additional resources to support your training, 3 months telephone support as well as a 3 month free subscription to talentedpixie.com online training videos. Prices start from £300 plus VAT per day .

Available Photoshop courses

• Photoshop CS4 - what's new, one day
• Photoshop 2 day introduction
• Photoshop advanced techniques and montaging using masks and layers
• Photoshop for print; output to Indesign or QuarkXpress, resolution, size, colour management
• Photoshop for TV graphics - ideal for Quantel users cross-training
• Photoshop for professional re-touching

A course outline can be downloaded in pdf format here - use this to form the basis of your training requirements

Recently I produced a series of Photoshop training videos for talentedpixie.com - a free example of one of these videos where I show you how to use the magic wand tool and the quick mask feature to enhance a selection can be viewed here: http://online.talentedpixie.com/movies/610865/Magicwandmasks.html

Adobe Photoshop training