What to teach to begginers

[WLPelzmann]

I strongly agree with Todd. Keep it as a lecture only, where you lead them through the interface. One hour is just not enough to even think about a hands-on class. It's amazing how fast an hour evaporates!

[dtscds]

Boy, I really appreciate the great response.
I am teaching this class at a local seminary so time is quite scarce--one hour only. I might be able to get a second, "intermediate" level class.
I am figuring the main things are: getting the photo into PS; layers; making basic adjustments--setting black/white points, red-eye, some healing brush/cloning; magic lasso/selecting; setting resolution for web/print and resizing. Anything past that will probably be too ambitious. (That may be too much as it is!) IF I am able to get through that I may throw in a quick "stroke around the perimeter" frame of some sort.
Since I am already teaching a couple of other classes I am VERY familiar with the beating involved with the "mine doesn't do that" or "I can't find that button"--just part of the process I suppose.
Thanks for all the response!!!

[crystalcarroll]

cropping is a must, then also what all the menus mean, cause i tried to teach my mom some things and she needed to write down a little list of the symbols and their meanings before we went any further... also another thing she was confused by was adjustments and how to know what would be a proper adjustment for printing purposes

[Dobick]

If you can find out what the basic interest of the students is likely to be, then you can maybe tailor it for that. Photoshop is a very expensive program if all you intend to do with it is color correct, crop, resize, and sharpen, but those would be the things that I would start with, so that they have a basic understanding of how to get a picture from the camera to an email, and make it look better in the process.

That is of course if their main interest in photoshop comes from digital photography. If they are wanting to learn how to cut a person from a photo and place them onto a brochure, then all of the photo tricks will be of little interest to them.

Layers is what makes photoshop so powerful, so anything you cover should start with at least the concept and a simple demonstration of how to get started, and then how to save in different formats.

[studiocygnet]

I think a lot of beginners have a hard time figuring out the image sizing, resizing for web stuff. We even see questions on this forum about "why can't I get an 8x10 out of my shot?"
And we've all received those email photos from our friends that weren't resized from 300 pixels per inch, so you have to scroll forever to see what's in the photo. Since so many folks like sending photos over the web, I'd definitely fit that in.

[barP]

an hour is almost a waste of everybody's time. show them how to open a file, crop it, hit "auto color", print, and save!

wp.

[plum]

Whatever you decide to teach ... from the good suggestions here..... give them handouts with screenprints of where things are or what they do... photoshop is so powerful... they could quickly become overwhelmed and good visual handouts (maybe print your powerpoint if you use it for demo) will be helpful to them after the 1 hour tour...

[fstops]

"classroom in a book" series by adobe training group. excellent syllabus, plenty of hands-on excersices.