Want to boost the effectiveness of your images for your professional communications or business? This short course explores the use of photographic images as a professional tool to help you improve your image and digital editing skills.

This course will be of interest to people who use their own photographs as a method of communication in their business; for example, in proposals and tenders, website, print collateral, social media, etc.

The course combines practical digital image editing skills using industry-standard software with a focus on the intention encoded within the photographic image.

The practical and conceptual strands intertwine to support you in identifying and implementing considered image editing, to improve the effectiveness of your photographs.

Assessment will be made based on a project submission and presentation.

Requirements:

• Participants must have a laptop/desktop computer and a mouse (Windows or Mac) and be comfortable with the use of common software such as Google and Word; a tablet or phone will not suffice.
• A camera (either phone or standalone) is also required. You should be comfortable with transferring images from your camera to your computer.
• As the course is delivered online, a reliable Internet connection is required.

On a technical level, you will learn basic editing skills in Photoshop and other software. This will include:

• Correcting imperfections such as perspective distortions, crooked horizons
• Removing blemishes and distractions
• Making adjustments such as brightness, contrast, colour balance, vibrance, saturation to improve an image
• Resizing and cropping images to comply with specifications while maintaining aspect ratio
• Accurately selecting an area of an image to apply edits to
• Using layers to form composite images
• Use of filters
• Adding text to an image
• Automating the application of the same edits to a group of images

This learning will be driven by participant-defined projects that are directly of interest to each learner.

Conceptually you will look at, read about and discuss the nature of the photographic image and develop skills to critically examine the intention(s) behind the image rather than simply accepting photographs as an objective record of reality.

Our course runs online on 2 full days (Saturdays) and 4 evening sessions (Wednesdays):

Full days: 11^th June and 2^nd July (10am – 1pm; 2pm – 5pm)

Evenings: 15^th June, 22^nd June, 29^th June, 6^th July (6.30pm – 9.30pm)

Leaving Certificate Examination (Level 5 Award) or equivalent.

Applicants without this qualification may also be considered based on their prior experience and learning through IADT’s RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) process.

The course is offered free of charge; funded by IADT and the Creative Futures Academy, under the Higher Education Authority’s Human Capital Initiative.

Please complete our IADT Application Form – Certificate Professional Skills

Application deadline: Monday, 16th May 2022 at 12noon.

Please email any queries to Elena Somoza, IADT Creative Futures Academy Co-ordinator, at cfa@iadt.ie