🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep
- Gather/set out: Computer with Photoshop, A damaged/flawed sample photo (scratches, blemishes, or poor exposure).
- Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.
- Heads-up -- This is exam-relevant: This lesson maps directly to an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) exam domain. Keep a running personal vocabulary list all year -- it becomes your exam study guide. See the ACP Exam Prep section for a full study guide and practice questions.
🧑🏫 Substitute Teacher Guide
A scripted, step-by-step runsheet for today's class -- hand this to anyone covering the room who doesn't know the daily routine.
- Day 1: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
- Day 2: 📋 Open Substitute Guide
This is exam-relevant
This lesson maps directly to an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) exam domain. Keep a running personal vocabulary list all year -- it becomes your exam study guide. See the ACP Exam Prep section for a full study guide and practice questions.
🎯 Essential Question
- How do designers repair, retouch, and stylize images using filters and restoration tools?
📈 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson (2 Days), students will be able to:
- Apply filters both destructively and non-destructively and explain the difference in outcome.
- Use retouching tools (Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, Patch Tool) to repair a damaged or flawed image.
- Apply auto-correction adjustments (levels, curves, or auto-tone) appropriately.
📐 Standards Alignment
CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)
- CDOS 2 — Integrated Learning -- students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
- CDOS 3a — Universal Foundation Skills -- basic literacy, communication, and problem-solving skills required for a career.
ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives
- ACP 4.5 — Use basic reconstructing and retouching techniques to manipulate digital graphics and media.
- ACP 4.6 — Modify the appearance of design elements by using filters and styles.
🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 4: Creating and Modifying Visual Elements
📚 Key Vocabulary
- Filter
- An effect (blur, sharpen, stylize, artistic) applied to an image or layer.
- Spot Healing Brush / Clone Stamp / Patch Tool
- Retouching tools that repair blemishes or damage by sampling and blending nearby pixels.
- Auto-Correction
- Quick, automated adjustments to color, contrast, or exposure.
🧰 Materials & Tools
- Computer with Photoshop
- A damaged/flawed sample photo (scratches, blemishes, or poor exposure)
🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)
Have you ever seen an obviously over-filtered or over-retouched photo online? What made it look fake or off?
📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence
This lesson spans 2 Days. Suggested pacing:
| Day | Focus | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Filters & Retouching Tools | Do Now (5 min). Mini-lesson (12 min): applying filters destructively vs. as Smart Filters. Guided practice (23 min): practice the retouching tools (Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, Patch Tool) on a damaged sample photo. Share (5 min). |
| Day 2 | Full Restoration | Do Now (5 min). Independent project (35 min): fully restore/retouch a damaged photo and apply one stylistic filter. Before/after share (5 min). |
✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket
Before/after restoration scored with a rubric: damage convincingly repaired, filter enhances rather than overwhelms the image.
Exit Ticket: Which retouching tool did you rely on most, and what specifically does it do differently from the others?
📊 Pull up the anonymous Class Check-In for students to fill out before they go.
🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations
English Language Learners: model every step live, then check in one-on-one; provide translated materials and vocabulary support as needed. Students with IEPs: apply the accommodations and modifications listed in each student's plan (examples include extended time, graphic organizers, speech-to-text tools, chunked instructions, and visual schedules). Students with attention-related needs: break tasks into short, checklist-driven steps and provide brief movement or focus breaks. Students ready for a challenge: take on a leadership role critiquing peers' work, extend the project with a second iteration, or research how today's skill is used professionally in the field.