You will need Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Windows or Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Macintosh. This can be part of the Creative Suite in Standard or Extended editions or it can be a standalone version of either Standard or Extended. However, no features from the Extended version will be taught.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins. If you want to use the 30-day free trial software provided by Adobe, you will need to wait until the third week of the course to install it and actually begin working through the course. Otherwise, your trial will end before the last four lessons are released.
You can also obtain a one- or two-month subscription for the product at a cost of $49.00 per month. This allows you to use the demo for one month if you like and then buy a one-month subscription so you can take the course for its full length.
This course can be taken on a PC or a Mac. On the PC platform, any of the following are acceptable: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 3; Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (Service Pack 2 recommended); or Windows 7. On the Mac platform, you will need Mac OS X v10.5.8 or v10.6.
You will need Internet access, email, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).
You will need to have a working knowledge of the basic tools in Photoshop and be able to make selections, use the Clone Stamp tool and Healing brushes, and do elementary color correction. If you are new to Photoshop, you should start with Introduction to Photoshop CS5.
In addition, you will need to have a program that extracts the example files from the Zip file provided with each lesson. You also will need to know how to create a new file folder and locate files on your hard drive.