Photoshop is one of those programs that’s so cool you just want to dive right in and start creating–but by plunging in head-first, without any guidance, you’re likely to miss a lot. There’s a solution: With this book, you learn by doing, getting your feet wet immediately as you progress through a series of hands-on projects that build on your growing Photoshop knowledge. Simple step-by-step instructions, review questions at the end of each chapter, and a companion CD with all of the book’s project files make learning a breeze as the Adobe Creative Team takes you on a self-paced tour of the image-editing powerhouse. This bestselling guide has been completely revised to cover all of Photoshop CS2’s new features, which include advanced tools for digital photographers, such as a new Spot Healing Brush for correcting scratches or blemishes, and Smart Sharpen for fixing photo blurring. Photoshop CS2 also includes loads of new creative tools, such as Vanishing Point and Image Warp. This comprehensive guide starts with an introductory tour of the software and then progresses on through lessons on everything from Photoshop’s interface to more complex topics like color management, Web graphics, and photo retouching.

Scott Kelby was honored with Professional Photographer magazine’s highly coveted 2008 Hot One Award for The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. Here’s what Jeff Kent, the Hot One Editor at Professional Photographer, has to say about the book: “In a how-to published by Peachpit Press, Scott Kelby, best-selling author on Adobe Photoshop, delves into CS3 to uncover the most important and useful techniques for digital photographers. Our judges liked Kelby’s direct approach with step-by-step instructions. In this new edition, Kelby shares even more secrets from the top pros.”

Shutterbug magazine chose The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers as a Top Digital Book of 2007.  Here’s what Joe Farace of Shutterbug has to say about the book: “Scott Kelby’s name on a Photoshop book is like the Dodge brand on the front of a pickup truck. You know it’s built RAM—or pixel—tough. Combining his famous twisted wit with unwaveringly straight tutorials, Kelby takes you through a detailed tour of Photoshop CS3 by showing how to use the new features. No fluff; just page after page of well-illustrated tutorials showing photographers how to get the most out of the new features, commands, and effects found in the latest version of Adobe’s flagship. It will get you up to speed on CS3’s new features faster than you can all by yourself.”

Scott Kelby, the #1 best-selling Photoshop author in the world today, once again takes this book to a whole new level as he uncovers the latest, most important, and most exciting new Adobe Photoshop CS3 techniques for digital photographers. This major update to his award-winning, record-breaking book does something for digital photographers that’s never been done before–it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure it out on your own. Instead, Scott shows you step-by-step the exact techniques used by today’s cutting-edge digital photographers, and best of all, he shows you flat-out exactly which settings to use, when to use them, and why.

That’s why the previous editions of this book are widely used as the official course study guide in photography courses at college and universities around the world, and this new edition for Photoshop CS3 exposes even more of the top pros’ most closely-guarded secrets.

Learn How The Pros Do It
Each year Scott trains thousands of professional photographers on how to use Photoshop, and almost without exception they have the same questions, the same problems, and the same challenges–and that’s exactly what he covers in this book. You’ll learn:

• The sharpening techniques the pros really use.
• The pros’ tricks for fixing the most common digital photo problems fast!
• How to get great looking prints (that actually match your screen!)
• A whole chapter on the latest, most requested Photoshop special effects!
• How to color correct any photo without breaking a sweat.
• How to process Raw images, plus how to take advantage of all the new Camera Raw features in CS3!
• The portrait retouching secrets only the pros know about!
• How to add real automation to your work.
• How to show your work like a pro!

Plus a host of shortcuts, workarounds, and slick “insider” tricks to send your productivity through the roof! If you’re a digital photographer, and you’re ready to learn the “tricks of the trade”–the same ones that today’s leading pros use to correct, edit, sharpen, retouch, and present their work–then you’re holding the book that will do just that.

Product Description

Just when you think you’ve learned all that you could ever know about working in Photoshop, digital artist and photomontage king Steve Caplin comes along with yet another masterful method for creating incredible works of art in Photoshop. This time, he’ll show you how to create complete images, from start to finish, entirely within the software program. No source material, photographs, or existing files from other software packages are needed, saving you valuable time and resources. The techniques you’ll learn in this ground-breaking new book will help you combine your artistic vision and skills with an understanding of how to manipulate the built-in Photoshop filters to produce impressive, eye-catching artwork.

Each chapter opens with a complete double page illustration, created entirely in Photoshop. Then, carefully laid out step-by-step instructions show you how each element in the illustration is created, and how they are all combined in the end to make a convincing final image. Using Steve’s proven methods for success, you’ll be able to produce images that reflect a more finely crafted, hand drawn approach, whether you’re an artist for your own enjoyment or a working professional looking for a leg up on the competition.

*The only book of its kind that does not rely on any external images whatsoever–each and every element is created directly in Photoshop
*A chapter covering the basics of using specific filters and textures and a chapter providing a summary of common techniques and tools will help you brush up on your general Photoshop skills so you can move through the rest of the book successfully
*Be sure to visit Steve’s website at www.howtocheatinphotoshop.com for even more Photoshop tips, tricks and advice

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Amazon Exclusive: An Essay from Steve Caplin, Author of 100% Photoshop

Working in Photoshop is just about the most fun you can have without breaking the law. Its power and elegance means that we’re limited only by our imaginations: we can combine images to make a political point, to show off a product, or simply to create a beautiful piece of artwork. These days, it’s easier than ever to find the images we need. The internet is awash with royalty-free image libraries, often selling images at very low cost–or giving them away for free. We may turn to Wikimedia, the resource center of Wikipedia, to find a specific shot; we might choose the cut rate photographs at iStockphoto.com; or we might pick one of the thousands of free images available from sites such as www.morguefile.com, or the stock exchange at sxc.hu, or the myriad free surfaces at www.mayang.com/textures. But even with the vast range of images readily available to us, we sometimes find that the perfect shot of the ideal object simply doesn’t exist. Sometimes we have the physical object at hand so we can photograph it; often we don’t. In these cases, the only real option is to draw it ourselves. There are several reasons we might choose to draw an object, or a texture, or a background, directly in Photoshop. For one thing, it means we can get exactly the view we want, without having to trawl through a thousand images. But for me, the main reason to draw directly in Photoshop is for pure, unadulterated fun. Creating a piece of artwork entirely from scratch is hugely enjoyable–and extremely satisfying when we get it to work out the way we saw it in our mind’s eye. 100% Photoshop contains dozens of examples of drawn objects and textures, at a level that just about any Photoshop user could achieve. Along the way, we learn new techniques and approaches, and hone our Photoshop skills. But mainly, drawing in Photoshop gives us a level of satisfaction a mere montage can never hope to equal.

(Photo © Kate Garner)

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Amazon Exclusive: Steve Caplin’s Top Ten Tips for Photoshop 1. Always draw the basic object in a mid-tone gray. Whether you then add highlights and shadows with the Dodge and Burn tools, or adjust the contrast with Curves, or add a metallic effect with Layer Styles, you only need be concerned about the luminosity: there’s too much opportunity for color images to go haywire. Add the color later, when the basic object has been built. 2. Duplicate, duplicate, duplicate. Make copies of your layers after each successful stage. It can be frustrating to get near the end and find there was a mistake early on in the process–but if you have an earlier version to return to, you can correct your errors far more easily. 3. Name each layer as you create it. If you use a filter, consider naming it with the settings you used – such as “Unsharp Mask, 2, 150, 0″–so you know how the effect was achieved. 4. Always experiment on a copy. Photoshop is ideal for tinkering and trying out new ideas–but make sure you keep a copy of the original before you start down an unknown path. 5. Be creative with filters. The Plastic Wrap filter doesn’t just wrap objects in plastic, it can be used to create liquids of all sorts. The Clouds filter may produce lousy clouds, but it’s a great random texture generator. And give the Wave filter another chance, it’s better than it looks. 6. Don’t erase anything. Use a Layer Mask instead. That way, you can always reveal pat of a layer you’d previously hidden. Once it’s erased, it’s gone. 7. Rather than applying a Curves or Color Balance adjustment to a layer, use an Adjustment Layer instead. The effect will be the same, except that we can go back and change the adjustment at any time–or copy it to a new layer. 8. Learn to use the Pen tool. It’s the single scariest Photoshop tool, and many users just give up on it. Take a day to master it and you’ll value it for the rest of your life. 9. Don’t forget the shadows. Shadows on objects, shadows beneath objects, shadows on the wall behind objects. Once the composition is finished, it’s the shadows that really bring it to life. 10. Convert layers to Smart Objects in complex compositions. Each time an object is scaled, rotated or distorted, some quality is lost. With Smart Objects, we can tinker as much as we like without losing any quality. It can be heartbreaking to see an image looking soft or ragged, simply because we changed our minds one time too many.

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A Look Inside 100% Photoshop
Click to Enlarge
The images below are all drawn entirely in Photoshop, using no photographs.

The box uses a variety of textures and shading techniques.	The record is a surprisingly easy object to create: the shine makes this one zing, in just a couple of steps.	The watch seems to be a complex object, but in fact it’s straightforward enough for anyone to draw.

The iPod is a straightforward object to draw; the shine on the screen brings it to life.	The only part that takes time when drawing the ruler is the tick marks.	The racquet is a complex object, bending the wood texture around the top and interlacing the strings.

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100% Photoshop: Create stunning illustrations without using any photographs

The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop Elements

Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. Classroom in a Book off ers what no other book or training program does—an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Classroom in a Book contains 11 lessons. The book covers the basics of learning Adobe Photoshop Elements and provides countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

GETTING STARTED
1 A QUICK TOUR OF PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
2 BASIC ORGANIZING
3 ADVANCED ORGANIZING
4 CREATING PROJECTS
5 PRINTING, SHARING, AND EXPORTING
6 ADJUSTING COLOR IN IMAGES
7 FIXING EXPOSURE PROBLEMS
8 REPAIRING AND RETOUCHING IMAGES
9 WORKING WITH TEXT
10 COMBINING MULTIPLE IMAGES
11 ADVANCED EDITING TECHNIQUES

“The Classroom in a Book series is by far the best training material on the market. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.”

Barbara Binder
Adobe Certified Instructor
Rocky Mountain Training