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The Photoshop Blog offers the latest Photoshop news and software updates, Photoshop tips and tutorials, and random thoughts from graphic artist and Photoshop expert Jennifer Apple.



Adobe Photoshop Unmasked: The Art and Science of Selections, Layers, and Paths
January 02, 2007

I love books that inspire you to explore Photoshop in new ways, and Adobe Photoshop Unmasked, from Nigel French, does just that. It ignites curiosity and guides you through mastering Photoshop by understanding layers.

The book's 6 chapters — Selections, Channels, Layers, Layer Masks, Adjustment Layers, and Channel Masking — are arranged in order of complexity, and many of the step-by-steps in the book include files (downloadable from a website) that you can use to work along with.

When it comes to Photoshop selections and channels, Nigel is a top expert, so you're in good hands with him as a guide and a teacher, and the book is packed with so many useful tips and advice that it serves as a solid reference to have on your desk.

Here are some other notes about Adobe Photoshop Unmasked: The Art and Science of Selections, Layers, and Paths from the publisher:

Layers, channels, paths, clipping masks, layer masks, vector masks, the Pen tool, Magic Wand, and so on — all let users work on specific regions of an image, but in fundamentally different ways. Making clean, efficient selections are essential skills for any Photoshop user, whether a graphic designer, professional photographer, or hobbyist.

Graphic designer, teacher, and Photoshop expert Nigel French saves you hours of frustration by illuminating the best selection tools and techniques for specific tasks, and the most flexible approaches to correcting and editing images in Photoshop. Using step-by-step examples, this book clarifies often-misunderstood selection methods, shows which masks best select a range of tone or color, and demonstrates how the right tools and techniques can help transform even the most mediocre picture into a polished image, saving you hours of time.

Nigel French lives in Brighton, England, where he works as a graphic designer and trainer. He is the author of InDesign Type: Professional Typography with InDesign CS2 and the former director of the Graphic and Interactive Design program at UC Berkeley Extension in San Francisco.

Buy Adobe Photoshop Unmasked (Amazon.com - save 34%)

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Available At The Adobe Store

There are tons of new features in Adobe Lightroom 1.0 that you won't find in the beta version. From Clone and Healing functionality to metadata browsing, you'll be able to free-up post-processing time like never before. Get it now at the Adobe Store. Customers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Asia can find special pricing and offers at the Adobe International Store. For free Lightroom tutorials see our Lightroom tutorials page.

Special Offer - Fluid Mask - Photoshop Masking Plugin

Fluid Mask is based on breakthrough segmentation technology inspired by the way the eye, optic nerve and brain perform visual processing. When an image is loaded, Fluid Mask's segmentation engine analyses the distribution of colors, finding the natural groups within the image. Together with information calculated about edges, gradients and textures, a model is constructed which divides the images into objects.

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SiteGrinder Photoshop Plugin - Create Websites Instantly

There often seems to be a strict division of labor within the world of web design and development. Creative professionals tend to stick to the Photoshop domain, while those well-versed in scripting are left to the task of implementing their work. Indeed, the two realms are quite different from each other, to which any of us even vaguely familiar with either can easily attest.

Essentially, Photoshop is a no-holds-barred design studio, offering the artist a seemingly endless array of creative options. On the other hand, HTML, CSS, Java and the like follow strict rules of engagement, requiring the developer to take any number of esoteric concerns into consideration in order to ensure that designs are properly displayed on the web.

Turn Photoshop Into A Complete Web Design Tool
SiteGrinder seeks to bridge this gap between design and development. Basically, this program turns Photoshop into an easy-to-use and fully functional web design tool. With SiteGrinder, designers will now have the freedom to totally let their creativity loose and then, without skipping a beat, transfer their designs to the web. Bringing esthetic concerns together with more practical considerations, this program is an amazingly powerful tool that would make a fantastic addition to any web designer's bag of tricks.

Generate Your Web Pages Directly From Photoshop
By generating web pages directly from Photoshop, you'll be able to spend much more time on the creative end of the spectrum, since you'll know right off the bat how well particular designs will translate to the web. No more going back to the Photoshop drawing board after getting a phone call from your development team, telling you that what you had envisioned doesn't have a chance of being displayed on the web. You can immediately visually and interactively test your designs, which permits you to then make changes to either esthetics or functions while it's still relatively early on in the design process.

Pricing and Availability
Mac OS X and Windows versions of the SiteGrinder unlockable demo are available now via download. SiteGrinder can be ordered from Media Lab's online store.

Photoshop CS3 Book - CS3 Essential Skills - By Mark Galer And Philip Andrews

Brimming with beautiful pictures, Photoshop CS3 Essential Skills guides you through a project-based, progressive curriculum so that you can build all the essential skills to enhance photographs creatively and professionally with Photoshop CS3. If you are an aspiring professional, enthusiastic amateur photographer, or a student learning photography, digital imaging, art and design, or design graphics, you'll be amazed at the stunning results you can achieve. A DVD is included free.