Photoshop CS: Essential Skills

'Reading a technical manual with such interest and enthusiasm is indeed a rarity. Easy to comprehend this will be essential reading for novice and experts alike who want to get to grips and understand the creative suite program as a whole. It is one of the best intro Photoshop books I have encountered to date.'
Andy Moxon, Professor of Photography, Savannah College of Art and Design

* Offers practical advice through a highly structured learning approach to the fundamental techniques and skills for personal creativity and communication
*Jam-packed full of Photoshop tutorials to put your skills into practice

A superb full color guide to creative image editing, this will take you through all the necessary steps in order to become a competent and confident Photoshop user. Photoshop CS: Essential Skills companion to Digital Imaging: Essential Skills, provides an in-depth exploration on the latest software features, allowing those who wish to use the digital darkroom instead of traditional darkroom techniques to create professional photographic illustration.

Supporting an independent learning approach, the foundation modules allow you to establish an effective working environment, promoting easy navigation through the image editing process from capture to print, focusing on the essential techniques and skills required. Subsequent guides build upon these skills by exploring creative applications including advanced retouching, photomontage, vector graphics, special effects and preparing images for the web.

www.photoshopessentialskills.com provides an hour and a half of QuickTime movie tutorials in addition to all of the downloadable images required to complete the practical activities within the study guides. It also supplies all the layer styles, custom shapes, gradients and curves settings used in the creative projects and a huge number of helpful links and galleries.

Philip Andrews is a photographer, author and lecturer at the Queensland School of Printing and Graphic Arts, Australia. He is a beta tester for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements and regular contributor to several magazines including Amateur Photographer, Australian Photography and Better Photography. He is also senior contributing editor for Better Digital and Technical Editor for What Digital Camera. His other books include Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 and Advanced Photoshop Elements for Digital Photographers, published by Focal Press.

Mark Galer is a photographer, author and Senior Photography Lecturer at RMIT University, Australia. He has also lectured in photography in the UK and has worked commercially as a freelance photographer on corporate and editorial assignments. He is a beta tester for Adobe Photoshop and a regular contributor to Digital Photography + Design magazine and Better Digital. He is the author of Photography: Foundations for Art and Design and other titles within the Essential Skills series.

The Essential Skills Photography Series offers a highly structured learning approach to the fundamental skills of photography. They mix theoretical information with practical advice to maximise the opportunities for creative results.

Each subject includes:

* clear aims and objectives
* short sub-sections illustrated by student and author work
* student activities to check learning outcomes
* student assignments to put theoretical knowledge into a creative context
* glossary of terms

Other titles in the series are 'Studio Photography: Essential Skills' by John Child; 'Photographic Lighting: Essential Skills' by John Child and Mark Galer; Location Photography: Essential Skills' by Mark Galer and Digital Imaging: Essential Skills' by Mark Galer and Les Horvat.