New Book -- Beginner's Guide to Adobe Photoshop, 3rd Ed. by Michelle Perkins

Take the mystery out of Photoshop and achieve professional results right away.

Buffalo, New York (PRWEB) September 15, 2006 -- Amherst Media announces "Beginner's Guide to Adobe Photoshop" by Michelle Perkins in its 3rd edition. ISBN# 1-58428-187-1.

This book is designed for readers who have little or no previous experience with Adobe® Photoshop®. It teaches the basic skills needed to design attractive images for use in print, on the Internet, or in any other application you can imagine. The book is also specifically designed to focus on the needs of photographers when working on their images and provides simple solutions to many common photographic problems. In addition to basic information on resolution, digital color and file formats, readers will learn the basics of working with images in Photoshop -- techniques they’ll use every time they open an image file. Next, basic image enhancements are discussed, with techniques for adjusting color and contrast and creating some interesting one-click special effects. The use of filters, powerful tools for refining and enhancing digital images, is also included. Side-by-side comparisons show you the effect of each of Photoshop’s native filters -- and samples of the results achieved using select third-party products are also included. Using filters, readers will learn how to sharpen images, create artistic looks and even distort their photographs in creative ways. In a section on advanced image enhancements, readers will learn more involved techniques, but ones that also offer a much greater degree of control. Readers will learn how to use the Levels, Curves, Color Balance and Selective Color tools to achieve results that will satisfy even perfectionists. Next, readers will learn how to make selections, use layers, work with the history palette, allowing them to isolate specific areas of the image and blend discrete image elements while leaving others unchanged.

Mastering these techniques is one of the skills that sets pros apart from amateurs, by providing the ultimate in control over even the most minute aspects of an image. With the simple techniques covered in this book, however, even beginners can expect top-quality results with only a few short lessons. Finally, artistic techniques are covered, with tips for retouching images to eliminate problem areas (like red-eye, acne, and stray hairs), apply selective sharpening and softening for the most flattering rendition of a portrait, dodge and burn to apply selective tonal control and much more. Readers will also learn how to “paint” on images for a handcolored look, convert color images into dazzling black & whites, add a sepia-tone effect and even enhance their images with text.

The third edition of this book contains all new images and screen shots, and is specifically tailored for users of Photoshop CS2. Much of the material, however, will also apply to readers who wish to use earlier versions of the software, such as Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS. One useful feature of note is that important terms to know are defined at the beginning of each chapter. By taking a minute to read these over, and referring back to them as needed, readers will learn the “language” of digital imaging -- a skill that will make them more efficient users of Photoshop. For many sections of this book, the sample images are also available as low-resolution files for download from the publisher’s web site. This facilitates easy learning, allowing readers to follow along with the book step by step.

FEATURES:

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, photographer, and digital photo retoucher. She is a Technical Editor for Rangefinder magazine and has also written for PC Photo. She is the author of numerous digital imaging books, including "Digital Photography 101," "Traditional Photographic Techniques with Adobe Photoshop," "Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe Photoshop," "Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop Elements," "The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging," "Digital Landscape Photography Step by Step," and "Digital Camera Tricks and Special Effects 101," all from Amherst Media. She resides in Buffalo, NY.

Amherst Media, Inc is the leading publisher of instructional photography books written by professional photographers for photographers. With over twenty books published a year there's always something new at Amherst Media.

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