Ready to learn not just the "how," but also the "why" behind the most powerful features of Photoshop? Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques goes beyond conventional step-by-step instruction to deliver an under-the-hood understanding of the world's leading image-editing application. This award-winning, best-selling guide leads you through essential new features and useful techniques in a fun, easy-to-read format. Book jacket.

The most comprehensive guide to Photoshop, fully updated to cover all new features

Find solutions quick with this accessible encyclopedic guide for Photoshop. This illustrated ready reference covers every action you are likely to make as a photographer.--[book cover]

This is absolutely the ultimate guide to hacking Adobe’s wildly popular graphics software, written by an Adobe Certified professional photographer and designer. This is serious, down and dirty, tweaking – blowing away the default settings, customizing appearance, optimizing performance, customizing tools and offering readers total control over Photoshop like never before. With these 300+ hacks, readers will find their work with Photoshop faster and easier than ever. Roll up your sleeves, and dive into these hacks including: Faster Photoshop startup Customizing the Photoshop interface Hacking Photoshop’s Tools Access hidden dialog buttons Hacks for Masks, Layers, Paths, Curves and Selections Camera Raw tricks and so much more.

If you’re a photography hobbyist, would you like to brighten up that gloomy island vacation photo? Slim down without going on a diet? See whether white or green shutters look best on the house? Expunge the ex-boyfriend from family photos? If you’re a pro or semi-pro photographer, would you like to make it snow in that ski resort photo? Replace the old logo in the glamour shot of the corporate headquarters with the new one? Grow hair in the CEO’s glaring bald spot? Freshen up the lettuce in that food shot? You’ve come to the right place. With Photoshop CS2, you have the tools. With Photoshop CS2 For Dummies, you’ll have the know-how. In full color, with all kinds of examples, screen shots, step-by-step explanations, tips, and techniques, this guide takes you from the fundamentals to special power-user tricks! Cross-platform Mac-PC coverage includes: The basics of getting around in Photoshop, getting images into and out of Photoshop, choosing the right file formats, and setting your preferences Working with Adobe Bridge to organize and manage your images Working with tonality, including making easy Auto Repairs, making adjustments with Levels and Curves (and the eyedroppers), and using Shadow/Highlight and the toning tools, Burn and Dodge Making color look natural using the color adjustment commands Taking advantage of the RAW format for maximum flexibility, including using the Adjust, Detail, Lens, Curve, and Calibrate tabs and the Camera Raw buttons Fine-tuning your fixes, including making your selections with tools (four marquee tools, three lasso tools, and the Magic Wand tool) Masking for both layer visibility and for protecting parts of your images The most common problems in digital photos—red-eye, wrinkles, unwanted objects and people, and noise—and what to do about them With Photoshop CS2, you can go beyond enhancing your images to create “art.” You have a very powerful painting engine, an extremely complex Brushes palette, and all kinds of painting tools. Photoshop CS2 For Dummies walks you though: Compositing (combining images into a piece of artwork) and working with layers, including choosing from the almost two dozen blending modes Selecting with Extract which is great for making tough selections, such as flyaway hair and various types of fringe Using Vanishing Point to “map” a pattern to angled surfaces Creating panoramas with Photomerge Creating precision edges with vector paths, including using shape layers and the Custom Shape tool, choosing from more than 300 ready-to-use shapes with the Custom Shape Picker, and using the Pen tool to create paths Where to find dozens, or even hundreds, of custom shapes already on your computer – absolutely free Dressing up images with layer styles, including using the Styles palette and creating custom layer styles Adding text messages and tweaking your text Using the extensive painting tools and the Brushes palette Using filters, including sharpening to focus the eye using blur filters or the Unsharp Mask and the new Smart Sharpen filter that give incredible control Getting fun effects with the Liquify filter In a special Power Photoshop section, you’ll learn about streamlining your work, including creating a PDF for both onscreen presentation and for printing. You’ll discover how to spiff up your online images by working with Image Ready to slice, optimize, and otherwise juice up your images for the Web and how to create fancy rollover buttons and fun animations, From basic cropping to complex techniques that can turn good photos into great ones, Photoshop CS2 For Dummies is your guide to exploring all the possibilities that await you in Photoshop CS2.

Covers upgrades for gaming, digital video, and entertainment! Transform your PC into a glitch-free, turbocharged, multimedia machine Want to add punch to your PC? This handy reference helps add power to your old computer. Easy steps show you how to add memory, update your virus protection, get your PC ready for Windows Vista or rev it up as a cool entertainment center capable of recording TV shows or hearing DVDs in surround sound. Move files from an old PC to a new one Upgrade to Windows Vista Get rid of computer viruses Configure a wireless network Add a TV tuner and DVD burner

Brace yourself—this For Dummies guide is in full, dazzling color! That way you can see how you can lighten, brighten, blur, sharpen, or even age your digital images with Photoshop CS2. Chances are you have Photoshop CS2 and have explored it enough to know that you need a good guide to make the most of all its capabilities and get up to speed fast. Odds are you’ve experimented with some photos and spent hours tweaking them. Maybe you’re a veteran and used Photoshop CS2 to turn the gray sky to blue in a resort photo or to brighten the CEO’s smile. Maybe you’re a novice and gleefully extracted your ex from old photos and gave yourself a flattering mini-makeover at the same time. Maybe you used it to remove a scratch from a treasured family photo. Regardless, you probably haven’t scratched the surface. Photoshop CS2 gives you so many options and tools for digital image creation, correction, and enhancement that even experienced pros can discover new techniques and shortcuts. With explanations for working on a PC or a Mac, Photoshop CS2 All-In-One desk Reference For Dummies is your complete resource that: Combines nine minibooks: (1) Photoshop Fundamentals (2) Image Essentials (3) Selections (4) Painting, Drawing, and Typing (5) Working with Layers (6) Channels and Masks (7) Filters and Distortions (8) Retouching and Restoration (9) Photoshop and Print Has more than 650 pages of tips, techniques, and plain-English explanations Is in glorious, full color, with all kinds of photographs and examples Has tons of screen shots so you’ll know exactly what to look for on your screen Provides a tear out Cheat Sheet that’s your instant reference for finding your way around Photoshop CS2, accessing the tools palette through shortcuts, and making selections Gets you up to speed on the new Adobe Bridge that lets you view, search, and organize your files, edit Camera Raw files, search for and purchase royalty-free stock photography, synchronize color settings, and more Introduces you to the 58 tools in the Tools palette, from the Pen to the Eraser… the Spot Healing Brush to the Burn…the Clone Stamp to the Red Eye Explains how to work with Vanishing Point—the new feature that lets you edit three dimensionally on a two-dimension image Features special Putting-It-Together exercises that walk you through numbered steps to show you how to do various tasks such as getting the red out of eyes, making and fine-tuning a collage, and more; images on the book’s companion Web site let you follow along