Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An inspirational and user-friendly guide to creative image editing, this book provides direction for photographers and designers alike who have ventured into the realm of the 'digital darkroom.' Photoshop CS2: Essential Skills offers a progressive curriculum to guide you through Photoshop with a series of clear, step-by-step projects designed to place knowledge into a practical context. You will build a useful and essential set of skills for creative and professional image editing and, whether you simply want to retouch an image, create a glamour makeover or create a highly sophisticated montage - this book will give you the essential skills to complete the work to a professional standard. The accompanying CD-ROM and website, www.photoshopessentialskills.com, offer additional teaching and learning support materials which form a library of indispensable supporting resources including: All of the images used in the text * Over four hours of QuickTime movie tutorials to support the practical projects * A range of presets (including layer styles, curves, shapes and gradients) * Camera RAW files * Free extra chapters in e-book form.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foundation module
• Introduction (p. X)
• Acquisition of skills (p. x)
• Advanced skills and projects (p. x)
• A structured learning approach (p. xi)
• The skills (p. xi)
• Supporting CD and web site (p. xi)
• Research and resources (p. xi)
• Essential information (p. xii)
• The Digital Darkroom (p. 1)
• Digital setup (p. 2)
• Monitor settings (p. 3)
• Desktop alias or shortcut (p. 5)
• Managing your photos (p. 6)
• Getting started with Photoshop (p. 7)
• Settings and preferences (p. 10)
• Opening images (p. 12)
• Navigation and viewing modes (p. 15)
• Rulers and guides (p. 19)
• Storage for digital photographs (p. 20)
• Mouse or graphics tablet? (p. 22)
• Mac or PC? (p. 22)
• Digital Basics (p. 25)
• Introduction (p. 26)
• Channels and modes (p. 27)
• Levels (p. 28)
• Hue, Saturation and Brightness (p. 29)
• Color and light overview (p. 31)
• Bit depth and mode (p. 34)
• File size (p. 35)
• File formats (p. 36)
• Image compression (p. 39)
• Resolution (p. 42)
• Understanding resolution (p. 43)
• Image size (p. 46)
• Capture and Enhance (p. 53)
• Introduction (p. 54)
• Advantages and disadvantages of 16-bit editing (p. 55)
• Foundations project 1 (p. 56)
• Image capture (p. 56)
• Cropping an image (p. 57)
• Tonal adjustments (p. 59)
• Color adjustments (p. 64)
• Cleaning an image (p. 66)
• Sharpening an image (p. 67)
• Saving a modified file (p. 68)
• Digital Negatives (p. 73)
• Introduction (p. 74)
• Processing RAW data (p. 75)
• RAW processing projects (p. 75)
• White balance (p. 75)
• Tonal adjustments (p. 76)
• Noise reduction and sharpening (p. 79)
• Choosing a bit depth (p. 80)
• Crop and color space (p. 81)
• Additional information (p. 82)
• Digital Printing (p. 87)
• Introduction (p. 88)
• Monitor calibration and working color space (p. 90)
• Pre-flight checklist (p. 91)
• Preparing a test print (p. 92)
• Printer color management (p. 93)
• Adobe color management (p. 95)
• Analyzing the test print (p. 97)
• Maximizing shadow and highlight detail (p. 98)
• Creating a 'ringaround' (p. 99)
• In conclusion (p. 99)
• Printing using a professional laboratory (p. 100)
• Printing monochromes (p. 102)
• Advanced skills
• Layers and Channels (p. 105)
• Introduction (p. 106)
• Layers overview (p. 107)
• Layer types (p. 111)
• Channels (p. 114)
• Adjustment layers and editing quality (p. 116)
• Layer masks and editing adjustments (p. 117)
• Selections (p. 119)
• Introduction (p. 120)
• Selection Tools overview (p. 120)
• Modifying your selections (p. 122)
• Saving and loading selections (p. 124)
• Feather and anti-alias (p. 125)
• Defringe and Matting (p. 126)
• The 'Magic Wand' (p. 127)
• 'Quick Mask' (p. 129)
• 'Color Range' (p. 131)
• Channel masking (p. 133)
• Extract filter (p. 135)
• Selections from paths (p. 138)
• Layer Blends (p. 145)
• Introduction (p. 146)
• The 'Darken' group (p. 148)
• The 'Lighten' group (p. 150)
• The 'Overlay' group (p. 152)
• Blend modes for tinting and toning (p. 154)
• Luminosity (p. 156)
• Difference and Exclusion (p. 157)
• Creating a simple blend (p. 158)
• Filters (p. 161)
• Filtering in Photoshop (p. 162)
• The Filter Gallery (p. 163)
• Fade Filter command (p. 164)
• Improving filter performance (p. 164)
• Installing and using third party filters (p. 165)
• Filtering a shape or text (vector) layer (p. 165)
• The great filter roundup (p. 165)
• Filter DIY (p. 185)
• Imaging projects
• Retouching Projects (p. 187)
• Correcting perspective (p. 188)
• Adjustment layers (p. 191)
• Target tones (p. 193)
• Crop, clean and color-correct (p. 196)
• Shadows and highlights (p. 201)
• Advanced sharpening techniques (p. 206)
• Glamor makeover (p. 213)
• Tonal contraction (p. 221)
• Toning Projects (p. 229)
• Black and white (p. 230)
• Gradient maps (p. 235)
• Cross-process effect (p. 244)
• Lith printing (p. 246)
• Split toning (p. 249)
• Selective toning (p. 251)
• Duotones, tritones and quadtones (p. 252)
• Montage Projects (p. 255)
• Magic Wands and Quick Masks (p. 256)
• Creating a simple blend (p. 264)
• Clipping groups and layer styles (p. 268)
• Advanced blending (p. 273)
• Displacement maps (p. 278)
• Paths and selections (p. 283)
• Extract filter (p. 288)
• Layer comps (p. 296)
• Cast shadows (p. 303)
• Preserving shadows (p. 307)
• Creating a panorama (p. 315)
• Special Effects (p. 323)
• Posterization (p. 324)
• Digital diffusion (p. 329)
• Creative depth of field (p. 335)
• Digital Polaroid transfer effect (p. 340)
• Creative filtering (p. 345)
• Glossary (p. 349)
• Keyboard Shortcuts (p. 359)
• Web Links (p. 361)
• Supporting CD (p. 362)
• CD contents (p. 364)
• CD index (p. 365)
• Index (p. 366)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

(Bowker Author Biography)