Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual [Paperback]

Lesa Snider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0596522967 | ISBN-13: 978-0596522964 | Edition: 1

Photoshop is the world's most widely used photo-editing and graphics program. But with all its fantastic new features and options, the CS4 version can bewilder even the most seasoned professional. That's where Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual comes in: packed with tips, tricks, and lots of practical advice, this visually rich four-color guidebook teaches you everything you need to know to edit photos and create beautiful documents in Photoshop.

Whether you're an absolute beginner or a power user ready to try some advanced techniques, author and graphics pro Lesa Snider King offers crystal-clear, jargon-free instructions to help you take advantage of these powerful tools--not only how they work, but when you should use them. You'll quickly get up to speed on new CS4 features such as:

• Photoshop's completely revamped workspace
• Smoother image display and quick zoom, including the new pixel grid view
• New Masks and Adjustments panels
• The Vibrance adjustment layer
• Hand-painting adjustments and using graduated filters in Camera Raw
• Enhanced Adobe Bridge

And much more. You'll also find out which features work well, and which aren't worth your time. Written with the clarity, humor, and objective scrutiny that are hallmarks of the Missing Manual series, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual is the friendly, thorough resource you need. Why settle for anything less?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Packed with information, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual has all the secrets to editing photos and creating superior documents in Photoshop. Author and graphics pro Lesa Snider objectively explains how you can take advantage of all the powerful features, and get the results you want.

Praise
"I just saw Photoshop World instructor Lesa Snider's new book, Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual, and it so reminded me of when Deke McClellend used to write The Photoshop Bible, (which I loved) because it literally covers everything about Photoshop (it's nearly 900 pages!). Lesa did a great job on the book, and in my mind, it is the new Photoshop Bible. Way to go Lesa!"
--Scott Kelby, Photoshop Insider


Five Fast Photo Effects in Photoshop CS4
By Lesa Snider

Click thumbnails to open full-size images in a new window.

1. Quick black-and-white with color tint. Photoshop lets you easily convert a color image to black-and-white without harming the original image. First, create a Black & White Adjustment layer by clicking the half-black/half-white circle at the bottom of your Layers panel, and then choose Black & White. Tweak the various sliders in the resulting Adjustments panel for maximum contrast, and then add a color overlay by clicking the Tint checkbox at the top of the panel. Photoshop assumes you want to give your image a brown (sepia) tint. To use another color, click the little brown color swatch to the right of the Tint checkbox and pick a new color from the resulting Color Picker.

2. Partial color effect. To really draw viewer's eyes to the focal point of your image, make the focal point colored and the rest of the image black-and-white. By using the layer mask that tags along with each Adjustment layer, you can hide the effect of a Black & White Adjustment layer and bring back the original color. (Think of a layer mask as digital masking tape.) To create this effect, add an Adjustment layer by clicking the half-black/half-white circle at the bottom of the Layers palette, and then choose Black & White. Tweak the sliders for maximum contrast, and then, on the Layers panel, click once to select the Adjustment layer's mask (the white thumbnail to the right of the layer thumbnail). Press B to grab the Brush tool and, at the bottom of Tools panel, set the foreground color chip to black. (In the realm of the layer mask, painting with black conceals and painting with white reveals.) Next, mouse over to your document and use the Brush tool to paint over any area you want to bring back its original color. If you bring back too much color, press X to flip-flop your color chips so you're painting with white, and then paint that area to make it black and white again.

3. Portrait popper. You can make Photoshop add a soft, darkened edge around any photo in seconds...if you know which filter to reach for. Choose Filter > Distort > Lens Correction, then grab the Vignette slider and drag it all the way to the left. To darken the edge color even more, grab the Midpoint slider and drag it slightly to the left. Click OK and you're finished!

4. Background swap. If you want to add a colorful background to a photo that has a white background, don't waste time creating a selection to delete the background or hide it with a layer mask. Instead, swap backgrounds with the flick of a layer blend mode (blend modes change the way color on one layer interacts with the color on other layers). Simply place the colorful background at the top of your layers stack and use the pop-up menu at the top of the Layers panel to change that layer's blend mode to Darken. Like magic, wherever the two layers intersect, only the darkest colors will remain. If necessary, you can use a layer mask to hide parts of the new background, as shown here.

5. Quick color boost. Photoshop CS4 gives you a quick new way to make the colors in your image pop without harming the original image. It's called the Vibrance Adjustment layer, and you can find it on the right side of your screen in the new Adjustments panel (or by clicking the half black/half white circle at the bottom of your Layers panel). Once you've created the Vibrance Adjustment layer, drag the Vibrance slider all the way to the right, and it intensifies the colors in your image. Happily, it has less of an effect on bright colors (because they're already highly saturated) than on lighter tones, yet it leaves skin tones relatively unchanged.

Look Inside Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual

Click thumbnails to open full-size images in a new window.

About the Author

Lesa Snider is on a mission to teach the world to create--and use!--better graphics. She's a stock photographer and chief evangelist for iStockphoto, founder of the creative tutorial site GraphicReporter.com, author of Photoshop: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, 2008), Graphic Secrets for Business Professionals (Lynda.com), From Photo to Graphic Art, and Practical Photoshop Elements (KelbyTraining.com). She writes regularly for Macworld, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, Elements Techniques, and Layers. Lesa is also a corporate trainer and teaches at many industry conferences including Photoshop World, Macworld Expo, Mac Mania Geek Cruises, and the esteemed Santa Fe Workshops. Since 2003, she has assisted New York Times technology columnist David Pogue with many projects, including his Missing Manual book series and NYT videos. You can catch her Graphics Tip of the Week live each Wednesday night on the Your Mac Life internet radio show, which she also co-hosts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press; 1 edition (January 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596522967
• ISBN-13: 978-0596522964
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #468,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lesa Snider is on a mission to teach the world to create -- and use! -- better graphics. She's an internationally acclaimed speaker, stock photographer and founder of the creative tutorial site, www.PhotoLesa.com. Lesa is the author of the Missing Manual series of Photoshop books, several video training workshops on Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Camera Raw, and iPhoto (www.lesa.in/clvideos) and she's the coauthor of iPhoto '11: The Missing Manual. She's the Advanced Photoshop professor for the international graphic design school, www.Sessions.edu, and writes a regular column for Photoshop User, Elements Techniques, and Macworld magazines. Lesa also contributes frequently to Design-Tools.com (get 3 free issues at www.design-tools.com/3freelesa) and records free training videos for PlanetPhotoshop.com (www.lesa.in/lesaplanet). She's a long-time member of the Photoshop World Dream Team of instructors and can be spotted teaching at many other conferences and workshops around the globe. You can connect with her online on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/PhotoLesa), YouTube (www.YouTube.com/thePhotoLesa), Twitter (@PhotoLesa), or on www.PhotoLesa.com.

During free time, you'll find her carving the twisties on her sportbike, dressed up in her Star Trek best at a sci-fi convention, or hanging with fellow Apple Mac enthusiasts. Lesa is a proud member of the BMWMOA, F800 Riders Club, the Colorado Mac User Group (CoMUG.com) and the North Coast Mac User Group (NCMUG.com). She lives in Boulder, CO with her husband and two beautiful kitties.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent New Photoshop Book January 21, 2009

By C. Brown

Format:Paperback

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most complicated and powerful computer graphics programs available for general consumer use. Because of the growing popularity of digital photography, photographers of all skill levels are plunking down up to $700 for the program so that they too can "Photoshop" their images, however, many of these buyers will find the their initial attempt to use the program frustrating and the results of their efforts less than they expected. As a result of the complexity of the program a veritable industry consisting of Photoshop associations, conferences, instructional videos, podcasts and books has developed over the years. Lesa Snider King's new book, Photoshop CS4 The Missing Manual is a very worthy addition to this collection.

As is the case with all the Missing Manuals, this book takes the reader through a well structured, in-depth inspection of the program's capabilities. The author has provided some excellent examples that allow the reader to read through the book as a tutorial or simply to refer to it as a reference text. I've used Photoshop from the first CS version to the latest CS4 and have a number of books on the subject yet I was able to pick up a number of very useful tips in the first 250 pages by working along with the examples in the book. In addition, the author has sprinkled some general graphic tips throughout the book that are very useful to those without a background in design.

I think that this book is an excellent resource for Photoshop users of all levels. For the beginner it will provide an excellent tutorial, while the more advanced user will find it a useful reference. It has found a permanent place next to my computer.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reference For New Photoshoppers March 4, 2009

By Dan McKinnon VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

'Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual' is a 750+ page book that will show you ALL the ins and outs of using Photoshop CS4. Tailored towards the newbie Photoshop user, the content here is anything but newbie! With 19 chapters of content and in FULL FULL FULL color, this is a great learning tool to getting through all the ABCs of Photoshop!

McKinnon Overview

01. The Basics
02. Opening, Viewing, Saving Files
03. Layers
04. Selections
05. Channels
06. Cropping, Resizing, Rotating
07. Joining Images
08. Draining, Changing, Adding Color
09. Correcting Color and Lighting
10. Photoshopping People
11. Sharpening Images
12. Painting in Photshop
13. Drawing with Vector tools
14. Creating Artistic Text
15. Filters
16. Photoshop and Print
17. Photoshop and the Web
18. Actions
19. Plug-Ins

This is an easy book to put a stamp of approval on and it's another gem in the Missing Manual line of books, one of the greatest technical publishing lines out there today!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for digital photographers August 21, 2010

By dnn

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had never used Photoshop before so I thought this would be the best place to start. And I did learn a lot about Photoshop from this book and it is a great book for the novice. But as a photographer, the 'candy' came on page 354 (of 750!): "Camera Raw ... is hands down the easiest place to fix your images". This is a plug-in that comes standard with Photoshop but is a stand-alone program. Pages 354 - 362 cover the basics of Camera Raw and the section ends with referring the reader who wants to know more to other books. After reading this section I can already see I will be doing most of my work in Camera Raw and only opening Photoshop itself for some fine-tune work on some of my photo's. So 8 pages dedicated to the area where I will be spending 90% of my time leaves me a little unsatisfied.
If you know nothing of Photoshop and want to make your own pictures, do web design, etc. then this is a great book to teach you this fantastic program but for photographers who don't care a lot about drawing or adding text, I would not recommend this book. Instead look for something specifically written for photographers that includes a discussion of Camera Raw.

It would have been nice if I had known this book only covers the program Photoshop, one of a suite of programs sold as Photoshop.