These video lessons are an integral part of my plan for helping you
really get your bearings in Photoshop. Ranging from 15 to 45 minutes
apiece, these high-quality videos introduce key concepts, focusing
on those features and techniques that make more sense if you first
see them in action.Theoretically, you can watch the video lessons in any order you like. However,
each video makes the most sense and provides the most benefit when watched
at the outset of the corresponding book-based lesson.Edited and produced by the trailblazing online training company
lynda.com, the video lessons are not traditional low-budget DVD-
style video training. They were made specifically to work with the
exercises in this book, not excerpted from versions of my full-length
video training. A great deal of care—both in form and in content—
has gone into making the video lessons.One final note: Unlike the exercises in the book, most of the video lessons do
not include sample files. The idea is that you work along with me in the book;
you sit back and relax during the videos.Next come the step-by-step exercises, in which I walk you
through some of Photoshop’s most powerful and essential
image-manipulation functions. A globe icon (like the one on
the right) appears whenever I ask you to open a file from the Lesson
Files-PsCS5 1on1 folder that you created on your computer’s hard drive.
To make my directions crystal clear, command and option names
appear in bold type (as in, “choose the Open command”). The first
appearance of a figure reference is in colored type. More than 800
full-color, generously sized screen shots and images diagram key steps
in your journey, so you’re never left scratching your head, puzzling
over what to do next. And when I refer you to another step or section,
I tell you the exact page number to go to. (Shouldn’t every book?)
To make doubly sure there are as few points of confusion as possible,
I pepper my descriptions with the very icons you see on screen, criti-
cal icons like , , , and. So when I direct you to add a layer
to your document, I don’t tell you to click the Create a New Layer
icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. (The only time you see the
words Create a New Layer is when you hover your cursor over the
icon, which is hard to do if you don’t know where to hover your cur-
sor in the first place.) Instead, I tell you to click the icon, because
is what it is. It has meant hand-drawing nearly 400 icons to date,
but for you, it was worth it.xxiv Preface