GearPop Blog

Photoshop CS6: The Missing Manual

Photoshop CS6 is truly amazing, but it can also be overwhelming if you’re just getting started. This book makes learning Photoshop a breeze by explaining things in a friendly, conversational style—without technical jargon. After a thorough introduction to the program, you’ll delve deep into Photoshop’s secrets with expert tips and practical advice you can use every day.

The important stuff you need to know:

  • Learn your way around. Get a guided tour of Photoshop’s beautiful new workspace.
  • Unlock the magic. Discover the most practical ways to use layers, channels, masks, paths, and other tools.
  • Fine-tune your images. Learn techniques for cropping, retouching, and combining photos.
  • Play with color. Drain, change, and add color; and create gorgeous black-and-whites and duotones.
  • Be artistic. Create original illustrations and paintings, use text and filters effectively, and edit video clips.
  • Share your work. Produce great-looking images for print and the Web.
  • Work smarter and faster. Automate common chores and install plug-ins for complex tasks.

Read more Leave a comment

Photoshop Compositing Secrets: Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections and Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites

Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections and Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites

Compositing is one of the hottest trends in Photoshop and photography today for portrait photographers, designers of all walks of life, and even retouchers. Everywhere you look, from group photos, to school graduation or sports portraits, to magazines, movie posters, and DVD covers, chances are, you’ve seen compositing.

In Photoshop Compositing Secrets, Matt Kloskowski takes you through the entire process behind creating convincing, well-executed, and captivating composites. You’ll see how to create images that run the gamut from real-world portraits for corporate, graduation, or group photos to sports portraits, templates, and collages, and even the surreal, dramatic composites that clients clamor for.

You’ll learn:

  • One of the most important secrets to compositing: how to master selections in Photoshop (yes, even wispy hair),
  • What background color, and camera and lighting setups work best for compositing,
  • How to move a subject from one background to another, and the Photoshop lighting and shadowing techniques to make it look real,
  • And all the Photoshop tips, tricks, and special effects you need to pull off a convincing, professional composite.

No matter if you’re a professional, an aspiring professional, or a hobbyist, Photoshop Compositing Secrets will sharpen your skills and open up a whole new avenue of photographic expression in an easy-to-understand way that will have you creating your own composites in no time.

Read more Leave a comment

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a Book

Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop CS6 choose Adobe Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a Book from the Adobe Creative Team at Adobe Press. The 14 project-based lessons in this book show readers step-by-step the key techniques for working in Photoshop CS6 and how to manipulate images, edit motion-based content, and create image composites.

 

In addition to learning the key elements of the Photoshop interface, this completely revised CS6 edition covers new features, including precise cropping with multiple overlays, expanded content-aware toolkit with skin tone-aware selections and masking, three new blur effects, re-engineered design tools, adaptive Wide Angle adjustments, improved Camera Raw engine, improved auto corrections, Background Save and Auto-recovery, modernized user interface, intuitive video enhancements, simplified 3D interface, improved editing speed with real-time results, and more.

 

In addition to the lesson files, the companion DVD will feature 2 hours of free video tutorials from Adobe Photoshop CS6: Learn by Video by Adobe Press and video2brain, a great added value!

 

 

“The Classroom in a Book series is by far the best training material on the market. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.” –Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor, Rocky Mountain Training

Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. Classroom in a Book offers what no other book or training program does–an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.

Read more Leave a comment

Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design

Graphic Design, Referenced is a visual and informational guide to the most commonly referenced terms, historical moments, landmark projects, and influential practitioners in the field of graphic design. With more than 2,000 design projects illustrating more than 400 entries, it provides an intense overview of the varied elements that make up the graphic design profession through a unique set of chapters: “principles” defines the basic foundation of what constitutes graphic design; “knowledge” explores the most influential sources through which we learn about graphic design; “representatives” gathers the most prominent designers who have steered the course of graphic design in one way or another; and “practice” highlights some of the most iconic work produced that serve as examples of best practices and illustrate its potential lasting legacy.

Read more Leave a comment

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills

Have you ever struggled to complete a design project on time? Or felt that having a tight deadline stifled your capacity for maximum creativity? If so, then this book is for you.

Within Creative Workshop, you’ll find 80 creative challenges that will help you achieve a breadth of stronger design solutions, in various media, within any set time period. Exercises range from creating a typeface in an hour to designing a paper robot in an afternoon to designing web pages and other interactive experiences. Each exercise includes compelling visual solutions from other designers and background stories to help you increase your capacity to innovate.

This book also includes useful brainstorming techniques and wisdom from some of today’s top designers. By road-testing these techniques as you attempt each challenge, you’ll find new and more effective ways to solve tough design problems and bring your solutions to vibrant life.

Read more Leave a comment