Product Description

The elusive alpha channel remains one of the most misunderstood yet powerful tools in Photoshop. Alpha channels are collections of luminance data that control the transparency of an image, and they inform just about every aspect of Photoshop. Selections, layer boundaries, masks, the Quick Mask mode, layer masks, knockouts, and masking with the Channels palette all rely on alpha channels. In Photoshop CS2 Channels and Masks, award-winning author and Photoshop expert Deke McClelland teaches channels and masks comprehensively. From channel masks to blue screens, blend modes to displacement maps, Color Range to Calculations, this training leaves no pixel unturned. Deke also covers how to select and composite highlights, shadows, people, fabric, feathers, glass, flames, lighting, and wispy hair. Exercise files accompany the tutorials.

Topics Include:

• Exploring how channels work in different color modes
• Creating, saving, and loading alpha channels
• Working with the Color Range command and Quick Mask mode
• Building an organic, highly accurate mask from a color channel
• Selecting an image of a person, including hair, and seamlessly merging it onto a new background
• Editing masks by dodging highlights, burning shadows, and Overlay painting
• Using blend modes and luminance blending
• Combining masking with layers as transparency masks, layer masks, clipping masks, and knockouts
• Correcting images using a host of specialty masks, including luminance masks, density masks, color masks, exposure masks, depth masks, and edge masks
• Using the Calculations command to build a base alpha channel from the best of two color channels
• Masking an image photographed against a blue screen or a cloudless sky
• Selecting translucent elements, such as natural shadows and flames
• Masking detailed images against busy backgrounds
• Using a displacement map to wrap one image around the contours of another

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2451852 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-14
• Released on: 2006-12-14
• Binding: DVD-ROM

From the Publisher
Each lynda.com CD/DVD course offers hours of training movies that you watch on your computer. The movies are recorded in pixel-perfect quality, and include the authors' narration and movements as they teach the subject matter. Courses include the same project files that the instructors use, so you can follow along at your own pace. lynda.com tutorials are great for visual learners and people who like to learn by doing. Topics include software applications, workflow optimization, tips and techniques, and much more. Play, fast-forward, and rewind for easy learning.

About the Author
In 1985, Deke McClelland oversaw the implementation of the first personal computer-based production department in Boulder, Colorado. In 1986, he became the artistic director for Publishing Resources, one of the earliest all-PostScript service bureaus in the United States.

These days, Deke is a well-known expert and lecturer on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, and on the broader realm of computer graphics and design. To date, he has written 84 books that have been translated into 24 languages, with more than 3.5 million copies in print. In addition to videos for lynda.com, Deke produces the One-on-One book series. Published by Deke Press in association with O Reilly Media, this series of full-color tutorials includes the best-selling Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One and Adobe InDesign CS2 One-on-One.

In 1989, Deke won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Computer Book. Since then, he has received honors from the Society for Technical Communication (once in 1994 and twice in 1999), the American Society of Business Press Editors (1995 and 2000), and the Computer Press Association (1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, and twice in 2000). In 2002, he was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame.

Deke lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two wonderful boys.

Customer Reviews

Do what you never thought possible
This video is for the artist looking to pull an image of a kid out from a busy background and place that same child in the clouds. I have worked with several artists thought out my career, but none were able to tell me how to remove people from pictures using just channels and masks. Deke McClelland has written several self-help books on various desktop publishing apps, worked on the Total Training team & is currently working for the Lynda.com team as well, he is witty and he makes the learning experience fun. This is not a video that is just a group of mind numbing lessons on channels and masks, instead this is video on various methods to improving one's own creativity & productivity. If you don't believe me, just know that I haven't even finished studying Deke's tutorials and already my list of potential clients has triple since I studied and practiced some of his teachings.