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, the Quick Mask mode, layer masks, knockouts, and the Channels palette all rely on alpha channels. In Photoshop CS3 Channels and Masks, award-winning author and Photoshop expert Deke McClelland taps the vast capabilities of popular tools like layer masks, luminance blending, and paths. He also takes on many little known but very useful features, including Calculations, blue-screen masking, high dynamic range, and displacement masks. Plus, Deke teaches how to select and composite highlights, shadows, clouds, fabric, feathers, glass, flames, lights, eyes, and all kinds of hair. Exercise files accompany the tutorials.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1334922 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-09
• Binding: CD-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.

Deke McClelland is a well-known expert and lecturer on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the broader realm of computer graphics and design. To date, he has written 85 books that have been translated into 24 languages, with more than 4 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.

He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, two wonderful boys, dog, cat, mutant one-legged tadpole, and turtle. Many spiders act as guards.