The commonsense, by-the-numbers approach of Professional Photoshop has shaped the workflows of a generation of Photoshop experts. This new edition, the first in nearly five years, is completely updated for the age of digital photography. It continues the book's tradition of introducing astoundingly effective, previously unknown methods of image enhancement. The original photographs found in the book come from a variety of professional sources, and all correction exercises are on the included CD. Professional Photoshop has changed radically from edition to edition, and this time is no exception--with almost 90 percent new content and completely overhauled coverage of curves, channel blending, and sharpening.Professional Photoshop offers a full explanation of: * How curves bring out detail in the most important areas of the imagen * A comprehensive strategy for blending channels to create deeper, stronger images * The strengths and weaknesses of CMYK, LAB, and RGB, and when to use each one * The first detailed look at the Shadow/Highlight command--and even more sophis-ticated ways to enhance contrast in the lightest and darkest parts of the imagen * Sharpening strategies, in three full chapters, including the innovative hiraloam method (High Radius, Low Amount). Plus, a fiendishly effective method of merging hiraloam and conventional unsharp masking * The realities--and the politics--of preparing files for commercial offset printing and how to deal with colors that are out of the press's gamut * What Camera Raw and similar acquisition modules can offer * Typical problems of digital captures that were not found in the age of film-- and how to correct for them