Coming to terms with alpha channels (or masks) is the most sure-fire way to boost the quality of your work in Photoshop. But masking isn't easy-in fact, the elusive alpha channel has been described as the least understood feature in Photoshop's enormous arsenal. Now, you can master masking with Deke McClelland's unique and effective learning system. Through step-by-step text lessons, DVD-video demonstrations, and real-world projects, you'll learn how to select and composite highlights, shadows, clouds, fabric, feathers, glass, flame, lightning, eyes, all varieties of hair, and then some. Deke's expert advice and guidance is like working with a personal coach. With this book, you will:

• Learn at your own speed with 12 self-paced tutorials

• Try out techniques and best practices with engaging real-world projects

• Get more than 850 full-color photos, diagrams, and screen shots that illustrate every key step

• See exactly how it's done in real time with five hours of all-new video instruction

• Test your knowledge with multiple-choice quizzes in each chapter

And more. Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One simulates a classroom environment that provides one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson. You'll learn to use Photoshop faster, more creatively, and more efficiently than you thought possible.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

disapointing - 2009-10-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book was supposed to teach the different techniques for masking in Photoshop. It doesn't. The book reads like a cookbook . The author shows step by step, like a recipe, what to do to mask complex sample images but he fails to tell you the basis behind those steps. So if you try the recipe on your own images, you will find that it doesn't work and the reason is that in reality you didn't learn a thing.

The author instead of teaching you masking using simple examples, he goes into fairly complex tasks that shows how much he knows about the subject and how little he knows about what you need to learn the technique.

very disappointed - 2009-11-09
Reviewer Rating:
The CD is fair. The book is filled with exercises that simply do not explain what or why you have done numerous "steps." There may be some point to these exercises but i am uncertain about them and the author has not responded to my email queries. I did not finish the book.
I would say, however, that i have watched about a dozen podcasts by the author and they are excellent.

Great Resource - 2009-10-21
Reviewer Rating:
I'm about half way through this book. The video portions (on the included CD) are great. Mr. McClelland is an excellent trainer. I just wish that when he takes you through the various techniques with the practice images he'd spend a little more time on the "whys" rather than just a cook-book "set this option to this setting". It would make the transition to working with real-world images easier - for me at least. This is a very minor nit, though. I'm learning a lot and that's the bottom line.

Good Stuff - 2009-10-27
Reviewer Rating:
Lots of worthwhile techniques and interesting ideas but couldn't get some of them to work. The book is still a valuable addition to anyones CS4 library.

There's no on better . . . - 2009-09-12
Reviewer Rating:
Really. There's no one out there that can make anything Photoshop more easily understood than Deke McClelland. If you're a beginner, it's clear and easy to follow; if you're a little more advanced, you'll pick up new tricks and expand on what you already know.

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