Introduction
Seven Things You’ll Wish You Had Known Before Reading this Book
I really want to make sure you get the absolute most out of reading this book, and if you take two minutes to read these seven things now, I promise it will make a big difference in your success with Photoshop, and with this book (plus, it will keep you from sending me an email asking something that everyone who skips this part will wind up doing). By the way, the images shown below are just for looks. Hey, we’re photographers—how things look matters to us.
(1) You can download many of the key photos used here in the book (and the video I mention in #7 on the next page), so you can follow along using many of the same images that I used, at http://kelbytraining.com/books/PSforLR. See, this is one of those things I was talking about that you’d miss if you skipped over this and jumped right to Chapter 1. Then you’d send me an angry email about how I didn’t tell you where to download the photos or watch the video. You wouldn’t be the first.
(2) If you’ve read my other books, you know they’re usually “jump in anywhere” books, but since you’re new to Photoshop, I would really recommend you start with Chapters 1 and 2 first, then you can jump to anywhere else in the book and you’ll be fine. But, hey, it’s your book—if you decide to just hollow out the insides and store your valuables in there, I’ll never know. Also, make sure you read the opening to each project, up at the top of the page. Those actually have information you’ll want to know, so don’t skip over them.
(3) The official name of the software is “Adobe Photoshop CC.” But, if every time I referred to it throughout the book, I called it “Adobe Photoshop CC,” you’d eventually want to strangle me, so from here on out, I usually just refer to it as “Photoshop.” Same thing with “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.” I just refer to it as “Lightroom.” Just so you know.
(4) The intro page at the beginning of each chapter is designed to give you a quick mental break, and honestly, they have little to do with the chapter. In fact, they have little to do with anything, but writing these quirky chapter intros is kind of a tradition of mine (I do this in all my books), but if you’re one of those really “serious” types, I’m begging you, please skip over them, because they’ll just get you really irritated. I’m not kidding.
(5) At the end of the book is a special bonus chapter, where I cover things you might think you need to jump over to Photoshop for, but ya don’t. I call this chapter “12 Things You’d Think You’d Need Photoshop For, But Ya Don’t.” Apparently, I like the direct approach. Anyway, it’s worth checking out because although there are definitely times we absolutely need to jump over to Photoshop, if we can do the same (or similar) thing in Lightroom, it’s usually quicker to do it there.
(6) What if this book makes me fall deeply in love with Photoshop? That wouldn’t be a bad thing, ya know, and if that happens, I got ya covered with one of those big 500+-page books that covers everything you’d ever want to do (as a photographer) in Photoshop. It’s called The Adobe Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers (I know, the name is kinda, well, direct), but don’t worry about that right now—we’ve got plenty of work to do here first.
(7) I created a short bonus video for you. It shows you step by step how to use Photoshop to edit videos. I didn’t include this in the book, because there’s no direct link between Lightroom and Photoshop for editing your videos. It’s basically an all-Photoshop kind of thing. When you’re done with your video, you can import the final completed video back into Lightroom just so you can watch it there, but this is really a standalone Photoshop production. Anyway, I still thought you might dig it, so I made a video especially for you. See? I care.