Chapter 1

How to Get Around Like a Pro

Photoshop’s Interface

I think it’s only fair that I warn you once again about a long-standing tradition of mine, and that is to write chapter intros that have little or nothing to do with what’s actually in the chapter. I want you to think of these as a “mental break” between chapters and not something that actually adds any value to the book, or to your life, whatsoever. That being said, I am breaking with another one of my long-standing chapter opener traditions and that is to name the chapter after a song, TV show, or movie, which is something I’ve done in nearly all my books. So, for example, in one of my previous Photoshop books, I had a chapter on editing video in Photoshop, and I named the chapter “Video Killed the Radio Star,” after the 1979 hit song by the Buggles (which, in case you have an interest in music history, was the first video aired when MTV debuted in August of 1981, but here’s an even lesser known piece of music trivia: Did you know that the original video they planned to air was actually “Rush Rush” by Paula Abdul? But, the executives at the network felt that with Paula being a judge on American Idol, there might be a conflict of interest. As it turned out, they went with the Buggles song, which was a good call since Paula Abdul’s “Rush Rush” wasn’t recorded until June of 1991, nine years after MTV debuted, not to mention the fact that American Idol didn’t air until 2002, which I have to admit has me frankly a bit concerned about how far you would go in a high-stakes game of music trivia. Look, if we’re going to do this thing together, you’re going to have to tighten up your music trivia quite a bit because I’m not going to sit in the audience and watch you go down in flames when they ask, who did the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and you guess “Taylor Swift?” Now, if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with navigating your way around Photoshop, it’s important that you re-read the first sentence in this opener, and you will instantly receive total consciousness.