In this part . . .

Photoshop is far more than just a pixel-pushing image editor. More than merely perfecting excellent photography, you can create art in Photoshop. And Photoshop includes a very powerful painting engine. You need to understand the extremely complex Brushes palette and painting tools, all covered here.

Chapter 10 introduces you to compositing (combining images into a piece of artwork) and working with layers. You also see how to use color channels as the basis for selections, enabling you to move elements from one image to another. Chapter 11 introduces you to Photoshop's shape layers and vector paths, which are illustration tools used to add specific elements.

In Chapter 12, I show you how to work with the Styles palette and how to create your own custom styles — and make sure you don't lose them by mistake! Chapter 13 looks at the many tools, palettes, and commands you have available in Photoshop to add text and type. Chapter 14 introduces you to painting in Photoshop. Chapter 15 introduces you to those filters you need on a near-daily basis, and then shows you how to work in the Filter Gallery and in Liquify.