Acknowledgments

We’ve heard it over and over again: “Oh you can fix that in Photoshop” or “Just Photoshop it.” Anyone who has ever had that cavalier attitude of being able to quickly change this or move that in Photoshop quickly regrets it because what seems like a quick fix turns into hours of work. We’ve also heard, “I have a great idea for a book” or “You should write a book.” Although the bookstores and Amazon pages may be full of books, writing a book is never a quick, easy, or painless undertaking to take a germ of an idea and turn it into a 500-plus-page book. Most important, writing a book is not the romantic undertaking of a lone author toiling away to create a masterpiece. Conceptualizing, planning, writing, reviewing, editing, proofing, designing, formatting, printing, and delivering a final product requires a dedicated team of talented people who may never meet face to face but have one goal in mind—to create a valuable, useful, and in this case inspiring book that will help you understand and master the finest details of masking and compositing with Adobe Photoshop.

Our thanks and gratitude goes out to a variety of people, including:

• Our families who rolled their eyeballs and muttered, “no more books” as they brought us yet another cup of coffee or a piece of chocolate to keep us going. Thank you, John McIntosh, Katrin’s smarter half; Anna and Fiona, Seán’s inspiration and support; and Beth, Cole, and Dylan, Jim’s raison d’etre.

• The fabulous Peachpit development staff who had their hands full with us! Katrin’s teaching obligations often pushed writing into the weekends; Seán’s workshop and travel schedules kept him offline for days at a time; and Jim’s photography business often required complete dedication, meaning that our acquisitions editor Nikki McDonald and Development Editor Anne Marie Walker often had to resort to not-soveiled threats of wet noodle whippings to get us to make our deadlines. Both Nikki and Anne Marie were always professional, dedicated, and unrelenting in their support for this project. Thank you!

• The Peachpit design and production staff—thank you for making these pages so elegant and well designed. Specifically, über production editor Lisa Brazieal, cover designer Charlene Charles-Will, and compositor Kim Scott of Bumpy Design for all of their long hours put into these pages. We very much appreciate you taking into account our nondesigner opinions.

• The artists, photographers, students, and image makers that allowed us to feature their images, techniques, and insights. Your point of view and talent make this book richer and more inspiring.

• Our Technical Editor Wayne (Option-click [Alt-click]) Palmer. Knowing that you read the text and tried out all of the exercises helped us avoid many errors and inconsistencies.

• Thank you to Julieanne Kost for a wonderful Foreword and inspirational teaching; Candace Dobro for helping Katrin with photo compositing history research; and the dedicated staff, product managers, and senior engineers at Adobe Systems: Russell Brown, Jeff Chien, Chris Cox, Cari Gushiken, John Nack, Bryan O’Neill Hughes, Jeff Tranberry, and Gregg Wilensky. We don’t really understand how you do what you do, but we love what you allow us to do with Adobe Photoshop!

As Winston Churchill said, “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant.” We can honestly say we have experienced all of these stages, and we thank everyone who supported us, shared images, answered emails, and gave us a few more days to add that final polish to just one more image. There is no way we could have completed this project without a large group of people who deserve a great deal of thanks, gratitude, and more thanks.

Best regards, Katrin Eismann, Seán Duggan, James Porto, and our neglected plants, pets, and family members.