Chapter 5, "Understanding Curves," will show you the power of Curves and how they are like the Swiss Army Knife of the Photoshop world. This is another really great chapter in that the author, by way of explanation, shows you how the curves dialog box works before you realize that you really do understand it.

Chapter 6, "Color Management," is another one of those areas that seems too complex to grasp, but by dissecting it down into non-technical jargon, it can be made much easier to understand. Here you will learn how color works, the problems with color, and how you can implement color management to make colors consistent among devices.

Chapter 7, "Color Correction," now shows you how to control the colors in your images. Here you will learn how to get rid of the color casts in your image by using gray to fix your colors. Don't worry, you will use color as well, it just won't be of a hit-or-miss nature.

Chapter 8, "Using Camera Raw," will examine the fact that Raw files are better to work with because they contain all of the information that was captured by the camera. This gives you much more control on the processing of your images. Once you get the hang of it, it is really no more intimidating than the stuff you have already learned.

Chapter 9, "Color Manipulation," is a chapter that is chockfull of color manipulation tools and methods beginning with the color wheel, progressing to Hue/Saturation, color balance, Levels and Curves, Channel mixer, and Gradient maps.

Chapter 10, "Adjustment Layers," explores a method of adjusting your image without changing the image itself. Unlike a direct adjustment which physically changes the image, an Adjustment Layer is used when you want to experiment with the image and you may want to undo your changes. Chapter 11, "Sharpening," is a necessity for images that are created via a capture device, such as a camera, or scanner. Here you will learn how to clean up noise, remove grain, and in general make your images sharp.

Creative Explorations

Chapter 12, "Enhancement," is really all about the many Blending Modes that are available in Photoshop. In this chapter the author breaks down the Blending Modes menu into its six sections and details each one according to its functionality. Chapter 13, "Advanced Masking" takes you beyond the basic selection techniques you learned in chapter 2. Here you will see what it takes to mask complex backgrounds such as frizzy hair, massive vegetation growth, and objects in motion.