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Ask anyone at Adobe what distinguishes Photoshop from every other image-editing program, app, or digital blip on the planet, and they'll tell you "masking and compositing." Apparently you agree, because my video course Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals is tearing up the planet over at lynda.com. It's N-to-the-1-to-the-L-D-C, as the dope kids say. As if I'd know.

Naturally, I'm gratified. (Thanks very much, btw!) Plus, it emboldens me to report: Today I and my beloved video publisher release another installment in the series, Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Advanced Blending. The image below might make it look exacting and academic. Which it is. But it's also expansive and practical. Because it tells the ultimate post-processing story: How to paint without permanence, create without consequences, and, in the end, mask without masking. In short, how to assemble photorealistic artwork through the pure power of artistic thought. It really is that good.

This is a short course, just 4 hours, and yet it manages to comprise 9 chapters. Here they are: Read more » 

Photoshop Channels & Masks has traditionally been one of my most popular video series in the lynda.com Online Training Library. Which is why I decided to update the course and rename it Photoshop Masking & Compositing. After all, if it ain't broke, fix it.

It starts today with the release of my entirely reinvigorated primer course, Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals, in which you'll learn everything there is to know about selections, alpha channels, layers, compositing, clipping masks, Color Range, the Quick Mask mode, Refine Edges, everyday channel masking, Calculations, layer masks, vector path outlines, and knockout layers. Give me your time, and I'll make sure your compositions look their absolute best.

And this is just the beginning. There will be many satellite courses, including (but not limited to) Advanced Blending, The Pen Tool, and my personal favorite, Hair. (I'm working on Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Advanced Blending, complete with mathematical formulas for each and every one of the blend modes, as you read this.)

Here's my chosen splash screen, complete with a toucan. Because let's face it, toucan's are about as cool as masked birds get:

For a chapter-by-chapter analysis (there are nine chapters in all), read on: Read more » 

When I released my first "Photoshop Channels & Masks" course for lynda.com, it shot to the top of the Online Training Library and remained there for months. Naturally, I've been eager to update the videos, but as seems forever to be the case, there have been plenty of other things to occupy my attention.

Fortunately, that unfortunate situation officially changes today. Nearly four years after the release of my last "Channels & Masks" course, I am just today putting the finishing touches on its update. Only this time around, we'll be calling the video "Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals." And it contains all new content. (Okay, so there are a couple of archival projects, but I thoroughly rehashed them, so they're new too.)

Here's a sample project, in which I take a couple of foreground subjects, one with lots of hair and the other with lots of feathers:

And I arrange them against a new background, complete with some adventurous compositing techniques and a few synthetic effects:

Read more »