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Well, gang, I think it's safe to say that the Holiday Season is upon us. And if your day went anything like mine, you were on the go all day long. So the last thing you have time for is a long, elaborate Photoshop project, particularly one that involves the sometimes mind-bending rigors of masking.

Which is why today, I offer you something special: a way to muscle your way through a mask---and a complex one at that---without contemplation, Calculations, or even consideration. All it takes is a few blunt tools, lots of brute force, and perseverance.

Here's the official description from my video publisher, lynda.com: Read more » 

This week's technique is going to seem boring a hell or wickedly wonderful as hell depending on your state of mind. Good old fanciful old Hell. It's either hideously horrible or astoundingly attractive based on your momentary whims.

But here's the idea: I start with a flat image file from a talented artist who does great work but isn't particularly skilled at Photoshop. And you have to edit it. Specifically, you want to select a detail and have your selection automatically contract around said detail, without you having to expend a lot of unnecessary effort. (You're on deadline, after all!) Well, this extremely button-down technique shows you how it works.

Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

Most of Photoshop’s top features are expressed as tools or commands. But some are more conceptual, meaning that they have almost no interface associated with them. Seriously, it goes from your mind to your hands to the mouse to the keyboard to Photoshop.

Selection calculations are a fantastic example. Want to make a new selection? Just drag. Add to an existing selection? Press the Shift key and drag. And that, my friends, is only the beginning. Read more » 

If you're anything like me, you just finished celebrating Labor Day by not laboring in the least. Happily, the same cannot be said of Photoshop Top 40. Tuesday after Tuesday, this proud and relentless podcast marches on.

Fittingly, today marks Feature #32, The Pen Tool, one of the most powerful but labor-intensive tools in all of Photoshop. Newbies select images with the likes of the quick select and magic wand tools. Both are highly automated, but they rarely work. Experts use the pen tool. It takes some work to master, but it always works in return. In other words, learn to use the pen tool and you'll be prepared for any masking job. Read more » 

As friends of this site know, Tuesday is Photoshop Top 40 day. And this Tuesday is no exception. Today's video covers one of the oldest, most abstruse, downright incomprehensible commands in all of Photoshop: Calculations. Found under the Image menu, the Calculations command lets you mix two existing channels in an image--say, Red and Blue--to create a new alpha channel that will serve as the basis for a mask. And while it takes a fair amount of time and effort to come to terms with the feature, Calculations is one of the most powerful masking commands in all of Photoshop. Read more »