How to Cheat… er, um, Edit in Photoshop - Adobe Photoshop Editing of Digital Photos

'cast of thousands' images, where I have to fit 20 celebs into one montage and make it look as if they're all interacting in the same room.

9. What basic editing tools (in image editing software) do you feel are most important for the beginner to master?

The Pen tool, without question. An absolute necessity, but damn hard to learn. After that, the Curves dialog really repays any effort you put into learning it. I'm doing a lot on that in the next edition of my book.

10. In your opinion, what are some common mistakes hobby illustrators and graphic artists make when editing photographs (if any)?

The bung-it-all-in-and-shake-it-about approach. Those who take images of a baby, a pile of burning cash, an atom bomb, Adolf Hitler, a skull, and stick it all together in the hope it will mean something. It rarely does.

11. Do you have any suggestions for the at-home image editor who'd like to go into freelance work?

The most important thing is to get work published - anywhere. Art editors are a cautious bunch, and they'll want to see you can (a) fulfill a brief and (b) meet a deadline before they'll trust their pages to you. Get a website together of your best work - but get someone else to choose the best for you.

12. Do you have any future books in the works? If so, when?

I'm working on a second edition of How to Cheat in Photoshop, which will be a lot bigger and better than the first. Should be published early in January. After that, I've got a really, really exciting project but I can't talk about it in public just yet!

***** We look forward to Steve's next book, due out in January 2004.*****

Be sure to visit www.stevecaplin.com to view some of his truly incredible photomontages, ranging from political satire to the dramatic and even the comedic. His most recent book, How to Cheat in Photoshop, is one of my recommended titles and I strongly encourage anyone who wants to quickly learn their way around Photoshop to try this book. It's designed to be an open-and-jump-right-in type of manual, with all color photos and a CD full of practice images to experiment on. If you get into trouble, there's even a support website, www.howtocheatinphotoshop.com, complete with a reader forum for questions and answers. With this kind of knowledge at your fingertips, your photo editing (and overall photography) is sure

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