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Changing the Opacity is like mixing a cocktail with, say, 30% active layer and 70% all layers below. Assigning a blend mode is like shining a light or casting a shadow: The active layer infuses those behind it with life.

Camera Raw is an independent application that lets you develop your raw photographs and exploit every byte of the vast information captured by your digital SLR. Not just powerful, it is a force unto itself.

Want to let the world know who made your photo? Then choose File Info. Here you can assign a title, an author (you!), a copyright, and a Web site. No image should go out without a visit to File Info.

Gaussian Blur is a filter that blurs an image. But its also the math behind the Feather command, drop shadows, and everything that is soft in Photoshop. Watch this video and learn why GB is so important.

Much can be said of masking: Masking is the art of using the image to select itself. Masking lets you apply the entire weight of Photoshop to the task of editing a selection. And masking, thy name is alpha channel.

An adjustment layer is an independent layer of color adjustment that can edit any time you like. Plus it affects all layers below it, consumes very little space in memory, and affords the opportunity for selective edits.

Yes, layer effects let you make drop shadows. But they also let you create credible compositions, render simple layers in dimension, and add ambient lighting. I cannot imagine working in Photoshop without them.

Smart objects aren't all that smart. And they aren't objects. What they are is envelopes. The kind that hold things. And keep them safe. So that everything you do protects the image from harm. This is Photoshop at its best.

Buried deep inside the Layer Style dialog box are two slider bars, This Layer and Underlying Layer, that let you blend pixels according to their brightness. Despite their prosaic names, these sliders rank among the most powerful features in all of Photoshop.

As powerful as Photoshop is, there is little about the program that is obvious. Case in point: How do you rotate a layer? Right-click on it and select Rotate? Choose Rotate from the Layer menu? Click on the Rotate tool? The answer is no, no, and no. Fortunately, there's the Free Transform command, which rotates the active layer and much, much more.

Every app offers a gradient tool. But Photoshops is special. Not only can you paint a soft transition from black to white. But you can soften the transition from one image to another. The gradient tool fades, swipes, and more..

Be they pits, pock marks, or pimples, we all suffer blemishes that we wish we didnt. Or so we would were it not for Photoshops healing brush. This amazing tool grafts good skin onto bad--and heals the seams in between.

If you use the magic wand tool, stop what youre doing and switch to Color Range. This outrageously useful command lets you select an image as easily as the wand. But with more flexibility and much better results.

Where luminance-correction is concerned, no feature gives you greater control than Curves. This one command lets you rein in highlights, open up shadows, and reveal all points in between. Curves takes a bud of an image and makes it blossom.

You may know that you can add to a selection by pressing the Shift key. But you can likewise press keys to subtract and find an intersection. Better yet, these tricks apply to layers, channels, and paths. They're a power users dream.