September 14, 2010 | 6:30 - 9:00pm

Location: Casselman's - map + directions

Everything You Wanted to Know About Photoshop Layers

...but were afraid to ask

Photoshop introduced Layers back in version 3.0, and the world was never the same. If youve been using Photoshop for a long time, or even if youre just getting started, youve probably worked with layers to create custom effects. But do you know how to harness their full power? Adobe Certified Photoshop Instructor Barbara Binder will demystify Photoshop layers in a special two-hour session that will start from beginning layer concepts and move towards advanced techniques worthy of a Photoshop guru.

Layer basics

Layer effects

Adjustment layers

Clipping mask

Layer groups

Smart Objects/Smart Filters

Layer comps

Pixel Masks

Vector Masks

Shape Layers/Paths/Fill Pixels

Youll walk away knowing how to structure your Photoshop document appropriately and edit your files non-destructively. This is a session that you wont want to miss.

Can't make it in person? Join us remotely via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Select the Connect option when you RSVP to get the details.

Reserve Your Space

Barbara Binder —

Barbara Binder, owner of Rocky Mountain Training and Adobe Certified Instructor since 1997. Delivers classes on Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe InCopy. Barb started in the publishing field in 1986 with Pagemaker's first release for Windows. She has been delivering corporate training since 1987, mostly in the Washington, D.C area. She moved to the foothills west of Denver to escape the congestion and the craziness of life "inside the Beltway" in 2005. (Access to the fabulous skiing and living the outdoor life may have had a little something to do with the move, too.) She has been an Adobe Certified Instructor on multiple programs since the inception of the program in 1997 and has been hired to teach "train the trainer" courses to help other instructors pass the rigorous Adobe Certified Expert exams and CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer exam.

Adobe Systems, Inc. recognized Barbara Binder of Rocky Mountain Training as one of the Top Five Most Highly-Rated Adobe Certified Instructors, Worldwide.

Rocky Mountain Adobe User's Group members periodically review Web development software and publications. The reviews posted here are the heartfelt opinions of their authors, and by no means necessarily reflect the views of the entire RMAUG, Adobe, or any of our sponsors.

If you would like to submit your own review, please email us.

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Flex Solutions: Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and 3 Developers

Reviewed by: Jun Heider [ Senior Engineer, RealEyes Media ]
Review Date: June 02, 2008

The highly popular ActionScript 3 Cookbook was released back in ‘06.

This was a really good book because it taught you the language through examples that you could use in real world situations. A lot of the Flex and Flash developers I know really loved it. The downside to this book was being an ActionScript book, it it didn’t cover things that were Flex-specific.

At the end of ‘07, Flex Solutions - Essential Techniques for Flex 2 and 3 Developers was released. I just got a copy of it recently to review, and will say it’s worth checking out.

First off, this book was written by Marco Casario a very prominent and well respected member of not only the Flex community but also the Flash Lite community. He knows his stuff, and the examples in the book prove it.

Like the AS3 Cookbook, this book expands your knowledge of the language through practical examples. For instance:

Solution 1-5: Understanding the Flex event model
Solution 2-7: Building loosely coupled components
Solution 4-9: Formatting list-based controls with the labelFunction property
Solution 8-4: Supporting the Express Install Flash Player feature
Solution 10-4: Mashup applications using the LocalConnection and the Yahoo! Maps API
Solution 12-5: Debugging applications with the Logging framework

It even covers AIR topics:

Solution 14-2: Customizing OS windows using the AIR Window API
Solution 14-7: Keeping the application updated

The flow of the book is highly structured. Chapters are broken down by main topic, then solution. Then each solution has a “What’s involved” section describing the underlying concepts, a “How to build it” section giving the reader a step by step walkthrough on code implementation, and “Expert tips” which took the examples a step forward.

Although I think this book is worthwhile, I do have a negative to point out.

I’m not positive, but I think Marco is Italian, and I don’t think that English is his first language. I hope no one takes it the wrong way, but I think that some of the grammer distracted me while reading. I found myself re-reading paragraphs a couple times to understand the concepts being conveyed. That being said, I would not even be able to imagine trying to write a book in a second language, for instance Italian. In other words, although this was a negative for me as a reader, I give Marco props for writing the book in a non-native language. (If my initial assumption was correct)

The good thing is, MXML and AS code are universal, so the wealth of well-written code samples in the book made up for my inability to read through the textual portions efficiently. As a matter of fact, if you download the code samples, Marco has provided 30+ MB worth! He also mantains an external site for the book’s code, and he makes it a point to keep it up to date.

All in all, this book is worth the money: easy to find information, written by an expert in the field, and filled with plenty of good cookbook style samples. Good work Marco!

For those of you that are interested, here’s the link:

http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1590598768

Jun has been in the IT industry for over eight years and possesses diverse skills in application development and network administration. An active member of the community, Jun speaks at industry events such as 360 Flex and Adobe MAX. Jun is a certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer, certified Flex 2 Developer, and is ACI certified to teach all Adobe authorized Flex, ColdFusion, Presenter, and Connect training courses.

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