The book contains the following sections;

1. Digital SLR Photography Now and in the Future
2. Digital SLR Technology Made Easy
3. Mastering Your dSLR’s Controls
4. dSLR Quirks and Strengths
5. Working RAW
6. Working with Lenses
7. Close-Up Photography
8. Capturing Action
9. Composition and dSLRs
10. Mastering dSLR Special Features

There are hundreds of free image editors out there for your computer, many of which are known as “bloatware” since they are bloated with unecessary features. Sometimes you just want a light, simple program that doesn’t take forever to load and will let you do a few simple tasks. Well, here is a list of 8 simple free Photoshop alternatives under 2MB that will save you time and headache.

Need a worry-free background track for a multimedia project, or just some new tunes to work into your daily mix? The Free Music Archive, a project of indie freeform station WFMU, has downloads and streams galore.

GIMP is the favorite graphics editing program of many designers and graphic artists. It is free and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux (the two big reasons for its popularity). It has a wide array of features, as well as plug-ins, filters and brushes. Documentation is primarily available in online communities, as well as through extensive add-ons.

GIMP was never designed to replace Photoshop, yet with every release, it comes a little closer to being able to do so. It can be used to author graphics, create logos and edit photos, as well as make short animations (using GAP). Despite these features, the open-source app is a foreign world for many users switching from Photoshop. Familiar tools are missing, menus are laid out differently and tasks must be accomplished in unknown ways.

In this article, we list eight tweaks to make GIMP a more serious Photoshop replacement option. Version 2.6 was used to test the following tweaks, but past versions of the app should work as well.

Digital Art Photography For Dummies is jam-packed with full-color images that show you just what you can produce. You’ll earn how to select the right digital equipment , take well-exposed photos, no matter what your shooting conditions may be, tweak, edit, and enhance your images to create something a lot better than what you started with, Create special effects in Photoshop, Mat and frame your work for maximum effect and many more.

I’d like to take a break from our normal tips format to announce something big. In two weeks, CreativeTechs is kicking off a free, 10-week, worldwide, Photoshop course.

Jason Hoppe, our Adobe Certified Instructor, has designed a comprehensive course that covers Photoshop CS4 in detail. If you’ve been meaning to improve your Photoshop skills, now is the perfect opportunity:

Week 1, Feb 26 – Interface, Tools, and Shortcuts
Week 2, Mar 5 – Photoshop Layers
Week 3, Mar 12 – Selections
Week 4, Mar 19 – Advanced Selections
Week 5, Mar 26 – Masks
Week 6, Apr 2 – Pen Tool / Shape Layers
Week 7, Apr 9 -Drawing Tools / Brushes
Week 8, Apr 16 – Retouching
Week 9, Apr 23 – Color Correction pt 1
Week 10, Apr 29 – Color Correction pt 2

Visit the link to enroll or read more about this.

Trying to find quality Photoshop ebooks is hard enough for anyone, trying to find FREE ebooks is even harder. Once I found some I was surprised at the caliber of the content, and bemused that they were given away for free.

Read his article here.