Acknowledgments

In September 2005, I was at Photoshop World, in Boston, chatting with Pam Pfiffner, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Peachpit Press. During a break in my sessions, we were discussing a possible book. "What kind of book do you want to do?" Pam asked me. "We want you to produce a book of which you'd be proud."

I had already been thinking about writing a Photoshop book entitled Awaken the Artist Within, which would feature my favorite Photoshop enhancementsas well as my tried-and-true photography techniques. I pitched the idea to Pam. "Let's do it," said PP from PP, as she's known among friends.

Now, less than a year since we shook hands on the idea in Bean Town, the book is going to press. How cool is that!

So, Pam is the first person to whom I'll say "thank you" for all her help, support, encouragement, patience, and nurturing over the past few hectic months of productionall electronic, no less. I also want to thank Pam for coming up with a more appropriate title: Idea to Image.

Pam is not the only person at Peachpit Press whom I'd like to thank. Several other folks became part of my life, and, among other things, got to know what a bad proofreader I am (even after 27 books). Here's the impressive list of dedicated behind-the-scenes team members who helped make me look good:

Hilal Sala, Production Editor
Tiffany Taylor, Copyeditor
Liz Welch, Proofreader
Charlene Will, Art Director
Aren Howell, Cover Designer
Kim Scott, Interior Designer and Compositor
Mimi Vitetta, Image Editor
FireCrystal Communications, Indexer
Ted Waitt, Project and Development Editor

But wait! There's one more person at Peachpit Press to whom I owe a big "thank you": Rebecca Gulick, Project and Development Editor. Rebecca was my main editor, molding my copy, images, screenshots, and photographs into chapters and lessons that made this book easy to read and accurate (because she went through all the lessons to make sure I didn't leave out a step). Toward the end of the project, Rebecca took maternity leave. Ted Waitt took over for the mom-to-be, putting the icing on the cake, so to speak.

Enough about Peachpit Press…until my next book with them.

My wife, Susan, and my dad, Robert M. Sammon, Sr., also helped me with the text for this book, reading every lesson and making suggestions that greatly improved the work.

Julieanne Kost, Adobe Evangelist, gets a big "thank you" for inspiring me to get into Photoshop in 1999.

Addy Roff and Victoria Vestal at Adobe also get a big "thank you." Addy has given me the opportunity to share my Photoshop techniques at trade shows around the country.

Other friends in the digital-imaging industry who have helped in one way or another include David Leveen of MacSimply and Rickspixelmagic; Mike Wong and Craig Keudell of onOne Software; Rob Sheppard and Wes Pitts of Outdoor Photographer and PCPhoto magazines; Ed Sanchez and Mike Slater of Nik Software; George Schaub, editorial director of Shutterbug magazine; Scott Kelby and Chris Main of Layers magazine; and Bill Lindsay of WACOM.

At Mpix.com, my online digital-imaging lab, I'd like to thank Joe Dellesaga, John Rank, Dick Coleman, and Richard Miller.

Kelly Block, Rick Booth, Dave Metz, Steve Inglima, Peter Tvarkunas, Chuck Westfall, and Rudy Winston of Canon USA have been ardent supporters of my work as well as my photography seminars. My hat is off to these friends, big time! The Canon digital SLRs, lenses, and accessories that I use helped me capture the finest possible pictures for this book.

My photo-workshop students were, and always are, a tremendous inspiration for me. Many have shown me new digital darkroom techniques, some of which I use in this book. During my workshops, I found an old Zen saying to be true: "The teacher learns from the student."

Thank you, one and all. I could not have done it without you!