My buddy Eddie Tapp is working on a new book, Photoshop Workflow Setups: Eddie Tapp on Digital Photography. You can download a chapter of the book from creativepro.com, in which Tapp shows you how to set up efficient workspaces in Photoshop and Bridge.

There's lots of good stuff here, including Tapp's suggestions for setting up different palette combinations for different types of work, like color correction, masking, or retouching. The chapter includes instructions for using the Match Zoom feature (Window>Arrange>Match Zoom) to view multiple images at the same magnification, using Full Screen Mode to show your client an image against a clean black background (F, F, Tab, and then Command/Control+zero to center), and using the New Window command (Window>Arrange>New Window) for detail work.

There are so many Photoshop books that rehash the same old lessons, that it's refreshing to see a book on a unique topic like workflow setups.

I just got my hands on Scott Kelby's brand new The Photoshop Channels Book, and I predict it's going to be another hit. Kelby tackles an area of Photoshop that users often avoid (channels that is) because they think it's just too hard. He manages to sweep all the scary stuff away with his sense of humor, and to make channels understandable if not downright fun.

There's plenty of material here for the novice user (like the lesson on Understanding Masks, in which you'll use a plain old paper stencil to understand the concept of masks). At the same time there are lessons for more advanced users (like the tutorial on Blending Channels to get the perfect image from multiple exposures). Kelby once again does the thing he does so well–offer readers a buffet of step-by-step lessons containing easy to digest chunks of information, washed down with practical examples.

You remember Kelby. He's the guy who's President of The National Association of Photoshop Professionals, star of Photoshop TV, the top-selling computer book author in the U.S. for the second year in a row, publisher of Photoshop User magazine and Layers magazine, and on top of it all a brand new Dad. Slow down Scott so we can say congrats!

Ben Willmore's classic Photoshop book, Photoshop Studio Techniques, has been updated for CS2. That means that all of Ben's books are now CS2-ready. In addition to Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques, Ben's CS2 offerings include Photoshop CS2: Up to Speed and How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography second edition.