Back in Amsterdam, last December, Deke and I hatched an ambitious plan: to revamp the Adobe Photoshop One-on-One book for CS5, no holds barred. We’ve had moments since then where we wondered if we’d gotten ourselves in a little more deeply than we’d intended. (That Jenever, it’ll getcha!) But tonight that book went to the printer, and those insanely late-night work sessions where we questioned not only our ambition but our very sanity, seem so obviously worth the effort. The book supplies you, quite figuratively, with the keys to using Photoshop, as pictured below.

Yes, dekeItarians. This very night, Adobe Photoshop CS5 One-on-One is heading to the printer, thanks to the amazing efforts of Deke’s crackerjack team, for release in mid-July. And it is beautiful. Altogether reorganized with new exercises and even a whole new lesson on Pro Photography Tools. What feels particularly fresh is the way the five hours of online video lessons integrate into the 450 pages of book-based ones.

So… to celebrate, I thought I’d give you a run-down of what is included in each lesson, along with preview screenshots of the amazing videos—created expressly for this book—that Deke created to complete the One-on-One learning experience. Here’s what’s in store for you in Adobe Photoshop CS5 One-on-One:

Lesson 1 (pictured above, as goes for what follows): Opening and organizing files, including the Adobe Bridge, ratings, workspaces, stacks, metadata, keywords, and the Batch Rename command. In the video, Deke helps you get your bearings in the Bridge, including providing a run-down on that late-breaking Export panel in the Bridge, which turns out to be mighty useful.

Lesson 2: Navigation and cropping, including moving around with OpenGL, the crop and rotate tools, and the Image Size and Canvas Size commands. In the video, Deke nurtures your navigation skills.

Lesson 3: Selection tools, including the lasso, magic wand, and quick selection tools, as well as the Select menu and the Refine Edge command. In the video, Deke shows you selections in action.

Lesson 4: Painting and retouching, including the brush, dodge, burn, sponge, healing brush, and red eye tools, as well as the new Bristle brushes, and the History panel. In the video, Deke puts the new paint brush features to work (purr…).

Lesson 5: Layer functions, including the Layers and Layer Comps panel, scaling and repositioning, blending options, and knockouts. In the video, Deke lavishes layer upon layer to make this compelling creature.

Lesson 6: Luminance adjustments, including the Levels, Curves, Shadows/Highlights, Hue/Saturation commands and the Histogram panel. In the video, Deke admires adjustments, and reminds you that Brightness/Contrast no longer sucks.

Lesson 7: Filters and smart objects, including the Smart Sharpen filter and smart filters in general. In the video, Deke finesses filters three different ways on this guy here. (Why couldn’t it be four or five, Deke. Didn’t you get the alliteration memo?)

Lesson 8: Distortions, including the Free Transform, Liquify, and new Puppet Warp commands, and content-aware scaling. In the video, Deke loads up the Liquify tool and lets it loose on this lovely lady.

Lesson 9: Professional photographic tools, including Adobe Camera Raw, Photomerge, and HDR Pro. In the video, Deke reaches deep into Camera Raw.

Lesson 10: Masking functions, including the Color Range command, the Calculations function, the pen tool, and the Channels panel. In the video, Deke makes a mask out of Puppet Man.

Lesson 11: Text and shape layers, including the type and shape tools, the Character and Paragraph panels, custom shapes, type on a path, and the Warp Text dialog box. In the video, Deke proposes that Photoshop should be put at the top of the vector-wrangling list (and a PDF will let you keep those vectors!)

Lesson 12: Output functions, including Save for Web and Devices, the Print and Color Settings commands, print quality, the Custom CMYK option, dot gain, and packaging images in a PDF document from the Bridge. In the video, Deke wrangles this image for the web.

Coming to you in mid-July. We couldn’t be happier with this beauty. Especially because it’s DONE!