Adobe Photoshop CS5

Move tool

Accessible by pressing Ctrl, this tool permits you to move selected pixels, even between images.

White balance

Adjusting for the predominant color of neutral white, usually off as the result of an uncorrected light source.

Gamma value

Expressed as an exponent, this value multiplies the brightness of an image to lighten or darken midtones.

Whole-image transformations

Operations such as Image Size and the Rotate Canvas commands that affect an entire image, including any and all layers

Curves

The one command that lets you pinpoint a specific color in an image and make it lighter or darker; best suited to reducing contrast.

Content Browser

The portion of the Bridge that contains thumbnail previews.

Aspect ratio

The relationship between the width and the height of an image.

Source point

The spot from which the healing brush samples information when repairing a dlaw in an image.

Layer comp

The state of a layered composition at a certain point in time, replete with visibility, vertical and horizontal positioning, blending options, and layer styles.

Radius

The thickness of the effect applied by a filter, often expressed as a softly tapering halo.

Highlights, Shadows, and Midtones

The three brightness ranges that you can edit independently using the Color Balance adn Levels commands.

Hue and Saturation

The two ingredients in color: The first is the tint, from red to magenta, and the second is the purity, from gray to vivid.

Pins

Set points in the puppet warp that serve as fixed points and points of stretching.

Puppet warp

A tool that allows you to distort a subject by changing the relationship between set points.

Filters

A varied set of Photoshop commands that apply effects to an entire image.

Print resolution

The number of pixels that will print in a linear inch or millimeter of page space.

Rotate clockwise/Rotate counterclockwise

A Bridge operation that stands portrait-style photographs upright and writes the results to metadata. You can perform the operation from the keyboard by pressing Ctrl and a bracket key [ ] .

Filter

A Photoshop effect applied directly to an entire image or a selection.

Camera Raw

A Photoshop plug-in that allows for the development of unprocessed native image files.

Histogram

A bar graph representation of all brightness values and their distribution in an image.

Raw format

A camera's native format for which no on-board camera processing has occurred.

Bloat

A tool in Liquify that puffs out areas of an image.

Pucker

A tool in Liquify that you use to suck the edges of an area inward.

Load mesh

A command that allows you to reinstate a previous Liquify modification.

Free Transform

A command that allows you to rotate, resizem and rescale one layer independently of the rest of a composition.

Convert to Shape

A command that allows you to turn text into a vector-based shape.

Auto Tone

A command that automaticallly corrects the shadows and highlights of each color channel independently.

File Info

A command that lets you examine and save the descriptions, credits, and keywords assigned to one image so that you can apply them to others.

New Workspace

A command that saves the size of thumbnails, the position and visibility of panels, and the size of the Bridge window itself.

Batch Rename

A command used to assign document names, sequence numbers, and more to multiple image files at a time.

Sidecar file

A file that contains the instructions for modifications made to a raw file.

High Pass

A filter that mimics the functionality of Unsharp Mask by retaining areas of high contrast and sending low-contrast areas to gray.

Liquify

A filter with a massive dialog box that allows you to warp, bloat, pinch, stretch, and generally swirl around pixels.

Editing tools

A loose collection of features that modify the existing color or luminosity of a pixel without replacing its content.

Freeze mask

A mask applied to protect parts of an image that you want to remain unaffected by the Liquify tools.

Clipping mask

A mask created by attaching one layer to another to limit the effects of the first layer to just the layer beneath.

Luminance mask

A mask created by selecting just the lightest areas of an image.

Clipping mask

A means for cropping the contents of a group of layers to the boundaries of a layer beneath them.

Cropping

A means of cutting away the extraneous portions of an image to focus the viewer's attention on the subject of the photo.

Warp

A method of layer transformation that allows you to move points on a mesh to reshape and stretch an image.

Destructive edits

A modification to an image that permenantly changes the pixels to which it's applied.

Content-aware fill

A new feature in CS5 that fills in selections automatically based on what Photoshop understands about surrounding pixels.

Selection outline

A set of dotted lines that indicate the borders of a selected region, also known as "marching ants".

Marquee

A set of selection tools that allow you to draw simple geometric shapes.

Healing tools

A set of tools that permit you to clone elements from one portion or state of an image to another.

Tolerance

A setting in the options bar that determines how many colors the magic wand selects at a time, as measured in luminosity values.

Median

A simple filter that averages the colors of neighboring pixels in sweeps defined by the radius value.

Antialiasing

A slight softening effect applied most commonly to selection outlines to simulate smooth transitions.

Snapshot

A special kind of state in the History panel that remains available well after twenty operations.

Smart object

A special variety of layer that wraps the original content of an image inside a protective container, allowing pixel modifications to be made without damaging or changing the original contents.

EXIF

A specific kind of metadata saved by most modern digitial cameras that records the time and date a photograph was captured as well as various camera settings.

Adobe Bridge

A standalone application for opening and managing files that ships with all versions of Photoshop CS5.

Twirl clockwise tool

A tool in Liquify that allows you to spin an area around a center point.

Gradient map

An effect that applies a range of colors based on the lightest and darkest areas of an image.

Layered composition

An image that is made up of composite pieces that can be manipulated independently.

Liquify filter

An independent environment in Photoshop where you can squish and stretch pixels.

Color channel

An independent grayscale image that Photoshop colorizes and mixes with other such images to produce a full-color composite.

Bicubic Sharper

An interpolation setting that results in crisp edge transitions, perfect when the details in your image are impeccable and you want to preserve every nuance.

Refine edge

An intricate command that lets you edit a selection using a series of slider bars and preview the results of those edits as you work.

Knockout

An option that uses the contents of the active layer to cut holes in the layers beneath it.

Metadata

Any information above and beyond the core image data, including the date the image was last saved, the copyright holder, and how the image was captured.

Slide Show

Availabe exclusively inside the Bridge, this command lets you expand one or more images to fill the entire screen as well as zoom and navigate from the keyboard.

Painting tools

Brush-based tools that allow you to paint lines and fill shapes with the foreground color.

Cache

By default centralized and sequestered - deep in the system level of your hard drive - this file stores transient information from the Bridge, such as sort order and high-resolution thumbnails.

Merge down

Choose this command to combine the contents of the active layer with the layer below it.

Loupe function

Click inside the Preview panel to access this feature, which allows you to zoom an image's detail from 100 to 800 percent.

Magic wand

Click with this tool to select regions of color inside an image.

Smart filter

Commands from the Filter menu or the Adjustments panel that can be applied nondestructively to a smart object.

Layer group

Created by pressing Ctrl+G, this collection of layers appears as a folder icon in the Layers panel.

Sponge tool

Decreases or increases the saturation of an image, depending on the Mode setting in the options bar.

Favorites

Drag a folder that you use on a regular basis to this panel, and you'll never have to burrow through folders and subfolders to find your pictures again.

Layer effects

Effects like drop shadows and strokes that can be applied to specific parts of an image only.

Stop

Indicators along a gradient preview that designate the colors at either end.

Straighten button

New to CS5, this tool lets you quickly confirm a line that you want to designate as the new vertical or horizontal basis of your image.

Sharpening

Removing softness in a photograph by increasing edge contrast.

Stacking order

The arrangement of layers in a composition, from front to back, which you can adjust by pressing Ctrl with the bracket keys [ ].

Levels

The best tool for manually adjusting the brightness and increasing the contrast of an image on a color-by-color basis.

Canvas

The boundaries of an image, as measured independently of the contents of the image itself.

Origin point

The center of a rotation or another transformation.

Focus

The clarity of the image formed by the lens element and captured by the camera, whether digital or film.

Contrast

The difference between light and dark colors.

Brightness

The lightness or darkness of a group of colors.

Luminance blending

The name given to a pair of slider bars in the Layer Style dialog box that let you hide or reveal colors based on their luminosity levels.

Content-Aware Scale

This advanced compositing funtion is capable of stretching low-contrast areas of an image without affecting high-contrast areas.

Grow

This command expands a selection to include additional contiguous colors that fall inside the magic wand's Tolerance range.

Shadows/Highlights

This command lets you darken highlights and lighten shadows, just what you need when correcting flash photos.

Snapshot

This feature of the History panel lets you bookmark a specific state in your work, allowing you to restore it later.

Clone source

This panel lets you scale, rotate, and even flip the source image as you paint it onto the destination, as well as preview the source as a translucent overlay.

Big layer

This phenomenon refers to the existence of extra information on layers that extend beyond the visible part of the document.

Magnetic lasso

This selection tool can actually sense the edge of an object and automatically trace it.

History brush

This tool allows you to paint back information from a previous state saved in the History panel.

Burn tool

This tool darkens pixels as you paint over them.

Ruler tool

This tool lets you measure angles and distances in Photoshop, as well as gives you access to the Straighten button.

Rotate view

This tool lets you preview the proper angle for a crooked image before you crop it.

Dodge tool

This tool lightens portions of an image as you paint, which makes it great for bringing out naturally shaded areas such as eyes.

Quick mask

This viewing mode allows you to quickly see the mask created by a selection and assess the edges automatically.

Downsampling

To change the physical dimensions of an image by reducing the number of pixels.

Polygonal lasso

Use this tool to select free-form, straight-sided areas in an image.

Color cast

When one color pervades an image to a degree that is unpleasant or unrealistic.

Layer mask

When working with this function, painting with black temporarily erases the pixels on a layer, painting with white makes the pixels visible again.