NEW YORK, NY -- O'Reilly Media has announced the winners of the Photoshop Cook-Off Contest at PhotoPlus Expo 2006. Grand Prize Winner Suzanne Pitts and ten additional winners in five categories were selected from hundreds of submissions created by Photoshop aficionados. Entrants excitedly responded to the opportunity to "cook" their digital entries using "recipes" from any of five O'Reilly Cookbooks.

"What's so wonderful about the Cook-Off contest is that everyone's a winner," says Betsy Waliszewski, who organized the contest along with Cookbook' editor Edie Freedman. "The O'Reilly recipes used to manipulate the images stirred the creative visions of photographers at all levels, from enthusiasts to seasoned professionals."

A panel of fifteen A-list photographers -- including O'Reilly authors Mikkel Aaland, Peter Krogh, Ken Milburn and Eddie Tapp -- chose the winning entries. The winning images range from Pitts' arresting black-and-white photo of a ballet trio to a fancifully surreal image of a flower budding from a peeled orange.

The original and "cooked" images of the top five winners grace a beautiful new poster available free at the O'Reilly's PhotoPlus Expo booth (#1312). Suzanne Pitts, "Photo Effects" winner Pamela Helm and "Blending Modes" runner-up Sally Welch are attending the three-day conference and available for interviews.

Pitts, the grand prizewinner, received a prize package worth more than $9,600, including a digital camera and printer. The five category winners were awarded packages worth more than $3,000 each. The total value of sponsors' prizes exceeds $27,000. Cook-Off Sponsors included Adobe, iStockPhoto, Lowepro and Epson. Learn more about all the winners here, http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/contest/winners.csp.

O'Reilly offers appreciation and gratitude to everyone who entered the contest, the judges who volunteered their time and sponsors. If you're attending PhotoPlus, please stop by booth #1312 to say hello and meet some of our digital photography author/experts.