Denise, you'll not be able to use Photoshop to its fullest, without working with channels and masks. It's well worth honing your skills on them, though it's advanced stuff, compared to your day-to-day editing. I would concentrate on day-to-day editing, then when you have a need to use these other things, try them.


There are several books out there that deal with those subjects. Kelby has one on channels (more of a pragmatic approach), and Deke McClelland. Deke's is more comprehensive, but he still goes through the steps effectively.


You might benefit from posing your questions, too, on Adobe's forums. They have many topics, and you'll get some high powered Photoshop users to help you. Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get Thomas Knoll to answer your questions. He created Photoshop and Camera Raw.