I know my way around photoshop pretty well, it's where a majority of my skills lie is editing. I loveeeee CS4. And you're always learning.I'll stick to web and graphic haha. Photography is fun to tinker with, but I don't have the money to delve into it as much as I'd like. Maybe in the future.
Also, yeah, he probably did the same shot three or four times with a really low ISO/Shutter speed, and then had to highpass the crap out of it in photoshop. Learning photoshop will be a godsend to you, if you haven't already done so.