Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is slightly unusual in for a photography book as it's project based. Think of it as an extended set of the sort of tutorials you find in the digital photo magazines.

It's split into 3 sections with overall headings of "Optimize" "Enhance" and "Montage" with individual chapters each covering a particular technique in Elements 6.

A DVD is included with video and image resources covering all the projects (which is unusual) - 5 hours of video and high quality images (including RAW and PSD with all layers). There are also some potentially useful actions (I haven't got round to using these yet, as I'm running the Macintosh beta version, and haven't figured out how to install them!)

As with all the most recent Elements publications I've seen, this is based around the Windows version, but it doesn't seem to be so focussed - I found no problems following the projects on a MacBook, as there is less emphasis on keyboard shortcuts in the text, and the menus and interfaces are pretty much the same for each platform.

Mark Galer writes in a style that I find refreshing - it's witty without detracting from the technical content, and I found that the techniques 'stuck' very quickly without repeated re-reading.

Unusually these days (or so it seems) there's no accompanying website for the book, but I didn't find this detracted from the overall experience, perhaps because the DVD content is so comprehensive.

If you're a newcomer to Elements this isn't the book for you - it's not going to teach you how to navigate the interface - I don't think that there's any one image in the book that shows the whole screen - but if you want to learn some more high end techniques which you may not expect possible from Adobe's budget app then you may want to consider buying it.

This is an excellent product IF YOU DON'T ALREADY HAVE "ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5 MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE" BY THE SAME AUTHOR. I was so impressed with the author's previous book, that I bought this one. How disappointing to find all the chapters are identical except three. They use the same text, the same photo images, the same tutorials in both books --except that if there is a difference in the way Elements 6 uses a particular tool, it is noted. Either book is an excellent resource, but don't buy both, unless you like identical twins.

If you are a beginner at Photoshop , this is not
for you . Not detailed enough for anyone who does not know
the controls well enough. Some Projects just end with out showing
or telling the user how to wrap up the rest of it. Most important,
it is written in a format only experienced Photoshop users
can understand. Expect to know terminology and where exactly to find certain controls and tools ON YOUR OWN before trying this.
Not useful to me.

If Mark Galer's well written three hundred page book isn't enough for you the included five hour DVD will prove to be invaluable.

Elements is one of digital photography's best kept secrets - a sophisticated editing software that works for someone just starting out and for highly experienced photographers who simply don't want to invest in adobe's high end offering. The key is to find the right guide according to one's own degree of learning. I have used PE 2 for years and don't need a basic intro to elements so was looking for a guide that would give me the tools to create great images using all the power that PE6 has to offer. And this is where this book excels - I was just blown away by the quality of its tutorials and there is so much to learn, as the author says, almost everything Photoshop has to offer can be obtained through elements as long as you know how to utilize it. Once again, if you are new to elements this book might overwhelm you but if you have some experience with older versions and want to improve your skills don't go any further. BTW, PE6 can be obtained for bargain prices now that 7 is coming out and after much research have come to the conclusion that upgrade is not worth the additional price. Most complaints are about the dark grey background (it's fine!) Get PE6, this book and take your time to learn the secrets of great digital editing!

This book guides you project by project and step by step to enhance the visual effect of your photos. The way the author use layers is amazing and the results are great.
If you are serious about photography and currently use Elements 6, it will defenitely help you to make a good picture look stunning.
Better yet, it comes with a DVD to show you how the projects are done.

I bought this book mostly because of the video tutorials. They make it easy to learn how to use Photoshop Elements, which is inherently fairly diffcult.

Mark writes a in a clear way. I have a couple of his books and like them very much

havent had a chance to really sit down and look at it, or do any of the 'projects' yet, but one thing i seem to be having trouble with is opening RAW files. My camera saves them as Cr2, and PSE 6 is 'supposed' to open raw files...im sure im doing something wrong, just havent figured it out yet, and the book is NO help regarding that