Customer Reviews

Adobe Premiere Elements for Dummies

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been working with Adobe Elements for about 6 months now. I started with Adobe's tutorial and then their "Classroom in a Book" series and have created numerous multi hour DVD's from old VHS video I have. As with most books from the makers of software, they leave a lot of how too stuff out, so I started to look elsewhere for more info on how to use all of the great things in Elements. I saw this book and it's rating so I figured I'd give it a try. For the $16 it cost, even if I learned just two new helpful things it would be worth the money. Never having read any other ".... For Dummies" book I had no Idea what to expect.

I am currently half way through the book and I have to say I have learned not just two but a lot of new things. There are a lot of the basics in the book for people just starting out with Elements but it also goes into detail on how to use all of the fancy transitions and effects very clearly. Before this book I had no idea on how to use some of the more complex effects properly. It's is clear that the author is very familiar with Premere Elements and video editing. The book is worth three times the $16 it cost.

The only thing I felt should have been done, but was not, was that the pictures should be in color. Even if this drove the price up $5 a book it would be better. I say this because often the author refers to the color of an item (The yellow line) in the pictures and unless you are sitting in front of your PC with Elements up or you are very familiar with the Elements windows, all you are going to see is a black and white photo.

Bottom line - A great book, buy it, you won't be disappointed.

I will definitely be looking for other books by Keith Underdahl. Hopefully he knows Photoshop Elements too!

Keith's knowledge of Premiere really pays off in his "Adobe Premiere Elements" for Dummies book.

The book does a good job of going more indepth than the user manual that comes with the product. Capture, Edit, Effects, Titles, DVD and other export types like web, are all covered.

I really enjoyed the numerous examples & gotchas that folks just learning how to edit video would run into. The book has a good balance of tips on video editing, as well as going indepth on how to do specific special effects. Chapter 19 goes thru 10 specific examples: Making people disappear on video, seeing double (twins), freeze frames, old movie, star wars titles, Ken Burn pan & zooms, moving image mattes, lens flares, audio hums and zooming in on video.

I noticed some confusion in the reviews of those who had hoped this was for other versions of Premiere Elements. However, as the title dictates, the copy I received is copyrighted for 2010 so you won't find the old info within. If, however, you are like me and looking specifically for something to uncover the mysteries in Premiere Elements 8...this is the right manual.

I gotta admit I was shocked that no manual came with Premiere Elements 8 and that they even wanted to charge for some of the few tutorials that they offered. I consider myself a pretty good navigator through software and I picked up on how to do the editing for my Flip UltraHD camera on the free software that came with it right away...but I'll be the first to admit, I played with Premiere Elements 8 for days and still couldn't complete a decent video using even just a few of the great editing gadgets that I know it contains.

I compared various books that might help me solve this video editing program and settled upon this one because I knew it was written specifically for the version I had, these books in general are written for the total novice so anyone can easily read, follow along, and master the skill, and I knew they always offer tips to help you master your skills in other ways.

And it did.

Not only did it help me create a truly high-tech movie with my camcorder, but it also gave me tips on shooting...such as lighting, sound secrets, and other tips not on just navigating the software but in making better movies in genearal. And they were great tips.

As far as learning Premiere Elements 8, the instructions were super clear, it shows photos of the screen on the pages so you fully understand visually what's being said with zero confusion, it even keeps learning lighthearted with some jokes thrown in.

I think it might be fairly impossible for me to list all that it teaches you to do here but suffice it to say you'll be able to use all the tools, menus, panels, buttons and options, edit clips and join them together, add special effects, cool extras, background music, and upload to whatever you wish: youtube, discs, mobile phones, etc.


Bottom line: It takes you in simple steps from "dummy" to "creative camera whiz".

BOTTOM LINE:It's ashame this is not included in the software. I'll be honest, so much of this I had no IDEA I could do with Premiere Elements 8. I expect the way this is written was better for me in the end than trying to grasp the contents of a thick manual that the creator of Premiere Elements 8 may have put together (well, they did eventually put one together but it was more expensive and I dont understand why Adobe is charging for basic tutorials and a users manual so I'd rather have this one anyway)...this is made for the total novice, yet I think even those more advanced will learn TONS of new things from it due to its vast content.

Book used as an owner's manual before starting program. Once the program has been tried, the book serves as a reference guide, even though it repeats the wording of the help references. Tips are beneficial.

When Adobe made the decision to no longer include any form of manual with its products, it strengthened the already existing industry of publishing "how to" books for Adobe products. Adobe has a long reputation of producing powerful applications with weak support.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is a very capable video editing application (with many other features as well). It is, however, not intuitive and many of its features are buried or otherwise obscured.

The first thing that's truck me about this book was the padding, the superfluous material. There's about a hundred pages on "moviemaking", what equipment you need, installing and configuring the program before you get to the first page describing how to actually use the program. Some people, particularly absolute beginners, may find some or even potentially all of this material useful. I did not and feel it could have been better handled as appendices.

The author's writing style is lackadaisical and often wanders from the subject. For example, "Consider all the tools of the trade for a painter: brushes, scrapers, a palette, containers of paint, and cleaning supplies. All these tools are necessary, but ultimately the painter's entire work centers around the canvas, where the tools are put to use to create a work of art". This is the opening paragraph to the chapter on "Making Movies with the Timeline". This is followed by two more even longer paragraphs of fluff and then twelve paragraphs on a somewhat related subject before you finally get to the timeline.

There are far too many instances of this kind of padding throughout the book. Ultimately the information on how to use the program's features are there, but it takes a long time to get there.

The book, I felt, didn't have enough illustrations. Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is all about being able to navigate its Graphical User Interface (GUI) and this book focuses more on textual descriptions of the GUI and navigating the menus than showing you the GUI itself.

Overall, if you are very patient, you will find the instructions you need for using Adobe Premiere Elements 8, so in that sense the book is not a failure. It is a slow and tedious process, though, and I found myself growing impatient as I read. This book is going back and I will try the "Missing Manuals" text on the same subject next.

Jerry

I bought this book because I found the Premiere Elements user guide less than helpful. Adobe Premiere Elements for Dummies does contain a lot of helpful information and tips, but my impression is that I'll need to read the book cover to cover rather than using it as a reference guide. Be aware that this book's screen shots do not reflect Premiere Elements 2.0. I don't know how different 2.0 is from previous versions, but this was a source of frustration for me when I was trying to find out how to "single step" through a clip.

I really had problems trying to read the on-line manual. This Dummies book was a big help. In addition to the basic tools and features, there were many bells and whistles available in Premiere Elements that I didn't know were there -or- even thought would be available with the software package.

Not long ago a friend of mine purchased a video camera to make some videos for his business' website, Facebook, and YouTube. The software he got to edit these videos was ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 8. Even though I've never edited videos before, I do have some experience with audio software I used in college and when I worked in radio, so I was brought on to help edit. We didn't discover until after we started setting things up that Adobe doesn't include any manuals with its software. That forced my friend to purchase a how-to book for the software. He chose PREMIERE ELEMENTS 8 FOR DUMMIES.
Working on the videos I've been impressed with what Adobe Premiere Elements 8 can do. It seems capable of doing just about everything an amateur filmmaker wants to do. However, it can be difficult to discover exactly how to do something. For instance, it took me nearly two hours to fix the volume of a particular clip.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS FOR DUMMIES has helped easing some of this confusion. Since having access to the book, I've been able to find the answers to most of my questions. In that sense, the book is a good resource.

However, like using Adobe Premiere Elements 8 itself, finding the answers isn't as straight-forward and simple as it should be. I've often looked in a chapter where I thought the answer should be based upon the chapter's title, only to discover later that the information is in another section. Also, there's way too much fluff in the book and not enough real substance. The first chapter gives a crash course introduction on how to make a video using the software. Instead of following up with details and specifics, the book goes into two chapters about what sort of camera you should use, what sort of computer you should use, how light is converted to video, setting up shots, etc. The last chapter is also a bunch of filler about what other accessories you should buy.

Then there's the overall writing style. Sometimes it takes the author almost half a page or longer before he actually gets to the point of what he's writing about. I don't mind silly little jokes, a short aside, or a relevant anecdote. If you're reading a chapter straight through instead of just a straight reference, these things help break up some of the monotony. But when there's a lot of filler writing that has no connection to what the book is supposed to be about, it bother's me because then the book isn't so much a reference tool but a showcase of the author's writing that also happens to be a reference book.

In addition, there really aren't enough photographs in the book. On average, there's probably one illustration or photograph every three pages. For a reference book about a software program like Adobe Premiere Elements 8, that revolves around being able to use the GUI (Graphical User Interface), that's way too few. Granted the pictures are usually large (about a quarter-a to half-a page each), but there really should be at least a couple of pictures for every feature reviewed.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS 8 FOR DUMMIES has helped me in using Adobe Premiere Elements 8 and it seems that it covers most of the features the software is capable of doing. However, finding out where the material in the book can be a little frustrating at times and the presentation of the material could have been handled better. Overall, since Adobe software has no manuals, it'll do, but it's not as good a reference book as it should be.

Premiere Elements has a learning curve. This book really has helped me get into video editing. Layman's terms and step by step. If you have never done video editing and want something more than imovie or moviemaker this is for you.

I don't always like these series, but the author made a very usable and understandable text. It is easy to use. If found it much easier to understand and use the program features than the actual help program supplied by Adobe.