Customer Reviews

The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're upgrading from one of the ... beginners' image processing programs, and if you're serious about photography you should, "Photoshop 7.0" always comes out on top: the most power, the most sophistication, the best. But few of us can justify a purchase that great for a hobby. So "Photoshop Elements" looks tempting until you try it. Too many of the major tools of the full PS have been stripped out; you can't work with curves, make separations, look at individual color channels, etc., and that hurts.

Well, it turns out you can do all that! Richard Lynch's outstanding "Hidden Power" provides a CD with plug-in tools for "Photoshop Elements" that virtually turns the simpler program into the full package -- at about a quarter of the price.

If that were all Lynch's book did, I would give it 5 stars. But it isn't the whole story or even most of the story. The fact is that "Hidden Power" is just about the best explanation of what those tools do, how color imaging works, and how to use powerful tools to good advantage that I've ever seen. And I've read a lot in 10+ years of manipulating digital images.

Finally, "Hidden Power" includes the most useful tool I've owned for getting past the hardest part: making your printed output look right without spending hundreds of dollars on expensive 'profiling' gear and software. It's a simple file, with the colors recorded in CMYK format, and it's the perfect calibration tool. In one evening it solved completely the difficult problem of getting predictable, neutral-color black and white prints.

Kudos to Lynch. If you go for Photoshop Elements, you have to have "Hidden Power" to go along with it. Accept no substitutes. Give the book a sixth star.

This book is well worth the money for the "Hidden Tools" alone. I consider myself an intermediate user of Photoshop Elements. I have been tempted lately to buy the full-blown Photoshop to gain the additional capabilities. This book and CD gave me most of the additional tools that I thought I was missing.

The book is not written for beginners. You should have a good understanding of how to use Photoshop Elements before diving into this book. Given the scope of this book, I found the first chapter to be a little too basic. I initially found parts of chapter 2 a little confusing. I never use gradient maps and found the explanation in the book to be somewhat confusing. I went back to my "Photoshop for Dummies" book and re-read the portion on gradient maps. This made the light go on for me on what the author was saying in Chapter 2. I found chapters 3, 4 and 5 the most useful. These chapters dealt with the type of image clean-up I encounter most often. These chapters dealt with curves, which I knew was a feature I missed in Photoshop Elements. Chapter 5 showed some great uses of the History Brush, another missing tool from Photoshop Elements that you get on the CD in the Hidden Tools. The remainder of the book gave some good hints on how to improve your images as well.

I read the whole book, but I am sure that not all was absorbed. I will keep this book close to my computer to use as a reference as I try to fix those difficult to correct images.

The author of the book has made himself available to answer questions on several Photoshop Elements and retouching forums. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to go beyond the basics of what is available in Photoshop Elements.

If you scan through the previous reviews, you will find that those folks who are familiar with the full version of Photoshop are raving about the tools provided and explained in this book. The beginning Photoshop Elements users are having a great deal of trouble. The reason: experienced users are not following along with the examples and the newbies are.

Fact is, there are a large number of mistakes remaining in the book, even if you were able to find the errata on the author's book site. For example, the first big project leads you through creating color separations. There are two errors in the step-by-step instructions. One step for each is a +120 hue adjustment and the next should be -120 but the minus sign is missing. Users will find that they repeated the previous step and do not get the desired result. Additionally, the step changing one of the layer blend modes to 'screen' is omitted for each primary. The user will never get the greyscale result.

There are numerous other editing problems as well. Stuff listed as appearing in the appendix is actually in the tools, and at least one of the practice files is named incorrectly. There are numerous small linguistic errors, such as using the word 'effect' when the word 'affect' is correct. Clearly this book was rushed into print before many aspects were finalized.

That said, the tools are in fact very valuable, and the book goes well beyong simple follow-the-instructions explanation of Photoshop Elements. This sets this book apart from most others; you will know not only 'How' but 'Why'. I would recommend this as a second book to anyone who has some experience with Elements and can recognize why some of the practice instructions are not working correctly. They will also better appreciate the value of the tools.

While this book has a special section for color plates that are important for following the instructions, my impression is that a number of publishers are producing comparable yet cheaper books using color throughout.

For the first time Photoshop Elements user, I would heartily recommend Scott Kelby's book "The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers". (New Riders) This book more than covers the basics of photo retouching and enhancement and is extremely fun to read. Every page is a full color page and it's $10 bucks cheaper. You will enjoy the book and will enjoy Elements even more.

To Richard Lynch: Your work is a valuable contribution to the Photoshop community. Find a better publisher!

I am a rank beginner to Photoshop Elements and photo enhancement. When I first started reading it, I was nearly scared off, as I didn't know what he was talking about most of the time. However, as he kept saying he would explain this later, I trusted that he would and so far I haven't been disappointed. I am in the process of working my way through the book and am learning more than I could imagine. I sometimes have to go through a lesson a few times to get it, but eventually if I follow the instructions closely, I figure it out. If there is something I can't figure out, there is a website... where one can get more information and ask questions. I am fully satisfied that I've gotten my money's worth with this book and the accompanying CD and would recommend it to anyone.

I use Photoshop at work as a graphic artist and just can't afford to buy it for home. I've been an Elements user for a while because of that, and this book is a godsend. I can do all the things I do at work, and all it cost was the upgrade to this book! The 'tools' from the CD (they seem more like time-savers) add in curves, channels, and lots of other stuff that I use at work but couldn't in Elements, till now. They install easily and what I need works like a charm. I am very indebted to the author, who not only saved me time and money, but showed me some great technique that I now use in Photoshop!

I'd encourage any home designer to consider this as an option: get Elements and this book instead of Photoshop for use at home. If there are tools Elements is missing now that I have the book, I don't know what they are.

It is a ten (or eleven!) star value.

I have learned more from the first few pages of this book than in three years of playing with images in Photoshop and Elements and using my digital camera. I started using the tools immediately after installing them from the CD -- they work right in Elements! The author answered my question about the installation directly. The person in that other review who had difficulty should contact him via the book's website hiddenelements.com, or by email, which you can find on the book's web site.

The book starts with a great demonstration of how color works by showing you how to make a color image from some images shot before there was color film! Then you move right along into understanding how to separate channels -- and why you want to. I found that chapter on the Sybex website -- you can read the whole thing right there. It is why I got the book, and then I found what the tools could do! They really make the program much more like Photoshop!

The examples in the book really drive the points home. All the images from the examples are on the CD, and the step-by-steps are easy to follow. It has some advanced technique, but it really doesn't seem hard the way the author goes through it. The best is, I have tried th techniques on my images and see immedate improvement. I love this book!

I've been a user of Photoshop Elements (1.0) for about 6 months. In addition to providing 'hidden' tools within Elements (curves, channels, masks) this book provides good tips and suggestions for general digital photo editing and enhancements. The book is very detailed, but the accompanying cd provides examples from the book (to follow along) and also the hidden tools to update either Elements 1.0 or 2.0. The author is extremely knowledegable and he makes himself available for any questions/suggestions on his web site, and in various forums and discussion groups on the web. I highly recommend this book for Element users who want the power of full blown photoshop without the price.

Although I haven't viewed all of the PE books, Hidden Power must rank with the best. I have to agree w/ the other reviewers that one must have a understanding of general photographic principles and digital photography. Coupled with the CD, you can treat this as a class or workshop. Each chapter deals with a technique or concept with exercises and examples, with step-by-step instructions. The first five chapters on gradients, histograms, curves and unSharp masks have some of the best explanations I've seen. And the CD alone with "big" Photoshop-like tools may be worth the price alone. If you need a text on PE for photographers, this is it. And if you're new to digital photography, buy a companion intro text recommended by other reviewers.

I have to say I'm flabergasted over this book!!! Being a professional photographer and having used Photoshop for a long time, I doubted the usefullness of Elements when I bought it. As I worked with it, I found it to be a great "backup" program for me to Photoshop. Mainly because I could accomplish several of the same tasks that I did in Photoshop, only quicker and less labor-intensive.

Then along came this book. I hesitated for a long time before buying it...my line of thinking being that I had all these tools in Photoshop and I knew how to use them, so why buy the book. I just decided what the hell, bought it, and couldn't believe it when I tried the tools. I can accomplish all the same things in Elements that I do in Photoshop ver batim. Now if only we could get a plug-in for the healing brush......hey Richard...are ya reading this for when PSE 3 comes out????

I would like to address the Portland, Oregon reviewer's comments. If you're having that much trouble, I suggest you either learn how to operate your computer, learn how to use Elements and the plug-ins, or find something else to do. Richard Lynch did an excellent job of writing this book. There's strength in numbers, and all the reviews except for yours liked the book and the software that came with it and it doesn't appear that anybody else is having trouble running it.

In short, Elements is a great program, Hidden Power is an excellent book that opens up the full creativity of Elements. I highly recommend both!!!!

I checked this book out of my library as I frequently use Photoshop 7 and Photoshop Elements 2. At first, I thought Elements is very inferior to Photoshop, but I have found ways to overcome its' limitations. That is the entire thrust of this book by Mr. Lynch. He provides detailed explanations and procedures for doing almost anything in Elements 2 you can do in Photoshop 7. Take time to read the book and work the problems chapter by chapter and you will learn a lot about Photoshop and Elements 2. I have six Photoshop Elements books by various authors on my shelf and this book is superior, absolutely the BEST! Along with the book you receive a CD containing Recipes for all the procedures presented in the book. Work through each chapter exercise to gain an understanding of what is being done. Then use the recipes to help you through each procedure next time you use it. Buy this book. You will learn at lot!