Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects [Paperback]

Al Ward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0764525972 | ISBN-13: 978-0764525971

* Shows readers how to create high-end, professional effects using Photoshop Elements, which offers most of the features of Photoshop at a fraction of the cost
* Features step-by-step instructions for creating amazing special effects like lightning, x-ray illusions, photorealistic objects, "carving" headlines in stone, morphing two faces, and more
* Designed for home users and hobbyists, it's written in simple language that enables readers to maximize the program's capabilities quickly and easily
* Features a thirty-two page color insert highlighting the most striking effects
* CD-ROM includes valuable Elements "toolbox" of layer styles, effects, and gradients

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create awesome, professional special effects with your very first lesson!

If you thought creating photorealistic objects or "carving" a headline out of stone was only possible with professional experience and $600 software, think again! Elements 2 can perform all of today’s cool image-editing tricks and techniques, and with these easy, step-by-step tutorials, so can you. Become a digital magician who can fix or enhance photographs, create three-dimensional images, produce the effect of lightning or x-rays, morph a face, or give life to a fantasy animal. Forty-three individual lessons arm you with all the knowledge necessary, and 24 pages of color illustrations show you exactly what you and Elements 2 can do.

• Understand how the Elements toolbox, palettes, and options bar work and learn the capabilities of each tool
• Discover how to create three-dimensional geometric shapes, alter the appearance of type, or apply wires and circuits to an interface
• Create the effect of natural elements like water and lightning, or intangible forces like vapors, rays, and electricity
• Give subjects a digital facelift, merge photos, and morph images
• Apply type treatments that reinforce the visual message in your print communications

Bonus CD-ROM

Includes project files for each tutorial, plus Action FX Layer Styles, Patterns, Brushes, and other goodies for Photoshop Elements 2

About the Author

Al Ward, an independent software developer and trainer, writes a regular column for www.photoshopuser.com, the official Web site of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Al also created and maintains www.actionfx.com, a Web site devoted to Photoshop type treatments, actions, and automation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764525972
• ISBN-13: 978-0764525971
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,416,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missing files and "clueless" instructions...., October 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects (Paperback)

is what kept me from rating it higher. Usually Wiley publishes quality books. I feel that this book was rushed to the presses. Good authors usually have their work reviewed by their peers and the critics before publishing. Had that been done this book would have been first rate.

For example, tutorial 1 step 2 has one loading a JPEG from the "projects" folder in the included CD-ROM. Search all you want, the "projects" folder and the particular JPEG is MIA. To add to the frustration, if you go to Al Wards's website, you must subscribe, at the tune of $49, to ask him where are the missing files. Some of the instructions are not well thought out, sometimes it requires doing a step several times to acheive the intended results. Some of the menu items one is supposed to click on do not exist or are mislabled.

The tutorials will give one the foundation to create special effects and come close to profesional looking results. Like anything else it depends on how well motivitated one is, and for this book one better have lots of motivation.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing and frustrating, April 2, 2003

By 

Robert S. Tobias (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects (Paperback)

The bulk of this book is step-by-step guided exercises that I had hoped would demonstrate the myrad features in Photoshop Elements. A CD containing art work and support files required by the exercises is furnished with the book.

Unfortunately, my experience with a half dozen exercises left me less than pleased. Some of the exercise steps described items in Photoshop Elements that didn't exist. In some cases I found things that came close... I think. My guess is the author was working with a different version of the program as he was developing the book and never went back to check things with the final version. A further complication were several instances where the instructions called for files on the CD that didn't exist. Finally, the author provides cookbook-like instructions without saying what it is you are trying to accomplish.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe it's just me?, August 13, 2003

By 

Marcel Lamothe (Nashua, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects (Paperback)

Maybe I'm missing something here, but as I go through these very long set of instructions, I get lost. All of a sudden I'm staring at a dozen layers, and I can't figure out which one I'm suppose to be applying yet-another-filter to. Sometimes I don't even see the menu item that's being refered to. For example, Page 40, near the top, says "Choose Edit->Deselect" - Well I don't see it. But if I choose Select->Deselect instead, then the following instructions don't seem to work either. So I'm lost. Then, on page 42, it says to load the file "crate_texture.jpg" from the included CD. Well I browsed the CD and did a file search and haven't found it. In fact, the CD mentions being installed, but there are no EXE's on it!

I have to admit that it's helping me learn the basics of Photoshop Elements 2, I mean you use the basic tools and layers over and over again and they're reasonably easy to figure out. But then the book pulls out 10 filters in a row, and it looks cool, but it doesn't explain why it works; Why they are performed in the order that they are; Why we use a parameter of 100 instead of 25; Why Radial instead of Linear - I might as well just run a prewritten script! There is no explanation for anything, just a long list of type this, click that.