Customer Reviews

The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is great for those digital photographers who would like to enhance their photos without taking a class. Having used PS 7, I felt like I needed to take a class on how to remove red eye. With Elements 3, it gives you two options on ways to remove red eye. Does you flash leave you with an overexposed shot?...do A, then B, and finally C. DONE! Well written book and very simple to use.

Being a Mac user, I was a bit disappointed that the book was written for Windows--beware that PSE 3 for Windows has more features than the equivalent version for the Mac. There are some different key strokes between the Mac and Windows version, so Mac users will need to keep that in mind when following the instructions.

Otherwise the book is very helpful and easy to follow.

Update:
I"ve been going back to this book every week and still learning more and more advanced techniques--eye and teeth whitening, sharpening eyes, removing hotspots, and many others. Its almost like a cookbook with very simple directions. Picture quality in the book is great, so you can SEE the difference in the before and after. With advances in printers and cameras, one can truely print at home like a pro.

I learned a lot from this book, but I found it to be lacking in many areas. The primary approach that this book takes is to teach by example. The examples are laid out very well, and are easy to duplicate. However, many examples that manipulate layers are presented without much explanation about what you are actually doing. This leaves you unable to extrapolate the techniques to new situations that are similar but slightly different.

Kelby also likes to use shortcuts rather than the menus. That would be fine if he would also tell you the menu selection. For instance, he tells you to hit CTRL-J to duplicate the background layer. What he doesn't tell you is that you can do the same thing using the 'Layers' menu. He also doesn't explain clearly why you want this duplicate layer, and how it relates to the layer beneith and above it. I found out by accident that CTRL-J will duplicate any layer and put the copy just above it.

Layers are a very complex subject, and some of the examples are very advanced. For instance, there are examples that link a layer to the one immediately below (by pressing CTRL-G), but not enough information about why you would want to do that or what effect that it has.

He also talks about foreground and background colors, and tells you to hit D to set the foreground color to Black, but nowhere does he explain what the background and the foreground colors are for. Another place, he says to hit X to set the foreground color to white. I finally figured out that what X really does is exchange the foreground and background colors. I still don't understand why sometimes he has you paint with white to expose something and other times it is with black. Apparently, white allows an image from a layer below to pass while black blocks it, but Kelby doesn't explain that.

I think that if you already had a firm understanding of layers, this book would be very useful. However, if you are trying to learn the basics about layers, this book is not adequate.

I purchased this book and the effort put forth by the adobe team (The "photoshop Elements 3.0 workbook"). This was an impulse decision to purchase the adobe book, I planned on purchasing Scott Kelby's book only. In comparision, Adobe should have hired Scott to write their book. Adobe's book was very poorly written. It reminded me of horribly written classroom books with hideous examples. I know it is a classroom book, but its one that should never enter a class room. Scotts book is fabulous. Written in a very engaing manor. He lays out all the important elements to learn with this software and mixes some humor in there as well. I feel the need to mention the following fact, this is one Adobe apparently failed to consider: Scott Kelby uses interesting examples laid out in steps that are very conducive to learning! Hands down great book, no, no, Hands down the Book for Elements, period. I'll give you the option, purchase "The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photograpers" by Scoot Kelby for a very interesting and informative learning tool, one that you will continue to use over and over again as a reference or buy Adobe's book, for a very dry written, mundane headache you will not even finish reading.

I thought it was intruiging that Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers was released before the application hit store shelves. Even though I hadn't yet received my ordered copy of the Photoshop Elements 3, I couldn't wait to peruse the book to see what improvements were made. Alas, reading through the introduction, Scott Kelby is quick to state that after contemplation, he wrote the book for Windows users and not Mac users. More disappointing was reading that the newest feature of PSElements 3, the Organizer, is not available in the Mac version. It would have been cool to have been able to compare the PS Elements 2 Organizer with iPhoto. The first two chapters deal with the new Organizers so Mac users can skip the first 72 pages. Kelby does provide the Mac keyboard shortcuts to use in place of the book's Windows keys. There is a redeeming factor for Mac fans: in the colophon it states that the design team used Macs and InDesign CS to create the book!

Those who have read my other reviews know my penchant for books that are well laid out using high quality paper and accurate photographic reproductions. Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers certainly meets my standards for its attractive, uncluttered and simple design. The book is comprehensive in covering just about everything a beginner needs to learn PSElements 3. The chapters cover: Mastering the File Browser Managing Photos Using the Organizer (remember that the Organizer isn't available for Macs so scratch the first two chapters!), Cropping and Resizing, Digital Camera Image Problems, Color Correction for Photographers, Selection Techniques, Retouching Portraits, Body Sculpting, Photographic Special Effects, Photo Restoration Techniques, Sharpening Techniques, Showing It to Your Clients, How to Make Presentations with Your Photos.

Scott Kelby has a straightforward writing style that is unobscured by miscellaneous chatter. Intermediate or advanced Photoshop Elements users may find this book a little too elementary, although it is full of instructions on almost every PSElements 3 feature. As Kelby states, it's a "jump-in-anywhere" book as opposed to a "build-on-what-you-learned-in-other-chapters" type of book. Depending upon your skill level or a particular digital imaging challenge, there are plenty of helpful instructions with accompanying photographs to improve your images. I found the "before" and "after" photographs shown side-by-side very helpful. The chapter on Retouching Portraits has some especially good instructions. An amusing, and, for me, useful chapter was Body Sculpting. Kelby shows step-by-step how to slim and trim; remove love handles; and, slim buttocks, thighs and arms. I experimented with a few personal photographs and found that his tips do work! Obviously these are subtle changes because Photoshop Elements can't work miracles.

Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers is an excellent resource to help digital photographer enthusiasts create the best possible images. While written more for beginning to intermediate level users, any PSElements 3 and digital camera owner will find this book a useful and handy reference.

If you are new to Photoshop Elements this is a great book. Mr. Kelby covers most of the features in Elements 3 in a step by step fashion. All of the photos needed to work through the examples can be downloaded from his website which is a plus. The only real negative is that Mr. Kelby rarely tells you why he has you do something a certain way. His methods work but it would be nice if he provided some background regarding why rather than just how. If you are an experienced Elements user or have worked through his Elements 2 book you don't need this one. The new and improved features can easily be figured out. Mac users are ignored. However, except for the Photo Organizer (which is infinitely better that iPhoto but not available in Elements 3 for the Macintosh) the average Mac user can easily figure out the proper keystrokes and workarounds. To Mr. Kelby's credit, he addresses this in his introduction. Shame on Peachpit Press (who now owns New Riders) for putting him in a position where he had to.

I have been a photographer's assistant for many years. For the last few years, I have ventured out on my own. For Christmas, my husband bought me my first professional digital camera. I was so excited. The possibilities are endless with digital photography. The only problem is that you must know how to use Photoshop. I spent many hours in front of my computer cursing it because I could not figure the program out. In a last ditch effort to understand, I purchased Photoshop Elements, hoping that it would be an easier version of Photoshop and therefore easier to understand. I was wrong. Still frustrated, I purchased this book. BEING A MAC USER, I was a little apperhensive because I read that this book is only for Windows users. Well, I only have one thing to say, QUIT YOUR WHINING, MAC USERS. I had NO PROBLEM adapting the Windows commands to my Mac. This book is so easy to use that I purchased the next book - Photoshop Elements 3 Down & Dirty Tricks. These are the best books I have ever purchased - easy to use for any knowledge level. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to make their beautiful picures incredible!

I am a new user of Photoshop Elements 3.0 and love it! Just winging it I mangaged to improve my photos dramatically, but knew I wouldn't be able to tap the depth of the program without a book, since the Adobe manual is so skimpy. Scott's book is WONDERFUL! Everything you need to know to fix lighting and color problems is there and he points out many tools to dramatically improve portraits. I'm convinced that I wouldn't have been able to learn the sophisticated techniques that he outlines so clearly and specifically. I can't recommend this enough! I use the book mainly for editing pictures of people. However, be warned that he does not cover layers in detail. In other words, if you are looking to do "special effects" such as layering parts of different photos, etc this is not the book for you.

I planned on getting the Photoshop Classroom in a Book to learn more advanced techniques that I couldn't figure out by tinkering on my own, but I found it to be a bit skimpy. I browsed through 3 or 4 other books and found nothing that seemed much better until I came across this one. The graphics are excellent, the basics are covered thoroughly, and many advanced techniques are demonstrated clearly. The author's writing style is clear, easy, and very readable but not condescending or dumbed down. This book surpassed what I was looking for. I'm surprised by the previous lukewarm reviews.

Scott Kelby is a gifted technician when it comes to manipulating photographs and improving lost causes. However this book is intended for people with a sound basic knowledge of PhotoShop Elements 3 otherwise the "treatments" he applies to his examples are merely exercises in click and copy. If you know the peogram somewhat there are alot of very good ideas for transforming "ordinary" pictures into "extraordinary" ones, but if you want to learn the basics go to "PhotoShop Elements 3, the mMissing Manual."

I am a casual photographer. I only take photos for fun and for memories sake so I was concerned that this book would be way over my head, but it wasn't. I found this book to be easy to read and to follow. I have never used Photoshop before, but I found myself editting my photos correctly the first time using this book. I have pictures from years ago that I counted as being ruined that I was able to restore within a few hours. If you buy the Photo Elements Software and you are like me the casual user, I would highly recommend buying this book. Its well worth the price.