Customer Reviews

The Photoshop Elements 5 Book for Digital Photographers

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay...let me start by saying that I can figure out computer software fairly easy. I'm no computer genius but whenever I install a new software program on my computer I simply give the supplied instruction manual a quick glance, toss it aside, then start clicking the mouse and punching the keys. Before long I've got the hang of it and all is well. That is until I installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.

I felt dyslexic trying to figure this program out. I even did the unthinkable and returned to the instruction manual for guidance. Nothing helped. Even the simplest commands had me running in circles. While pulling my hair out I actually stopped for a minute to entertain a frightening thought. "This is just Photoshop Elements...a simpler more toned down version of Adobe Photoshop CS3." Despair quickly set in.

Needing serious help I sought the support of the Internet and it's many avenues for solutions. Needless to say it didn't take long before I was referred to "The Photoshop Elements 5 Book" by Scott Kelby. After reading just a few pages and trying out some of the techniques he mentions I began to build confidence. The book concentrates more on specific procedures and the simple steps to achieve them rather than the clichéd text book-written style of other books. For example, let's say you wanted to erase an unwanted object from a photo. You could simply look up "Cloning Away Unwanted Objects" in the glossary, flip to page 268, and follow the easy steps Mr. Kelby lists.

He cuts right to the problems at hand then tells you plain and simple how to solve them rather than getting into some mundane and long-winded explanations as to how the software works. I've found that by working with Photoshop Elements this way I learn at a much faster pace. By following the steps in this book the reader not only learns how to attain the fixes and effects he or she wants on their photos but acquires the knowledge to run the software as well.

Glossary Listings:

CHAPTER 1
Organized Chaos

Importing Your Photos
Backing Up Your Photos (on Disc or Online)
Creating A Contact Sheet
Dealing With The Welcome Screen
Importing Photos From Your Scanner
Automating The Importing Of Photos By Using Watched Folders
Changing The Size Of Your Photo Thumbnails
Seeing Full-Screen Previews
Sorting Photos By Date
Adding Scanned Photos? Enter The Right Time And Date
Finding Photos Fast By Month And Year
Tagging Your Photo (Tags Are Keywords)
Tagging Multiple Photos
Assigning Multiple Tags To One Photo
Tagging Images Of People (Face Tagging)
Combining (Merging) Tags
Sharing Your Tags (Or Collections) With Others
Collections: It's How You Put Photos In Order One By One
Choosing Your Own Icons For Tags (Or Collections)
Deleting Tags (Or Collections)
Seeing Your Photos Metadata (EXIF Info)
Adding Your Own Info To Photos
Finding Photos
Finding Photos Using The Date View
Seeing An Instant Slide Show
Comparing Photos
Comparing Photos By Zooming And Panning
Reducing Clutter By Stacking Your Photos
Putting Your Photos On The Map

CHAPTER 2
Raw Hide

Editing Your RAW Images in Camera Raw
Noise Reduction In Camera Raw
Sharpening Within Camera Raw
Bracketing With Camera Raw
Saving RAW Files In Adobe's Digital Negative (DNG) Format
Working With 16-Bit Images
Black And White Conversions In Camera Raw

CHAPTER 3
Super Size Me

Cropping Photos
Cropping Using The "Rules Of Thirds"
Auto-Cropping To Standard Sizes
Cropping To An Exact Custom Size
Cropping Into A Shape
Cropping Without The Crop Tool
Using The Crop Tool To Add More Canvas Area
Auto-Cropping Gang-Scanned Photos
Straightening Photos With The Straighten Tool
Straightening Crooked Photos
Resizing Digital Camera Photos
Resizing And How To Reach Those Hidden Free Transform Handles
Making Your Photos Smaller (Downsizing)
Rule-Breaking Resizing For Poster-Sized Prints
Automated Saving And Resizing

CHAPTER 4
Color Me Badd

Before You Color Correct Anything, Do This First!
Photo Quick Fix
Getting A Visual Readout (Histogram) Of Your Corrections
Color Correcting Digital Camera Images
Dave's Amazing Trick For Finding A Neutral Gray
Studio Portrait Correction Made Simple
Drag-And-Drop Instant Color Correction
Adjusting Flesh Tones
Warming Up (Or Cooling Down) A Photo
Color Correcting One Problem Area Fast!
Getting A Better Conversion From Color To Black And White
Correcting Color And Contrast Using Color Curves

CHAPTER 5
The Big Fixx

Fixing Overexposed Images
Removing Digital Noise
Focusing Light With Digital Dodging And Burning
Opening Up Shadow Areas That Are Too Dark
Fixing Areas That Are Too Bright
Fixing Photos Where You Wish You Hadn't Used A Flash
When You Forget To Use Your Fill Flash
Fixing Underexposed Photos
Automatic Red-Eye Removal
Instant Red-Eye Removal
Repairing Keystoning
Fixing Problems Caused By Your Camera's Lens

CHAPTER 6
The Mask

Selecting Square, Rectangular, Or Round Areas
Saving Your Selections
How To Select Things That Aren't Round, Square Or Rectangular
Softening Those Hard Edges
Selecting Areas By Their Color
Making Selections Using A Brush
Selecting Everything On A Layer At Once!
Getting Elements To Help You Make Tricky Selections
Easier Selections With The Magic Selection Tool
Removing Backgrounds

CHAPTER 7
Head Games

Quick Skin Tone Fix
Removing Blemishes
Lessening Freckles Or Facial Acne
Removing Dark Circles Under Eyes
Removing Or Lessening Wrinkles
Whitening The Eyes
Making Eyes That Sparkle
Enhancing Eyebrows Or Eyelashes
Coloring Hair
Whitening Or Brightening Teeth
Digital Nose Job
Transforming A Frown Into A Smile
Glamour Skin Softening
Slimming And Trimming
Removing Love Handles

CHAPTER 8
Take Me Away

Cloning Away Unwanted Objects
Removing Things In A Straight Line
Covering Unwanted Elements
Removing Spots And Other Artifacts
Removing Distracting Objects (Healing Brush)

CHAPTER 9
38 Special

Creating Drama With A Soft Spotlight
Burned-In Edge Effect (Vignetting)
Using Color For Emphasis
Soft Focus Effect
Changing An Object's Color
Replacing The Sky
Neutral Density Gradient Filter
Putting One Photo Inside Another
Simple Depth-Of-Field Effect
Creating Photo Montages
Creating The Classic Vignette Effect
Fake Duotone
Getting The Polaroid Look
Photo To Sketch In 60 Seconds Flat
Automated Pano Stitching With Photomerge
Converting To Black And White

CHAPTER 10
Get Back

Coloring Black And White Photos
Repairing Washed-Out Photos
Removing Spots And Other Little Junk
Removing Lots Of Specks, Dust, And Scratches
Repairing Damaged Or Missing Parts
Repairing Rips Or Tears

CHAPTER 11
Sharp Dressed Man

Basic Sharpening
Creating Extraordinary Sharpening
Luminosity Sharpening
Edge Sharpening Technique
Advanced Sharpening Using Adjust Sharpness

CHAPTER 12
The Show Must Go On

Watermarking And Adding Copyright Info
Creating Your Own Custom Copyright Brush
Poster Presentation
Creating A Digital Frame
Putting Your Photos Up On The Web
Getting One 5x7, Two 2.5x3.5, and Four Wallet-Size Photos On One Print
Using Picture Package Layouts With More Than One Photo
Creating a PDF Presentation For A Client
How To Email Photos

CHAPTER 13
Create (Or Die)

Creating With Your Photos
Making Full-Blown Slide Shows
Creating Postcards of Greeting Cards
Creating Photo Book Pages
Customizing Your Layouts With Just One Click
Creating Calendars
Creating A CD Or DVD Jacket, Or A CD/DVD Label
Creating A Video CD
Crating Your Own Photo Website
Ordering Prints With Just One Click
Creating Real, Usable Postage Stamps
Creating Your Own Custom Flipbook

CHAPTER 14
Anger Management

Configuring Your Camera For The Right Color Space
Configuring Photoshop Elements For Adobe RGB (1998)
Calibrating Your Monitor Using Adobe Gamma
Calibrating Your Monitor The Right Way
Downloading A Custom Profile For Your Printer
Printing (This Is Where It All Comes Together)
My Suggested Elements 5 Workflow

I stuggled with the Elements Classroom in a Book 4. I upgraded to Elements 5 because of the cool features. . .thinking another Classrooom Book. I read the reviews of this book. . .and liked the author from the Photoshop Elements website and decided to give it a try. It is absolutely the best book I have ever used to teach myself how to use a product. I learn something new--and easier--every page!!

I have never felt competent using layers. The use if this tool is incorporated through out the book. You learn by doing a technique- - -not wondering if you should use a layer. Very powerful.

The combination of the step-by-step narrative with the excellent illustrations make techniques I stuggled with easy.

Just buy it!

I bought two books -- this book by Scott Kelby, and another book -- "Photoshop Elements 5 the Missing Manual" by Barbara Brundage.
After reading this book, I opened The Missing Manual book by Brundage. I never look back. The Kelby book shows you quick tips, but you are not learning the basics.
The Brundage book, teaches you from scratch, how Elements work. You will get a solid foundation to write a clone of the Kelby book.
The Missing Manual is not only a lot better, it is in a different league -- it is the standard all other Photoshop learning book should copy.

Get the Missing Manual. You will never regret learning a lot more.
I regreted buying the Kelby book. It is up for resale.

I upgraded from Elements 3.0, having bought a couple of books for that version. I had been aware of Kelby's books, but never had purchased one until now. I am glad I did. The book is simply straight forward in it's approach. You can easily look up in the index "how to do this", and the examples and photo's are very easy to implement. You do not get a lot of "why you do it this way", rather it is "how to do it this way". I do not regret spending the money for it. I had been wanting to make a "Poster" out of a photograph for some time, including the large lettering you see on these types of wall prints, with extra space on the bottom of the photo - within a couple of minutes, done. He does a great job as well showing you examples of sharpening (or Unsharp Mask).

Side Note - The original book I received was damaged in shipment (came in manilla envelope from Airbourne Express), I contacted Amazon, and within a couple of days I had a new one in hand, with a prepaid return lable for the damaged one, no questions asked - this is why I continue to do business with Amazon - Thank you!

I have almost 40 years experience in photography, both behind the lens and in the darkroom (b/w and color)and have found this the best source of real world usage. When I moved from film format to digital, I was disappointed in the results of being able to create a photo to the quality standards I expected. Once I moved past the basic burn, dodge, crop and color correction I was lost. This book shows what your results will be and has understandable step-by-step procedures to produce these results. I would recommend this book very highly and would say that it's the best there is on the subject of understanding Adoby Photoshop Elements 5, and what you can do with the program. Hats off to the author.

This book does what the (very lame) instruction book should do, plus much more!

Starting out, it is a fine demonstration of the capabilities of the Organizer, and how best to organize your photos.

It then gives a very fine instruction on the handling of RAW files (truly a must for getting the most out of Photoshop AND your digital SLR).

And then, of course, comes photo editing "for Digital Photographers", the emphasis being on producing better photographs. Although there is coverage about scrapbooking, etc., or things that might apply to a graphics artist, the book keeps focused on improving photographs.

Kelby's book will help you improve poor photos, and make great photos really stand out. Helpful tips abound.

Unless your already an Elements whiz, NOT buying this book is a waste of your time and money!

Having had this book for previous editions of Elements, I was looking forward to explanations of some of Elements' latest wrinkles. It is still a fine book,. but it was published too soon, as there is no overt explanation (or indexing) of Magic Extractor. I had to dig it out under another technique. Nor does there seem to be an acknowledgement of Adobe's biggest goof, eliminating the "Back" or "Undo" button, which can now be found only under "Edit."

I've read my share of tech manuals and "missing manuals" and similar.
I really love the approach taken in this book.
Instead of telling you all about layers tool, for instance, it focuses on an activity, such as restoring a faded photo. You use layers to do the restoration, and therefore learn a bit about layers in the process.

The focus is on a task, not the tool. Therefore, if you don't have the time or inclination to thoroughly learn all the various aspects of PSE, this book serves as a great reference.

Other areas covered include, replacing the sky, fixing underexposed photos, removing love handles and removing wrinkles (my wife volunteered to pay for the book when she heard that.)

Does it cover everything? Probably not, but it does cover most every activity you may want to perform. I feel I finally have a "good enough" tool to catalogue and fix my photos in PSE and a good reference tool (this book)to help keep everything straight.

Over the past several months I have purchased 15 elements 5 books. None can campare with this. I learned more in one reading of this book than all the others put together.

Dennis German

I have been using Photoshop for a few years but never really learned how to use it well. I recently purchased Photoshop Elements 5 and decided to check out several books from the local library to help me brush up on Photoshop.

WOW! This is by far the best and most practical book on the market for those wanting to learn how to use Photoshop Elements. I really like how the book is divided into lots of little tasks. If you want to know how to do something, turn to that section and it will be on a page or two with instructions. It is loaded with a few hundred step by step instructions to doing common tasks.

After only about half an hour with this book I ordered one online to keep as a reference. I had planned on only using this book to get me up and running in the new version but actually want to keep a copy for quick access when I have a question.

I do not see how anyone could rate this book 1 star. It is by far the simplest help book I have ever read. I really like Photoshop Elements MORE than the full blown product for most of my every day tasks.

Great job on this book!