Customer Reviews

The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my second Photoshop Elements book. The first one I sent back, as it was way to advanced. This one is great! It's easy to follow along with and I think it was writen with a beginner like myself in mind. I've worked my way about half way through and it's fun. The author keeps things light and easy to understand. The book is easy to read with nice color images throughout. One thing I like is that you can go to his website and download the photos in the book that you are working on. This makes it real easy to work along with the author to make sure that you achieve the same results. The only negative I would give it is that some of the shortcuts are not fully explained. For example there are lots of instances where the author says press control-f and if you do that it works fine, but how about giving us both ways to access what was just done rather than just the shortcuts. I mean there is so many layers to the top menu's unless the author tells you where something is it is hard to find on your own. That is my only complaint so far.

Well actually I have one more. He really doesn't go into some of the things that Elements 2.0 can do. For example in the introduction the author states "I DON'T HAVE A CHAPTER ON THE LAYERS PALETTE, PAINTING TOOLS OR FILTERS BECAUSE A)EVERY PHOTOSHOP BOOK DOES THAT." Well I would like to not have a whole shelf of Photoshop books. I want just one book that explains the basics to me.

First let me just say that I don't mean to insult anyone, but I read the previous reviews and could not believe that they were talking about the same book that I bought. Either they are Photoshop know-it-alls or they, for whatever reason just don't want you to buy this book. If for no other reason, it is a book that will help the beginner receive a huge headstart on what elements can do. I can understand how some people might not like some of the secrets that are given away in this book. It's like a magician giving away the secrets to his magic tricks. Secrets like "How to increase the size of an image". I have been using Elements for two years and I have read many of the other "How to" books and I have gotten something from each one, but this book proves that you can be given the "skinny" on how to create many advanced effects without all the colorful theorizing and the geeky jargon that make you go"Huh". Come on guys, you may know all of this stuff, but there are a lot of people who don't and you have to admit that this book has some good stuff on just about every page. If you don't believe me go to a bookstore and look through it. I promise that you will find a seat somewhere because you will not be able to put it down.

As an educator-- a technology teacher-- I see lots of books of how-tos for all kinds of technology products. Many of them are geared either for the beginner or for the professional. This book finds the perfect combination of help for beginners with enough "meat" for those of us who are a little beyond that. It's a very practical guide for dealing with common photography problems. The author also gives some very valuable help in keeping photos organized. I also appreciate the humor in his writing which makes the book even more enjoyable to read. I will be using this book as a guide for in-service training for teachers who want to learn to use Elements more effectively for themselves and for their students. I'll definitely be looking for more useful Scott Kelby books in the future!

As a Mac user, I noticed that all the screen-shots in this Elements book are done in Microsoft Windows. That aside, this book seems just right for the amateur digital photographers who want to make big improvements in their photos. Scott starts at the beginning - with the File Browser - showing you how to organize and find your photos on your computer.

From there, he shows you how to size, crop and straighten a photo. Then, it's on to correcting over and under exposures, adding a fill flash and correcting red eye. There's an excellent section on color correcting photos (he makes it amazingly easy!) Masking isn't just for Photoshop. Scott shows you step-by-step how to use masks to make selections.

I was surprised to find sections on how to repair and restore damaged photos, along with professional photo retouching secrets. And there is a great section on digital plastic surgery and body sculpting. Chapter 8 covers the most-requested photographic special effects, including: adding motion, creating depth of field, using color for emphasis, sepia tone, creating montages, replacing the sky, and making a panorama pic.

This book should expand your skills with Elements so you get more out of it than you thought possible.

I've never rated anything before, but I have had such good results with this book that I had to contribute. I purchased the books PSE 2 for Dummies, and the Complete Idiot's guide to PSE 2 for obvious reasons. The titles fit me perfectly. After reading both of those books a couple of times, I understood what Photoshop Elements 2 could do, but I never understood how it was really done, and how I could apply it to my photos. I bought this book and within a 1/2 hour I was amazing myself. I was asked to take wedding photos for someone in my family. I did an ok job, but with the help of this book I was able to do some amazing things. I highly recommend this book. I keep the book next to my computer, and when I need some help I can quickly find the answer. I'm getting so good that I don't have to refer to the book as much.

This book is just right for the beginner/amateur who wants to take their photos to the next level, but don't know how to get there.

First off, this book is NOT good for those new to Photoshop Elements or digital photography. But if you're going get serious about making digital images and manipulating and fixing them, you'll want to get this one.

Kelby is on top of his game. His techniques are pratical, fun to read, and packed with projects that can be applied to those who take digital photos on a regular basis. (For those who don't take a lot of pictures, he's web posted the "before" pictures in his book that can be downloaded and used to try out the techniques. But really, you should use your own pictures. It's a lot more fun.)

You'll especially like the techniques about how to make poster size digital photos (even if you only have a 3 megapixel camera), how to create photo backdrops, and cropping for printing purposes. There are also techniques on flesh tone correction, masking, sharpening, getting rid of digital noise, converting color to black and white, retouching, water marking photos, and much much more.

Finally, this book is for those in the business of photo image making. If you can't afford Photoshop or if you just don't need all that kind of power, Kelby's book will show you how to make the most of Elements.

Kelby's work is sure to become a best seller among photo imaging books.

This is an excellent book. I've now purchased and read five different books on Photoshop Elements. There seem to be two basic kinds of books. The first kind of book focuses on "how to" where it proposed a problem with an image and then discussed the various ways to fix it. The second kind of book is more of a reference book walking through each different tool/feature in Elements and explaining what they do - leaving it to the reader to figure out how to apply them to their particular problem.

This book is of the "how-to" variety and is really, really helpful - the best one I've seen. The best thing about it is that it has lots of real world examples of things you'd like to do to fix or improve a photo and you can literally just follow the steps in the book without really understanding the details of how Photoshop Elements really works. It does attempt to explain what's going on in Photoshop and what the steps are doing and, after awhile, you do begin to understand the concepts behind many of the tools too, but the best part is that you can immediately start doing great things to your photos, even before you've learned the tools themselves.

Of the four other books, I've purchased and read, the Photoshop Elements 2 Bible by Laurie Ulrich is the best "reference" book on how to use all the tools in Photoshop. It's a good supplement to the Elements manual.

Here's my take on the other three books I have: "The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2" is full of power, but just seems too complicated to start with. In Photoshop there are always at least 20 different ways to accomplish the same thing and it just seemed that the "Hidden Power" book was always picking a pretty complicated way. I think it's got some real power teaching, but I wouldn't recommend it until you were already comfortable with a lot of the Photoshop basics including many Layer manipulations.

"Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions" is another "how-to" book, but I found that it spent too many pages on manipulations I was unlikely to do and not enough on the general purpose things you need to do to "fix and enhance" your photos.

I also have "Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2" which is a "how-to" book that deals mostly with fixing scanned photos. If that's what you're doing, it seems well written and it's written by Laurie Ulrich how also wrote the "Photoshop Elements 2 Bible" book referred to above, but I wanted something that focused more on how to fix/enhance the typical issues in digital photos right from the camera (lighting issues, focus issues, removing unwanted elements, fixing color, making skies stand out, etc...). "Restoration and Retouching" wasn't the book for that.

So, back to the main subject here, I highly recommend "The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers". It's the best of all the ones I've read and will help you improve your photos in the first five minutes. If you're going to get two books, then I'd combine this one with a "reference" type book, particulary one that spends a lot of time on layers and blend modes.

This is the third (and best) Photoshop Elements 2 book that I have bought and used. It is not (and does not claim to be) a simple introductory guide to PSE, rather an excellent tool for teaching helpful techniques, new skills and tips. It is full of pragmatic, helpful details and the book is broken into small, logical bites - each addressing a single "how to" topic.

The quality of the photography is excellent (which stimulates creative thought in the reader); the text is simple and well laid out adjacent to the appropriate illustrative step.

The book is full of specific useful tips. Many books give general instructions about using the Unsharp Mask (a really important, non-intuitive, poorly named feature for photographers). This books gives clear recommendations for several different photographic 'situations'.

Mr. Kelby's humor is attacked by some reviewers. I imagine that he uses these jokes in his successful live courses and presentations. I found him quite amusing and his jokes to be harmless fillers.

The best PSE book that I have seen - and ideal for the photographer wanting to get well beyond the basic techniques.

Strongly recommended.

If you're TOTALLY new to the Photoshop like I'm, Kelby's book isn't the ideal book to be initiated into the world of Photoshop. After having purchased Kelby's book, I realized I needed another book that is more suitable for my needs. I found that in Jan Kabili's Adobe Photoshop Elements 2: Complete Course. While Kelby tends to ASSUME that you know what he's talking about by leaving out lots of "little steps" required to follow his guidance, Kabili does a superb job with the details. While I was very frustrated trying to figure out what those "little steps" that Kelby seems to assume you already know, I found myself delighted with Kabili's simple step-by-step, click-this-and-click-that instructions that come with numerous helpful side tips.

I think Kelby's book is good for those with some prior knowledge and experience with the Photoshop, or someone with a very high level of intuitive sense. The reason why I'm giving this book only three stars is: Instead of spending so much ink and space on his endless attempts at humor (not that I have any problems with humor per se) I wish he had used all that energy towards filling in the details and with other useful tips, instead.

On a side note: I've been ordering a series of books from Amazon.com lately, and I'm a thoroughly satisfied customer. Great job, Amazon.com!!

Kelby doesn't seem to waste your time. He focuses on helping you use Elements 2 on digital images that you already have. Deliberately no discussion on what is involved in taking a photo, be it digital or analog. Instead, we get a grab bag of various techniques. Random access. Because you can read these in any order. They tend to address common problems.

Though the complexity of what you or Elements have to do in a tip can vary. For example, there is a tip on straightening crooked photos. Where you can define a line in the photo that is meant to be level. Then Elements lets you read this angle from the horizontal, and rotate the image by that amount, in the opposite direction. Very easy to understand. This was in a chapter on cropping and resizing. Actually, you should find that all the tips in this chapter are similarly easy.

But other chapters can get more involved. Like that on colour correction. You get into the depths of changing the HSL or tweaking a gradient map. The concepts here can be trickier. Luckily, the book shows how you can easily vary settings and see the effects of this on the image. Gives you a good intuitive feel of what the tips entail.