Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 2: 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures (Voices (New Riders))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This easy-to-read book is obviously about a good software tool, but its value lies in the truth of the title. As I use this book, I am really beginning to feel that I can create cool pictures.

I picked up this book as an attempt to make use of the pictures from my very(free) digital camera. I am amazed that I can make my many mediocre pictures into rather good pictures without spending an hour searching for clues from the help text.

I must also comment on the good navigational tools this book offers. This book includes a good index, too often missing (either the "good" or the "index") from other publications. The best part is the clear and thorough table of contents, which saved me more than a trip or two to the index anyway.

I always seem to be a sucker for Tip boxes. Happily, they are strategically placed throughout the book. They are the keys to truly mastering the program with techniques for getting the job done quicker or avoiding pitfalls.

The author's apparent knowledge of the complexity of photography and the software makes this book a great technical reference. His casual tone and approach make the book a great learning tool. While I am more likely to be found reviewing a restaurant or coffeehouse, I make this exception for a book because it is so tasty!

True to the book's title, you will learn at least 50 ways to create cool pictures. If you must have the theory of color or light to satisfy your need to use Photoshop Elements, this book is not for you. If, however, you want to get right into improving and turning your pictures into great images without all the "techie" lingo, then by all means you must get this book. It is full of picture examples (good photography in color) with easy to follow steps to fix, enhance or just have fun with your pictures. This book is sure to satisfy the needs of the occasional film or digital shooter and those who are, well,... "shutter addicted." There are enough projects and tips and tricks in this book to pick up and have fun with over and over again. Worth every penny! I highly recommend this book!!!

I was seduced into buying this book (my second book on Elements) just because it was a full color book and the photos in it looked great. As I began to read it, I became aware that it was more than a book about correcting bad photos. The author not only shows how to fix the common problems with photographs, but he also teaches you how to take better pictures in the first place - saving a lot of time correcting them with Elements. Using some of his simple (and sometimes humorous) suggestions, the photos I took of my folk's 50th wedding anniversary last weekend looked professional. This book is hands down, the best book I have read on either Elements or digital photography. Forget taking cool picture, do you want to take and create great pictures? - get this book.

OK, my digital camera is my first "real" camera ever. I've never been one to tinker with photos but finally see the benefit in this wonderful information age we're living in. I'm as "green" as it gets when comes to Photograpy "tech" speak, yet I have no fear of manipulating photos anymore. Why?!? Dave's book!!! This book is truly intended for anyone that would like to their improve photos without having to overload on a bunch of uninteresting software manipulation that assumes you know EVERYTHING about digital photography. The software is pretty snazzy too, I must admit, and the book makes using it a breeze. I read enough in 1 hr to easily help me fix-up approximtely 1/3 of my photos (I am computer literate though), and I was REALLY pleased with the results. I have one thing to say: Friends & family BEWARE!!!

This is an excellent text for beginners sufficiently comfortable with PSE2 basics to follow simple instructions such as "select the Move tool". One doesn't get the sense that Huss tried to fill the title's quota of "fifty" by compiling largely useless fillers; to the contrary, the techniques are logically grouped to meet common challenges such as cropping, color correction, resizing, retouching, sharpening, etc. Text-wise, this book richly deserves five stars for its lucid presentation, smooth flow, and to-the-point color illustrations.

BUT, as I've learned the hard way, you've got to practice step-by-step the 'visual cookbook' (author's term) instructions with work-along images; if not, the slide lecture becomes a mere blur of words. Most regrettably, an inexpensive CD with original uncompressed digital images is NOT included -- a deficiency shared with other self-help books produced by this publisher (New Riders) such as Scott Kelby's more advanced "The Photoshop Elements Book". Although the publisher's website provides a downloadable archive of some of this book's illustrations, the images are low-resolution, highly compressed, and lamentably incomplete [two critical work-alongs in chapter 5 alone were missing]. To place the download burden on a beginning reader seems thoughtless and ill-conceived, and devalues the author's substantial contribution to learning to create cool pictures.

This would have been my 5-star recommendation for mature beginners because of instructive text with right-on color illustrations on each page. But, with the need to download a set of second-rate images that is incomplete to boot, with blanket statements such as "combine the best of both pictures in one image", and omission of dimples and wrinkles in the chapter on 'Retouching' - the net instructional merit drops down to 3.5 stars.

This 5-star author deserves better support than a less-than-stellar production: proper copy editing surely would have caught the repeated use of 'affect' for 'effect' (and lesser spelling sins); savvy project management would have caught the few sweeping statements lacking description (and figures), and ensured that the text describing 'Meg' being cropped, brushed, leveled and cloned would have been fleshed out by a companion practice image in the downloadable library. As it stands that 7+ page exercise (nicely illustrated, to be sure) leaves me, pardon the pun, with a dodgy spongy blur of words; much like learning to do an appendectomy from a textbook.

Production criticisms notwithstanding, this IS a very well laid out manual, written in a pleasantly conversational non-technical style that hits each point home in easy-to-follow steps and relevant illustrations; all it needs to rise to the top is a bit of nurturing by a user-friendly publishing team.

Dave Huss writes book for the rest of us! Not the professional photographer, graphic artist, or computer expert. If your Christmas shots of the grandkids look like they all have food poisoning, this is the book for you, even if you don't have Photoshop Elements! I use CorelPhotoPaint for picture maniuplation but Dave has advice and tricks here you can use with any bitmap manipulation program. His tips about how to use your digital camera alone are worth the price of the book! Of course, it you do use Photoshop Elements, this is a must have, and, it is fun to read!

This book is great. I was able to easily touch up my pictures using the book's pictorial approach. In fact there are lots of new ideas and examples I've never even thought of. Also scattered throughout it are amusing anecdotes that make the short paragraphs even more enjoyable. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their photo editing from novice to expert.
With this book you too can create a Masterpiece!

This book is bang on the money. It excels at providing quick steps on applying a variety of digital effects, image manipulation and color correction. It's beautifully illustated in rich, vivid color and the imagery is appropriate and dramatic. The author provides the simplest steps to achieve a specific result, but also gives the reader a clear understanding of the reasoning behind their actions. The dry presentation style you'll see in other photo-editing books is no where to be found here, making this book both informative and lightly entertaining. Bookstores need more of these!

I really regret buying this book. It is supposed to be an easy tuorial well suitet to beginners like myself. Most of the examples are easy to understand, but I found the explanations of using the different tools somewhat variable. My main objection however is that only a fraction of the pictures used in the step by step tutorials are available ( and only as a download from the publishers website). Not being able to play around with the examples and follow the the author all the time made the learning process much harder. Why the author/ publisher has not bothered to make all the material used in the examples available I do not understand.

I received this book as a Christmas Gift. I have quickly looked through it and find it very easy to understand. I love the pictures of his family and the interesting photos. David seems to be able to see beyond objects and people and make them come alive. I recommended the book to my boss's wife to get him for Christmas and am going to purchase another one for my sister in Oregon who is learning to take pictures with her new digital camera. Anyone who has a digital camera would benefit by purchasing this book.