Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 8 For Dummies

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What's wrong here? Maybe it's me but the author does not appear to know Photoshop software. Or, maybe she knows about some other version of Photoshop and is just not good at describing the processes. I suspect a combination of all these. For my part, I admit to being a 'dummy' but I would have thought that the publisher's editing would have caught most of the obvious errors, omissions, and gramatical issues.

As the reader works through the book, he should be able to duplicate the process in the software that is being described in the text. How fustrating to find that some of the author's descriptions do not work. When I got to page 217, I decided to share some of the book's problems here. That particular section (2 pages) covers replacing one color with another. In Step 4, the author writes "Choose your Sampling method" from the icons. Whats wrong is that there are no icons in Photoshop 8 for this operation and, in general, the process really does not work as described.

OK, so that's one example. Here are just a few more: Page 102 shows an open context menu that does not exist in Photoshop 8. On pages 101 and 103, the author discusses opening the wrong menu. Page 99 discusses selecting several items that do not exist and introduces a screen location name (also on page 21) not previously introduced (what is it - where is it?). Page 73 includes a discussion of a tool that does not exist. The author covers the complex issue of bit-depth on page 41 and some special effect processes on page 57 - yet, she waits until page 74 to begin one of the most basic issues - getting your photos from a camera into the software. I suspect most readers stopped reading this book by page 42.

This book is really not ready to be published. It is arranged poorly, tries to cover both Windows and Macintosh (very different software), is unnecessarily complex in several areas, does not correctly describe several processes, and fails to deliver a clear guide to Photoshop Elements 8.

I really enjoyed this book. It doesn't deserve the 1-star reviews. Photoshop is a really complex piece of software and it does have a learning curve: you have to wrap your mind around certain concepts, give it time. I use it for making graphics on web design projects. I was using GRSites for that for a long time, lots of people seem to be, but you still have to learn Photoshop like the "pros", and this book really helped get me started. Give this book a try, you'll be glad you did!

This book is very useful, there are others that may be better, advertised on the Adobe support forum for the product, but I haven't read them. Most important is that forum!!!!

This is complicated, non-intuitive software (see my review) but with this book and the forum you can get results. If you are new to PCs, not a power user or have no patience, take a Yoga class first. Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is powerful, but painful. You can get excellent results if you are persistent, read the book and ask for help in the forum.

Competing products are not as powerful.

Barbara's colorful guide makes it easy for beginners to learn to edit photos and create beautiful designs with Adobe Photoshop Elements -- she even throws in tips for more advanced users. I recommend this book to all my friends who are getting started with Photoshop Elements.

I am an amateur photographer who takes a lot of photos and then I want to touch up here and add people to photos, fix photos where people aren't looking, etc. I bought the application and subsequently ordered this book before the application even arrived. I read the sections I wanted and then attempted to do the thing. It totally does not help you in anyway. If I order a Dummy book, I want it to step by step walk me through how to do this and this book just tells you the basics and does not show you what to do if it doesn't turn out the way you wanted. I don't want the book to fix my photos, but it seriously lacks in the how to's.

I received this book within a week of ordering it in N. Iraq! The book is set up very well and has really walked me through parts of the program that I thought were going to "leave me in the Dust " I would suggest it to anybody who orders or has Elements 8.

Easy to follow instructions. Just starting to work my way thru the book and great so far. It will help me to use this software to it's fullest and improve my photos.

This book didn't explain anything like I hoped it would. I wanted to learn how to erase unwanted background and was not familiar with Photoshop at all. I bought the dummies book since I'm a complete novice to the program. The elements I explored would start to discuss how to do something, but not complete the instruction. I'm going to return this book tomorrow for a different one.

So far my experience with this book has been negative. It assumes you know how to download the pictures from your pc photo album into Elements 8. I couldn't even get started on using the book because I couldn't transfer the pictures. I finally figured it out with on-line help, but the book was no help at all........

This was the first of 5 books that I have purchased about Photoshop. As a complete novice, this seemed like a logical choice. If I had been less motivated to learn the program, I would have thrown away the program as well as the book. The other four books are amazing, simple, easy to understand, and had me producing "works of art" in a matter of minutes. I still can't understand anything in this book except what I already know from other sources, and the other books demonstrate EASIER methods of accomplishing the same result. I wasted about 40 hours on this irritating, frustrating gibberish before buying other books - don't make the same mistake.

If there were negative numbers in the rating scale this would get the lowest possible number - 1 star just doesn't do it justice.