Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 5 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is one of the best written on Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, compared to others I found this book much easier to understand and use (hence the name "...For Dummies").

If this is your first time using Photoshop 5.0 the program can be confusing. I've personally spent hours trying to figure out simple commands, and making repetitious mistakes. This book put an end to all that. It's writting is clear and concise and the book moves at a pace I think most people would find comfortable. The book also brags (in its introduction pages) that it is cross-referenced in case the reader wants to jump around. A feature I found very convenient.

At roughly 400 pages there is more than enough information to learn from. It is also packed with tips, warnings, and technical jargon (marked with icons throughout the book) that help the reader pick up a thing or two quickly.

After using Adobe Photshop Elements 5.0 for months and running in circles with it's advanced features, I really wish I had found this book sooner.

I have seen some rather negative comments on this book from a few other reviewers. Let me start out by stating that I teach a Digital Darkroom course. That course uses Photoshop Elements 5, a very capable program, although not necessarily an easy one. If you are not technically inclined this program will be confusing, to say the least. The manual that comes with it is barely adequate. This is where the Photoshop Elements 5 for Dummies book comes in. It is far superior to the manual included with the program. That is not to state that it is easy. It is not! You will have to put effort into learning the techiques, and methods of Elements 5. I am quite familiar with Photoshop CS2 as I use it for my fine art photography. I thought teaching Elements 5 would be a snap. After all I regularly use the full version, how difficult could a scaled down version be? The answer turned out to be 'quite difficult'. Photoshop Elements 5 has many features of CS2 but they are implemented differently and sometimes work differently. Some of the things in Elements 5 are not even in CS2! Elements 5 has far superior selection tools, are you listening Adobe?? Elements 5 certainly does not have a lot of the features and tools of its big brother, but who in their right mind would expect it to? It is however very capable and I have it installed on my laptop so I can do preliminary editing in the field. I often need nothing more. This book is invaluable to users of Photoshop Elements 5 as it goes farther and explains better some of the more difficult operations in Elements. But it definitely is not easy, unless you are interested in only the most basic aspects of photo editing.I gave this book 5 stars because it deals elegantly with a difficult subject. Almost all my students buy this book, and they all love it. Granted, being taught in a classroom is easier than tackling it on your own, but this book and some serious effort will get you well on your way. Is it perfect? No, but it is the best of its genre. One unexpected nice feature - if I select a photo to edit from the Elements 5 organizer while working on my desktop computer, where I have both Elements 5 and CS2 installed, the Elements 5 organizer politely asks me wich version of photoshop I want to use to edit it. Very nice! The organizer in Elements 5 is so good that I use it to keep my (thousands) of images organized. Good job Adobe! I guess what I am saying is this "any version of Photoshop is complicated and Elements 5 is no exception". You will need to put some heavy effort into it, but the rewards are huge. This book will be a great asset in those efforts.

Adobe Photoshop Elements keeps piling on the features and has lost a little of its "easy Photoshop" tone, but you won't find even this significant upgrade in the program confusing if you use this Dummies book to learn the robes. I loved the color photos and clear explanations of all the new features (I'd previously used Elements 4.0) and even learned something new about features that had been in my earlier version of the product. Highly recommended.

Thee seems to be a trend in software that they have to keep comming up with new releases to get people to send in more money. But after version three or four, it seems that the new features that they are adding aren't really features that you'd use. Look at Microsoft Word, which of the new features do you really use? But also look at WordPad. It's grown until it's about the equivalent of Word 3.0 or something like that. It's faster, smaller, easier to use and pretty much does what you want, in some cases even better than Word itself.

Photoshop Elements is kind of the same way. It was once a consumer grade, junior version of Photoshop. But it's now in it's fifth edition. It still doesn't have some of the features found in the full scale Photoshop, but would you use those features? And remember Photoshop Elements is $85 on Amazon, full blown Photoshop is $584.

This book describes what you can do with Photoshop Elements. It's one of the new full color 'For Dummies' books; it would kind of have to be to be meaningful for this kind of software. Amateur or pro just turning digital, this is an excellent book.

Photoshop Elements 5 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
It has helped so much. I wasn't too familar with the program when I bought it I only knew that I wanted what it offered. It isn't something however that the normal person can figure out by trail and error in a reasonable amount of time. This is a book that makes the hard work worth it and the results aren't hours and hours away. Great purchase

This is the rosetta stone for all new photoshop users. I gave up on the program-neither the adobe workbook or intuition/experience worked until I got this book. A must have for people who want to take their picts to a higher level!

I found this book to be helpful to me. I enjoy photography and I have purchased photoshop elements but I was unable to use it I just simply didn't know how. This book made it a lot easier for me to understand.

This book is terrific. It guides you step-by-step and helps you to understand the Photoshop Elements 5 process. I highly recommend this book.

I am new to using Photo Shop Elements. This book makes it easy for me to select areas of interest or to follow the structured layout without getting lost or overwhelmed which, makes it easier to become competent with new skills.

The book much easier to follow than the manual that comes with the software. If you want to learn about how to make layers this is the book to buy.