Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Author Barbara Brundage is no stranger to anyone who has previously read a book on Photoshop Elements or has visited the Adobe Elements user forum. Thanks to her and the entire concept of the "missing" series for jobs well done. Picking up the book for the first time will have you eager to delve further into both the program and the book as you read different ways to accomplish things and see new features in the software. There are almost always several different approaches to editing methods and all will be explained, yielding perhaps different and more efficient methods for you.

If you are a beginner to Elements you will greatly appreciate this manual for clear explanations and profuse cross referencing. One will be tempted to skip ahead (and often need to go back and study something in more detail.) The thoughtful and frequent cross referencing makes it possible and increases the value and usefulness of the book.

Adobe Bridge CS4 is included in PSE v8 for the Mac and covered extensively enough so that a new user can employ Bridge in its most useful ways. Bridge, we are taught, gives more intricate control of opening RAW files than does Elements itself. In a similar way iPhoto is covered and one can learn the strengths of using Bridge or iPhoto to advantage.

The printed words are dark enough and easy to read--no skimping on ink in this book--but the illustrations are also dark and often rather obscure. While the paper used feels substantial and the book's binding strong, perhaps the paper is not the best for photographs and obliterates some details. More readers may see the need for the missing cd available and explained in the book. The index is useful and seems comprehensive, one of the hallmarks in my opinion of a well done book.

Mac users have patiently waited a long time for Adobe's latest release of Photoshop Elements. They won't be disappointed. The program has been vastly improved with several inspiring new features.

But alas, with no written documentation readily readable-- just online help; it's hard to understand how to work the new improvements without doing extensive trial and error.

Enter Brundage's treatise on how the program works. She makes it simple and you seem to can't wait to try the new features on your own. She explains in detail and gives you many examples.

You may find yourself nodding as read the book as she simplifies many of the tasks of editing digital photos. She just explains things simply and so well. This is the mission of The Missing Manual Series.

Early she begins with Finding Your Way Around Elements-- the new stuff that's been added is explained and there are plenty of pictures and snapshots of the program to fully explain what's new and what has been retained and what's been enhanced.

I especially liked The Quick Fix chapter: Many of my fellow amateur photographers will pay great attention to this chapter since it is the simple fix that fellow photographers are typically after. Adjusting skin tones really works well and makes our subject look real human.

Another chapter of interest is Basic Image Retouching. This is the heart of the program and where it shines. The topics are simple and very far reaching in digital imaging. For me when I use my point and shoot camera I find that I have exposure problems. Not sure why- but I do. The book explains how to use simple tools to greatly enhance my photos.

Many of you who use iPhoto will want to have the Photoshop Elements 8 on board on your Mac. iPhoto and Elements 8 work together and you can move within both programs fairly simply. Your photos will be the beneficiary of how both programs can works almost seamlessly. Brundage shows you how to do this with aplomb.

The book has wonderful examples of problem photos and how Elements 8 can fix them. The before and after examples are truly striking. The detailed explanations are really helpful. Soon thereafter you're anxious to attack your own flawed pics with the program's help.

Recently installed PSE8 (for Mac), and had hoped to master its latest functions and commands with Brundage's superb common-sense guidance packed in her "Missing Manual" series. As we have come to expect, the book is complete and comprehensive without being overwhelming, making for a pleasant read with its subtle humor; it retains its standing as 'THE Elements Bible' to get answers to buried menu commands in crystal clear words . Brundage certainly is eminently qualified to share her in-depth understanding of graphics software, witness her patient help and sharp insight on Adobe's Elements forums. As a user-friendly reference, this book readily qualifies for that rare 5-star seal of approval.

Slipping though, is the book's impact as a common sense tutorial. Not that the writing isn't first class, but rather because of lack of a quality [ie, better than web thumbnails] "Missing CD"; all the more because the pulpy paper takes colored inks poorly. This becomes painfully evident when turning to the well-written 'Table Setting' layers tutorial, recycling the same long-in-the tooth images as those of versions past, with a 525x500 blown-out 'Table' background layer, and an even coarser, pitifully pixelated, 'Silverware' image. It's a shame that the lucid exploration of Element's 'Lighting Effects' filter was shortchanged for lack of a companion tryout image. That is: the author's website needs updating, pruning and tighter integration with the book's chapters ... frankly I'd rather pay two more bucks (and add two stars to the tutorial rating) for a high quality CD insert so as to get a 5-star tutorial along with the 5-star reference manual.

In short: highly recommended as THE complete PSE8 reference bible; but am less enamored of the book's impact as a newbie tutorial, mainly for lack of worthy work-along photos ... it's like reading an algebra textbook without to-the-point exercises.

I'm a first time photoshop user, I was really against the idea of ever changing or enhancing your photos, I always thought you need to get them right in the Camera or it will be cheating, I'm not here to tell you why I changed my mind or how come I got to know how wrong I am. I want to share with you what I think about the book. I ordered both photoshop elements and this guide from Amazon the same day (I had downloaded the trial from Adobe website a couple of months back and then deleted it as I thought photoshop elements was complex and it is). I started reading the book and going over elements step by step and page by page. I am getting there and I'm loving it. It is a great way to teach you photoshop and it's working for me as a first time user. I'm having a wild time either simply enhancing my photos are just completely changing them. the possibilities are endless and the sky is the limit. This book as a great tool to teach you photoshop and get you where you'll be comfortable with a complex yet powerful software.

This book justifiably claims to be the manual that should have come with Photoshop Elements 8. It explains how to use the program in a step-by-step, understandable, logical manner. Having worked my way through the first third of the book, I can hardly believe that I originally tried to use Elements 8 without it or some other explanatory text. The on-line tutorials provided by the Adobe web site are useful, but they do not provide the detailed explanation that the new user really needs. Plus, the book does a great job of tying together the disparate parts of Elements 8. While this book is enormously useful, the reader will be required to work hard to understand and apply what is being taught. Elements 8 is a powerful but complex program, and there will be a long learning curve. But, this book will give the new user the tool he/she needs to move up that learning curve.

For those of us who do not plan to read and understand every word of the Help menus included in the long-awaited version 8 of Photoshop Elements for the Mac, this book is indispensable. Brundage does all the work for us. And in the vaunted tradition of the Missing Manual series, this book provides the answers and guidance needed to learn or to master Elements 8.

The abundantly-detailed Table of Contents and Index make finding things easy. The Introduction gives a quick and valuable description of the new features in v. 8, many of which are not readily apparent to the user, such as the new Smart Brush and Touch-Up tools. As Brundage explains, v. 8 now generously includes Adobe Bridge CS4, which provides all the tools available in the full Photoshop CS4. It is a powerful, richly-featured editing tool which can be used with any image format.

While new users of Elements will find Parts One and Two basic and helpful, experienced users of Elements will find new tricks and tips in Parts Three and Four. Part Three, Retouching, and Part Four, Artistic Elements, are replete with descriptions, step-by-step directions and illustrations which both new and advanced users will find illuminating and skill-enhancing. Ironically and surprisingly, the photographs in this book are poorly rendered due to the quality of the paper used in the production of the book, substantially reducing their effectiveness.

Part Five, Sharing Your Images, includes sections on creating projects (such as photo books, CD/DVD labels, greeting cards), printing photos (ordering or printing at home), emailing photos and preparing them for the web. iPhoto users can and may prefer to do many of these things more easily in iPhoto. Using the best features of each program, Elements and iPhoto, provides a rich menu of options.

Part Six, Additional Elements, provides a wealth of resources including websites, (Adobe's own Adobe Exchange is particularly helpful), where users can find brushes, textures, plug-ins, actions, and custom shapes, many of which are free, to add to those in v. 8. The tutorials and forums referenced are a good source of information and help as well.

Easily overlooked, Part Seven, Appendixes, includes useful menu-by-menu explanations for Elements and Bridge CS4, describing and defining each menu item, many of which are far from self-explanatory.

This book deserves to be close by anytime one is working in Photoshop Elements 8. It is comprehensive, current, invaluable.

Never having used Photoshop Elements this book was a great reference tool. The program itself is fairly user friendly but it was always a relief to have this book by my side when any questions came up, and helped me find some hidden tools that have made my photos look great! Not only does the book cover Elements it also covers Bridge which is included with the program and importing photos into it. Like all the books I have bought from the Missing Manual series this was great!

I've just started using Photoshop Elements. I tried to figure it out without any reference material and quickly found out that it was way over my head. The book sits next to my computer whenever I'm in Elements. Even with the book it is a difficult program to understand. It is a good reference book and I was tempted to give it a 5 star review, but I find the pictures hard to see due to the type of paper it is printed on. Also, it is a very inclusive manual so sometimes it take me a lot longer to find the steps I need to take to get a task done. All-in-all it is the best reference source for Elements that I could find and I'm glad I picked it up.

Manual is clearly written and very helpful. The book binding however leaves a lot to be desired. If one tries to really use this book as you are supposed to do to learn how to use the software, it quickly starts to fall apart. Besides, it being a manual that you are likely to keep and refer back to from time to time, I wish they would have made it more durable.

I agree with the other reviews, this book does bear its name: clear explanations and an honest approach that tells you what parts are worth using, and when (or if at all!) Photoshop, even the "Elements" version, is fairly complicated as far as software goes. This book goes a long way toward breaking it down for you, I really enjoyed it.

There is a learning curve to this program: you have to wrap your mind around certain concepts. I use it for making web graphics for web design jobs. Like a lot of people, I was using GRSites for a long time, but Photoshop is really essential in the long run, and this book really took me a long way towards mastering it. Get this book, you can't lose. Great job, Barbara!


(I am also posting this review, slightly modified, to the author's "Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows", I've read both as I sometimes use the Windows version of Photoshop.)