Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions: The Art of Digital Photography

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a wonderfully written and super informative book. Recently I bought Photoshop Elements 2 and just dived right into it with this book, without first checking the manual or other sources. It was an easy and fun way to learn the program. As a psychology professor, I often determine if instructional texts are written with the student in mind. Mikkel Aaland certainly did that every step of the way in this book, such as, repeating the same steps as they occurred in each subsection, so the reader doesn't have to look back in the book to find the steps. From what I can tell, this is not often done in instruction books on digital photography or computer programs. When I wasn't sure why Mikkel Aalnad did what he did in the book, even though I was able to do it, I checked the manual after completing the steps in the book. The explanation in the program manual typically made a lot of sense to me, after using a particular tool or technique from the book. I found it much easier to understand a tool or technique, once I had gone through the steps and had seen the result. One example of this is the use of a layer with a gradient mask and relating the gradient to black and white colors. I don't believe I would have been able to understand the sketchy way all of that is presented in the program manual without first having done it and seen the results using this book. This is a must have book for someone starting out with Photoshop Elements. More advanced users will also pick up some valuable techniques from the book.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS2 SOLUTIONS
The Art of Digital Photography
AUTHOR: Mikkel Aaland
PUBLISHER: Sybex
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades

BOOK REVIEW: Photoshop is a powerful program and this book gives the reader many suggestions on how to enhance their photographs. The CD is almost as good as the book. There are 15 different software downloads to help Photoshop create pictures to almost perfect perfection.

"Photoshop Elements2 Solutions" has all the normal things a teaching book should have. How-to's on cropping, straightening, resizing, changing colors and fixing "bad" spots on pictures. It also tells how to improve backgrounds, add motion blur or depth, swapping images, moving items from the picture, and creating panoramics.

The author hasn't forgotten a section on text and even has a chapter on the web. Optimizing images by compression, using printers and photo services, and a reference section on layers, effects, tools, etc.

Here is a good book to have to help make your use of Photoshop that much easier. It is written in a step-by-step fashion with plenty of sidebar notes and visual aids. The ... price gives you a lot for your money.

Author Mikkel Aaland is a well-known pioneer in digital photography and writer, not only of books on photography, digital photography but on other subjects as well. If you've ever watched the Screensavers on Tech TV, you've seen Mikkel Aaland working his magic with Photoshop Elements, so you know that he knows exactly what he's talking about in the book. He has updated his first book, Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, to provide the reader with the latest information, tips, and step-by-step instructions to make full use of the improvements within PSE 2. If you are into photography, digital photography and image scanning, this book is a must for you.

Written for both PC and Mac user, this full color work first guides the reader through the basics of PSE 2, from setting preferences to where to go for help when using the program. Using his knowledge and skills, Mr. Aaland then walks us through the process that he uses to make ordinary images great ones; from deciding which tasks come first, controls, layer adjustments with masks to resizing and framing your images.

He approaches chapters with the eye of an experienced photographer, as shown in Chapter 3 where he goes into depth on Better Faces, the idea being to intensify the focus on one's eyes, eliminating red eye, getting rid of wrinkles (a must for us baby boomers!) and using simple techniques and tips to get the reader going in the right direction. You'll find yourself making faces more symmetrical, fixing hair, adding hair and even changing the color and tinting hair. Mr. Aaland even offers tips on producing better portraits and where to find more information on working with photographs.

The book continues with dealing with outside shots, product shots, transparent layers, texture, scale and perspective, even how to set up your own mini photo studio. Want to learn how to do composites, seamless pasting, improve your real estate photographs, balancing light? You'll be walked through the process one step at a time. One whole chapter is devoted to the Photomerge capabilities of PSE 2, including photomerging a collage.

With the photographer in mind, Mr. Aaland shows you how to add a photo credit, use type as headline or fill type with an image. You'll learn how to add additional effects to type, warp it, liquefy it, and even shape it. Chapter 10 will bring you to the lessons you need to learn to prepare images for the Web, including design components such as navigational graphics, backgrounds and photo galleries. The final two chapters of the book deal with understanding JPEGs, saving and emailing, compression and conversion of GIFs to JPEGs, and using desktop printers and other photography services. The appendix that is included in the book covers Layers, Effects, Selection Tools, Viewing and Navigation Tools, Brushes, Filters and Liquify Filters.

When you also consider the CD that comes with the book, which includes practice images, filters, demos of applications and utilities, and even a demo of a Photoshop Learning Studio, this book is well worth the cost. (Note- the original edition of this book had a CD which caused some problems for users of OS X. Sybex has corrected those problems and the new CD now works properly with OS 9 and X)

You can't go wrong with Mikkel when it comes to working with digital imagery. Highly recommended.

MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Russ Walkowich
...

As a recent convert to digital photography I came across Photoshop Elements software and began experimenting with it on my computer. It was fascinating but I only used a few of its features - although realizing there were many more available. My attempts to understand the more complex functions like the use of layers got bogged down in the detailed explanations within the program and in the users guide. While they were sufficiently detailed to explain how each feature worked individually, they never put them into a usable context. After seeing a recommendation for Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, I bought Mikkel Aalands' book.

It is a revelation. I feel I have gone from a rank amateur to a serious user after only a short time following the book's clear explanations and vivid examples. What this book does not do is explain every feature within the program. What it does do exceedingly well is provide practical examples of how to accomplish specific tasks that require you to group a number of features together and tells you step by step how to do so. It is helped immeasurably by an enclosed CD that enables you to follow the book's instructions and perform the steps yourself on your computer. Layers and a lot of other functions are now easy for me to understand and use. Disappointing pictures I have taken are now being transformed into really nice photographs.

Equally important it gives you the fundamental basis and the motivation to further explore how to use the program.

The book is written for both Photoshop Elements Versions 1 and 2. It helpfully explains where they differ.

I highly recommend this for users of the Photoshop Elements program and believe it will benefit newcomers to digital editing as well as experienced users.

The new scanner that I bought a few months ago, came bundled with Photoshop Elements. I was happy at first to see this scaled-down version of Adobe's Photoshop, but my delight soon turned into frustration when I tried to use it. Sure, I could do the simple things with moderate success, but the full power of this amazing software was beyond my reach.

That is until I bought Mikkel Aaland's wonderful book, Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, The Art of Digital Photography.

Mr. Aaland must have had me in mind when he created this book, because his "solutions" were the answers to my very problems. He cleared away the barriers that prevented my making the sharp, bright images that I wanted. He provides step by step instructions that anyone can follow. It was as if I was priviledged to have a Photoshop expert looking over my shoulder has I worked on restoring my old images.

The book comes with a CD that contains the images Mr. Aaland uses as examples in his book. But the book is so well written that you can use your own photos to follow his instruction.

Without this book, I never would have discovered the time-saving utilities in Photoshop Elements. I'm running a photo contest in my community and was facing many hours of resampling images to post on the web. Mr. Aaland's Solutions showed me how to to it in minutes, not days.

Other instruction books on how to use software are notoriously heavy, dull, and repetitive. They focus on the tools and not the tasks. Not this one. It's open, easy-to-read layout makes you want to read it straight through.

My thanks to Mikkel Aaland for producing such a fine book.

Photoshop Elements can be a daunting program for a new user, but there's help out there in the form of "Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions", by Mikkel Aaland. The earlier version of this excellent book was my first purchase after acquiring Elements, and it turned out to be a very fortunate choice. The book takes you gently and carefully through all the key tools and processes of Elements, guiding you through a combination of clearly written text and easy-to-follow examples. The depth is just right for a new user, yet it's also a book that an intermediate user will return to again and again as new editing challenges arise.

After getting up to speed with the first edition and Elements 1.0, I moved up to Elements 2.0 and, once again, Mikkel Aaland was there with a revised edition of his classic. The treatment of the differences between the versions is particularly good, highlighted by a comprehensive summary of the changes that provides a quick overview of what's new and improved.

As a participant on Adobe's Photoshop Elements forum, I'm often asked to recommend a book to new users of the program; my answer is always the same: "Solutions" by Aaland.

First, the warning. On a TV interview (I think it was TechTV) I believe it was the actual author of this book being interviewed. He said that if you read the first book "Photoshop Elements Solutions", that "Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions" would be good if you had upgraded to the Photoshop Elements 2 software program. Well, if you already own the first edition of this book, you DO NOT need to spend the money on the second.

As a matter of fact, book 2 is simply a complete copy reprint of book one, with only a very few added pages ( I counted maybe 3-5 ) to cover new features in the new version of the program. That's it. Everything else is the same. Those extra 3-5 pages are not worth an average of $20.00.

To those who do NOT own book one, and who do own version 2 of the software, yes, this is a great book. The lessons are easy to understand, well written, and helpful. For these people, it is well worth the money.

This is a wordy introduction to Elements 2. Mr. Aaland provides a good rationale for improvement with photographs and how they may be accomplished. This is important - as it is not immediately obvious what improvements need to be made to a photograph when starting out in digital photography.

However, his approach is wordy - and you have to plough through a lot of (unnecessary) text to go through the individual steps. Some people like wordy explanations, others a more visual guide to a visual medium.

Secondly, and this is a personal feeling, it is clear that Mr. Aaland makes his living by writing computer manuals and not in graphics or as a photographer. The photographs supplied on the CD and in the book are of the mundane snapshot variety. This may be fine if you are simply working on mundane snapshots - however, for me (and I am sure others), I am looking for approaches to improve more artistic photographs. (If you are looking for help with this and you are visiting the UK, I recommend you buy a copy of Digital Photo magazine [not Digital Photography or other similarly named magazines] - you will get a lot of clearly, explained advice there).

So a mixed bag. If you are looking for a reasonable comprehensive 'textbook' on PE2 then consider this. If you are through the basics and are looking for a deeper explanation of advanced features and artistic management, then I suggest you look elsewhere. For me, the book falls short of my needs and interests and the CD photographs are disappointing.

Hope this helps!

This handsomely produced tutorial, with color photo's and screen shots on just about every page of quality paper, is THE way to progress from mid-beginner level to skilled user - with the option to become an advanced professional given enough time. As one can tell from the mixed reviews, this is NOT a newbie's introduction to PSE2. Some basic comfort (but not necessarily expertise) with Tools, Selections, Help system, Palette Well and Layers is essential. Sybex marketing includes beginners in its blurb - you'd be disappointed and very frustratred. Once you have the basics under your belt, however, and realize the need to go beyond PSE2's nice (but limited) QuickFix command choices, this book will get you there. The accompanying CD has every technique covered with a work-along image; so you don't waste time downloading (often incomplete) chapter images from a website. Clearly, the author has spent a great deal of time and thought on effectively communicating his vast experience. After presenting general principles of 'cleaning up' that will benefit most any digital image, come well-organized chapters arranged by topics so you can concentrate on specifics: portraits, landscapes, buildings (including real estate photography), objects, composites, panoramas, etc. With the wealth of approaches to solving particular problems, you'd better plan on spending some time - but it's time well spent. The many uses of layers are explored so thoroughly (including workarounds) that the difference between professional Photoshop and Elements virtually vanishes. PC and Mac users are served equally well by this book. There are literally hundreds of tips and techniques buried in this book - but, to repeat, it will take patience and determination on the reader's part to get all you can out of this book. Coupled with a good introductory text (and I haven't found one yet), the program's excellent tutorials, and Adobe's top-notch help system, this book will take you all the way to the top. Of the several dozen PSE2 books I have read, Mikkel Aaland's book is my top recommendation. Other authors seem more interested in quantity than in quality, and few have taken that extra step to combine high-quality production with a complete image gallery on CD in an inexpensive yet most attractive and readable package.

Addendum: Now that I've made the first runthrough of the book (took me some 6 weeks!) I am all the more impressed with this author's presentation, and the publisher's production. This is a veritable storehouse of literally hundreds (not just 40 or 50 or 99 or 106) techniques, alternative approaches, hints, tricks, insider secrets and pearls of wisdom I haven't found anywhere else. I'm going back for seconds in special areas such as portrait retouching and web optimization and am astounded by the new things I hadn't absorbed the first time around. Aaland's "PSE2 Solutions", combined with Lynch's "Hidden Power of PSE2" (and the Power-User Tools on that CD) will elevate you to PSE2 expert in far less time than it took these authors to learn the long hard way. My original caption of AWESOME probably doesn't do Mikkel Aaland full justice for the hard work and enormous effort expended to pass on his knowledge; I, for one, truly appreciate finding a lifetime's experience condensed in compactly readable (and viewable) form.

This is a very informative book! It gives the reader the latest step by step information, and great tips. If you use digital photography or scanning images of photography, weather on a professional level or a hobby, this is truly the book for you.

It gives great info on cropping, resizing changing colors, straightening and fixing photos. Adding motion blur, swapping images, moving items and how to make better backgrounds. For both the PC and MAC user.

Lots of visual aids, and has plenty of sidebar notes. This book lets you make the most out of software for the minimal cost to get this job done. A penny well spent!