Customer Reviews

Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like earlier versions of Photoshop Elements (PSE), Photoshop Elements 8 is both powerful and complex. While it has some automated functions, users hoping to harness its full power are going to need some help. Barbara Brundage offers this help in a detailed guide that explores the higher functions of PSE, while respecting the challenges many readers may have in grasping complex technology.

Brundage offers both conceptual overviews and tutorials of PSE 8's interface and functions. She effectively breaks down the the concepts of file management, basic editing, image manipulation and sharing of the results of these digital editing techniques. Particularly useful are the two appendices, which provide a summary of ALL of the (many many!)menu items in the two main components of PSE (its editor and the organizer).

Minor deficiencies are present in this book. While it certainly provides sound advice on avoiding Adobe's deliberate efforts to guide consumers to a purchase of the "Plus" version of the online extension to PSE 8, it doesn't mention the wide scope of Adobe's data collection of user activities associated with this (in both the free and "Plus" online adjuncts). Advice to consumers to read the EULA if they have concerns about how Adobe will collect their data would have been a welcome addition. Also, the book correctly states that PSE 8 can be installed with earlier versions of PSE. While this is true (and you won't be forced to uninstall any earlier version), it doesn't mention that PSE 8 will force you to choose which single version of PSE you'll want to keep using. Finally, the book says that "the help files that ship with Elements are sometimes incomplete". More correctly, in PSE they are absent. The Help menu in PSE 8 launches a browser and takes you online, where all the help content is located. You can download a 27 MB .pdf help file (which users without persistent connectivity should consider).

These are small shortcomings that do not detract seriously from the overall worth of this book, which is valuable tool with great utility for serious amateur (or frugal professional) photographers or digital artists expanding their craft.

I recently ordered Elements 8 and I have used many photo editing programs but knew if I wanted to get the full use of the software I would need a guide beyond the help menus. I ordered this book and Elements 8 for Dummies thinking that this book would be more tech talk-ish. I was wrong this book is the one I use more! It is very easy to follow and has much better in-depth info! I was also amazed that it got to N. Iraq in 7 days!..thanx Amazon!

This book Rocks. I opened my Package from Amazon & was blown away. The book covers anything & everything inside Photoshop 8. The best part is its simple to understand & makes using photoshop elements 8 a dream. I'm very happy with the product, and as an underwater photographer this was money well spent!

If you haven't used Photoshop, turn to Page 9 in the Intro of this book--it lays out what Chapters you MUST read in order to get started. I found Photoshop Elements 8 to provide so many options that this book was a must have for me. It got me up and running fast.

All of the "Missing Manual" books seem to be better for me to use than the other books I've tried. There is a greater depth of material. Also included with the book is on line help from the book's author. I'm no computer dummy, but I do need help with photo programs and toggling back and forth between the help pages and the photos upon which I am working makes me frustrated. These books make that problem disappear.

Any student of Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual will find this updated edition of a best-seller simply indispensable. It teaches tools from Photoshop but more importantly, covers the basics of when to use it - and why. Step-by-step instructions cover everything from importing photos to editing, sharing and storing images. From beginning to advanced techniques, this walks you through all the basics and is an indispensable pick for any lending or personal Photoshop collection.

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.

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 Mac", I've read both as I often use the Mac version of Photoshop.)

After installing Photoshop Elements 8 with only the provided usermanual, I was glad to know this book was on its way.
The software offers a lot, the problem is getting the know how.
This book deliveres a lot of that knowledge in a way that is easy to read and understand. It has help me to organise and edit my pictures faster and better then with any other software. A lot of that would have taken me a long time to discover by myself. (even if I normally do not read user manuals)
I recommend this book to any newbees to Photoshop Elements (as my self),
do not know how that would apply to someone with prior experience with the software.

I admit I am new to Adobe and I realize it is a complex piece of soft ware. I eagerly awaited this book because the program is not at all intuitive. Once I recieved the book, I was eager to dive in, I was quickly disappointed. Though I have an MBA from a top school and am far from stupid, I found this book often incomprensible to a beginner. It seems to presume a level of knowledge no new person would have, the task instructions while often detailed sometimes are either incomlete or vague and often you can not find the tool, icon, menu the author speaks of.

It refers you back and forth from section to section. The visual aides are often on pages somewhat removed from the instructions. And, forget the index. I was simply trying to learn how to save an altered image and felt like I needed a missing manual to the Missing Mannual. Between Adobe designers and those who are trying to help decifer the hiroglyphics, goood luck. Any one out there have a better solution, I'm game.