Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Photoshop Elements 6 (Teach Yourself VISUALLY (Tech))

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been using this book for the last week or so. I've paged through the entire book and read about half of it.

Pros: 1. The book is very easy to read - no complicated jargon I don't understand. 2. There are lots of pictures/sample photos, for us visual learners. 3. The step-by-step instructions are fabulous! Even a total computer idoit like myself can follow these instructions. 4. The chapters are well organized. It's easy for me to find what I need. I keep this right by my computer and refer to it constantly.

Cons: 1. I can find no mention of how to use the "Face/Head Swapping" tool. For me, with small children in the home, that was a big selling point to Elements 6 (we can never seem to get a photo were everyone is smiling). I figured it out on my own, but I find it odd there is no mention of it in the book... or maybe I just missed it, but I've looked several times. 2. Right now, I am trying to create a PhotoBook and it's driving me crazy! There are little to no instructions on the program and the book only has a small blurb about PhotoBooks that is NOT helpful. I also had trouble trying to figure out how to create collage/scrapbook pages... maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like it shouldn't be this hard. The

Step-by-step, visual ties between text and screen illustrations, no long paragraphs or sentences with several embedded steps. East to return to the book later to refresh understanding of a particular operation.

This is the way all manuals should be written.

This is the second Teach Yourself book I have purchased. My first was for Photoshop Elements 4.0. I found that book so well done and easy to use that when I bought Elements 6.0 I waited for the latest Teach Yourself Visually to be published. It covers all of the functions of the program that you are likely to use. I find that pictures and words help me to learn much quicker. If you need to be refreshed in some area of the program you can do it quickly. I find this publication and all of the series of Teach Yourself Visually publications a must to have.

The screen shots and clip art are great. However, the book is very elementary and doesn't address many techniques in depth. For instance, it touches on albums and keytags, but doesn't talk about categories at all. It says it tells how to add photos to catalogs, but it doesn't. It doesn't discuss how to use catalogs, albums, categories, sub-categories and keytags to really organize photos.

It does a nice job explaining layers, so it is worth the money I spent for that. However, it doesn't talk about how to do some common, basic tasks such as erasing power lines and window air conditioners from photos.

I am searching for a more comprehensive book on Elements 6.0.

At last a PhotoShop book that is easy to use and understand. As the old saying goes, One picture is worth a thousand words. Following along with the pictures makes difficult tasks easy. In a few instances, the pictures do need some additional explanation for a complete understanding. However, that is more than offset by the ease of things like layers, gradients, & selections. I am sold on the Visual books.

I love this book. I purchased two other books before this one on photoshop elements 6. This is the best. It simplified every project.

This book would be ideal for someone without any experience in working with photographs. For me it was too basic, and unfortunately it put me to sleep from the boredom! Every little tiny thing is mentioned as far as what to do on the keyboard. After going through several pages of basics and still not being able to do anything such as loading photos into the right place, I would finally try to figure out what I wanted to know on my own. Then the frustration would set in. Finally I discarded this book and took some classroom lessons! Good luck to all of you!

This manual has quite a few shortcomings. It's main shortcoming is it doesn't tell you how to combine portions or whole pictures. Most people will want to do this. I suggest you get a more comprehensive manual that covers this.

Not too good in taking you step by step to the end of your project.

Ocassionally I've found a few visuals that don't match my screen.........then I have to go back to a previous chapter and try to work through it. It might be that I have a slightly different version of PSE 6. Sometimes the visual is a bit small for my old eyes. But in all, the chapters are well done.