The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Are you ready for an Elements book that breaks all the rules–again?

 

Like the best-selling former edition, The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that’s rarely done–it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly "how to do it." It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure things out on your own. Instead, it does something that virtually no other Elements book has ever done–it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why.

 

If you’re looking for one of those "tell-me-everything-about-the-Unsharp-Mask-filter" books, this isn’t it. You can grab any other Elements book on the shelf, because they all do that. Instead, this book gives you the inside tips and tricks of the trade for correcting, editing, sharpening, retouching, and presenting your photos like a pro. You’ll be absolutely amazed at how easy and effective these techniques are–once you know the secrets.

 

Newly updated to cover Photoshop Elements 4, this full-color, easy-to-follow guide includes new tips that take advantage of Elements 4's hottest new features, including the Magic Selection Brush, which offers a quick way to make accurate selections in your photos; Magic Extractor, which lets you select an image and instantly remove the background; Auto Red Eye and Auto Skin tone tools; cool slideshow effects (text, graphics, narration, pans and zooms, and more); online sharing service; and more!

This book is for Windows users only.

About the Author

Scott Kelby is President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), and is Editor-in-Chief of both Photoshop User and Layers magazines. Scott serves as training director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour and is technical chair of the largest Photoshop gathering in the industry, Photoshop World. He is one of the leading Photoshop trainers in the country today, both in person and in a series of training videos. He has also written six best-selling books on Photoshop and on digital photography, including The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers, Photoshop Elements 3 Down & Dirty Tricks, Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips, and The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press; 1st edition (November 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321384830
• ISBN-13: 978-0321384836
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #384,104 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THis really is for advanced users, February 4, 2006

By	Earl J. Mcgehee "earl49" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book does not waste any time or space on basic Elements tasks or explanations of all the menu items. All tasks are logically grouped into chapters like Cropping, Color Correction, Fixing Image Problems, Retouching Portraits, Removing Objects, Photo Restoration, and Sharpening. The slightly oversized format allows lots of room for the many photos and screen shots. A simple, removable grey scale reference card is included.
One of the most impressive features of this book is the tips that show you how to accomplish a number of important tasks that you would expect to need the much more expensive PhotoShop CS to perform. For example there is a procedure for layering bracketed exposures to produce a photo with details in the shadows and highlights.
This book has to be compared to Philip Andrews "Advanced Photoshop 4.0 Elements" book. Even though it includes the word "advanced" in the title it is less advanced than this book by Kelby in most every respect. For example Kelby has a chapter on editing RAW pictures and the Andrews book only has 2 pages.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick start guide for amateurs, yet advanced for growth, April 16, 2006

By	luvdata (Fremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I've worn out the library copy of Kelby's previous Photoshop Elements 3 book, so when this version came out, I bought it immediately.

Photoshop Elements is a photography buff's dream come true. However, because the software is feature-rich, it also has a steep learning curve. Kelby's previous book got me started in a jif, and had me working with the techniques pros use. This book is no exception.

For those of you who have not seen the inside of Kelby's 400+ page book, each of the pages is done in full color graphics, with a glossy finish. Instructions are given in steps, with most techniques using only a few steps, and some techniques going into the high teens. Thus far, I've found that I've been able to follow each one I've tried.

The techniques Kelby outlines are useful and not difficult once he's shown you how. In particular, I like his section on working with faces, as most of my photographs are of people. Other valuable sections include keystoning, color correction and selection (layer) techniques.

For background, I'm a photographer wannabe, but realistically a full-time white-collar worker. I find time to work with images about two hours a week, so I like to do it as efficiently as I can. This book has been invaluable to that task.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great book!, July 27, 2006

By	Keefo (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Don't be scared away from buying this book because some reviewers here say, "It's not for beginners." True, it doesn't take you through the product menu by menu and tell you what each little tool or piece of functionality does. But if you want to learn the basics of photo editing (anything more advanced than the auto fix options)in Photoshop Elements 4, this is definitely a good book for you.

I was just a beginner to any kind of photo editing when I bought Elements and picked up this book at the same time. I've used it extensively over the last 6 months to dramatically improve my photos. The step-by-step guidance makes this very useful for the beginner. I strongly recommend picking this up.