The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: options bar, new layer, layer mask, Clone Stamp, Input Levels, Sample All Layers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Bring out all your old storage boxes of photos, and open up all the images you've shot that were just "okay." In his latest book, Matt Kloskowski shows you how to restore old photos and retouch newer ones to make your images go from so-so to great. Matt trains thousands of people each year, showing them exactly how to make their photos (and the people in those photos) look their very best. He won't bog readers down with unnecessary details, but instead will show them, with clear step-by-step instructions, the best techniques in Photoshop Elements to make the best images. Everyone wants their photos to look great, and to be appreciated and noticed by their family and friends. With Matt's newest book, readers will learn the most useful techniques for restoring old photos--from removing dust and mold to repairing scratches and tears--and retouching images of people--including specific sections about working on difficult areas, such as the eyes and mouth.

About the Author

Matt Kloskowski is the Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, editor-in-chief of the Photoshop Elements Techniques newsletter, and (along with Scott Kelby and Dave Cross) co-host of Adobe Photoshop TV, the popular video podcast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (January 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321481658
• ISBN-13: 978-0321481658
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #346,301 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Throw out your other digital retouching books!, June 18, 2007

By	Dianna Murphy "digital photographer" (Geyserville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I've taken online classes, read plenty of books, spent many hours tring to interpret instuctions on portrait retouching. I read Matt's book and was like "oh that's how you do it". The light came on and stayed lit through all his tutorials. Best thing... you don't have to read the whole book to learn Elements. Want to retouch eyes - just go to that portion of the book. No need to have read previous chapters/pages. People who have never used Elements can understand his instructions easily. Matt writes with wit and gets right to the point. I love this book and keep it right next to my key board for reference.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BY FAR THE BEST FOR A BEGINNER, March 22, 2007

By	IMA BASSETCASE (NASHVILLE, TN) - See all my reviews

Having used various photo editing programs with little effort, I decided to purchase PhotoShop Elements 5.0. Much to my distress, it has proven to be much more complicated than I had anticipated. Viewing the tutorials, and the help topics supplied with Elements did me little good. I am still unfamiliar with most of the Elements tools, but since I mainly use it for editing my photos, this book has been great! The book takes you step by step through the process of a specific project so that you do not have to learn what all the tools do until you need to use them. I would recommend it for anyone who uses Elements to edit their photographs - even the more advanced users. I wish all the manuals I have bought were written like this!

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Matt's Best Work Yet..., May 19, 2007

By	R. A Gibson (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a Photoshop User, I don't use Elements, so I was a bit put off given the focus was on Elements and frankly didn't know if anyone could come close to matching the worthiness of Katrin Eismann's seminal works on the same subject. But on the strength of Scott Kelby's (ostensibly Matt's boss at NAPP) recommendation on his blog, I went ahead and ordered a copy.

Suffice to say, I'm glad I did. From beginning to end, this book is SUBSTANTIVE. Matt has wisely decided to adopt Scott's bottom up approach... that is, Matt presents the issue at the beginning of a section and then shows you how to address the problem (so be forewarned, this is NOT an Elements primer) quickly and effectively. And of course, given that Elements is by and large a subset of its big brother, all the techniques described are easily applied in Photoshop.

In the end, Matt has done well enough that he too can sit on the same stage as Ms. Katrin Eismann (if you haven't read any of her stuff, you should, she is just flat brilliant). My copy is soon to be dogeared as I will be attempting to script as many of the techniques as I can... for those that I can't, I'm practicing the technique and then creating a spreadsheet with 2 columns; Problems & Solutions as there are just a TON of solutions in this work.

So, even if you are a Photoshop bigot like me, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. It is Matt's best work yet.