Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: slide show editor, photo collage, magnetic lasso, Quick Fix, Full Edit, Color Picker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual provides the best possible guidance to scrapbookers, photographers at every level, budding graphic artists--anyone who wants to get the most out of the latest Elements upgrade.

Author Barbara Brundage’s Top 10 Elements Tips
1. Always back up your photos as soon as you get them out of your camera. You can use the Organizer's backup or disc-burning feature (File->Backup Catalog to CD, DVD or Hard Drive) for this, or you can use your computer's built-in disc-burning utility. For really important photos (wedding and baby pix, for example), it's not a bad idea to burn a disc and keep that someplace else, like your safe deposit box or with a friend or relative. Then, no matter what happens, you won't have to worry about losing your photos.
2. Never, ever work on your original photo. If you use the Organizer, good news: Elements already has your back. It creates version sets, which allow you to save different states of your image as you edit. You can create as many different versions of a photo as you like and go back to any one of them at any time. And if you’re working with RAW files you can't alter your original (only the conversion settings). If you don't use the Organizer, make a copy of the picture (File->Duplicate) and work on that. This way you can always start over again if you get a better idea later on.
3. Sharing photos with the Organizer. There are all kinds of fun, creative ways to share your photos in Elements 6, and the Organizer makes it super easy to explore them all. Try a slideshow with music and commentary, or upload your photos to EasyShare or one of the other online services to create mugs, bags, and other cool gift items with your photos on them.
4. Don't scorn the auto buttons. If you've never tried these one-click fixes--Auto Levels or Auto Color, for example--give ‘em a try. Each version of Elements gets a little smarter and you may find that you like the results you get from one of these easy-to-use fixes.
5. Panoramas for everyone. You don't need to feel wistful anymore about the fact that your point and shoot camera's lens doesn't have a true wide-angle setting. Take a series of photos with, ideally, about a 30% overlap and Elements' Photomerge will automatically stitch them together into a panorama wider than you could have captured with the widest lens. (If you've tried Photomerge in previous editions of Elements, the Photomerge in Elements 6 is a whole new thing--totally automated and it does terrific blending to eliminate visible seams between images.)
6. Batch processing with RAW. If you shoot RAW format photos, now you can apply the same settings to multiple pictures at once. Just open all the RAW files you want to work on, and then click to select each of their thumbnail-sized photos. Elements will then apply any edits you've made to the current photo to all the pictures you've just selected.
7. Crop creatively. Unless you plan to print on standard photo paper, don't feel compelled to crop your photos to standard photo paper sizes and shapes. Use cropping to emphasize the best parts of your photo if you plan to use the image for the Web or to print at home.
8. Take credit, quickly. You can put copyright info on your photos by using the Watermark feature in the Process Multiple Files dialog box (File->Process Multiple Files), or you can create a custom brush: just type what you want (the copyright symbol is Alt+0169 in Windows, Option+G on a Mac), then select your type and go to Edit->Define Brush. Save your brush and from now on you've got a one-click copyright notice.
9. Black and white are beautiful. The Convert to Black and White feature in Elements does a great job, especially if you use the sliders to tweak your adjustments, but you can create even more dramatic black and white photos by using the Dodge and Burn tools to selectively enhance contrast after converting.
10. The very best way to learn Elements is to dive right in. Open a photo and try all sorts of different things. Nobody, even great Photoshop gurus, knows exactly what will happen to any given photo when you combine different filters and effects. Experiment, and you'll quickly see why Elements is so addicting. You can do all sorts of amazing things you never knew you could!

Product Description

With Photoshop Elements 6, the most popular photo-editing program on Earth just keeps getting better. It's perfect for scrapbooking, email-ready slideshows, Web galleries, you name it. But knowing what to do and when is tricky. That's why our Missing Manual is the bestselling book on the topic. This fully revised guide explains not only how the tools and commands work, but when to use them. Photoshop Elements 6 is packed with new features. You get a new Quick Edit function, Windows Vista compatibility, improved RAW conversion, a handy Quick Selection Tool, and more. In fact, there's so much to the latest version that it can be quite confusing at times. Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual carefully explains every feature the program has to offer by putting each one into a clear, easy-to-understand context --something no other book does! Learn to import, organize, and fix photos quickly and easily. Repair and restore old and damaged photos, and retouch any image. Jazz up your pictures with dozens of filters, frames, and special effects. Learn which tools the pros use -- you'll finally understand how layers work! Create collages and photo layout pages for greeting cards and other projects. Get downloadable practice images and try new tricks right away. This guide progresses from simple to complex features, but if you're ready for the more sophisticated tools, you can easily jump around to learn specific techniques. As always, author Barbara Brundage lets you know which Elements features work well, which don't, and why -- all with a bit of wit and good humor. Don't hesitate. Dive into Adobe's outstanding photo editor with Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual right away.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 567 pages
• Publisher: Pogue Press (October 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596514441
• ISBN-13: 978-0596514440
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,084 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #21 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Hardware > PCs
  #52 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Digital Photography & Video > Adobe Photoshop

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Missing Manuals Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

212 of 227 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Missing Manual for Photoshop elements 6, December 29, 2007

By	R. Reyes "all play and no work" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those of us that may or may not have an Attention Deficit Disorder of some kind or another may find PE6 a little too complicated for their tastes. It does require quite a bit of patience, which I am short of, and concentration, which does not exist for me in this world, yet I try to muddle through. The first book published after the release of PE6, as far as I know, was the "missing manual", which is quite well written and constructed so that reference is made to be pretty simple.

Here's the best part for me: when I bought the book, I noticed that the author gives you her email address, and oddly enough invites individual questions, something I found unfathomable, I mean, try emailing Grisham for instance. So, rather than read on, I email her, and within minutes, receive a reply from her, answering my question, and referring me to where I can read further. I didn't take advantage of her niceness once, I asked her more than a dozen questions, got similarly responsive replies each time.

I can't be the only person in America who bought this book, can I? or the only person asking the author questions? And maybe, if you read this review and buy the book, her responsiveness will go by the wayside. Or maybe, you'll buy the book and it by itself will answer all your questions for you, as it has done for me since spending time with it as I should have in the first place.

195 of 210 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Weak coverage of organizer, November 28, 2007

By	A. Lynch (on the shore in CT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased Photoshop Elements 6 primarily because I heard that the Organizer feature is very rich and useful. I have several thousand digital images that I want to organize. Unfortunately, the help that comes with the program is very poor. So, I purchased this book because of the rave reviews. The book is generally well-written and covers lots of topics, but the section on the Organizer is next to useless, which really surprised me, since the Organizer is one of the main features of the program. I think the author should have anticipated that many of us would have lots of images to import and organize and should have provided in-depth help, tips and tricks to enable us to do that. I'm hoping that the soon-to-be released Dummies book does a much better job.

In short, if you are looking for help editing digital images with PE6, or if you are just starting out and don't have many images to organize, this book is probably a good resource. If you need to know how to use the Organizer to import and organize lots of images, this book is of no help.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing, February 1, 2008

By	baluscher "baluscher" (Chandler, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book largely on the strength of the reviews on this site. The book isn't bad, but I am amazed at how many editing errors there are -- in the first week I had the book, I had found at least 5 erroneous page cross-references.

This editing problem is particularly annoying since the author uses frequent cross-references to amplify or explain the subject matter of the page on which the cross-reference is made. I found myself repeatedly having to search for the cross-referenced material and writing the correct reference in my copy so I wouldn't have to search the next time.

Interestingly enough, I found many helpful and clear explanations of what look like important, fundamental Elements techniques in another book I purchased, Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks - Digital Photography, a book I bought without expecting any tips that were specific to Elements. I suppose "The Missing Manual" is intended to be a comprehensive discussion of Elements, even arcane and what seem to be almost useless aspects of the program, but at times I got the feeling that relatively minor matters were covered in the same depth as important techniques.

I suspect that after I am more accustomed to using Elements I will conclude that this in depth guide is indispensable, but it isn't particularly new-Elements user friendly.

I do think this book is helpful and it is a very detailed resource, but it does annoy me that it is poorly edited.