Beginner's Guide to Adobe Photoshop Elements

A great book for those new to Adobe Photoshop software. Well written and easy to learn from, a strong background with its image correcting capabilities is developed. An awareness of what this software has to offer and how to apply it makes this an invaluable tool in refining images for the best possible results. This should be the first book for those ready to seek a greater glory of their photography.

This is the first guide to Adobe Photoshop Elements that this beginner has been able to really sink his teeth into. I hope they bring out a version for Version 6 soon.

After having a version of Photoshop Elements included with one of my digital SLRs, I thought it might be a good idea to learn how to use the program. I was surprised with all that can be done with this inexpensive program. The author carefully explains the tools and how to maximize their use. After reading this book, I am confident that I can make many of my corrections and manipulations in Elements and not have to rely on the pro versions of Photoshop. Photoshop Elements and this book is more than enough for most photographers.

I bought Elements 2.0, had Adobe's manual, and checked out 3 books from the library to learn how to use it--Teach Yourself Visually (Woolridge), Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (Andrews) and this one. This is by far the easiest one to use to get started. At first I thought one of the other two books would be best, but this book, which initially I put aside as having too little information, is what I ended up starting APE2.0 with. It gives you just enough information on the different functions to get you started with the program in a logical order, with short explanations, brief but thorough instructions and visual samples so you can see the results and compare. I found the other 2 books from the library simply didn't go into the basics as well and the visual is simply confusing when you don't know what you're doing or what you're doing it with. The manual with the program--forget about it! Maybe once I'm comfortable with this book and have expanded a bit more with the others, maybe when I'm absolutely desperate for information I can't find anywhere else--maybe then I'll look at Adobe's manual. If you're an absolute newby to Adobe Photoshop Elements, this is a great starter book. And I say this with some knowledge of Microsoft Photodraw 2000 and various other photofinishing software--I didn't start out a total novice. After just a couple days I am creating photo projects with Adobe that I never thought I could do with an inexpensive (compared to full grown Photoshop!) program.