Photoshop Elements 5 for Dummies

I have seen some rather negative comments on this book from a few other reviewers. Let me start out by stating that I teach a Digital Darkroom course. That course uses Photoshop Elements 5, a very capable program, although not necessarily an easy one. If you are not technically inclined this program will be confusing, to say the least. The manual that comes with it is barely adequate. This is where the Photoshop Elements 5 for Dummies book comes in. It is far superior to the manual included with the program. That is not to state that it is easy. It is not! You will have to put effort into learning the techiques, and methods of Elements 5. I am quite familiar with Photoshop CS2 as I use it for my fine art photography. I thought teaching Elements 5 would be a snap. After all I regularly use the full version, how difficult could a scaled down version be? The answer turned out to be 'quite difficult'. Photoshop Elements 5 has many features of CS2 but they are implemented differently and sometimes work differently. Some of the things in Elements 5 are not even in CS2! Elements 5 has far superior selection tools, are you listening Adobe?? Elements 5 certainly does not have a lot of the features and tools of its big brother, but who in their right mind would expect it to? It is however very capable and I have it installed on my laptop so I can do preliminary editing in the field. I often need nothing more. This book is invaluable to users of Photoshop Elements 5 as it goes farther and explains better some of the more difficult operations in Elements. But it definitely is not easy, unless you are interested in only the most basic aspects of photo editing.I gave this book 5 stars because it deals elegantly with a difficult subject. Almost all my students buy this book, and they all love it. Granted, being taught in a classroom is easier than tackling it on your own, but this book and some serious effort will get you well on your way. Is it perfect? No, but it is the best of its genre. One unexpected nice feature - if I select a photo to edit from the Elements 5 organizer while working on my desktop computer, where I have both Elements 5 and CS2 installed, the Elements 5 organizer politely asks me wich version of photoshop I want to use to edit it. Very nice! The organizer in Elements 5 is so good that I use it to keep my (thousands) of images organized. Good job Adobe! I guess what I am saying is this "any version of Photoshop is complicated and Elements 5 is no exception". You will need to put some heavy effort into it, but the rewards are huge. This book will be a great asset in those efforts.

I found this book to be helpful to me. I enjoy photography and I have purchased photoshop elements but I was unable to use it I just simply didn't know how. This book made it a lot easier for me to understand.

Adobe Photoshop Elements keeps piling on the features and has lost a little of its "easy Photoshop" tone, but you won't find even this significant upgrade in the program confusing if you use this Dummies book to learn the robes. I loved the color photos and clear explanations of all the new features (I'd previously used Elements 4.0) and even learned something new about features that had been in my earlier version of the product. Highly recommended.

This book is one of the best written on Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, compared to others I found this book much easier to understand and use (hence the name "...For Dummies"). If this is your first time using Photoshop 5.0 the program can be confusing. I've personally spent hours trying to figure out simple commands, and making repetitious mistakes. This book put an end to all that. It's writting is clear and concise and the book moves at a pace I think most people would find comfortable. The book also brags (in its introduction pages) that it is cross-referenced in case the reader wants to jump around. A feature I found very convenient. At roughly 400 pages there is more than enough information to learn from. It is also packed with tips, warnings, and technical jargon (marked with icons throughout the book) that help the reader pick up a thing or two quickly. After using Adobe Photshop Elements 5.0 for months and running in circles with it's advanced features, I really wish I had found this book sooner.