Rating: 

The first thing I noticed about this book is that it is much more complete than the Photoshop Elements 5 User Guide furnished by Adobe. This book has many more chapters and contains items not covered by Adobe’s book, like making true black & white pictures. What I particularly liked about this program is the ability of taking a water or lake scene and adding ripples and other effects to the picture, like the sound of a running stream. This book includes a large number of color pictures.

The book is divided into six parts. Part one contains four chapters from introducing Elements and finding your way around Elements, organizing your photos to editing in Chapter 1. It is very easy to get confused about the differences between Elements and the full version of Adobe Photoshop. Because Elements is so much cheaper and because many of the program’s more advanced controls are tucked away, a lot of professionals regard Elements as a toy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Elements IS Photoshop, but it is Photoshop adapted for use with a home printer. The difference between the two is that Photoshop uses save in the CMYK mode. (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK).

In Chapter 2 you can use the Photo Downloader which gives you choices of from where to choosing dates and names for your pictures and the choice of not saving certain photos. This chapter also covers working with PDF files and scanning plus choosing resolution, document size, and using the organizer.

Chapter 3 covers straightening scanned photos plus straightening more than one photo at a time plus rotating your photos. There is even an option tool that automatically straightens your photos. All of this is covered with pictures showing the before and after effects.

Chapter 4 is titled the Quick Fix which I found very helpful in fixing my mistakes. You can also use the grid control to see how straight your pictures are and make the necessary adjustments. Color photos show the different effects of lightening shadows & darken highlights plus adjusting the colors of your photos, including skin tones.

Part two consists of Chapters 5 and 6 and gets to the heart of Elements by discussing selecting part of your image and making changes only to that area by using rectangular or elliptical shapes, creating layers and backgrounds with blending. Each step is covered with before and after pictures.

Part three has Chapters 7 thru 11 and is called Retouching. Chapter 7 covers Basic Image Retouching Chapter 8 covers Elements for the Advanced Digital Photographer discussing the RAW converter which offers the convenience of being able to perform conversions in the same program you use for editing. . Chapter 9 is called Retouching 102: Fine Tuning Your Images. While Chapter 10 is about adding and removing color from your photos. Chapter 11 is about creating panoramas and correcting perspectives. All parts have before and after photos with explanations.

Part Four is called Artistic Elements and includes Chapters 12: Drawing with Brushes, Shapes and Other Tools. Chapter 13: covers Filters, Effects, Layer Styles, and Gradients while Chapter 14 shows how to add text to your images including special effects.

Part Five is about sharing your images and is covered in Chapter 15 while Chapter 16 covers printing in all its various forms. Chapter 17 explains placing your pictures on the web and inserting them in emails. Chapter 18 covers creating photo galleries, slideshows and flipbooks.

Part Six is entitled Additional Elements and goes Beyond the Basics, discussing things you can do obtaining some of the tools available for Elements created by others. There is information about the popular Elements accessory called “graphic tablet” which lets you draw and paint with a pen-like stylus instead of a mouse.

Part Seven covers over 40 pages of appendixes. Appendix A covers The Organizer, Menu by Menu. Appendix B is entitled The Editor, Menu by Menu, and Appendix C provides information on Installation and Troubleshooting.

This 354 page book by O’Reilly can be considered a necessity for anyone learning Photoshop Elements 5 and is well worth the $39.99 list price.