Rating: 
Summary: Great Photoshop Elements tutorial
Review: "50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques" is basically a great tutorial on Photoshop Elements, better than the other 2 books I've seen in the bookstores. The CD contains before and after images so you can see how you do on the projects, and every one is self-contained, so you don't have to refer to some earlier project and do that first. All of the projects are quick and practical, and his results are really artistic. Two tables at the end of the book compare the commands of Photoshop Elements to Photoshop LE 5 and Photoshop 6; and to Paint Shop Pro 7, Photo-Paint 10, and Photoimpact 6, so you can also use the techniques with those other programs. I highly recommend this book, which is the best "hands-on" book on a graphics program I have ever used. I am currently trying out the demo version of PE included on the CD and will soon order PE to use with my new digital camera, and with other graphics programs, such as Painter. I am delighted with both the book and the Photoshop Elements program.
Rating:
Summary: Great Photoshop Elements tutorial
Review: "50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques" is basically a great tutorial on Photoshop Elements, better than the other 2 books I've seen in the bookstores. The CD contains before and after images so you can see how you do on the projects, and every one is self-contained, so you don't have to refer to some earlier project and do that first. All of the projects are quick and practical, and his results are really artistic. Two tables at the end of the book compare the commands of Photoshop Elements to Photoshop LE 5 and Photoshop 6; and to Paint Shop Pro 7, Photo-Paint 10, and Photoimpact 6, so you can also use the techniques with those other programs. I highly recommend this book, which is the best "hands-on" book on a graphics program I have ever used. I am currently trying out the demo version of PE included on the CD and will soon order PE to use with my new digital camera, and with other graphics programs, such as Painter. I am delighted with both the book and the Photoshop Elements program.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: A book that won't intimidate or frustrate you. It takes you through step-by-step techniques. Learn important techniques such as sharpening your image, using multiple filters, adding mattes and so much more. This is like a good novel, you don't want to put it down because you will have fun learning and understanding image-editing programs such as Photoshop Elements.
I've brought this book to work to share with our graphics department and they love it. If you want to get to the next level, buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book: some improvements would help
Review: A great book for learning how to use photoshop elements. I like the learning by using style, very suited for this kind of topic: The CD has some absolutely stunning photos: I wish they were something less beautiful, because the photos discouraged me a little bit (I dont think I'll ever take such amazing shots)Some suggestions for improvements:
(a) Start each chapter with a summary of techniques to be used in the chapter
(b) Do a little bit less handholding. All of us know how to open a file. You dont have to start each chapter with the same useless information
(c) Rather thank saying "Use tool x which is in the second column of the toolbox", show the icon. It would make it so much simpler to understand
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated, with unpardonable omissions in tutorials.
Review: After raving about this author's "50 Digital Camera Techniques" (see 5-star review), I bought what I hoped would be a great companion tutorial for processing digital images. What a disappointment! First, this book came out in 2001 (probably written in 2000) when Photoshop Elements (PSE) first saw light, and Windows XP still was a promise on the horizon. Of course we now have PSE version 2 (as well as XP); the "free trial software" on the CD, likewise, is badly outdated [PhotoImpact now is in ver 8, rather than ver 6 offered]. Not good, but not fatal thus far, because PSE commands haven't changed all that drastically in the new version [the former 'square marquee', for instance, now is named 'rectangular marquee']. But, really unpardonable, are the assumptions, errors and omissions in the tutorials themselves. In the first technique alone I found two inexcusable faults: (a) author blithely talks about 'options' that pop up in the 'options bar' when you select a tool - well, he just forgot to tell me to first turn on the 'options bar' in the Windows menu, so I had to go through the Help menus to learn that fact. (b) in adding a border to the bottom of the image, you are directed to the 'canvas size' dialog, where a complicated 3x3 grid just begs for explanation of 'anchor point', rather than for "getting the hang of it" all by myself. And, not so incidentally, if one wants to add a lower 0.25 bottom border to a 10" tall image, the proper new height is 10.25 -- not 10.75 as printed. Clearly, this book was written hastily and without thorough proof reading. Equally clearly, I stopped after chapter 1 to find a more compassionate tutor - PSE's Help topics and built-in tutorial will do quite nicely to get you started. The center-bound color plates, moreover, were a nice bonus in the digital camera book, but a minus in a photo-editing tutorial where color plates should appear right with the applicable text. Not the least, the black and white vignettes reproduce poorly on the pulpy (?recycled) paper. I may be overly harsh on this author, but he's shown that he CAN write a superb tutorial - let's hope the forthcoming second edition corrects the shortcomings of the first edition. Overall: a less than successful recipe collection, that rises to a decent cookbook on occasion. There must be better, and more current, tutorials around - I haven't found one yet.
Rating:
Summary: Great Way To Learn
Review: First of all it is worth mentioning that this book is really focused on being used in conjunction with Adobe's Photoshop Elements image editing program. Yes, you could probably use this book with other editing programs but it will not be as effective. As far as this being a fantastic way to learn Photoshop Elements...It receives an A++. I bought PS Elements and only had very limited knowledge of how to take advantage of the features. After going through each and every one of the 50 techniques I feel very confident. The CD-Rom that accompanies the book has all the images you will need to learn the 50 techniques and the author does a very good job of walking the reader through step by step. If you are diving into digital photography I would point you toward PS Elements for your editor and this book for learning how to get creative.
Rating:
Summary: What a Great Way to Start!
Review: Greg does an excellent job defining 50 different ways you can use Photoshop elements to solve some very basic digital editing techniques to improve your photos. It's an excellent way to begin to understand some, not all, of the techniques available. It "whetted my whistle" so I improved significantly in what I did with my digital photos, and provided me the confidence to move further to the next level to learn Photoshop 7 techniques in his next book. Greg wrote for the practitionner who wants to know the "how to" steps, with before/after pictures, and provided the leeway to try new creative techniques to ensure improved digital photos. Congrats Greg!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Have!!
Review: Gregory Georges without a doubt laps the field on "How To" books when it comes to simplifying the complexities and shortening the learning curves for digital editing. As an advanced photographer who still uses 35mm film and a film scanner, I use Photoshop Elements as my primary editor before printing. It has taken me 2 months on my own learning level without this book just to learn the basics Elements has to offer. This book takes you through techniques in an easy to follow manner that will reduce your learning curve significantly and make you a confident editor of your work whether you are just wanting to send a friend an edited image via email,website, or to output your work to a printer for the sale of your work. This book is a MUST HAVE. Adobe should include this book with their Elements software.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!!
Review: I am using this book as the text book for our digital imaging class. It gives great examples. Everything you need, including trial versions of several popular image editing software programs and all of the photos you need to complete the exercises, is included on the CD that comes with the book. I reviewed several books before choosing this one.
Rating:
Summary: Great if you want to learn Photoshop Elements
Review: I bought this book about 3 weeks prior to purchasing Photoshop Elements and began studying it before using the program. After loading the software, I was editing photos that evening and accomplishing remarkable techniques within 3 days. This is more than a re-writen instruction book- it is a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish 50 different, mostly easy projects that would have taken me weeks to figure out with the instruction manual alone. The results using Photoshop Elements, which is an exellent program, are outstanding.
If you want to use Photoshop Elements, wish to do more than just print snapshots, and want to unleash your full power of artistic license, buy this book.
The author also wrote "Digital Camera Solutions," which is an introduction to digital photography, and which I also enjoyed.
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