Rating: 
Summary: Not for Those New to Photoshop
Review: If you're TOTALLY new to the Photoshop like I'm, Kelby's book isn't the ideal book to be initiated into the world of Photoshop. After having purchased Kelby's book, I realized I needed another book that is more suitable for my needs. I found that in Jan Kabili's Adobe Photoshop Elements 2: Complete Course. While Kelby tends to ASSUME that you know what he's talking about by leaving out lots of "little steps" required to follow his guidance, Kabili does a superb job with the details. While I was very frustrated trying to figure out what those "little steps" that Kelby seems to assume you already know, I found myself delighted with Kabili's simple step-by-step, click-this-and-click-that instructions that come with numerous helpful side tips.
I think Kelby's book is good for those with some prior knowledge and experience with the Photoshop, or someone with a very high level of intuitive sense. The reason why I'm giving this book only three stars is: Instead of spending so much ink and space on his endless attempts at humor (not that I have any problems with humor per se) I wish he had used all that energy towards filling in the details and with other useful tips, instead.
On a side note: I've been ordering a series of books from Amazon.com lately, and I'm a thoroughly satisfied customer. Great job, Amazon.com!!
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: It's the book I've been waiting for. It's straight to the point and so useful. Now I'm hooked on editing my photos on Photoshop Elements 2.0. It is truly a godsend for digital photographers. Thanks Scott!
Rating:
Summary: This book is the shiznit!
Review: Just like the description from the publisher says.....It tells you exactly HOW TO DO IT. Rather than explain what you can do, it shows you how. Step-by-step with full color photographs. Nothing makes me happier or makes me feel like my money was well spent on a book when I'm reading it, and I feel like the author is right in front of me teaching a class. This is absolutely, unequivocably one of those books. Many, many kudos to Scott Kelby on knowing how to write a technical publication. He is one of two authors that I know of that has grasped this concept. He should teach a class on just this alone! You can read this book from cover to cover or, you can just hop around and get done what you need to get done. His style of writing is extremely entertaining, so it keeps you interested. He also gets right to the point and covers precisely what you would want to know.Nice job Scott!
Rating: 
Summary: Random access tips
Review: Kelby doesn't seem to waste your time. He focuses on helping you use Elements 2 on digital images that you already have. Deliberately no discussion on what is involved in taking a photo, be it digital or analog. Instead, we get a grab bag of various techniques. Random access. Because you can read these in any order. They tend to address common problems.
Though the complexity of what you or Elements have to do in a tip can vary. For example, there is a tip on straightening crooked photos. Where you can define a line in the photo that is meant to be level. Then Elements lets you read this angle from the horizontal, and rotate the image by that amount, in the opposite direction. Very easy to understand. This was in a chapter on cropping and resizing. Actually, you should find that all the tips in this chapter are similarly easy.
But other chapters can get more involved. Like that on colour correction. You get into the depths of changing the HSL or tweaking a gradient map. The concepts here can be trickier. Luckily, the book shows how you can easily vary settings and see the effects of this on the image. Gives you a good intuitive feel of what the tips entail.
Rating:
Summary: Nowhere near perfect, but...
Review: Like many people, I spent a relatively small amount for PS Elements 2, and roughly three to four times the original purchase price taking classes and buying aftermarket books to teach me how to run the damn thing. Sure, PSE 2 is powerful, but it's pretty obtuse. Most of the aftermarket materials--and you have to include the Adobe documents that came with the software--suffer from being too hypothetical..."If you think you might like to use the dodge or burn tools, follow this procedure." Without a background in photography (and most people buying digital cameras and image editing software don't have one), why would I want to use the dodge and burn tools? What conditions would justify their use? How do I fix the shot I'm working on right now? Kelby's book is eminently more practical: he shows you a messed up image, loosely defines what's wrong with it, and then leads you by the nose through the steps that will most likely fix it. The procedures, which are arranged like a typical image editing session you might have with your own work, are accompanied by high-quality reproductions printed on highly calendared stock so you can actually see how he's cooked the image in PSE 2. Most other books have cheesy B&W images printed on regular paperstock, so the picture starts out muddy and stays that way, no matter how many times the auther tells you it's vastly improved. Kelby's book is real short on theory, but it will help you nail basic techniques to get the best out of the images you want to work on right now. If you're curious about theory, what Kelby teaches you will give you sufficient background to re-explore those other PSE 2 books and become a power user...IF that's your goal. I must, however, concur with any and all negative comments regarding Mr. Kelby's supposed sense of humor. His overwrought anecdotes might fly during the seminars on which he based the book, but once he writes 'em down, they are pretty much a waste of the reader's time.
Rating:
Summary: A very good introduction to Photoshop Elements 2
Review: Mr. Kelby provides numerous step-by-step instructions for correcting, enhancing, and manipulating photographs. His instructions are clear and easy to follow. In addition, he emphasizes the photographic aspects of Photoshop Elements 2.0 and does not try to cover each and every feature of the program; e.g., there is no information on adding text to a photograph. This is an excellent approach. (I believe, as apparently Mr. Kelby does, that most people buy Elements 2.0 to work on their photographs and not to play around with special effects.) This gives him room to lay out his instructions clearly and fully illustrate them. The only criticism I have about this book is that while Mr. Kelby tells you how to do something he seldom tells you why. For example, he tells you to set the default light and dark points at something other than 0 and 255 but does not say why this is a good thing. Similarly, he frequently uses layers but does not explain why he flattens some at the end of his instructions and not others. His instructions always work but some background or explanatory information would be very helpful. This is a fine book that I will refer to again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Nearly Enough Ooomph!
Review: The description that drew me to this book was the one here on Amazon: "If you're ready for an Elements book that breaks all the rules, this is it". It is a lie. Nice looking book, but living up to nothing I would have expected from the description, and I feel a little rooked. There are no photos from the book on a convenient CD (in fact, no CD), and no real "rule breaking" which suggests an advanced approach. All I got, instead, was a handful of tips and some really bad jokes. I downloaded all there was of the images I could find, and there are not enough to make the 'lessons' valuable. I can't follow the tutorials and I can't be sure I am learning what is being shown. What is being shown is not at the level I would have expected. As far as what I see shown, there are some simple procedures and simple examples. While it is good to have simple examples, I was expecting a lot more, especially as stated in another part of the Amazon text: "in this book, you'll learn some slick workarounds, cheats, and some fairly ingenious ways to replicate many of those Photoshop features from right within Elements." If they were there I didn't see them. There were no additional tools like the Hidden Power of Elements book, and nothing even as interesting as a tip book like 50 ways to Create Cool Pictures or 50 fast Digital Photo Techniques - both of which I recommend over this. The focus was right on digital photography, I think, but was not unique, particularly interesting or broad. To go one step further, I think it is inaccurate. You get settings to use for dialogs like sharpen, but these will seemingly work only with the photos you don't get with the book. When i don't get the images and can't try the settings and then they don't work on the images I already have, I begin to wonder about the validity of anything here! certainly the less I have to remember the better, but one-size-fits-all settings are not working. Sometimes it isn't enough to know the settings, I need to know why. There isn't enough why to tell me how to adjust settings for other images. I have seen Mr. Kelby speak, and think he is great at that -- though perhaps a little slick. The slick presentation of a book doesn't come across as well as it might in person where his personality can draw you in. In the end I don't have nearly the ooomph I expected, and am sadly not improving images more than what I had previously learned from newsgoups or the manual. There is a lot, and maybe too much hype (both on amazon and by the publisher and NAPP), and it just didn't convert for me into value. Mr. Kelby should stick to speaking and training videos where he shines...this is not one I'll be making a gift or stocking stuffer of.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read these reviews, just buy it!
Review: This book was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to know how to fix my digital photos. I didn't want to know everything about Photoshop, nor anything about creating art. This book cut right to the chase. I LOVE the full color pictures throughout the book (most others didn't have this). The photo touch ups also covered everything that I wanted. I also LOVE the step by step instructions, they were very clear. This book covers everything from whitening teeth, to fixing flash burn, replacing dull backgrounds (the sky), addressing wrinkles and blemishes, even how to make your subjects slimmer! The best part is that the book coves specific tasks that are typical issues for amateur photographers. Once I saw the things that I could fix, I was very excited. The only downsides that I can think of are... 1) You have to cut through a lot of his rambling on about useless introductions like..."If I was elected president..." (on page 105) and distracting remarks during the procedures like "because calling it a marquee..." (on page 106). Just cut to the chase, don't try to introduce comedy. I have editing to do! 2) Only a handful of the example photos are on his web site (http://www.scottkelbybooks.com/elementsphotos.html). The majority of the images are still missing. This was frustrating because I couldn't try out what he was describing. 3) He tends to use shortcuts a lot (like CTR+"something") instead of using menus. For the novice these are easily forgotten. 4) The book is missing a "quick reference guide" or something in the beginning that states if you want to do "x" then you need to do "y" (and reference a page with the detail). I found that I had all this cool knowledge, but once through the book I was asking..."now where do I find that?" 5) It would have been cool if he had some "real" photos and then said the steps that needed to be done to fix common problems. What I mean is that for some photos, I still didn't know what needed to be done to them, I just knew that they didn't look good. My comments above are so minor, I almost wouldn't even have addressed them if I wasn't looking for something to mention. The book is perfect, thanks Scott!
Rating:
Summary: One of the most useful books I own
Review: This book will save your hours of time. Step-by-step, cook book style, but this is exactlt what I wanted.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on Elements
Review: This is an excellent book. I've now purchased and read five different books on Photoshop Elements. There seem to be two basic kinds of books. The first kind of book focuses on "how to" where it proposed a problem with an image and then discussed the various ways to fix it. The second kind of book is more of a reference book walking through each different tool/feature in Elements and explaining what they do - leaving it to the reader to figure out how to apply them to their particular problem.
This book is of the "how-to" variety and is really, really helpful - the best one I've seen. The best thing about it is that it has lots of real world examples of things you'd like to do to fix or improve a photo and you can literally just follow the steps in the book without really understanding the details of how Photoshop Elements really works. It does attempt to explain what's going on in Photoshop and what the steps are doing and, after awhile, you do begin to understand the concepts behind many of the tools too, but the best part is that you can immediately start doing great things to your photos, even before you've learned the tools themselves.
Of the four other books, I've purchased and read, the Photoshop Elements 2 Bible by Laurie Ulrich is the best "reference" book on how to use all the tools in Photoshop. It's a good supplement to the Elements manual.
Here's my take on the other three books I have: "The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2" is full of power, but just seems too complicated to start with. In Photoshop there are always at least 20 different ways to accomplish the same thing and it just seemed that the "Hidden Power" book was always picking a pretty complicated way. I think it's got some real power teaching, but I wouldn't recommend it until you were already comfortable with a lot of the Photoshop basics including many Layer manipulations.
"Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions" is another "how-to" book, but I found that it spent too many pages on manipulations I was unlikely to do and not enough on the general purpose things you need to do to "fix and enhance" your photos.
I also have "Restoration and Retouching with Photoshop Elements 2" which is a "how-to" book that deals mostly with fixing scanned photos. If that's what you're doing, it seems well written and it's written by Laurie Ulrich how also wrote the "Photoshop Elements 2 Bible" book referred to above, but I wanted something that focused more on how to fix/enhance the typical issues in digital photos right from the camera (lighting issues, focus issues, removing unwanted elements, fixing color, making skies stand out, etc...). "Restoration and Retouching" wasn't the book for that.
So, back to the main subject here, I highly recommend "The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers". It's the best of all the ones I've read and will help you improve your photos in the first five minutes. If you're going to get two books, then I'd combine this one with a "reference" type book, particulary one that spends a lot of time on layers and blend modes.
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