Rating: 
Summary: The power is still hidden
Review: The value of this book is in the accompanying CD which contains the various programs ("tools") that utilize the matters discussed in the text. I suspect the book might be of interst if you can access the tools. If you can't access the "tools", you aren't going to like the book. Despite some efforts by Mr. Lynch by emails, I was never able to access to the tools resulting in a book that makes a great doorstop and little else. It would be nice if you could get a refund if you have the same inability to access the tools. The book may be as interesting as the other reviewers suggest but not if you can't access to tools the author describes.
Rating:
Summary: Not Organized.
Review: There might be a lot of good stuff in this book, but the author doesn't have the skill required to organize it into something useful. A lot of the stuff on the cd simply won't work on my computer, which is a pretty common Windows Pentium. Instead of writing about Elements II the authour should be reading about how to write.
Rating: 
Summary: The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements
Review: This book is well worth the money for the "Hidden Tools" alone. I consider myself an intermediate user of Photoshop Elements. I have been tempted lately to buy the full-blown Photoshop to gain the additional capabilities. This book and CD gave me most of the additional tools that I thought I was missing.The book is not written for beginners. You should have a good understanding of how to use Photoshop Elements before diving into this book. Given the scope of this book, I found the first chapter to be a little too basic. I initially found parts of chapter 2 a little confusing. I never use gradient maps and found the explanation in the book to be somewhat confusing. I went back to my "Photoshop for Dummies" book and re-read the portion on gradient maps. This made the light go on for me on what the author was saying in Chapter 2. I found chapters 3, 4 and 5 the most useful. These chapters dealt with the type of image clean-up I encounter most often. These chapters dealt with curves, which I knew was a feature I missed in Photoshop Elements. Chapter 5 showed some great uses of the History Brush, another missing tool from Photoshop Elements that you get on the CD in the Hidden Tools. The remainder of the book gave some good hints on how to improve your images as well. I read the whole book, but I am sure that not all was absorbed. I will keep this book close to my computer to use as a reference as I try to fix those difficult to correct images. The author of the book has made himself available to answer questions on several Photoshop Elements and retouching forums. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to go beyond the basics of what is available in Photoshop Elements.
Rating:
Summary: The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements
Review: This book is well worth the money for the "Hidden Tools" alone. I consider myself an intermediate user of Photoshop Elements. I have been tempted lately to buy the full-blown Photoshop to gain the additional capabilities. This book and CD gave me most of the additional tools that I thought I was missing. The book is not written for beginners. You should have a good understanding of how to use Photoshop Elements before diving into this book. Given the scope of this book, I found the first chapter to be a little too basic. I initially found parts of chapter 2 a little confusing. I never use gradient maps and found the explanation in the book to be somewhat confusing. I went back to my "Photoshop for Dummies" book and re-read the portion on gradient maps. This made the light go on for me on what the author was saying in Chapter 2. I found chapters 3, 4 and 5 the most useful. These chapters dealt with the type of image clean-up I encounter most often. These chapters dealt with curves, which I knew was a feature I missed in Photoshop Elements. Chapter 5 showed some great uses of the History Brush, another missing tool from Photoshop Elements that you get on the CD in the Hidden Tools. The remainder of the book gave some good hints on how to improve your images as well. I read the whole book, but I am sure that not all was absorbed. I will keep this book close to my computer to use as a reference as I try to fix those difficult to correct images. The author of the book has made himself available to answer questions on several Photoshop Elements and retouching forums. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to go beyond the basics of what is available in Photoshop Elements.
Rating:
Summary: Advanced Elements
Review: This book takes you beyond the basics of Elements, with step-by-step instructions in how to use the additional tools supplied on the companion CD to extend the power of Elements to include many of the features found in Photoshop.
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