The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3

Rating:
Summary: Required addition for serious use of PS Elements 3.0
Review: I read/scanned the book yesterday. It is mostly written along the lines of a tutorial following a standard work flow that a photographer would follow to optimize a photograph. This means the majority of the book concentrates on the tools that a photographer would most frequently use. Along the way the book introduces additional tools that are included in a CD that comes with the book to add to the features in Elements 3. I often realized that it would be possible to create a work around in Elements to achieve a certain effect like separating the colors of an image into separate layers; this book shows you how to create these work arounds without your having to figure out all the details yourself. The important thing is the CD then adds a plug-in effect that automates the action, this is crucial since with Elements you can't record actions yourself and without them some of these techniques would be impracticle. In some other cases like for curves the CD just supplies the missing tool. Unfortunately it seems that not only will you still be unable to record actions yourself, but you also will not be able to play any of the various pre-recorded actions that you can find around the web. Richard has posted that he is open to suggestions to his web site for actions that readers would like changed into effects for Elements users to use.

Criticisms:

At first I was worried because the book uses mask layers instead of real layer masks. The difference is that you use the eraser tool with mask layers but with layer masks you just swap foreground and background colors to draw transparency with all the power of the brush tool. Not to worry, the hidden power toolset includes a tool in the bonus set to add a real layer mask to any layer. It would have been better though if the book used real layer masks in the examples. I think Richard should put a quick tutorial on his web-site on how to use the full power of real layer masks including erasing masks with the brush tool. (Maybe he has, I haven't looked recently.) I found the beginning of the book a little annoying because it seemed like it was written to sell a casual browser in a book store on buying the book. Once the book gets into the meat of correcting images the repeated sales pitches thankfully go away. In the section on transformations and distortions I think Richard should have shown how to add a slight amount of a blurred/stretched copy of the flowerpot just in front of it on the sidewalk to represent secondary illumination. Adding a bit of reflected light illuminating the ground would really increase the sense of presence of the added object. I found the later sections of the book on output less useful. Printing on an inkjet printer with a profile is mentioned but more time is spent on CMYK printing. I think the book could have been a little clearer in showing exactly how to set Elements to perform the printer color management by including an explanation of how to set no color magagement for Epson, Canon, and HP inkjet printers in the printer driver. I am not sure how much need there is for all of the tools and information on performing CMYK separations. I would think that the sorts of professionals that need to create separations would already have a sophisticated RIP-type tool to automatically create them. The last part of the book discusses image files for the web. This would be useful mainly to someone who just wants to add a couple of basic image effects to their personal web page. Anyone doing real web layout should already have more detailed documentation. Instead of the web information I would have preferred more examples on how to re-touch people. For instance, what is the best way to use the reshape tool to reshape a person's features to be more flattering? Along with re-shaping I think he should show how to paint onto a photograph with light and shadow using the airbrush and dodge/burn tools to re-contour features. One easy example would be how to erase a small double chin.

Overall I think the book provides a strong foundation for a beginner to learn the basics of a photographer's work-flow. Readers already experienced with the full Photoshop will just want to skim the book for instructions on using the included effects and to look for nuggets of tricks that they hadn't thought of. (For instance, Richard shows how the gradient tool hides a lot more power than I realized.) The real reason I bought the book was to get the effects on the CD that I missed most from the full Photoshop- mainly curves, channels and layer masks, and with my quick test it looks like the included CD delivers. I would recommend the book both to new Elements 3.0 users who have never used the full Photoshop and to cheapskates like me that just want a few crucial features from the full Photoshop without paying the big bucks for Photoshop CS.



Rating:
Summary: Hidden Powers and lots of add-ons for Elements 3
Review: I'm very much a beginner with Photoshop Elements, and it was a setback when I read in the Introduction that the book is for (among others) "The serious Photoshop Elements user who may feel that they are outgrowing or could get more from the program". Notwithstanding that disclaimer, I am glad that I have the book and have already found it very worthwhile. It will take much time and study before I will be able to take advantage of everything the book and accompanying CD have to offer, but I have already learned new tips, tricks and a good source for how to learn more.

The first places I look in a book such as this are the table of contents, appendices and the index. In this book, all three are detailed and easy to use. I especially liked the various topics covered in the appendices, including a handy reference to keyboard shortcuts for the Toolbox, discussions of resolution, file types, compression, bit depth, etc. Excellent references for a neophyte like me.

The book is divided into six parts. Part I covers basic (to detailed) concepts of images and image editing and is an excellent overview to lead users into the following--more specific--sections of the book. Part II focuses on image tone and contrast, followed by "Serious Color Correction" and "Rebuilding Images" in Parts III and IV. Parts V and VI cover images in print and images on the Web.

The CD-ROM that comes with the book has the images and project files that can be used when working the book's various exercises, and more than 60 add-ons that unlock disabled features and provide more functionality to existing features in Photoshop Elements (hence the title "The Hidden Power of....) I'll have to admit that I haven't much used any of the tools yet, but just as an example, Chapter 2 has a detailed discussion of the 42 steps necessary (without the Hidden Tools) to separate a color image into its three RGB color components. Then it shows how one click of the proper Hidden Tool can do the the exact same thing. If the rest of the tools are anywhere near this powerful, it will be a delight learning how to use them.

This book will likely not gain much favor with those looking for an easy introduction to the basics of Elements. But if you are serious about wanting to really learn what you can do with Photoshop Elements 3, I think you will find this a very helpful and detailed reference.

Rating:
Summary: Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3
Review: If you have Photoshop Elements 3, buy this book. I have the previous version of the book for Photoshop Elements 2. Had it not been for Richard Lynch and this book and the included tools, I would have upgraded to the full blown version of Photoshop long ago.

Photoshop Elements 3 is a big improvement over 2 in my opinion. When combined with the tools that Richard Lynch provides with his book, Photoshop Elements 3 provides the entire photo image editing capability that I need.