Rating: 
Summary: Does not explain things fully
Review: After working through, or should I say trying to work through, the first 4 chapters I am returning this book to Amazon. The author of this book in many of the exercises has left critcal steps out of the process. I am brand new to Photoshop and digital photography. About half of the exercises in this book were easy to follow with great instruction as to where to click and where to find everything etc. The other half of the exercises were as if the author assumed that I knew how to do alot of these things. It would leave critcal steps out of the instructions. I was left fumbling and guessing and reading the Adobe manual and the help section trying to figure out how to do some of these things. For example the section on layers I worked through about 3 times and only partially "got it". I would follow exactly the steps that the author described and I just could not get some of the results he did. Maybe if you have some working knowledge of Photoshop this book would be fine but for a beginner I would not recommend this book. I'm going to try a couple of other ones.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful and More...
Review: As a longtime amateur photographer but fairly new (less than a year) amateur digital photographer, I must say that I find Aaland's "Solutions" to be more than just a useful book of instructions. It is both comprehensive and clear in its coverage of the "How-to-do" and "How-to-Fix" basics of digital photography, but more importantly, it is inspiring. It makes me want to be a little better, work a little harder and take a few more risks with my pictures. There seems to be a bit of humor that comes through from the author that says "photography is a great pleasure...have fun with it". I am having such a good time and my pictures show it! Thanks, Mikkel Aaland!
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: As a recent convert to digital photography I came across Photoshop Elements software and began experimenting with it on my computer. It was fascinating but I only used a few of its features - although realizing there were many more available. My attempts to understand the more complex functions like the use of layers got bogged down in the detailed explanations within the program and in the users guide. While they were sufficiently detailed to explain how each feature worked individually, they never put them into a usable context. After seeing a recommendation for Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, I bought Mikkel Aalands' book. It is a revelation. I feel I have gone from a rank amateur to a serious user after only a short time following the book's clear explanations and vivid examples. What this book does not do is explain every feature within the program. What it does do exceedingly well is provide practical examples of how to accomplish specific tasks that require you to group a number of features together and tells you step by step how to do so. It is helped immeasurably by an enclosed CD that enables you to follow the book's instructions and perform the steps yourself on your computer. Layers and a lot of other functions are now easy for me to understand and use. Disappointing pictures I have taken are now being transformed into really nice photographs. Equally important it gives you the fundamental basis and the motivation to further explore how to use the program. The book is written for both Photoshop Elements Versions 1 and 2. It helpfully explains where they differ. I highly recommend this for users of the Photoshop Elements program and believe it will benefit newcomers to digital editing as well as experienced users.
Rating: 
Summary: Russ Walkowich MyMac.com Book Review
Review: Author Mikkel Aaland is a well-known pioneer in digital photography and writer, not only of books on photography, digital photography but on other subjects as well. If you've ever watched the Screensavers on Tech TV, you've seen Mikkel Aaland working his magic with Photoshop Elements, so you know that he knows exactly what he's talking about in the book. He has updated his first book, Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, to provide the reader with the latest information, tips, and step-by-step instructions to make full use of the improvements within PSE 2. If you are into photography, digital photography and image scanning, this book is a must for you. Written for both PC and Mac user, this full color work first guides the reader through the basics of PSE 2, from setting preferences to where to go for help when using the program. Using his knowledge and skills, Mr. Aaland then walks us through the process that he uses to make ordinary images great ones; from deciding which tasks come first, controls, layer adjustments with masks to resizing and framing your images. He approaches chapters with the eye of an experienced photographer, as shown in Chapter 3 where he goes into depth on Better Faces, the idea being to intensify the focus on one's eyes, eliminating red eye, getting rid of wrinkles (a must for us baby boomers!) and using simple techniques and tips to get the reader going in the right direction. You'll find yourself making faces more symmetrical, fixing hair, adding hair and even changing the color and tinting hair. Mr. Aaland even offers tips on producing better portraits and where to find more information on working with photographs. The book continues with dealing with outside shots, product shots, transparent layers, texture, scale and perspective, even how to set up your own mini photo studio. Want to learn how to do composites, seamless pasting, improve your real estate photographs, balancing light? You'll be walked through the process one step at a time. One whole chapter is devoted to the Photomerge capabilities of PSE 2, including photomerging a collage. With the photographer in mind, Mr. Aaland shows you how to add a photo credit, use type as headline or fill type with an image. You'll learn how to add additional effects to type, warp it, liquefy it, and even shape it. Chapter 10 will bring you to the lessons you need to learn to prepare images for the Web, including design components such as navigational graphics, backgrounds and photo galleries. The final two chapters of the book deal with understanding JPEGs, saving and emailing, compression and conversion of GIFs to JPEGs, and using desktop printers and other photography services. The appendix that is included in the book covers Layers, Effects, Selection Tools, Viewing and Navigation Tools, Brushes, Filters and Liquify Filters. When you also consider the CD that comes with the book, which includes practice images, filters, demos of applications and utilities, and even a demo of a Photoshop Learning Studio, this book is well worth the cost. (Note- the original edition of this book had a CD which caused some problems for users of OS X. Sybex has corrected those problems and the new CD now works properly with OS 9 and X) You can't go wrong with Mikkel when it comes to working with digital imagery. Highly recommended. MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Russ Walkowich
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Rating:
Summary: It's about time
Review: Finally - a book on Photoshop Elements that's chock full of real life projects. This book avoids the boring beginners stuff and gets right to the pratical problems. The book contains just enough humor to remind you that this stuff should be fun - and it is. Follow along with Mikkel Aaland's projects step by step and develop a keen sense of the the power of Photoshop Elements.
Rating:
Summary: A Warning, Actually.
Review: First, the warning. On a TV interview (I think it was TechTV) I believe it was the actual author of this book being interviewed. He said that if you read the first book "Photoshop Elements Solutions", that "Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions" would be good if you had upgraded to the Photoshop Elements 2 software program. Well, if you already own the first edition of this book, you DO NOT need to spend the money on the second. As a matter of fact, book 2 is simply a complete copy reprint of book one, with only a very few added pages ( I counted maybe 3-5 ) to cover new features in the new version of the program. That's it. Everything else is the same. Those extra 3-5 pages are not worth an average of $20.00. To those who do NOT own book one, and who do own version 2 of the software, yes, this is a great book. The lessons are easy to understand, well written, and helpful. For these people, it is well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid like the plague
Review: I bought this book expecting the enclosed CD to be a full tutorial. It is not. If you read far enough into the fine print it does say it is a trial (read demo) copy. To my sorrow I didn't see this; all I read was "100 before images" and "follow along with the book". Sounds great, but what you get is software that shows you what the real thing WOULD do if you bought it. Legal but morally reprehensible.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for a new user
Review: I got this book and I had never used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements before. I did all of the exercises in here and came away knowing a lot more. The author does not baby you by explaining each tool, but he includes a good mix of projects that will make you use each tool in the program. This gives you ideas of how you might use them for your own projects and shows you what the program is capable of. I liked that the book came with a disc that had most of the photos he used in his examples. You can have the same pictures he used in his projects and do them yourself. If you know nothing about PE2 and want to learn it, this is a good choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I got this book because of the included CD and because everyone was raving about how it held your hand as you went through the steep learning curve. Well, the CD is next to worthless. It has pictures on it but finding the picture and putting it with the text is difficult.
The text seems to be written for someone who already knows the ropes. He takes you through how he did something true, but why is never explained. Example, "set the radius to 4 pixels". What's the radius? and what does it do? He often uses keyboard shortcuts but doesn't explain where he got that info.
As I said, I was looking for an introductory book--this ain't it.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the beginner
Review: I got this book because of the included CD and because everyone was raving about how it held your hand as you went through the steep learning curve. Well, the CD is next to worthless. It has pictures on it but finding the picture and putting it with the text is difficult.
The text seems to be written for someone who already knows the ropes. He takes you through how he did something true, but why is never explained. Example, "set the radius to 4 pixels". What's the radius? and what does it do? He often uses keyboard shortcuts but doesn't explain where he got that info.
As I said, I was looking for an introductory book--this ain't it.
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