Rating: 
Summary: Great Tips & Techniques
Review: This is not an absolute beginner's book. What it is, however, is excellent coverage of some very practical projects.These projects help you to understand and overcome many of the challenges professionals face every day. From removing backgrounds to correcting perspective, this book provides great insight to the power of Photoshop Elements. Mikkel Aaland has a knack for getting right to the point and eliminating the fluff. His book is a great companion to and step up from any beginners' book.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful - But...
Review: This is quite a good book for learning the key features of Photoshop Elements (1 or 2). The author covers the key ground and ways to improve photographs - and the book comes with a CD so the reader/user can follow the exercises. In this regard this is a good 'primer' for PS Elements. But... the explanations are too long - if you are follow an exercise the directions should be clear and simple; these tend to be rather lengthy. Further, I had hoped to be learn how to produce some really different and interesting 'projects' and to learn how to fully use PS Elements capabilities. However, the exercises remain very mundane and, perhaps worse, the photographical exercises are based around 'family snaps'. The author is clearly NOT an accomplished photographer or artist - but a writer who snaps the odd photograph! (I wouldn't pass some of the photographs in the book to my family, let alone want to see them in a book!) This may, or may not, matter to you - depending on whether you want a simple 'how to book' (which this is) or whether you want instruction and inspiration for producing exciting artistic photographs.
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