Photoshop Elements 2: 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures

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Summary: Huss does it again!
Review: Dave Huss writes book for the rest of us! Not the professional photographer, graphic artist, or computer expert. If your Christmas shots of the grandkids look like they all have food poisoning, this is the book for you, even if you don't have Photoshop Elements! I use CorelPhotoPaint for picture maniuplation but Dave has advice and tricks here you can use with any bitmap manipulation program. His tips about how to use your digital camera alone are worth the price of the book! Of course, it you do use Photoshop Elements, this is a must have, and, it is fun to read!

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Summary: All Cool Stuff - No Fluff
Review: Finally, an author who understands these products come with a user's manual and doesn't waste a lot of paper and ink (that I am paying for) repeating what is in them. His has a great sense of humor which comes through even in his step-by-step tutorials. There are tons of color photos throughout the book. I learned more from reading his book than I did attending a one day training session - which cost a lot more than the book. Bravo. Keep up the good work.

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Summary: 50 ways of going nowhere with PE2
Review: I really regret buying this book. It is supposed to be an easy tuorial well suitet to beginners like myself. Most of the examples are easy to understand, but I found the explanations of using the different tools somewhat variable. My main objection however is that only a fraction of the pictures used in the step by step tutorials are available ( and only as a download from the publishers website). Not being able to play around with the examples and follow the the author all the time made the learning process much harder. Why the author/ publisher has not bothered to make all the material used in the examples available I do not understand.

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Summary: Great Book and Great Pictures
Review: I received this book as a Christmas Gift. I have quickly looked through it and find it very easy to understand. I love the pictures of his family and the interesting photos. David seems to be able to see beyond objects and people and make them come alive. I recommended the book to my boss's wife to get him for Christmas and am going to purchase another one for my sister in Oregon who is learning to take pictures with her new digital camera. Anyone who has a digital camera would benefit by purchasing this book.

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Summary: Fantastic Book - Best Elements Book Yet
Review: I was seduced into buying this book (my second book on Elements) just because it was a full color book and the photos in it looked great. As I began to read it, I became aware that it was more than a book about correcting bad photos. The author not only shows how to fix the common problems with photographs, but he also teaches you how to take better pictures in the first place - saving a lot of time correcting them with Elements. Using some of his simple (and sometimes humorous) suggestions, the photos I took of my folk's 50th wedding anniversary last weekend looked professional. This book is hands down, the best book I have read on either Elements or digital photography. Forget taking cool picture, do you want to take and create great pictures? - get this book.

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Summary: 50 Ways to get going on PE2
Review: Loved it! Huss didn't mess around, he just got straight to the meat of the program. I bought a digital camera and PE2 5 days ago and finshed the book 2 days ago...I'm now enhancing color, ballance, contrast, etc., I can drop in a new sky if I took a picture on an overcast day, I took a picture of a rose that looks like an oil painting after messing with it...I can do all of the things that I dreamed of doing when I bought my camera and PE2. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thought that PE2 might be a program that could help them produce better pics, but who has struggled figuring out what the hell all those tools and options do for you. This is the first book I have read and its great, now I hope that "Hidden Power..." is as good as this one!

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Summary: Outta be called "50 SIMPLE Ways to Create REALLY Cool Pix"
Review: OK, my digital camera is my first "real" camera ever. I've never been one to tinker with photos but finally see the benefit in this wonderful information age we're living in. I'm as "green" as it gets when comes to Photograpy "tech" speak, yet I have no fear of manipulating photos anymore. Why?!? Dave's book!!! This book is truly intended for anyone that would like to their improve photos without having to overload on a bunch of uninteresting software manipulation that assumes you know EVERYTHING about digital photography. The software is pretty snazzy too, I must admit, and the book makes using it a breeze. I read enough in 1 hr to easily help me fix-up approximtely 1/3 of my photos (I am computer literate though), and I was REALLY pleased with the results. I have one thing to say: Friends & family BEWARE!!!

Rating:
Summary: Outta be called "50 SIMPLE Ways to Create REALLY Cool Pix"
Review: OK, my digital camera is my first "real" camera ever. I've never been one to tinker with photos but finally see the benefit in this wonderful information age we're living in. I'm as "green" as it gets when comes to Photograpy "tech" speak, yet I have no fear of manipulating photos anymore. Why?!? Dave's book!!! This book is truly intended for anyone that would like to their improve photos without having to overload on a bunch of uninteresting software manipulation that assumes you know EVERYTHING about digital photography. The software is pretty snazzy too, I must admit, and the book makes using it a breeze. I read enough in 1 hr to easily help me fix-up approximtely 1/3 of my photos (I am computer literate though), and I was REALLY pleased with the results. I have one thing to say: Friends & family BEWARE!!!

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Summary: Photoshop Elments 2.0 by Dave Huss
Review: Photoshop Elements 2 is much less mysterious than its big brother. Dave Huss applies humor plus his excellent photographic eye to this book which is far more than the typical rehash of the user manual.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD - NOT GREAT!
Review: The book is definitely an excellent concept. That is teaching how to get things done with Elements 2.0. The problem is in following the steps funny things happen - with no explanation or logic. Suddenly the author is pasting clouds into the sky with no idea of the source. And you are supposed to follow along! There are comments like "the image is of moderate size - 593KB - (figure 4.9)" but figure 4.9 has no relation to the 593KB referenced. Also lacking is an explanation of the tools you are using.
All in all, you can learn a lot from the book. Especially if you're clairvoyant!