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!
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful book
Review: This book is bang on the money. It excels at providing quick steps on applying a variety of digital effects, image manipulation and color correction. It's beautifully illustated in rich, vivid color and the imagery is appropriate and dramatic. The author provides the simplest steps to achieve a specific result, but also gives the reader a clear understanding of the reasoning behind their actions. The dry presentation style you'll see in other photo-editing books is no where to be found here, making this book both informative and lightly entertaining. Bookstores need more of these!
Rating:
Summary: Make Mediocre a Masterpiece
Review: This book is great. I was able to easily touch up my pictures using the book's pictorial approach. In fact there are lots of new ideas and examples I've never even thought of. Also scattered throughout it are amusing anecdotes that make the short paragraphs even more enjoyable. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their photo editing from novice to expert.
With this book you too can create a Masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Best of Both Worlds
Review: This book not only helps you to learn or get more advanced with Photoshop Elements, it helps you take better photos to start with. Each area suggests photographic techniques for improving the photographs taken, and then gets into how to make them even better using Photoshop Elements.
It is easy to read, conversational in style, and is well organized by projects, so the reader does not have to read every chapter to understand the part he is really trying to learn. The photography illustrates every technique, making it easy to find and get into a project.
Starting with the software installation, the book helps the beginner and novice get started. The more advanced reader can jump to the chapters describing the projects he wants to accomplish. The color photos make the explanations come to life.
This book is definitely worth owning for anyone using Elements.
Rating:
Summary: Its the Harry Potter of computer books
Review: This book was amazing it showed me how to make beautiful pictures in a way that even I could do it. The writing is easy to understand and a great sense of humor. This book is the Harry Potter of computer books, you just cant put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Cool Book! Now I get good pictures from my camera.
Review: This easy-to-read book is obviously about a good software tool, but its value lies in the truth of the title. As I use this book, I am really beginning to feel that I can create cool pictures.I picked up this book as an attempt to make use of the pictures from my very(free) digital camera. I am amazed that I can make my many mediocre pictures into rather good pictures without spending an hour searching for clues from the help text. I must also comment on the good navigational tools this book offers. This book includes a good index, too often missing (either the "good" or the "index") from other publications. The best part is the clear and thorough table of contents, which saved me more than a trip or two to the index anyway. I always seem to be a sucker for Tip boxes. Happily, they are strategically placed throughout the book. They are the keys to truly mastering the program with techniques for getting the job done quicker or avoiding pitfalls. The author's apparent knowledge of the complexity of photography and the software makes this book a great technical reference. His casual tone and approach make the book a great learning tool. While I am more likely to be found reviewing a restaurant or coffeehouse, I make this exception for a book because it is so tasty!
Rating: 
Summary: Would have been outstanding, if only it had a companion CD
Review: This is an excellent text for beginners sufficiently comfortable with PSE2 basics to follow simple instructions such as "select the Move tool". One doesn't get the sense that Huss tried to fill the title's quota of "fifty" by compiling largely useless fillers; to the contrary, the techniques are logically grouped to meet common challenges such as cropping, color correction, resizing, retouching, sharpening, etc. Text-wise, this book richly deserves five stars for its lucid presentation, smooth flow, and to-the-point color illustrations. BUT, as I've learned the hard way, you've got to practice step-by-step the 'visual cookbook' (author's term) instructions with work-along images; if not, the slide lecture becomes a mere blur of words. Most regrettably, an inexpensive CD with original uncompressed digital images is NOT included -- a deficiency shared with other self-help books produced by this publisher (New Riders) such as Scott Kelby's more advanced "The Photoshop Elements Book". Although the publisher's website provides a downloadable archive of some of this book's illustrations, the images are low-resolution, highly compressed, and lamentably incomplete [two critical work-alongs in chapter 5 alone were missing]. To place the download burden on a beginning reader seems thoughtless and ill-conceived, and devalues the author's substantial contribution to learning to create cool pictures. This would have been my 5-star recommendation for mature beginners because of instructive text with right-on color illustrations on each page. But, with the need to download a set of second-rate images that is incomplete to boot, with blanket statements such as "combine the best of both pictures in one image", and omission of dimples and wrinkles in the chapter on 'Retouching' - the net instructional merit drops down to 3.5 stars. This 5-star author deserves better support than a less-than-stellar production: proper copy editing surely would have caught the repeated use of 'affect' for 'effect' (and lesser spelling sins); savvy project management would have caught the few sweeping statements lacking description (and figures), and ensured that the text describing 'Meg' being cropped, brushed, leveled and cloned would have been fleshed out by a companion practice image in the downloadable library. As it stands that 7+ page exercise (nicely illustrated, to be sure) leaves me, pardon the pun, with a dodgy spongy blur of words; much like learning to do an appendectomy from a textbook.
Production criticisms notwithstanding, this IS a very well laid out manual, written in a pleasantly conversational non-technical style that hits each point home in easy-to-follow steps and relevant illustrations; all it needs to rise to the top is a bit of nurturing by a user-friendly publishing team.
Rating:
Summary: A must have book for your photoshop library
Review: True to the book's title, you will learn at least 50 ways to create cool pictures. If you must have the theory of color or light to satisfy your need to use Photoshop Elements, this book is not for you. If, however, you want to get right into improving and turning your pictures into great images without all the "techie" lingo, then by all means you must get this book. It is full of picture examples (good photography in color) with easy to follow steps to fix, enhance or just have fun with your pictures. This book is sure to satisfy the needs of the occasional film or digital shooter and those who are, well,... "shutter addicted." There are enough projects and tips and tricks in this book to pick up and have fun with over and over again. Worth every penny! I highly recommend this book!!!
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