Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers
Iain Laskey assesses a book aimed at digital photographers who want to get the best from Adobe Photoshop Elements 3
| Product | The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers |
|---|---|
| Company | Peachpit Press |
| Web | www.peachpit.com |
| Price | From £26.99 |
| We like | Easy to follow 'recipes', great tips |
| We don't like | Nothing |
| Rating | |
| Requirements |
Photoshop Elements 3 is a powerful program (you can read our review here) which can easily overwhelm the new or intermediate user. There are many books which tell you how to use the program but most are either fairly generic or just tell you what each option does, not how to really make use of them.
That gap has been admirably filled by the lengthily titled The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers. Despite the title, a lot of the content works just as well with Elements 2 so users of the older version will find much of use here.
The book starts with an overview of the powerful file browser and organizer capabilities added to Elements 3. The explanations are short, punchy and well illustrated with big screen shots. The balance between what you really need to know and the less commonly used functions is excellent.
The bulk of the book is made up of dozens of 'how-to' type tasks. These range from how to remove blemishes, adjust colour and remove bags under the eyes through to creating composites and replacing the sky with something more interesting. It's a photographer's wish list of 'how do I do?' It's not very often a book is so exciting that you feel a need to keep putting it down to try what you've just read about.
The last section is aimed at presentation and shows you how to turn your photos into a PDF document, a slideshow, a web site or even <gasp> print them. It also covers watermarking to help protect your rights. It's good to remember that how you display your photos is often as important as the images themselves so this is a welcome section.
The publisher has rated the book as Intermediate - Advanced but we think even beginners will be able to make good use of the material here, dipping in to the more advanced sections as their abilities improve.
What we liked most was the prescriptive nature of everything. To achieve a certain effect, the book advises you to set slider x to 34, y to 15 and z to 1.5. No more guess work! This combined with the step by step nature made many of the tasks a breeze. We used some test photos as guinea pigs for the different techniques shown. We were impressed how good each one looked afterwards. Best of all, it isn't a book you need to read from beginning to end, you can dip in anywhere and just follow the instructions for the particular result you want.
Conclusion
The back of the book advises that after reading it, you'll be 'correcting, editing, sharpening, retouching and presenting your photos like a pro'. We can only agree. The text, layout and content are all excellent making this an essential purchase for the digital photographer keen to make the most of their camera and craft.
