Photoshop Elements 8 Book for Digital Photographers Voices That Matter: Amazon.co.uk: Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski: Books

Product Description

This book (for Windows and Mac) breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that’s never been done before—it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure things out on your own. Instead, it does something that virtually no other Elements book has ever done—it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why. If you’re looking for one of those “tell-me-everything-about-the-Unsharp-Maskfilter” books, this isn’t it. You can grab any other Elements book on the shelf, because they all do that. Instead, this book gives you the inside tips and tricks of the trade for organizing, correcting, editing, sharpening, retouching, and presenting your photos like a pro. You’ll be absolutely amazed at how easy and effective these techniques are—once you know the secrets.

You’ll learn:

The real secrets of how the pros retouch portraits
How to color correct any photo without breaking a sweat (you’ll be amazed at how they do it!)
How to use Camera Raw for processing not only RAW photos, but JPEGs and TIFFs, too! (And you’ll learn why so many pros like it best— because it’s faster and easier)
The sharpening techniques the pros really use (there’s an entire chapter just on this!)
How to deal with common digital camera image problems, including removing noise and avoiding halos
The most requested photographic special effects, and much more!

The Book's Secret Weapon
Although Elements 8 offers some digital photography features that Photoshop CS4 doesn’t offer, there are plenty of features that Photoshop CS4 has that Elements 8 still doesn’t have (things like paths, Channel Mixer, etc.). But in this book, you’ll learn some slick workarounds, cheats, and some fairly ingenious ways to replicate many of those Photoshop features from right within Elements. Plus, since this book is designed for photographers, it doesn’t waste your time talking about how to frame a shot, setting your exposure, etc., and there’s no talk about which camera or printer to buy. It’s all Elements, step-by-step, cover-to-cover, in the only book of its kind!

From the Back Cover

The real secrets of how the pros retouch portraits
How to color correct any photo without breaking a sweat (you’ll be amazed at how they do it!)
How to use Camera Raw for processing not only RAW photos, but JPEGs and TIFFs, too! (And you’ll learn why so many pros like it best— because it’s faster and easier)
The sharpening techniques the pros really use (there’s an entire chapter just on this!)
How to deal with common digital camera image problems, including removing noise and avoiding halos
The most requested photographic special effects, and much more!

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful

A practical guide to using the software 8 Jan 2010

By Paul Sloane

Format:Paperback

This book is excellent for users who want to know how to use the software to its full. It guides you through how to do tasks and you can download files that he has used in the book so that you can do it at the same time. Once you've practised you can then have a go on your own photos. It's a useful book to keep going back to to refresh your memory and the step-by-step instructions and writing style are very good.

You realise just how good Photoshop Elements is and what you can do with it - within a couple of days I have made a couple of images that look superb (well I think so and am even getting them printed). It also makes you think more about what pictures you take, because you understand how you can edit them later. If you've got Photoshop Elements 8 get this book.

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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful

phewww ! at last i can get to grips with the elements 23 Mar 2010

By wandering

I have never used any kind of photoshop before. I got elements 8 , because after reading loads of reviews, it was recommended to a novice. Hearing that it can all be very complicated i went out and bought the dummies guide to elements 8. I realised i am a dummies dummy. The book didnt help. I am impatient, generally trying to run before i can walk. I bought a previous scott kelby book on digital photography before and knew his style of explanations helped immensely, so i took a chance, realising the dummies wasnt helping and bought scotts elements 8 book. Brilliant ! simple, step by step and precise explanations of exactly what i want from elements.With the simple instruction i have developed the confidence to stretch my experimenting with the system outside of whats in the book. My photos are becoming rich now !

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful

Some day my prints will come 11 Jan 2010

By Ripple TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a superb guide to getting the best out of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Photoshop is a hugely powerful bit of kit - and the fact that it is used by so many professionals is evidence of this. But with that power and choice comes complexity and getting the best out of the software - or even knowing what you can do with it - is not easy. True there are a number of books on the subject - but most are set out by feature. That's fine if you have a bit of knowledge to begin with. Where this book excels is that it takes you through project by project explaining all the steps and - importantly - shows decent colour images of before and after results so you can really see what you are doing.

Each project is prefaced with a chatty, tongue in cheek, very American style intro - I found them amusing - some will not, but in that case, don't read them! The projects themselves are well laid out and explained and really do make things very easy. That's the strength of this book - it's totally user-friendly and unthreatening despite what it is teaching you is often quite complex. Some of the issues dealt with are quite simple - but others are really detailed and will almost certainly help you to get a professional looking image. Plus it's well worth reading before you head out to take your pictures as knowing what you can and cannot do in processing is a real help to taking better images in the first place. This is a terrific book for beginners right up to experienced photographers. Fantastic.

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