The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2 by Richard Lynch
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Book Reviews of The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2
Book Review: The essential working and learning tool for photoshop
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're upgrading from one of the ... beginners' image processing programs, and if you're serious about photography you should, "Photoshop 7.0" always comes out on top: the most power, the most sophistication, the best. But few of us can justify a purchase that great for a hobby. So "Photoshop Elements" looks tempting until you try it. Too many of the major tools of the full PS have been stripped out; you can't work with curves, make separations, look at individual color channels, etc., and that hurts.Well, it turns out you can do all that! Richard Lynch's outstanding "Hidden Power" provides a CD with plug-in tools for "Photoshop Elements" that virtually turns the simpler program into the full package -- at about a quarter of the price.
If that were all Lynch's book did, I would give it 5 stars. But it isn't the whole story or even most of the story. The fact is that "Hidden Power" is just about the best explanation of what those tools do, how color imaging works, and how to use powerful tools to good advantage that I've ever seen. And I've read a lot in 10+ years of manipulating digital images.
Finally, "Hidden Power" includes the most useful tool I've owned for getting past the hardest part: making your printed output look right without spending hundreds of dollars on expensive 'profiling' gear and software. It's a simple file, with the colors recorded in CMYK format, and it's the perfect calibration tool. In one evening it solved completely the difficult problem of getting predictable, neutral-color black and white prints.
Kudos to Lynch. If you go for Photoshop Elements, you have to have "Hidden Power" to go along with it. Accept no substitutes. Give the book a sixth star.
Book Review: Creative Freedom
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say I'm flabergasted over this book!!! Being a professional photographer and having used Photoshop for a long time, I doubted the usefullness of Elements when I bought it. As I worked with it, I found it to be a great "backup" program for me to Photoshop. Mainly because I could accomplish several of the same tasks that I did in Photoshop, only quicker and less labor-intensive.Then along came this book. I hesitated for a long time before buying it...my line of thinking being that I had all these tools in Photoshop and I knew how to use them, so why buy the book. I just decided what the hell, bought it, and couldn't believe it when I tried the tools. I can accomplish all the same things in Elements that I do in Photoshop ver batim. Now if only we could get a plug-in for the healing brush......hey Richard...are ya reading this for when PSE 3 comes out????
I would like to address the Portland, Oregon reviewer's comments. If you're having that much trouble, I suggest you either learn how to operate your computer, learn how to use Elements and the plug-ins, or find something else to do. Richard Lynch did an excellent job of writing this book. There's strength in numbers, and all the reviews except for yours liked the book and the software that came with it and it doesn't appear that anybody else is having trouble running it.
In short, Elements is a great program, Hidden Power is an excellent book that opens up the full creativity of Elements. I highly recommend both!!!!
Book Review: Simply Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have learned more from the first few pages of this book than in three years of playing with images in Photoshop and Elements and using my digital camera. I started using the tools immediately after installing them from the CD -- they work right in Elements! The author answered my question about the installation directly. The person in that other review who had difficulty should contact him via the book's website hiddenelements.com, or by email, which you can find on the book's web site.
The book starts with a great demonstration of how color works by showing you how to make a color image from some images shot before there was color film! Then you move right along into understanding how to separate channels -- and why you want to. I found that chapter on the Sybex website -- you can read the whole thing right there. It is why I got the book, and then I found what the tools could do! They really make the program much more like Photoshop!
The examples in the book really drive the points home. All the images from the examples are on the CD, and the step-by-steps are easy to follow. It has some advanced technique, but it really doesn't seem hard the way the author goes through it. The best is, I have tried th techniques on my images and see immedate improvement. I love this book!
Book Review: The BEST Book on Photoshop Elements 2
Summary: 5 Stars
I checked this book out of my library as I frequently use Photoshop 7 and Photoshop Elements 2. At first, I thought Elements is very inferior to Photoshop, but I have found ways to overcome its' limitations. That is the entire thrust of this book by Mr. Lynch. He provides detailed explanations and procedures for doing almost anything in Elements 2 you can do in Photoshop 7. Take time to read the book and work the problems chapter by chapter and you will learn a lot about Photoshop and Elements 2. I have six Photoshop Elements books by various authors on my shelf and this book is superior, absolutely the BEST! Along with the book you receive a CD containing Recipes for all the procedures presented in the book. Work through each chapter exercise to gain an understanding of what is being done. Then use the recipes to help you through each procedure next time you use it. Buy this book. You will learn at lot!Book Review: A New "Basic Photo Series"?
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm an experienced film photographer just now returning to photography after 20 years away from it, learning digital for the first time. I'm very grateful for this book; it really is a great course in digital editing technique.I think it is a worthy successor for Ansel Adams' Basic Photo Series in which he outlined his "Zone System", a tool that made densitometry accessible to working photographers. Like Adams' books, The Negative and The Print, Lynch offers photographers a technical vocabulary and systematic approach which disciplines and liberates visual imagination, not just a list of tricks and special effects.
Every time I think of a tool or something to add, I study some more and there it is. The author continues to develop the potential of Photoshop Elements and communicate his insights with his readers through updates and newsletters from his website.