Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual |  | Author: Barbara Brundage
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Category: Book
List Price: $44.99
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Sales Rank: 1788
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 640
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0596803478
Dewey Decimal Number: 775
EAN: 9780596803476
ASIN: 0596803478
Publication Date: September 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Photoshop Elements lets you do practically anything you want to your digital images. You can colorize black-and-white photos, remove red-eye, or distort shapes. With easy, step-by-step instructions, Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual gets you ready to make the most out of all the features available.
Photoshop Elements 8 Tips and Tricks
1. Highlight an object with color. It’s super easy to turn a color photo to a black and white image with only one colored object in it. In the photo on the left below, the waterlily looks fine but the dying leaves are distracting, so it might look better with only the flower in color. It’ll take you only a few seconds to get that effect. Just pick one of the Black & White settings for the Smart Brush and then drag over the lily. Elements does a pretty good job of finding the edges of the flower and makes it black and white, leaving the rest of the image in color. But if you turn on the Inverse checkbox before you drag, the lily stays colored and the rest of your image becomes black and white, saving you a lot of work.
2. Get rid of empty space. The new Recompose tool is great for fixing photos where squabbling siblings or cranky coworkers refused to stand close together. It’s also handy if you ever have to do how-to illustrations—you can easily get rid of extra space in a screenshot of a dialog box, for instance. You can also use Recompose to squish out unwanted elements in the middle of your photos, like in this seascape. In the pictures below, it brought the boats closer together and got rid of some of the condo sprawl in the background. Doing this left a little debris behind—a couple of stick-like lines from the largest condo—but one quick drag with the Healing brush, and there’s a lot more undeveloped beach left in the world.
3. One photo, two ways. The new Exposure Merge feature is great for blending together multiple (bracketed) exposures of the same scene, but if you only managed to get one good shot, you can process it twice in Elements’ Raw Converter—once for good shadowy areas, once for good highlights—and then merge the two into one image with good exposure throughout. You don’t even have to have a Raw format photo—it works with JPEG images, too. This is a JPEG photo where the interior was so underexposed that the lawn outside disappeared into a white glare when the interior was properly adjusted. So I made two versions, one for the indoor areas and one for the outside, then did the simplest exposure merge in Elements: an automatic merge. If I’d wanted to get fancy I could have had more control over the end result, but even the automatic merge is a big improvement over the first photo.
Product Description
Ideal for scrapbookers, serious and casual photographers, and budding graphic artists alike, Photoshop Elements 8 is more powerful and easier to use than previous versions. But figuring out how and when to use the program's tools is still tricky. With this book, you'll learn not only what each tool does, but also when it makes the most sense to use it and why. You get easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for everything from importing photos to organizing, editing, sharing, and storing your images. And if a feature isn't all that it's cracked up to be, we'll tell you.How do you use the Photomerge Exposure? How do Quick Fix previews work? With a gentle introduction to get you started quickly, and advanced tips to help you produce really creative work, this Missing Manual provides the answers you need.Get crystal-clear and jargon-free explanations of every featureLearn to import, organize, back up, and fix photos quickly and easilyRepair and restore old and damaged photos, and retouch any imageJazz up your pictures with dozens of filters, frames, and special effectsRemove unwanted objects from images with the new Recompose toolLearn advanced techniques like working with layers and applying blend modesDownload practice images and try new tricks right away
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
 Detailed, yet user-friendly treatment of a feature-dense product November 28, 2009
35-year Technology Consumer (Maryland, USA)
69 out of 71 found this review helpful
Like earlier versions of Photoshop Elements (PSE), Photoshop Elements 8 is both powerful and complex. While it has some automated functions, users hoping to harness its full power are going to need some help. Barbara Brundage offers this help in a detailed guide that explores the higher functions of PSE, while respecting the challenges many readers may have in grasping complex technology.
Brundage offers both conceptual overviews and tutorials of PSE 8's interface and functions. She effectively breaks down the the concepts of file management, basic editing, image manipulation and sharing of the results of these digital editing techniques. Particularly useful are the two appendices, which provide a summary of ALL of the (many many!)menu items in the two main components of PSE (its editor and the organizer).
Minor deficiencies are present in this book. While it certainly provides sound advice on avoiding Adobe's deliberate efforts to guide consumers to a purchase of the "Plus" version of the online extension to PSE 8, it doesn't mention the wide scope of Adobe's data collection of user activities associated with this (in both the free and "Plus" online adjuncts). Advice to consumers to read the EULA if they have concerns about how Adobe will collect their data would have been a welcome addition. Also, the book correctly states that PSE 8 can be installed with earlier versions of PSE. While this is true (and you won't be forced to uninstall any earlier version), it doesn't mention that PSE 8 will force you to choose which single version of PSE you'll want to keep using. Finally, the book says that "the help files that ship with Elements are sometimes incomplete". More correctly, in PSE they are absent. The Help menu in PSE 8 launches a browser and takes you online, where all the help content is located. You can download a 27 MB .pdf help file (which users without persistent connectivity should consider).
These are small shortcomings that do not detract seriously from the overall worth of this book, which is valuable tool with great utility for serious amateur (or frugal professional) photographers or digital artists expanding their craft.
Get This Book!! December 12, 2009
Eric (Iraq)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
I recently ordered Elements 8 and I have used many photo editing programs but knew if I wanted to get the full use of the software I would need a guide beyond the help menus. I ordered this book and Elements 8 for Dummies thinking that this book would be more tech talk-ish. I was wrong this book is the one I use more! It is very easy to follow and has much better in-depth info! I was also amazed that it got to N. Iraq in 7 days!..thanx Amazon!
More than I expected November 17, 2009
Loren Robert Kearney (Fresh Creek, Andros Island, Bahamas)
31 out of 33 found this review helpful
This book Rocks. I opened my Package from Amazon & was blown away. The book covers anything & everything inside Photoshop 8. The best part is its simple to understand & makes using photoshop elements 8 a dream. I'm very happy with the product, and as an underwater photographer this was money well spent!
An indispensable pick for any lending or personal Photoshop collection December 19, 2009
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Any student of Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual will find this updated edition of a best-seller simply indispensable. It teaches tools from Photoshop but more importantly, covers the basics of when to use it - and why. Step-by-step instructions cover everything from importing photos to editing, sharing and storing images. From beginning to advanced techniques, this walks you through all the basics and is an indispensable pick for any lending or personal Photoshop collection.
Computer help December 19, 2009
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
All of the "Missing Manual" books seem to be better for me to use than the other books I've tried. There is a greater depth of material. Also included with the book is on line help from the book's author. I'm no computer dummy, but I do need help with photo programs and toggling back and forth between the help pages and the photos upon which I am working makes me frustrated. These books make that problem disappear.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
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