Product Description: How to Cheat in Elements 6 is an invaluable resource for all users of Photoshop Elements and shows you how to 'cheat' by sharing insider secrets from clever and cunning Elements gurus, David Asch and series forerunner, Steve Caplin.
Compatible with previous releases of Elements, this is jam packed with dazzling tips and tricks, unearthed secrets, and creative techniques that challenge and inspire.
Work through each section to build up your Photoshop Elements skills, creating everything from basic layer and masking effects right up to advanced manipulation. Or just dip right into a project to learn a new technique: * turn day into night * add snow, shadows and water to your scenes * make fire and smoke * give your car a respray ...if you can imagine it, we can show you how to do it in Photoshop Elements!
A full glossary of terms, useful keyboard shortcuts, and a detailed index will help you locate that fantastic technique in a flash. Follow the QuickTime movie tutorials on the CD, and use the high resolution royalty free images in your own creations . you can also ask questions, solve problems and meet other Elements users in the book's dedicated website, http://www.howtocheatinphotoshopelements.com
Once you have mastered the techniques in this book - the only limit is your imagination!
David Asch is a freelance author and journalist specializing in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements image editing and manipulation.
Steve Caplin is a graphic artist, illustrator, and journalist who loves to create photomontages that blur the line between illusion and reality.
Note: Having trouble with the DVD? Visit http://www.howtocheatinphotoshopelements.com where you can find a link to download updated versions of the video files.
Work through each section to build up your Photoshop Elements skills, creating everything from basic layer and masking effects right up to advanced manipulation. Or just dip right into a project to learn a new technique: * turn day into night * add snow, shadows and water to your scenes * make fire and smoke * give your car a respray if you can imagine it, we can show you how to do it in Photoshop Elements!
Like so many I found this book like so many available for Elements. It gives examples and the explanation how to achieve that particular effect, but not a wider description of how those effects work and can be applied to other things. So I see it as very much a companion to "The Missing Manual" which does go into greater background, but doesn't give the final examples this one does. Indeed, Amazon has them both grouped as worth buying together, which is what I did and am pleased I did!
How to Cheat... It became apparent on Page 10 where the authors referenced the "Magic Selection Brush" instead of "Quick Selection Tool" that they didn't look at Photoshop Elements 6 when writing their book "How to Cheat...". As a new user of Elements 6 I put the book down after this frustrating experience. "How to Cheat..." is an appropriate title, for this wasted purchase. Two stars is generous.
How to Cheat Photoshop Elements 6 Great step-by-step instructions. The illustrations and presentation of material are clear. The book layout is very inviting. This book gives you instant gratification. You can create and modify digital images quickly. The results are stunning. Highly recommend this book.
A great way to learn some neat tricks in Photoshop Elements This book concentrates on techniques for creating photomontages, and it does it really well. Although it's a fairly specific use of Adobe's `baby' photo editing application, the subject is covered excellently by two authors who clearly know their stuff.
The book is based around Elements 6 for Windows (all the keyboard shortcuts refer to a Windows keyboard). I'm not sure whether there'll be an update when the upcoming Mac version is released but as a user of the current beta on a MacBook I didn't find it too much of a problem to use all the techniques, and they can equally be applied to CS3 if you're lucky (or rich) enough to be running that on either platform. However, the authors make it clear that the techniques work equally well with all versions of Elements from 3 onwards.
This is not necessarily a book for newcomers to Elements - it does assume some basic knowledge, although the first sections cover some more basic photomontage techniques such as selection operations, layer masks, and levels, but if you want to learn how to use the application you're better off looking elsewhere.
I like the layout a lot -- each work-through is presented on a double page spread which is great for working with the book alongside your monitor.
The book is split into 12 sections divided into individual work-throughs with the first 4 covering some basic techniques, leading through to the creation of some pretty complex images.
It's great for dipping in and out of and includes `interludes' at the end of each section covering various topics of interest to digital artists, photographers and general Elements users, and `hot tips' alongside each work-through highlighting related Photoshop techniques.
A CD is supplied which is nicely put together with high quality psd images as starting points for the work-throughs and QuickTime movies to illustrate many of the more complex techniques. Where these are provided for a work-through a symbol appears on the page. The CD is generally easy to navigate and includes some useful extras.
There's a dedicated web site with readers forum to discuss the content of the book with the authors and other Elements users - it's nice that the authors seem to dedicate their time to answering queries and providing assistance to their readers.
Although I've not really done a lot of photomontage work before, this book has fired my imagination and introduced me to some useful general techniques for use in both Elements and CS3.
Look out for some of my photomontages on Flickr soon!
Very enjoyable I'm a complete newby at anything photoshop related. I found some of the instructions lacking and hard to follow, but with a little work, I was able to get everything to work properly. I wouldn't want a book that led me through each step by the hand, a good tutorial should inspire you to think through the problems, and this one does. I received amazing support from the readers forum and from the author when ever I needed it. I learned so much from this book that I just ordered How to Cheat at CS3.
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