Comments on: The Photoshop Elements 8 Book for Digital Photographers

By: Gilbert R. DeHuff

Gilbert R. DeHuff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:30:03 +0000

PSE8 without a book of this quality would be nearly impossible to learn for someone with no PhotoShop experience. Everything apprears to be there and thoroughly documented in relatively easy to follow steps. The only reason that I only gave it a 4 star rating is that it is almost a narrative and I would prefer something in a more outline form that allowed you to go right to the instructions for what you wanted to do without having to read the whole book.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: rjgsphinx

rjgsphinx — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:39:25 +0000

I highly recommend anything Scott Kelby has written. I am taking a photo class right now and when I asked the instructor what Photoshop book to buy, this was it. I have read his Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 before talking to my instructor and this book is as good and easy to follow as those.

Highly recommend.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: PJ Georgiou

PJ Georgiou — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:57:22 +0000

The book is very informative and has Scott’s writing style to it which make it easy to learn. HOWEVER, if you are a MAC user it may be a bit difficult at first to get your photo’s imported from iPhoto. The first chapter explains how to import your photos if you’re using WINDOWS! If you are a mac user, Scott wants you to go to his website, [...], and download a “Special” version of chapter one that will help MAC users understand Adobe Bridge, which is essentially the photo organizer for adobe photoshop elements. If you can navigate your way through the website without having a seizure then your in luck to find out how this Adobe Bridge works…I would still recommend this book because it does help you get the most out of Elements, but c’mon Scott, we have to get the photo’s into the program before we edit them. As for that Peach pit website and finding that “Special Chapter” i’d rather have a root canal done.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: W. Layman

W. Layman — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:30:45 +0000

After you've read somebody's "missing manual" book and learned the basics of using Elements 8, THEN YOU NEED THIS BOOK from Scott Kelby. (Kelby books always have a zillion great tips on how to REALLY use a product.)

BUT: If you're at all a serious image EDITOR (shooting RAW and actually doing "digital darkroom" work on your photos)--Don't use Photoshop Elements to edit RAW files. Many of its best features only work in "8-bit" accuracy instead of the 12 or 14 bit accuracy of RAW files. That means you'll get ugly artifacts whenever you push contrast hard, or recover details from deep shade, or recover nearly burned out highlights, or push saturation hard, etc., etc., etc.

You'll get MUCH better results by doing all your EDITING with Nikon's Capture NX2--It always works in 16 bit accuracy. Capture NX2 is easier to use than Elements, (and MUCH MUCH easier to use than Photoshop.) Capture NX2 is also a much more powerful EDITOR than Elements.

In addition to being a great EDITOR, NX2 is also a better RAW CONVERTER than Elements 8 and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), BUT: NX2 can only do RAW conversion on Nikon "NEF" RAW-files. If your RAW files are not Nikon, convert them from RAW to TIFF with another good converter--Then do all your edits with Capture NX2.

The world's best RAW converter is DxO Optics Pro 6 (period). Rating: 5 / 5

By: Leonard J. Sherlinski

Leonard J. Sherlinski — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:54:07 +0000

The book is well written and easy to follow, I use it often as a desk side guide to my software.
Rating: 3 / 5