I have the first one, and used it a lot in the beginning. On Amazon, look at the used books, and you can usually do very well. I got one for $3.50 a while ago and it only was highlighted a bit, and the cover was scratched.
I do also recommend "50 Fast digital photo Techniques" by Gregory Georges. There are many more excellent books, and I have plenty, and have never been disappointed. You will use them for different projects, and as you advance, you will go back and say "Wow, I now can do and understand this!"
You will get more recommendations here soon for many great books and why each one is good. You can’t have too many books!
Jane
I don’t have the either of the books that you mention. I went to the Amazon web site and examined it to books you are considering. I have only purchased 1 "dummies" book, and I was very disappointed at how shallow the information was. My reaction would be that unless you are totally unfamiliar with what you want to do, I would probably not purchase the Dummies book.
Hi Barry: I have both books and believe they are both good choices. Dummies has a lot of humor included in its content,perhaps too much and too trite for my taste. However, Deke M.is a recognized PS guru and writes to a level appropriate for a person like yourself. How to… is humor free and quite comprehensive. My only "knock" on both books is that there are no actual photos to accompany the explanations. Too bad they did not have the images available for down loading. Don’t overlook the used book versions on Amazon. I’ll bet you can buy both books used for the price of 1 new. Many of these used books are virtually new. They come from sellers throughout the U.S. but you buy them through Amazon.
Barrie
A book that I have found (am still finding) really good(even though I have only PE1 is Photoshop Elements 2, The Complete Reference , authors Ken Milburn and Gene Hirsh <ISBN 0-07-222475-4>.
I ordered it once from McGraw Hill but they messed up so much I cancelled. It’s in my local library and I refer to it frequently.
Bonnie L.
Hi Barry – I have the manual that came with my purchase of Elements 2. I started using it, but found it a little over my head with the somewhat limited knowledge I had of photo editing. I bought the "Photoshop Elements 2 For Dummies" book and loved it. I read it through, then started again at the beginning and worked along with my photos on it. After I had done that, I went again to the manual. It then made more sense to me and I am now using it also. At my level, though, the Dummies book was great!
Barry,
See my comments about the bookd "Adobe PHE2 Hands-On Training" under the topic "How-to Book for Beginners"
I’ve posted short reviews of a number of books on Elements and Photoshop on my web site: <
http://www.rewarren.com/challenge/books.htm>
As you get more experience with the software, check out some of the more advanced books. Bob Warren
Bob, that’s quite a comprehensive set of reviews! Do you have all those books?? I have many, but some of the titles are new to me. On my way to amazon.com again….
🙂
Chuck
I feel so behind. I have one photoshop book…Gregory Georges 50 fast…ps7 and I haven’t spent much time with it at all. There isn’t enough hours in the day !!!! Darn it !
Jodi, you don’t need to buy books – you need to CREATE them!! 🙂
Hi Bob, That is wonderful site you have done for those of us looking for PSE books! I have many of them, and get frustrated reading sections, I use them more for reference now. But I do need to look at your reviews to see which I should go back thru and study and which to use for looking up how to do stuff. Anybody just starting out with PSE, would find this really helpful.
Thank you for a really helpful site! I think you should make this a separate topic with the title, so that people looking for PSE books would see it in the list.
I am going to post the URL on my classroom forum.
Hi Jodi, I am waiting for your book!!!
Jane
Chuck —
I do actually have all those books and a few more that I didn’t include. Bookstores love me. My credit card companies love me. Fortunately, my wife tolerates my enthusiasms. I agree with your comment to Jodi — she should put all her skills and techniques together in a book, too!
Bob Warren
re;my book, ha ha ha..not likely very soon.. besides with all the styles I’ve shared someone is probably already getting a book together 😉
Bob, thanks for compiling the review of the books. I understand that the WOW book does not work with PSE2…is this correct? I had WOW on the first version and enjoyed it.
Pat —
I have PSE2 and the WOW effects work perfectly. I’m running WIN-XP -I don’t know about Mac compatability.
Bob Warren
Pat: The original WOW book for Elements had recipes that didn’t work in Elements 2, owing to a design change in 2’s recipes. However, all the layer styles work fine. Not sure what’s in the updated WOW for Elements 2 vis-a-vis recipes.
Chuck
