How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 6: Create Stunning Photomontages on a Budget [With CDROM]

by Steve Caplin and David Asch

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0240520831
• ISBN13: 9780240520834
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: Focal Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.6" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Well worth the price!

This is the second book I have purchased by Caplin (co-author) and I have never been disappointed. Its a crime how expensive Photoshop books are getting today, so its refreshing to find titles like this that offer a lot of content for the buck. This well illustrated book allows you to take Photoshop Elements 6 (actually versions 3 to 6, and even 7 and 8) to its extreme limits. It makes PSE feel like the full version of Photoshop when performing many of the special effects projects that are well laid out in the book. Written primarily for intermediate to advanced users, this title is a great addition to a "basics" book like Barbara Brundage's excellent "Photoshop Elements 6 The Missing Manual." Once you become familiar with the basics, then you can really start to have fun with PSE by doing the easy to follow step-by-step projects in this book. You can use images on the included CD, or as I preferred, use your own image files to create some fantastic original work. Also, the book is full of useful tips that save lots of time and further expand the capabilities of PSE for you. There is even a "Finding images for Free" section that provides a wealth of sources for images to use in making your own photo composites. Another helpful feature is the keyboard shortcuts chart on the back flap of the book that's easy to flip to. Since this book has been out a while, you can usually find a good deal on a used copy, but be sure it includes the CD in good shape. Since all the book's projects can be used with practically any version of PSE after version 2, its a great resource for any PSE user even after you upgrade to the current version -- the book was apparently designed that way.

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!

Pretty neat!

I haven't had a lot of time to put this into action yet, but have read a lot of it already. It's written in plain English and looks as if it will be easy enough for an old timer like myself to follow the instructions.

Fascinating

How to Cheat in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 is a wonderful look at how to create some of the effects I've been wondering about. The manual is very easy to read with loads of beautiful images to compliment the intrustional text, making learning even easier. The step by step instructions are easy to understand and its just a matter of following the steps to create your own digital manipulations that make your photos look great. I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in photography, digital art, or scrapbooking.