PSE3 book recomendations

Does anyone have any recomendations fo a good book on learning PSE3. I am relatively new to post processing and I need to learn how to use my new program. Thanks.

His book is "The Photoshop Elements 3 Book." I highly recommend it.
--
RAM

Thanks

Kelby for getting going right away, but without much background. Brundage's Missing Manual as the most complete reference. Lynch's Hidden Power for extending what you can do with Elements and for information about color theory.

RAMcG said:

His book is "The Photoshop Elements 3 Book." I highly recommend it.
--
RAM

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I second this recommendation. I found it very helpful.

I've been thinking about picking up Brundage's book also. It hadn't hit the shelves yet when I bought Kelby's book.

In your opinion, would her book make a good companion to Kelby's?

Yes, I think so. She goes more into what each tool is for as opposed to the "tips and tricks" approach of the Kelby book. The way I look at the two books is that Kelby gets you going faster right out of the gate, but her book gives you more information to help you figure things out for yourself later, if that makes any sense?

Here's the text of a post in the Adobe forum that happens to compare the same three books I mentioned in my first post here:

semper_fi said:

Scott Kelby's book for digital photographers is the fastest, easiest way to get results today for your > photo processing issues. It doesn't give much background, though.

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semper_fi said:

Barbara Brundage's book is probably the best overall book. It gives you some hand holding but also > explains how to use tools and features. It weighs a ton with all the color photos, and is worth its > weight in gold!

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semper_fi said:

Richard Lynch's book is great for a deeper understanding of how images are composed, and tools > can use to manipulate tone and color.

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You might want to run through that whole thread. It's here:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/[email protected]@.3bb9daec/0

I think Richard Lynch's book might be a bit overwhelming for a relative beginner. Don't get me wrong - it's a terrific read and it's worth the price for the tools he ships with it - but I think a beginner might be a little put off unless he already knows how to manipulate levels, colour casts, selections, masking etc.

Conchita said:

Kelby for getting going right away, but without much background.
Brundage's Missing Manual as the most complete reference. Lynch's
Hidden Power for extending what you can do with Elements and for
information about color theory.

Click to expand...

--
Robert

Yes, it's a darned hard read, even for a relatively experienced user, but worth it. I was listing that more as the third of what I would consider the best basic library for PE.

Further up the thread, Barbara Brundage's "Missing Manual" book is mentioned. I just bought it at Fry's Electronics. It is "$0 after rebate" through tomorrow (Tuesday).

My first reaction to the book is: "I've always wanted to know that. And that. And that!" It really fills in the blanks on all the tools you never took time to learn because trial and error takes too long or you never found a tutorial on the web. And it embarrasses you with easy ways to do things you spent hours doing. But that's progress!

I bought two books for PS Elements 2. Richard Lynch's Hidden Power book, with useful tools but which left me feeling ill-equipped to deviate much from the examples, and, much later, Mikkel Aaland's Solutions book, which I've hardly opened, maybe due to the way it's organized. While PSE3 has some amazing new tools, I think I'll still keep these on the shelf for reference.

jscher2000 said:

I bought two books for PS Elements 2. Richard Lynch's Hidden Power
book, with useful tools but which left me feeling ill-equipped to
deviate much from the examples,

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I'd be glad to see some examples of what you felt was too difficult to transfer. All techniques and tools were made to work on any image -- not just the examples. Feel free to contact me directly.

--
Richard Lynch
[email protected]
The books & tools: http://hiddenelements.com
Elements User Forums: http://aps8.com/forum.html
About Photoshop Elements 3: http://adobephotoshopelements3.html

Florestan said:

I think Richard Lynch's book might be a bit overwhelming for a
relative beginner. Don't get me wrong - it's a terrific read and
it's worth the price for the tools he ships with it - but I think a
beginner might be a little put off unless he already knows how to
manipulate levels, colour casts, selections, masking etc.

Click to expand...

I agree. While there are Elements beginners who really like the book, these are usually 'beginners' who have background in photography or with other digital image editing programs--or just strong familiarity with computers. Someone coming to image editing for the first time with little or no photographic experience and a less robust understanding of computers would likely not get along with it too well. You'd be able to do the exercises...but it may be better to kick in a little slower. This book was not at all meant for an absolute beginner.

--
Richard Lynch
[email protected]
The books & tools: http://hiddenelements.com
Elements User Forums: http://aps8.com/forum.html
About Photoshop Elements 3: http://adobephotoshopelements3.html

Try some other elements books to get started. Then try HE when you are advanced. HE sits on many of my friends shelves unused.
--
pete w

http://www.wraight.smugmug.com