Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements

This is slightly unusual in for a photography book as it's project based. Think of it as an extended set of the sort of tutorials you find in the digital photo magazines.

It's split into 3 sections with overall headings of "Optimize" "Enhance" and "Montage" with individual chapters each covering a particular technique in Elements 6.

A DVD is included with video and image resources covering all the projects (which is unusual) - 5 hours of video and high quality images (including RAW and PSD with all layers). There are also some potentially useful actions (I haven't got round to using these yet, as I'm running the Macintosh beta version, and haven't figured out how to install them!)

As with all the most recent Elements publications I've seen, this is based around the Windows version, but it doesn't seem to be so focussed - I found no problems following the projects on a MacBook, as there is less emphasis on keyboard shortcuts in the text, and the menus and interfaces are pretty much the same for each platform.

Mark Galer writes in a style that I find refreshing - it's witty without detracting from the technical content, and I found that the techniques 'stuck' very quickly without repeated re-reading.

Unusually these days (or so it seems) there's no accompanying website for the book, but I didn't find this detracted from the overall experience, perhaps because the DVD content is so comprehensive.

If you're a newcomer to Elements this isn't the book for you - it's not going to teach you how to navigate the interface - I don't think that there's any one image in the book that shows the whole screen - but if you want to learn some more high end techniques which you may not expect possible from Adobe's budget app then you may want to consider buying it.

Maximum Performance really sums this book up (10/10 people found this helpful)

On the cover it says maximum performance and that sums up perfectly what you get inside. It is packed with some of the most interesting techniques and clever workarounds that I have come across and it really helped me discover just what hidden depths Elements has. I found many things that up to now I thought had only been achievable in the full version of Photoshop and it was a real revelation to discover that Elements has these capabilities too.

The book itself is split into 3 sections:

1. OPTIMIZE ... which contains projects on Crop and Correct, Levels, Camera Raw, Contrast, Hue & Saturation, Sharpening and Printing.

2. ENHANCE ... with projects on Depth of Field, Shafts of Light, Black and White, Toning, Character Portraits, Glamour Portraits, Motion Blur, Low Key and Channels.

3. MONTAGE .. containing projects on Creative Montage, Replacing a Sky, High Dynamic Range, Creative Type, Displacement, Preserving Shadow, Photomerge and Hair Transplant.

Also included is a DVD which as well as containing over five hours of movie tutorials also has numerous images that you can use to practice the techniques plus layer styles, gradients and actions to help you achieve some of the effects shown in the book. There are also detailed easy to follow instruction on how to install these into Elements and this makes the whole process quite simple.

The book covers so many diverse techniques and really is a pleasure to use, its easy to read, well written and explains in detail how to achieve the best results. For example, Camera Raw has always been a total mystery to me but the clear information and instructions contained in the book have made me much more confident in using it and my images are now far better than they were before.

I'm a long time user of Elements but I gained just so much from these excellent projects and have discovered all sorts of tips and workarounds that I just hadn't come across before. Once I had picked up the book I found it difficult to put down. The book and DVD really are a treasure trove of information for creating stunning images.

What a nerve... I feel cheated !!! (16/18 people found this helpful)

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements by Mark Galer is a rip-of. Anyone that has read my previous review on the same book title, (read Elements 5 and not 6) would know that in me you are already talking to the converted. That book and indeed this book are just perfection in themselves and for the average Element user this book will explain AND show you how it should be done and what can be achieved by the powerful piece of software called Photoshop Elements 6. By now I expect you are thinking that my initial comment was a contradiction in terms. Well not necessarily so as I write this review to save others from spending their hard earned cash that I have unnecessarily already spent.

Because of my previous pe5 book purchase (and review) by this Author, when I upgraded (yet again Adobe!!) to pe6 I naturally wanted Mark Galer's new book once more. It topped my 'wish list'. Thinking of coarse that it would hold new articles and new tutorials, certainly new videos, in fact new everything. I was wrong. This book is just a simple update of pe5 with a few more paragraphs and words thrown in here and there together with all the old and same videos. Yes it does differ slightly in certain areas but it would appear to me that the distributor simply said: "Let's do a new pe6 book Mark, we'll just throw in a couple of new sentences and a couple of pictures to make em' think its new! Maybe a new front cover? That will fool them all into thinking etc etc etc" Well it fooled me and that's a fact. Now at a huge £ 18.99p (todays date) this new books entire content was and is a massive disappointment to me. It's a re-hash and to re-use the original videos, pictures, tuts etc., as originally in the pe5 book is, quite frankly, taking a liberty........ I could use stronger words, but maybe not for this review.

So to conclude, I cannot say that this book is worthless, it is as brilliant as was his pe5 book.... hence my review there. Trouble is it's 98% the SAME book....... !! If you have just recently purchased pe6 then it is still THE BOOK in my opinion and on that basis I cannot downgrade my original 5* rating without appearing to be hypocritical. However for those of us that had already purchased Mark Galer's Elements 5 book, it's a bloody impertinence at the very least ..... regretfully. Hope this review will help some to save their dosh. All IMHO of coarse.

High quality, unexpected possibilities with Elements, wealth of educational material (17/17 people found this helpful)

If you're a beginner with Photoshop Elements, this is not a book for you. But if you know the essentials and want to deepen and extend your knowledge and use of the program, I don't think you can find a better guide than Mark Galer with his book Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, maximum performance. By the way except for one project the book is also very useful for version 5

The book itself uses large, clear pictures. It shows quality of itself.
It is not directed to describing the tools of Elements, but to really enhancing photographs for optimum quality using available tools. You get 25 so called projects, a kind of long exercises where the author explains what he wants to achieve and how it is done. The used pictures are all available to do it yourself.

In one instance (improving contrast) even 4 methods are completely explained. Never heard of using colour channels in Elements? Mark Galer shows us what for and how to. And I at least got very excited! At the end of a project a finished example is printed intended to be made by applying what was learnt in the project.
Selections are nice but have them `made by Elements' itself using masks is easier and better. And there are a lot of examples how to do that in the book.

If the text it not clear enough, then there is a DVD in the book, providing complete videos showing and explaining every step of each project. You get here more detailed explanation than in the book. I think the combination of text and videos is a real winner.

Of course you can mimic exactly what is described. You get all used pictures in high resolution, in JPG, TIF and PSD format. Many in RAW. The PSD format displays all layers the way they should at the end of the exercise. And besides that you get a lot of other pictures, e.g. a lot of skies and sand beaches, and so on. Totalling 3,4 GB!

I also like the fact Mark Galer being a photographer himself gives you a lot of useful photographic advices and many performance tips spread over the book.

Surely, it is not a novel, rather a study book. Depending on your previous knowledge you will have to use your proper brains more or less. And relook at the videos if you missed something in the text.
Mark Galer writes fluently, with a nice bit of humour.

When you are through the book, you will take it again from time to time to refresh things. Each project standing on its own, this is made easy.
Personally I'd like to find more about the "whys" and "why not another way". Though the videos provide part of this. Now about 300 pages. Therefore a bit more would not harm.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 Maximum Performance: Unleash the hidden performance of Elements

Mark Galer

Reader Reviews:

High end techniques for Adobe's budget imaging app (12/12 people found this helpful)

Maximum Performance really sums this book up (10/10 people found this helpful)

What a nerve... I feel cheated !!! (16/18 people found this helpful)

High quality, unexpected possibilities with Elements, wealth of educational material (17/17 people found this helpful)

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