How to Cheat in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6: Create stunning photomontages on a budget: 1

What a great book this is, it has something for everyone from outright beginners to advanced users and is just so easy to follow.

It is divided into 12 sections: Selection Techniques, Montage Essentials, Hiding and Showing, Image Adjustments, Light and Shade, Transformation and Distortion, Materials and textures, Working with text, People and Animals, Shiny Surfaces, The Third Dimension and Print and the Internet. Then each of those sections is subdivided into lots of individual project techniques, each project covers two pages and has good colour images and detailed instructions on how to achieve the effect.

The techniques shown are project based so instead of simply learning how to create and use, for example, a cheats mask you get to see how to create that mask and then use it to make someone vanish down a drain. Now that sort of thing is much more fun. Best of all they are stunning effects but really easy to follow and also they work perfectly, so you get to learn whilst having fun and making something interesting.

There is also a CD included with the book and that contains Quicktime Movies of the more complex effects, Project files with images you can use to follow along with the techniques and a Extras section which has some very nice goodies in it.

As you have gathered I just love it ... it is a well written book full of good techniques and the writing style suits me perfectly.

There are literally all sorts of things to learn ranging from how to switch heads to how to do complex reflection and from making fire to carving in stone. Plus with projects like Writing in the Sand, making a Wax Seal and Write on the Button Scrapbookers will find lots of interest for them too. Its not too often that I find a book that is just so good ... but this one is. Well worth getting.

Wendy

An excellent introduction to some fascinating Photoshop techniques (4/4 people found this helpful)

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!

Accessible, practical guide to how to be creative with your photos (10/10 people found this helpful)

Things I like about this book:
1. The layout - the two page spread makes it easy to follow each project.
2. The projects are set out clearly, step-by-step with full colour images and the style of the writing is friendly and conversational. You are given useful tips and shorcuts to make things easier.
3. Although each chapter covers a different subject it also uses and refers to techniques covered in other parts of the book.
4. There is a good range of projects so there is something for everyone and can be adapted to suit your own image ideas (you can also follow each project with the images on the accompanying CD).
5. There is a dedicated website where users of the book can get help with the techniques and Elements in general, share information, work out problems and generally chat with like-minded people.
This book is not for beginners. I think it is targeted at people with some experience of using Photoshop Elements. It shows you how to be creative with your photos and it does this in a clear, easily understandable, practical manner.

How to Cheat in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6: Create stunning photomontages on a budget: 1

David Asch, Steve Caplin

Reader Reviews:

A facinating book that is full of creative ideas (6/6 people found this helpful)

An excellent introduction to some fascinating Photoshop techniques (4/4 people found this helpful)

Accessible, practical guide to how to be creative with your photos (10/10 people found this helpful)

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