50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques with Photoshop Elements 3 Learn how to exploit the many new features of Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 to create your own photographic masterpieces. Gregory Georges takes you on a guided tour through the new software, then shows you special techniques you’ll enjoy using on your photographs. Learn from a master how to make your photos the best they can be, or transform them into something entirely different that you’ll be proud to have created. Your guide to 50 top digital photo editing techniques Learn about image size, file formats, and bit-depth Correct color and improper exposure Perform fully editable dodging and burning Transform ordinary photos into shaded pencil portraits, pen-and-ink sketches, line drawings, and more Make collages, posters with text, and online photo galleries Make quality copies of paper-based scrapbook album pages Edit online auction photos to boost high bids Learn portrait techniques and how to minimize the effects of aging

* This update features fifty fast and impressive digital photo techniques-eighty percent of which are new since the previous edition
* The CD-ROM includes a bonus e-book of the entire first edition-giving readers two books for the price of one
* Developed by professional photographer and eDigital Photo contributing writer Gregory Georges, the techniques are valuable to both pros and hobbyists alike
* Uses the latest version of Adobe Photoshop Elements in the examples, but the techniques are readily adaptable to most image-editing programs
* Includes techniques for traditional photo effects, combining photos, artistic effects, animations, digital photo blends, and much more
* Step-by-step details, in-depth instructions, and plenty of illustrations-including a full color insert-make it easy for people to apply the techniques to their own photos

Fantastic! Step-by-Step Instructions

All of Gregory Georges books are concisely written so that even the novice can follow the steps. I have been teaching Photoshop and Photoshop Elements for several years and these 50 Fast Digital books are a must have for my students. If you are one of those people that needs to know the "Why?" as to how everything works, this might not be the book for you. If you want to know "How" to get something done-this is it!
Jacki Sutherland

Inspirational and Good Value

I think that some of the reviews on this page are obviously for the previous edition, which I’m sure was getting quite dated by the time this one came out. However, I can attest that this book is generally superb. Georges’ photos are very skilfull, his instructions clear. I’ve owned a copy for two days and my photos have already improved to the extent of getting "wows" from friends and family. My only criticism is that it would have been nice if the book was color throughout, but the 24 color pages that it does have certainly make an impact. I recommend this book, which is a great value for the price.

You Can Do Better......

What a difference a year makes in digital photography! Or 5 years come to that. Having bought the book, 50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques, it was immediately clear that the techniques and tips were aimed at beginning photoshop workers. Nothing wrong with that. However, by today’s standards, there are many more attractive books on the market that do the same thing so much better and with much better quality illustrations and colour photgraphs. I found the tips a bit ’old hat’ and the illustrations very old hat, the sort of tips and techniques you could easily pick up in an hour’s search on the net, AND with better colour examples.
Still, to keep things in perspective, the book IS 5 years old and it shows.
Buy it if you want a cheap second-hand book for your shelf. Otherwise, you can do much, much better with the scores of other visually attractive beginner/intermediate books on today’s market.

The reviews posted for this book are not for this book

This new book has 50 entirely new techniques AND the CD includes all fifty of the techniques from the first edition for a total of 100 useful and fun techniques.

All other reviews (mostly 5-star reviews) that are posted here are for the first edition and most of those less than excellent reviews are by people who bought the first edition when it was three years old.

Amazon, please fix this!

The author...

Dissapointed in cover and description

Looking at the book’s cover and at the now defunct editor’s description, there was no indication this book was primarily aimed at - and indeed was written for - Photoshop Elements users. The copy said it was also for Photoshop users but it only covers through version 6 and the introduction says using applications other than Elements for the actions described may not work.

I’ve not used Elements so I have no idea whether the book will be helpful there. It’s certainly not helpful for me.

I’m a professional using Photoshop CS and thought some of the tips might be worthwhile. I also use PaintShopPro 8. I thought some of this book might be worthwhile for me but I’m nothing but dissapointed.

Useless information

This book concentrates on nothing at all that I could find. Information on lighting, color and composition, angle, equipment are just rushed through, and leaves you holding the bag, so to speak. All the information that you NEED to know is left out, where information that anyone who has used a camera for more than a month already should know, is covered throughout the entire book, chapter after chapter. Useless book, unless you are an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER and have never seen a digital camera operated before, buy something else. Oh, and the included software is only good when you uninstall it.

I don’t like getting ripped off, and after purchasing this book, I’ll never buy anything who was associated with this obviously slapped together POS. And I don’t think you can call "take the photos again if you don’t like them" a technique. Which is mentioned in the book about 50 times... YIKES.