Just recently I had someone ask me about purchasing a Graphic program to edit and clean up fifty pictures. What did I recommend? Whoops! First – Mac or PC? They had both as it turned out. Based on my questions and their finances, I recommended Photoshop Elements 9, as it comes with Mac and PC disks. It was also available at the local Wal-Mart. Home free… almost.
Then comes the phone calls. ‘There’s no manuals!’ Well yeah! Hardly any vendor includes manuals anymore, says I. They either have great help menus, tutorial movies or PDF files on the disk. They also send you to their websites for movie tutorials to see there or download for viewing at your leisure.
Well, I suggested two books, ‘Photoshop Elements 9 for Dummies’ and ‘Photoshop Elements 9 – Visual Quickstart Guide, by Jeff Carlson’ which I’m reviewing here.
Jeff Carlsons’ book, with the icon shown to the right, is a good reference book which can be read from the first chapter for the novice, or just used a reference guide for the medium to advanced ‘…Elements 9 ‘ user.
There are 14 chapters and seven pages of Keyboard shortcuts at the end of the book. I attached a couple of screen snapshots I took of the chapters in the book to give you an idea of what the pages look like. One is about resolution and image size which few people understand, and the other snapshot is about the under-used Paint Bucket too.
There’s some great chapters in here, like correcting for camera distortion. Like when the buildings in your photos appear to bend inward. With PS Elements 9 you can correct that easily, but few people understand that you can, or even care to. Some people feel that’s the way cameras work and just accept that. Some of us just can’t think that way.
I feel that this is a book that I can recommend for those who buy Photoshop Elements 9 and have that ‘deer in the headlights’ glaze in their eyes when they first open up the program. Unfortunately, I’ve seen it far too often in my long Mac life.
My first recommendation for users is that they join a Mac Users Group and look around there for a Mac Special Interest Group on Graphics. Usually there are people with a hands-on help session to get you going. Lacking that, this book should help you get your battery jump-started.
Photoshop Elements 9 – Visual Quickstart Guide
* Dimensions: 7×9; Pages: 350 – Pub: 2010 – $34.99
