digital photography

Author Mikkel Aaland is a well-known pioneer in digital photography and writer, not only of books on photography, digital photography but on other subjects as well. If you've ever watched the Screensavers on Tech TV, you've seen Mikkel Aaland working his magic with Photoshop Elements, so you know that he knows exactly what he's talking about in the book. He has updated his first book, Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, to provide the reader with the latest information, tips, and step-by-step instructions to make full use of the improvements within PSE 2. If you are into photography, digital photography and image scanning, this book is a must for you.

Written for both PC and Mac user, this full color work first guides the reader through the basics of PSE 2, from setting preferences to where to go for help when using the program. Using his knowledge and skills, Mr. Aaland then walks us through the process that he uses to make ordinary images great ones; from deciding which tasks come first, controls, layer adjustments with masks to resizing and framing your images.

He approaches chapters with the eye of an experienced photographer, as shown in Chapter 3 where he goes into depth on Better Faces, the idea being to intensify the focus on one's eyes, eliminating red eye, getting rid of wrinkles (a must for us baby boomers!) and using simple techniques and tips to get the reader going in the right direction. You'll find yourself making faces more symmetrical, fixing hair, adding hair and even changing the color and tinting hair. Mr. Aaland even offers tips on producing better portraits and where to find more information on working with photographs.

The book continues with dealing with outside shots, product shots, transparent layers, texture, scale and perspective, even how to set up your own mini photo studio. Want to learn how to do composites, seamless pasting, improve your real estate photographs, balancing light? You'll be walked through the process one step at a time. One whole chapter is devoted to the Photomerge capabilities of PSE 2, including photomerging a collage.

With the photographer in mind, Mr. Aaland shows you how to add a photo credit, use type as headline or fill type with an image. You'll learn how to add additional effects to type, warp it, liquefy it, and even shape it. Chapter 10 will bring you to the lessons you need to learn to prepare images for the Web, including design components such as navigational graphics, backgrounds and photo galleries. The final two chapters of the book deal with understanding JPEGs, saving and emailing, compression and conversion of GIFs to JPEGs, and using desktop printers and other photography services. The appendix that is included in the book covers Layers, Effects, Selection Tools, Viewing and Navigation Tools, Brushes, Filters and Liquify Filters.

When you also consider the CD that comes with the book, which includes practice images, filters, demos of applications and utilities, and even a demo of a Photoshop Learning Studio, this book is well worth the cost. (Note- the original edition of this book had a CD which caused some problems for users of OS X. Sybex has corrected those problems and the new CD now works properly with OS 9 and X)

You can't go wrong with Mikkel when it comes to working with digital imagery. Highly recommended.

MacMice Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Russ Walkowich
...

As a recent convert to digital photography I came across Photoshop Elements software and began experimenting with it on my computer. It was fascinating but I only used a few of its features - although realizing there were many more available. My attempts to understand the more complex functions like the use of layers got bogged down in the detailed explanations within the program and in the users guide. While they were sufficiently detailed to explain how each feature worked individually, they never put them into a usable context. After seeing a recommendation for Photoshop Elements 2 Solutions, I bought Mikkel Aalands' book.

It is a revelation. I feel I have gone from a rank amateur to a serious user after only a short time following the book's clear explanations and vivid examples. What this book does not do is explain every feature within the program. What it does do exceedingly well is provide practical examples of how to accomplish specific tasks that require you to group a number of features together and tells you step by step how to do so. It is helped immeasurably by an enclosed CD that enables you to follow the book's instructions and perform the steps yourself on your computer. Layers and a lot of other functions are now easy for me to understand and use. Disappointing pictures I have taken are now being transformed into really nice photographs.

Equally important it gives you the fundamental basis and the motivation to further explore how to use the program.

The book is written for both Photoshop Elements Versions 1 and 2. It helpfully explains where they differ.

I highly recommend this for users of the Photoshop Elements program and believe it will benefit newcomers to digital editing as well as experienced users.

This is a wordy introduction to Elements 2. Mr. Aaland provides a good rationale for improvement with photographs and how they may be accomplished. This is important - as it is not immediately obvious what improvements need to be made to a photograph when starting out in digital photography.

However, his approach is wordy - and you have to plough through a lot of (unnecessary) text to go through the individual steps. Some people like wordy explanations, others a more visual guide to a visual medium.

Secondly, and this is a personal feeling, it is clear that Mr. Aaland makes his living by writing computer manuals and not in graphics or as a photographer. The photographs supplied on the CD and in the book are of the mundane snapshot variety. This may be fine if you are simply working on mundane snapshots - however, for me (and I am sure others), I am looking for approaches to improve more artistic photographs. (If you are looking for help with this and you are visiting the UK, I recommend you buy a copy of Digital Photo magazine [not Digital Photography or other similarly named magazines] - you will get a lot of clearly, explained advice there).

So a mixed bag. If you are looking for a reasonable comprehensive 'textbook' on PE2 then consider this. If you are through the basics and are looking for a deeper explanation of advanced features and artistic management, then I suggest you look elsewhere. For me, the book falls short of my needs and interests and the CD photographs are disappointing.

Hope this helps!