This is a great book for beginning Photoshop Elements users. Very clear and easy to use.

This is an all inclusive description of the functions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. In fact it is a bit too detailed.

The book could have used a summary sheet lising the various steps needed to perform an operation rather than doing a description in paragraph form.

It is also needed to differentiate why one operation is better than another along with doing quick fixes instead of the longer and more detailed ones.

In essence the book is quite good but needed a quick view chapter of the basics.

Excellent Book
A great hands on help for using photoshop elements. Found it was better than the "help" tab. I found the layout and the examples clear and easy to follow. This book was recommended by our instructor at a photoshop workshop class. After reading and starting to use it, I can see why. There is so much in this book. All the tips and tricks. Years of use packed into one book. A must have for anyone using photoshop.

This is a thick book that can be used as a reference guide when processing pictures in Elements 6 software. The chapters are short and to the point for each subject. There are many problems listed with step by step help in solving them. When doing picture processing one doesn't want to spend processing time with lengthy reading of instructions, and this book is short and sweet for each solution needed.

What I like about Scott Kelby's books is that he gives you the information you need, in concise language, with a dash of humor. Photoshop Elements can be overwhelming to the beginner. With this book, you will have the ability to do what you want to your photos. Each step is explained in detail, with example photographs. I absolutely recommend this book for anyone using Photoshop Elements 6.

I was very upset when I bought Elements 6 and there were only online directions. I didn't like having to flip back and forth to the online screen. I am the type that needs to look at instructions in a book in front of me while I am trying to figure out how to do something. This book is just what I needed. It has easy to follow step by step instructions with pictures. Because of the before and after pictures of the photos, I was able to flip thru and see photos that had effects that I might want to use. I have another of Scot Kelby's books also. I have had lots of fun learning new tecniques. I highly recommend this book and also his other books on digital photography.

The things you can do with Photoshop Elements are amazing, but it takes a while to learn. You can fine-tune good pictures, save badly exposed pictures, restore old pictures, create works of art with your pictures, or create works of art from scratch. The best way to learn Elements is by doing projects of practical examples. Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski give you those projects in their book with project photographs available for downloading. One word of warning - Adobe has been bringing out a new version of Elements every year. Version 7 has just been announced. Although there are many similarities among versions, it is best to have the book that fits your version. I'm sure that a book for Version 7 will be forthcoming.

First the bottom line: I've had this book a few weeks now and I like it a lot. It has proved to be exactly the book I needed and it's small flaws don't keep me from both enjoying it and finding enormously useful. Well worth the money.

Who is the book for?
This is NOT a book for someone who is brand new to photo editing, nor would I recommend it for someone who is new to PSE. In fact, the author makes it quite clear that he's not going to tell you, for example, what the erasure tool does, he's going to tell you how to use it to get something accomplished. Also, if you're looking for a reference book on PSE I'd look elsewhere, the book's organization doesn't lend itself to that, though the index is good and the table of contents excellent for finding things.

So who is it for? Me. Okay, what I mean is this: I'm familiar with PSE but no expert, I know the general concepts, I can find most of the tools most of the time. What I need help with is putting those tools to use to get a job done. If that's you, quit reading and buy the book!

Pro: the good news

Basically, this is a project-oriented book. The authors lead you through how to do nearly everything that I can imagine (and a bunch I hadn't) with a digital image. Yes, they'll take you through the pretty basic stuff like cropping BUT they add in why to crop and some fundamental composition rules that will not just help you crop the image but make the image better. That's the goal--make your images better, more interesting and more satisfying to you and the audience. There's a good discussion of selection techniques--the sometimes tricky process of picking the parts of an image that need work. And there are chapters with fairly advanced (for me anyway) stuff relating to special effects, color management, and preparing your shots for a show. All along the way, there are step-by-step "recipes" for you to follow and many clever, time saving tips and tricks.

In short, the book is readable, thorough and it will help make your images better.

Con: the not-so-good news.

Others have commented about the often lame attempts at humor. Personally, I found it easy to ignore it but I agree that it's both lame and quickly annoying. Not bad enough to keep me from recommending the book tho'. I also agree with another reviewer's comments about the difficulty in reading the screen shot clips--but the dark background from PSE 6 is preserved and it makes seeing the too tiny text difficult. Mostly tho' I didn't need to read the text there to understand the point being made.

Pretty much, that's it for the bad news in my view. Enough to keep it from 5 stars but not enough to keep me from highly recommending the book. If your the target audience--Get It and enjoy!

Would recommend this book to anyone who seriously wants to understand the full power of Photoshop Elements

Beautifully illustrating their instructions with step-by-step examples to demonstrate the techniques they teach, Kelby and Kloskowski cover everything about handling photos from basic red-eye reduction to calibrating your monitor. Both PC and Mac are covered by this volume. One warning: because this is an update of a previous book on PSE, there are a few things that are out-of-date in it that weren't caught in editing, such as a recommendation for a plug-in that isn't compatible with version 6, so keep that in mind when using it.

This is an excellent manual to accompany Elements 6 software. This book was recommended by our photo club members unamimously.

I bought the digital photographers book 2 and liked it so much I then bought the book 1 and then the elements 6 book.All books are written and explained well and very practical.Have learnt heaps having been away from photography (Film days) and just snapshooting for quite a long time.Recently bought a Canon 400d and learning digital from scratch. These books are excellent.

I received the book in the stated time of delivery. It was well packaged and in perfect condition.

I'm sorry I bought this book!
The authors are more interested in writing for their own amusement than in providing useful information. And trust me - they are not amusing. I'm writing this to save others from wasting their time on this inane diatribe.

The book is badly organized and it's almost impossible get answers to basic questions. Like, for example, what is RAW? Simple question. You'll get a whole page about Arnold Scwarzenegger's movie "Raw Deal," but at the end you still won't have a clue about RAW photos. It has something to do with Adobe, but that's about all you'll know.

How does Elements organize photos? I wish I could find out, but I'm not getting any answers here. The step-by-step instructions are massively longer than they need to be because the author's think they're here to entertain us. Can I just please get an answer! Do I have to read a novel to get through one step in a 3-step process? The KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle is nowhere to be found in this book.

Do yourself a big favor. Pass on this one.

Scott Kelby writes in a humerous style that makes a teaching manual a lot more interesting to follow. I always look forward to the next chapter. He covers the material without getting deep into technical jargon but you learn the techniques quickly that a photographer needs to edit his photos.

I have previously purchased Scott Kelby's books on Photoshop CS and Elements 5 for Digital Photographers. Both books are very well done and easy to follow. However, I just recently purchased Elements 6 plus Scott's book on Elements 6, and am very disapointed to see that the example windows shown in the book are grey background with white text just like what you see on your monitor, but they are much smaller and it is impossible to read the text without a magnifying glass. Areas where you are supposed to click on the windows are circled in red, but you can't read the text to see what you are clicking on. Using this grey background with white text is a stupid blunder by Adobe, not everyone using these programs has 20/20 vision and a large monitor like the geeks designing the system. We gave the Photoshop Elements 6 program and Scott's book to a young friend of ours who has much better vision than I do. She has since commented that it is difficult for her to see also since she has a laptop computer, but she will try to get used to it. I will not buy any further Adobe products that use this grey and white bit.

This book dives right into HOW to do things with Photoshop - complete with pictures on every page. If you go through the book and practice some of the things a few times, you'll learn everything a beginner needs to learn - in a fun and hands-on way.

The book also spends some time going over how to use the organizer, which is very important for any photographer.

What the book does NOT tell you is what every single function does - because there are so many advanced functions in photoshop. So, if you are looking for a dictionary on Photoshop's functions - this book is not for you.

This was an extremely well written book. Scott Kelby is very knowledgable and shares with his readers in a humorous way. I thoroughly enjoy reading anything he writes. I highly recommend this purchase.

Scott and his co-writer have produced a tutorial book that is not only easy to understand and use, but also fun to use.

I've been using P.E. now for month or two, but this book really gives you step-by-step solutions for many corrections that you have been doing but perhaps not so well or easily. And they will show you how to do some things that you haven't thought of doing.

Well worth the money. The instructions are clear, and the examples are perfect.

At 71 learning and remembering are a challenge. This book gives me the steps to accomplish well the tasks that I need to do do with my photography and is simple and good at directing me in these tasks. I do not know other programs and instruction books, but find this one better than I expected.

Lots of good step by step "how to" information. It has gotten me started processing raw format.

I found that while it helped me with some issues, it was written as though you had been using previous versions of the software so did not give the basic info needed for someone new. For new users, best used along with a book that is written for someone who has little previous experience.

This is one of the most, easily read guides to the newest Photoshop software. (picture editing) I have referred to it a number of times to learn the ins-and-outs of something I wanted the program to do. It is a little pricey, but worth it.

I use this as a reference book. So, I have read the chapters and articles that relate to the problem or concept I am trying to accomplish with photoshop elements.

Book is very well written and very easy to follow. He doesn't necessarily lead you through each keystroke needed, but if you are at all computer literate and have an understanding of the bare basics of photoshop elements this will do the job.

In otherwords, if you are looking for a book to give you insight on how to use photoshop elements at an above absolute beginner level, this is it. If you want a book on how to get started with photoshop elements and tell you every keystroke step by step by step, this isn't it.

I highly recommend the book.

I am brand spanking new to photography and got PS Elements as a xmas present. The program doesn't really come with any books or how-tos and I didn't want to sit through the tutorial. So I got this book. This way I could go straight to the page where I could get the info I needed, instead of trying to find it through the program. The book is easy to read, easy to follow, basic, and to the point. You don't waste time in this book and it does everything step by step. No big complicated words or terms to confuse new photographers. I have not read the whole book yet. I've just gone to the chapters I was interested in to enhance some pictures and the book helped me. I love this book and now love my PS Elements program! I cannot say enough good things about this book...

The book is very practical with step by step instructions in the use of Photshop to perform many of the tasks you would like to undertake in improving your digital photographs.

This book has been so helpful as I've entered the world of digital photo editing. Kelby explains things so simply, and his techniques work wonders. I'm very happy with this purchase.

This book does a great job of walking you through how to deal with many common problems and fixes. However, at several points in the book I felt like the author was assuming I knew certain things about previous versions of Elements. The sections on Layering are particularly confusing if you've never worked with layers before.

I got PSE6 as a package with a new computer, and have no prior experience with it or any other Photoshop-type program. I had spent weeks online searching for tutorials, browsing PSE forums, and even bought a PSE6 DVD class off of eBay to learn this program. While I discovered several great resources, it would have been more time effective for me to get this book first. My focus is enhancing photos, and this book covers the most important topics for that: color fixing, removing unwanted items, and special effects. When I work in PSE6, I am constantly referring to this book to find out how to do certain tasks.

I had no idea you could even work on .jpegs in Adobe Camera Raw, but this book taught me that, and that has saved many of my poorly exposes photos.

I highly recommend this book if you're new to PSE, or are looking for a great reference manual.

On page xv of this book the authors describe my major beef with it when they say, "I tried not to put things in this book that are already in ever other Elements book out there". While the content of the book is really very good, it leaves a lot out. If you are new to Photoshop of any variety, this book is not for you. It is a collection of individual "recipes" for making various corrections and adjustments. I am not new to Photoshop so they all make sense to me, but it still would have been good to have Chapter 1 be a crash course in the basics.

I used to be a PC user and have loved Elements since version 3 and Kelty's books on it's usage. I recently switched to a MAC for numerous reasons and purchased Elements 6 when it came out. I have purchased several books for MAC on its use but none where as good as the PC versions by Kelty. I wrote to his site only to be told that they did not have anything for the MAC and was disappointed. I happened to be in the mood to just try the book as I found that a lot of what was in his PC version 5 book I was able to relate to the MAC operations, so why not give his latest one a try. Once I got the book and started reading it it didn't take long before it told me that the book was for both operating systems...hooray!!!! thanks, Kelty and I love the step-by-step process and pics to get me thru a process...everyone BUY this book

this book would be excellent except for the publisher's screw-up on the pages in chapter one where page 17-33 are missing and some pages are repeated. an email to the publisher has, tp date, remained unanswered.

I first bought Kelby's guide to Photoshop Elements 4.0. I was flabbergasted at how easily I learned to do fairly complicated things with the program, and have eagerly upgraded to each new book as I upgraded my software. I whiten teeth and eyes with ease, and have even used his direction to add (or subtract!) people to or from photos.

The best thing about these books is their inclusion of EVERY step, for each technique taught. He doesn't skip steps because he assumes you know them-- it's all there.

If I had to recommend only one PSE book to someone trying to get the hang of the program, this would be it. In fact, I'm providing it as an adjuct to PSE classes I teach at my scrapbook store; it's the perfect way for my students to move beyond the basics with confidence!

I have a number of books by Scott Kelby and find his writing easy to follow and I always learn something new. The book itself had alot of the same examples as the Elements 5 book. I know that the book is written for the beginner so that was appropriate. I am hoping he comes out with a teaching book with more advanced topics. Great book and would recommend for anyone using Elements.

The Photoshop Elements 6 Book is invaluable....I had been plodding along trying to teach myself and not getting very far. This books sets out just about every situation imagineable and step by step holds your hand to guide you to the completion of an exercise. Truly invaluable.

While very comfortable with Photoshop Elements, each time you upgrade there are changes and it is hard to keep up with them all. This guide cuts right to the chase and it is very easy to follow along. It was very helpful in getting me right up to speed on PSE 6.

The Photoshp Elements 6 for Digital Photographers.

This book is a marvelous addition to your reference library.
Beginning with the Table of Contents, find what you want to do and go to the page number listed. There you will find step by step instructions with illustrations on exactly how to accomplish your task.
Some of the topics include, but not limited to, Organizing, Resizing & Cropping, Color Correction, Digital Image Problems, Retouching, Removing Unwanted Objects, etc.

This is an excellent book, one for my library. One I highly recommended.

From Peachpit Press
Authors: Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski
Price: $44.99 US
ISBN-10:0-321-52464-0

This is exactly what you need to help you with Elements 6. It goes through every creative aspect of the program with step-by-step instructions and added color photos so you can see the results of each step. The paper used for this book allows for the beautiful color and perfectly detailed photos.
This is a tremendous advantage because, as you know, so many books like this with photos are very poorly done. This one is exceptional.

Finally I tried a Scott Kelby book. Now I know why I keep hearing about him. He fails to committ the annoying habit of giving a new learner 90 ways to do the same thing. And, he is clear, to the point. I can even follow what he says and get good results. This is a super good book for anyone struggling with Elements.

Having been a casual user of Photoshop Elements software versions 1-5, when I obtained V6, which has a major inrterface upgrade I needed help. I found the former (V5) book in our library and liked the style and the book seemed to zero in on the tasks I need to perfrom from time to time. The current (V6) book is written in the same way. I think it strikes a nice balance.

Great book written in a very conversational style! I would highly recommend this book to anyone with even a slight interest in learning to edit their digital photos.

The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
This is an Excellent Book, very easy to follow the step by step instructions. Great reference. I keep it handy my computer at all times

I recently attended a conference and was asked to make a presentation that would share my conference experience. I wanted to use Photoshop Elements 6 to create something that would wow my faculty. Even though I had never done it before, I created a great slide show with music and graphics. Everyone said it looked professional! Without Scott's book, I wouldn't have had a clue on what to do. It was easy to follow and answered every question I had. I highly recommend the book.

Limited use so far, but I like what I see. This is a how-to book. Find what you want to do in the Table of Contents, turn to the step-by-step instructions. Just what I need as a beginner.

This is the definitive book on Photoshop Elements 6. It includes absolutely everything, and does it in a reader friendly way. Kudos, Scott Kelby!

I found the Photoshop Elements x Book for Digital Photographers series of books back with Elements 2 and have purchased a copy of every version since as I've upgraded the software (why can't there be an upgrade price for the hard-copy book too). Scott Kelby and now Mat Kloskowski provide usable techniques that can be applied immediately by anyone with great results.

I also purchased the Missing Manual books for a couple of versions and while I've been satisfied, I notice that when I need some help to correct a photograph, it is to the Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers that I turn. In fact, I would rate the book as five stars, if it was the first version that I purchased. I do find sufficient value to purchase the new editions, but do find it is an incremental value and that the previous edition does cover the majority of the tools that you'd need, so a little less bang for the buck than if this were the only addition that I purchased, hence I've docked it one star for a 4-star rating.

The V6 edition adds significantly to the coverage of editing using the RAW editor and provides additional detail on the use of the new sharpening capabilities. The other major difference I've noticed is they've dropped from the hard-copy the chapter on Photo Restoration Techniques that was present in previous editions. They then make it available in .pdf format online as Chapter 14 in a free download.

I know some people have found the style a bit wearing at times, but it doesn't disturb me at all and the content more than makes up for the sometimes silly attempts at humor.

Over-all great book. If you only purchase one book for use with Photoshop Elements 6, make this that book and you'll be glad you did.
Bill Olsen
Las Vegas, NV

Very helpful since this is my first time ever using photoshop. I like the easy format.

I really love this book! It's written so that you can try any of the techniques when you want (not built upon the last chapter). It has wonderful pictures to go with each new skill, and you can even download some the pictures to practice yourself!
One drawback for me (since I'm new at this) is that it doesn't explain why you need to do something...it just tells you how to do it. I'd really like to know why certain things work so I don't have to keep looking up the same skill every time.
Overall, it's a wonderful book.

I bought the Element 5.0 book when I first started using Elements. I liked it because I didn't have to read the whole book to know how to perform certain tasks. I bought the Elements 6.0 book when I upgraded the program. I now teach a basic Elements workshop at my local camera club and I recommend Scott Kelby's book to everyone. So many of us now own this book, we've had to make sure our names are prominently displayed so we don't walk off with someone else's copy!