A fine primer to a powerful program

Although Photoshop Elements 3 is but the mere little brother of Photoshop CS, it is nevertheless a very powerful and feature-rich application. It is intended to appeal to the nonprofessional graphics person and especially the digital camera and photo hobbyists who want to edit their digital snapshots. While easier to learn and use than its big brother, Elements 3 still is a program which is not easily used well by "hunt and click" investigation.

Hence, there is a definite need for "Photoshop Elements 3: The Missing Manual", the latest such entry in the series of "Missing Manuals" published by O'Reilly Media,Inc./Pogue Press. This series, in my opinion, is the benchmark for applications manuals, better than virtually any OEM-provided manual (rare these days, except for online hypertext versions) and more than mere manuals. This book continues the series themes of not only describing and explaining the subject application's features but in providing technical background guidance on its particular subject areas. Here it is how and why to edit photos, the concepts behind taking and making better photos, user-level insights on what works best, all wrapped in a casual writing style with some humor.

David Pogue, the editor of the series (and who has written the bulk of the volumes in the series) does it best - he writes with style and humor which elevates the manual beyond a mere manual, but an enjoyable light technical read. The other authors of the series' volumes, including Elements 3's author, Barbara Brundage, are also very adept technical writers who clearly and comprehensively cover their subject material.

I would describe Ms. Brundage, a member of the Adobe Elements preproduction group and graphics teacher, as having done a fine, workmanlike job. The book reads more "manual-like" than some of the others, but the subject material is daunting. In seven parts and 17 chapters she introduces Elements 3, proceeds through the bulk of the application's tools and features, explains how to share and distribute creations, and shows how to do some advanced work with the program. Appendixes describe the program's components menu by menu. Particular attention is drawn to the differences between the PC and the Mac version of Elements throughout each specific section.

While the book emphasizes the how of digital photo editing, it makes sure to cover the tools which facilitate creation of original artwork, especially the brush, shaping, and similar tools. Every stage of the creative process is covered, beginning with how to import photos into the program and manage them with the Organizer (PC) and File Browser. Basic editing techniques like rotating, resizing, and cropping are covered in the beginning chapters, while more involved techniques like use of the many selection tools and options, use of layers, applying the sharpening tools, and mastering the tonal adjustment tools - like levels, hue and saturation, and burn and dodge tools - are explained later.

The most interesting chapters deal with the more advanced topics. Chapter 9 is called "Retouching 102" and describes how to fix blemishes, apply patterns, change colors, create black and white images, and how to apply special effects. Chapter 12 informs about Elements' multiple filters, effects, layer styles, and gradients. Chapter 13 deals with effects with type.

There is complete coverage of all of the contents of Elements. Elements can, for example, prepare photos for web and email usages, and create photo galleries, slideshows, and panoramas. There is a brief chapter on extending Elements by use of graphics tablets, plug-ins, and configuring Elements to work more like Photoshop CS.

This is a handsomely-produced book with great, full-color illustrations. Virtually every page has a photo or graphic screenshot, comparison images, chart, or other informative illustration.

I'm a big fan of the "Missing Manual" series and this book is a fine addition.

Exactly what I needed

I also purchased "The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby and "Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3" by Richard Lynch to help me learn this software, but I found both books to be unsuitable for a beginner like myself. After spending a week struggling with these two volumes, I happened upon "...The Missing Manual. I haven't been able to put it down since. I am now learning exactly the basics I need to start using the program with some confidence. Perhaps those other books will come in handy later on when I gain some experience.

Great book, my favourite of all PSE books.

Barbara's book is really wonderful, it is helping me greatly. I'm learning better from her book than I ever have with the other books.
I do plan to buy some more copies and donate them to our schools.
Its the one book that I recommend first.