To answer some of the many questions I am getting daily...

Yes, there will be a Hidden Power book for Elements 4.

Yes, the book will cover all of the power tools that were created for Elements 3, including Curves and Color Balance.

The book will take a few months (February?) before it is available...http://aps8.com/hppe4.html

The tools will be available separately from my website when the set is complete (January?): http://hiddenelements.com

If you have other questions, please ask them here.

To answer some of the many questions I am getting daily...

Yes, there will be a Hidden Power book for Elements 4.

Yes, the book will cover all of the power tools that were created for Elements 3, including Curves and Color Balance.


If you have other questions, please ask them here.

I guess that the most important question is whether Elements 4 offers enough improvement to replace Elements 3. It seems not that long since I went from Elelemts 2 to Elements 3.

If you have Elements 3, I don't know that you will see a lot of change when moving to Elements 4. I know I am adding some tools for Elements 4 that I didn't have in 3, and I have updated techniques so that they are likely easier to understand and apply. Adobe made a lot of fuss in development about tools and features I don't ever use...and dropped a few that I use all the time (though I have work-arounds for them).

My guess: they have a good crew at the top, but somewhere the choice of features gets a twist by reading the marketing story to reflect how many units get into user hands of a certain category, rather than focusing on the type of user that *actually uses the program* weekly (or daily). My mother might love a quick fix that the program can provide, but she will not be a long-term user. Those quick features need to be balanced with the more upscale ones...easy is paramount, perhaps, in their eyes. Clearly it misses the most dedicated and most vocal market.

I think they have some potentially good stuff in the works -- they just might be a little less shy to enlist some of us who like the product and want to see it succeed.

Very well put, Richard. I've just acquired and installed Elements 4, having bypassed Elements 3. (I was waiting for it to go back on sale!)

While I like to play with some of the neat quick fix things just to see what the program would do for an image, I feel it more important to know how to do it manually. It is somewhat like baking a cake. It's alright to use a cake mix. But, there is a greater variety of flavors available if you bake a cake from scratch. We shouldn't loose our skills by relying on the automatic or quick features.

I look forward to your upcoming "Hidden Powers...." tools and book. Thank you for your efforts in this area.

MaryLynn

MaryLynn,

I like the analogy, and that is exactly it. My perspective is written for those who like to bake the cake from scratch, understanding what is going on, rather than just opening the box and adding water.

There is a time and place for everything, but the serious users will likely want to know how to make real adjustments, and not just click a tool to 'auto' it for them. Fast is nice...sometimes. It doesn't always get the best result.