It has been a long time coming, but I have finally released a FREE Hidden Power tool set for Elements 4.0 and did some updating to the Hiddenelements.com website. The set contains 16 tools as an introduction to my 100 tool set (included on the CD with my book and for download in the 100 tool set also on the website). But it also includes an updated Channel Mixer to replace the one in the book.

The Free set includes:

Align Bottom Edge
Align Horizontal Centers
Align Left Edge
Align Right Edge
Align Top Edge
Align Vertical Centers
Color Picker
Component Blue
Component Green
Component Red
Layer Mask
Luminosity and Color
Mask Highlights
Mask Shadows
Simple Channel Mixer
Transform Selection

Please visit the Hidden Power website ( http://hiddenelements.com ) , click the link to elements 4, then Downloads & Tools, and let me know how the download and installation go. I just released these and have announced them in no other forum, and would appreciate temporarily restricting interaction to the folks on this list for testing. Please do not re-distribute these tools. If you download the tools let me know how it goes for you.

More power to you!

Richard Lynch

I just thought I'd bump this so it stays on the front page. :) I wish I'd known about Photoshop Elements before I'd plunked my money down on the entire CS2 suite (thank goodness I got it at the student rate, but still...).

Out of curiosity I noticed that you wrote a book for Photoshop CS, any plans for one on CS2?

Kerry

Kerry, thanks for the bump! I have been trying to tell people about Elements and all the stuff you can do with it for about 5 years now, and I have met with numerous roadblocks -- not the least of which being all forums are not as friendly as the one Doug runs here (for example, I don't even bother with dpreview.com -- though I'd like to tell people there who use Elements that there are new free tools available, I've not been able to post for some time). The other being that what I do is not all lucrative: distributing free tools does advertise the books, but it doesn't make much on its own. The Hidden Power solutions have gotten better over the years...even if Adobe keeps making it harder to do.

About a CS2 book. I never pushed a CS2 book with the publishers as I was busy with other things (Elements), and the CS book didn't sell a lot of copies, though I've gotten great feedback on it. I have some ideas for Photoshop books, and may get to them...but at this point you wouldn't see a new book until well into 2007 for Photoshop. I am toying with the idea of avoiding publishers for some titles and selling my books as ebooks instead. That would bring huge marketing challenges of its own. If there were more people like you who were interested in helping people find out about products that were worthwhile, I'd have done it long ago.

That said, the CS book mostly applies for CS2 -- the differences between the programs is not that great, and Adobe doesn't mess with the core of Photoshop like they have traditionally done every version with Elements.

Does that help?

Hi

I have the CD from the book and have installed successfully. I would like to install the new channel mixer though. Can you tell me what to do? Do I just install as per instructions and it will replace the channel mixer and leave everything else alone?

thanks

Willie

All you have to do is unzip the file, locate the Simple Channel Mixer.atn, and copy that file into the Elements/Previews/Effects/Power_Adjustments folder.

OK?

Thanks I will do this in the next couple of days.

Willie

I was browsing a local book store about a week ago and saw The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 4. It looked like a great book and I wanted to buy it on the spot but they only had one, dog-eared copy so I went home and bought it through Amazon. It showed up today and I'm stumped...is this book supposed to be in black and white? I thought I saw color images at the store but in the one Amazon sent every image and graphic is in black and white or greyscale. Am I just getting old and crazy? Can anyone out there tell me if their copy has color images or do I need to get my brain worked on?

the book is $29.99, and under $20 on Amazon...and no color costs less to produce. However that was not the driving factor. Originally there was no color by design: the person who will appreciate this book will appreciate that there are all the full color images on the CD, and you can see everything you need to and then some by opening the actual images and corrections -- something most authors will be afraid to present -- in Elements. Color in the book really doesn't matter. Color on your screen does. Also, until you can see color images as 3 components of black-and-white, you are not seeing your color images.

if you need eye candy, you might well return the hidden power book and get a coffee table book -- which will tell you as much about photoshop as most other books will...nearly nothing. My book offers a serious approach to making better images...and it starts with black-and-white.

Hey, I wasn't blasting the book. I was just trying to remember if the images were in color! It seems like the one I was looking at did have color (maybe it was a version 3 book or some other book). Anyway, I wanted this particular book BECAUSE it looked like a serious and helpful offering. If they're all in B&W that's fine with me. I just didn't want to be getting some "black market" version. So, I do have the official version? :surprise:

Sorry, sounded like a "blast", but now I reread and see what you were saying. Black-and-white can look remarkably like color if you have learned to see well (and growing up in the black-and-white TV era hasn't been a hinderance for me). Amazon would not likely sell 'black market' versions of a book, and frankly, with the pittance I make on the books, I'd be surprised if anyone would want to take on the endeavor of replicating the books -- in color or black and white. That is why the version 5 book and tools will be only sold from my website -- no more publisher as a middleman. There is, in the version 4 book, no color...it is all on the CD.

New stuff on the http://hiddenelements.com website, likely today!

Not a problem...and I am, as expected, finding the book very helpful. As I understand it both authors and musicians get screwed over in regard to their contributions in getting CDs and books in consumers hands. You'd think this middle-man choke hold on creativity would be unraveling faster than it is with the ability of creative types reach their audience directly. I hope the next version is received as well as this version has been (and that you get the lions share of the revenue). Anyway, hope you had a great christmas and have a great new year. Thanks!

As I understand it both authors and musicians get screwed over in regard to their contributions in getting CDs and books in consumers hands.
It was odd, i made a good dollar on the Elements 2 book, and it went straight to hell from there. The publisher promised more and more and I got less and less -- according to their accounting, I owe them money. Here is a book that many many people have heard of, and the author can't support taking the time to re-write it...because it will cost him money.

I've just updated parts of my site and hope to complete more today. I released a free tool set for Elements 5 with 10 tools, and two other tool sets (infrared and BW conversions, and my Dynamic Image set) for Elements 4 and 5 users. I hope to have more tools out for Elements 5 shortly.

But you've got the right book for elements 4...and some minor haggling aside, it is one of the best I feel that I've written--hopefully one you can read many times at different levels of progress (not like some of the toss-away books people write). Sorry for the confusion.

I just got the v4 book. Are the 100 tools in the book the same as the 100 tools available for download? I am just learning the basics and don't want to start downloading all the plug ins that are available right now but I noticed that the price is about to go up.

I worked through barbra's book and have become addicted to Photoshop Elements. I just finished Arraich's CD and am now on Kelby's book. I work many tutorials at about.com and Jay Arraich.com, the repetition and exact instruction helps me. I follow adobe's user forum and this one. Barbra replied to a post and Richard replied to one right after I purchased the books. It is really helpful when you are new and feeling dumb.

I am learning the basics and like what I see in this book, can not wait to get into it. I spend every day at learning. Mickey

Information about the download is on the page:

http://hiddenelements.com/elements4_tools.html

The paid set is the same as the one included with the book.

The free tools include a few updates and additional tools not released with the set.

OK?

Hi Richard, I would really love to try your free tools for elements 4. I have requested a download link but it keeps taking me back to the request download link page.
I have heard so much about your tools and they look like what I need to make my life easier. I am a volunteer at Operation Photo Rescue and am finding myself a bit behind the 8 ball by only having elements, I think your tools will help me out tremendously.

Regards Vicki. :classic:

Please ignore my last reply, found it now..DOH!
Thanks Richard. :o:

Vicki,
Ooops...while I was replying you added a response. Glad you cleared up the confusion!

Thanks Richard, I think I'll work through the book and learn to use the tools included there before I order any more.