Richard, I want to ask about the content of the HE3 book. Incidentally, I thought I had seen Amazon list it as in stock, but as of today (12/13) it is (again?) in "not yet released" status.

My question is the balance in the book between explaining the additional tools you provide vs explaining what base PSE3 does. Can you give a sense of the proportion (percentage) of the book that talks about image manipulation, the proportion about what PSE3 does (including any "behind the scenes" explanations of processing, theory, or whatever), and the proportion that does the "how to" on the tools you provide?

J

This won't answer your question first, because I think doing so wouldn't sound right. The book is meant to be a how-to for making the most of your images. It shows you how to get the most from the Elements tools, and focuses only on those tools you need if you want to get the best results. In fact, the beginning of the book lists the tool set I think you need to learn, and gives you a process for correcting images.

The tools I provide are just automation of longer sets of instructions. You get all the instruction for how the tools do what they do, and then the tools to do all those steps for you. You not only get to automate the process, but UNDERSTAND what the process is doing, exactly. In other words, I don't know that I can extract the tools from how Elements works -- they are the same thing. For example, you can create channels in Elements without the tools...it takes about 100 or 150 steps. With the tools it takes a click, but you know what that click is doing.

I do provide instruction on features that the tools allow you to access that you don't normally have in Elements, like what to do with curves. But I instruct on uses of other tools as well, as necessary. All this adds up to giving you the ability to understand advanced image processing with steps that work on every image to achieve specific goals.

I come from a background of correcting images for print in photography books, and this book reflects that process. It does not go into depth on tools that are explained in the user manual...and may skip some of the very basic ideas, such as "this is a document window". In that way it is not a beginner book. It IS however, a practical exploration of advanced techniques for image editing.

If you go to a book shop and read the introduction, it goes into more detail than I have here. I'm not afraid of you reading, as my bet is -- unlike other books -- you won't read it once and glean everything in it and walk away. It is meant to be read more than one time.

Does this answer your question?

It does answer the question. I guess my current thinking is that I will get your book when it comes out, or maybe in a few months, to cover the deeper knowledge, but I do also need another book to cover the look-up-the-simple-stuff I always forget. I could in normal circumstances get by without, but PSE3 comes without a manual, just something I think of as a pamphlet, the search system doesn't seem to match my intuition and also doesn't give things like starter setting values, and also your book, I presume, has little to say on the Organizer side of things, which I want to make a lot of use of.

It looks like I will go with the Aaland book over Kelby (?spelling), Busch (?), and one or two others I have seen. I need something! I spent 5 minutes selecting section of sky in a pic but was unable after 1/2 hour to manipulate it in any way. I need to get over the hump, if only to do the simple stuff while I gradually learn the Hidden Elements stuff as I find bits of time to devote to this over, say, spending time with my family. :)

you could always ask those basic questions here...