:pleased: i am a newbie and just bought canon 300d. i have elements 2 which came with the camera. i am wondering if i should buy lynch's book- elements 3 since it may not be that much different than 2 so that if i later upgrade to 3 i am ahead. in addition, should i acquire eismann's-Photoshop restoration and retouching? i am a complete beginner and the way i learn is by example-i don't know whether it is possible that these books would come with a cd which showed you exactly how to manipulate photos. just reading the manuals is almost as much fun as reading the nyc telephone book. need suggestions from those who know. thanks in advance.

Hi and welcome to RP. I can't answer your questions about Elements 3 and the books but I can definitely recommend you work on some of the tutorials here. Choose one, download the pictures and work step by step. Then try reproducing some of the other things people have done.

Others will recommend other sites for tutorials as well. They can also answer your questions. I've been using Elements 2 for a little over a year and have become fairly proficient with the simple tools and functions. I'm finally exploring layers and masks and getting some sense from them. Hands on is the only way to learn and this is the place to see the whole range of possibilities.

MaryLynn

Katrin Eismann's book doesn't come with a CD, but it does come with a Website
at www.digitalretouch.org where there is a lot of backup to the book. Incidentally, I highly recommend both the book and the website, as a complete beginner some of the techniques may be a bit advanced, but it gives you something to aspire to, and with practice all the techniques are possible. Good luck with your learning.

picked up the only elements book in good ole barns and noble (we don't have it but we can order it!) called "Sams teach yourself adobe photoshop elements 3". has anyone knowledge of this bk? once again if elements 3 really hasn't changed much over elements 2 (which i don't know) and further assuming that only the more advanced features, if any, have been added to 3, couldn't i get 3 and then grow into the more advanced stuff? once again thanks for your replies and at this point nothing is too basic for me. :) i have elements 2.

If you need something really basic for Elements 2, try Photoshop Elements 2 for Dummies by Deke Mc Clelland. This is really just a reworking of the manual, but put in a readable and often humorous way. It teaches few techniques, but does give a grounding in what each tool and control does. I believe its still in print.

Hi, the book I recommend to new users of Photoshop Elements is:

Too 100 Simplified Tips & tricks (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0764543539/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-1902526-0069640#reader-link) It tells you how to do things and also give you ideas of what you can do.

I bought Photoshop Elements 3 when it first came out and keep going back to version 2. Don't know why, version 3 just seems awkward after using v. 2 for so long.

The folks here will be able to give you all the help you need, but if you want more contact with Elements only people, there is a forum on the Adobe website that is devoted to Photoshop Elements. They tend to wander off topic (at least they did) but they are always willing to help.

Good luck.

Margaret

Welcome HJ. Solely as a very satisfied customer, I highly recommend Lynch's Hidden Power book. If your camera can save files in RAW format, I encourage you to get the Elements 3 book and upgrade the program. If not, I think you would be very happy just getting the book for Elements 2. You get two great things with the Hidden Elements book:
1) A great "learn by example" book to give a very solid foundation on color theory, photo retouching, and photo manipulation. This alone is worth the price in my mind. But you also get 2) The Hidden Power Tools. Adobe should be ashamed to have left Curves out of Elements. Hidden Power enables this and many other useful features that Adobe locked away. As a final pitch (again, I'm just a happy customer), Richard seems to be very responsive to customer suggestions, difficulties, etc based on the varied threads here in subsets of this forum dedicated to his books. Here you find Richard's own recent thoughts on Elements books for newbies. Hope this helps.

Gee, SW, thanks for mentioning!

Richard even shows up in threads sometimes ;-)