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I've decided to sort-of participate in Sassy Student's January challenge - a post a day about a book (good, bad, or otherwise). Never have participated in a thing like this before, but I read about it on Mary P.'s blog, and it sounded like something fun. Of course, I'm already behind and there is no way that I will be able to post every single day - I have to pack and be a parent and stuff! But all of my future posts this month we be about books, okay?

I'm going to start off with the last book I held in my hands: The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers, by Scott Kelby. You see, I'm a little interested in digital photo editing. Not interested enough to invest in Photoshop outright, and not interested enough to take a bunch of classes. We bought PSE 2.0 years ago, and I've been dabbling in that. I wasn't very good at figuring out what all it could do, however, not having any sort of background in digital graphic arts. So, I read some great reviews of this book in the photography forum at Two Peas about eighteen months ago, and I received a copy of it for Christmas 2005. It's really a handy book - explains what to do about improper exposure, colour correction, conversions, and some neat digital effects. Step by step instructions with accompanying photos. The problem I ran into was that it's written for PSE 3.0 and we had 2.0. Many of the menus aren't the same. About three months ago, I got the idea to see if I could find a copy of PSE 3.0 on eBay, and I ended up scoring a legimate copy for about $20. Whee! Since it arrived, I've been trying out many more features, and I've become one of this book's biggest fan!

Comments

[jesser]

If you're really jonesing for a true copy of Photoshop, you might think about doing what I did ... I bought a used copy of the last version (Photoshop 7 at the time) off Half.com or some such site for a song ... around $100 I think. Then I upgraded to the newer version (CS) at the upgrade price ... around 1/3 of the cost for the new full version. But even if you just buy an older copy, they only make so many upgrades on the new version and you don't miss out on much.
Just a thought! :)

Thanks for the tip on the book. I mostly use online tutorials for what I need, but I admit I sometimes long for some good ol' paper and ink. Wonder how elements compares to the real deal?

[tracey]

This low-tech gal has gotta take the photo shop plunge. Dang. I'm inspired but a tad petrified.