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Elements 7 beginners help

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    Hi Folks, I've had a quick squizz through the forums and tutorials sections but can't seem to find what I'm looking for - now I could be blind so I'll apologise now just in case!
    I got Elements 7 for christmas and really havn't done much with it as I'm not sure exactly what I can do. Does anyone know of a beginners tutorial or something like that, that I could work my way through on my images so I can get a feel for what I can actually achieve with it?
    Cheeers
    Debs

    Last Modified By Debs_Rocker at 3 Mar 2009 - 4:07 PM
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    3 Mar 2009 - 4:06 PM

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    Amazon do numerous Tutorial books. You should have had a book or an on line tutorial with the software. The basics are fairly simple. Levels and Filter Sharpen are probably the best start points. These two functions will get the tonal range sorted with Levels and Crispen up the sharpness with Filter Sharpen. Digital Photo magazine is also a good start point with a Tutorial CD with each issue. Dont think tho that this will correct all the faults with your photo's as it will not. Good Luck

    Colin (also a Rocker)

    Hi - I am fairly new to it as well having been given it last September and to be honest what I found most useful to get an initial practical grasp was to take 1 portrait photo and 1 landscape photo and just play around using these so I could see the effects, running through various functions.
    There is a helpful set of online tutorials on the Adobe site when you register yourself (prompted when you load it on to computer) and there is quite a good 'PE7 for Dummies' book (available on Amazon) but a lot of the stanadrd digital photography books have easy to understand guidance - I found THE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY HANDBOOK by Doug Harman to be an inexpensive and very accessible guide covering most things (actually still more than I get around to doing).
    Once you have got up and running, google 'Photoshop Elements Free Plugins' to find a wide range of stuff you can add.
    best
    david

    John_Frid
    John_Frid (e2 Member)
    6
    500 forum postsJohn_Frid vcard United Kingdom54 Constructive Critique Points
    3 Mar 2009 - 5:38 PM
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    You might want to consider a book by Scott Kelby. I have several of his books and they are very practical and easy to read. The book that may appeal to you is:

    The Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

    The blurb on Amazon says......

    This book breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that’s never been done before—it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure things out on your own. Instead, it does something that virtually no other Elements book has ever done—it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why. If you’re looking for one of those “tell-me-everything-about-the-Unsharp-Maskfilter” books, this isn’t it. You can grab any other Elements book on the shelf, because they all do that. Instead, this book gives you the inside tips and tricks of the trade for organizing, correcting, editing, sharpening, retouching, and presenting your photos like a pro. You’ll be absolutely amazed at how easy and effective these techniques are—once you know the secrets.

    Each year we train thousands of digital photographers and, almost without exception, they have the same questions and face the same problem—that’s exactly what we cover in this book. You’ll learn:

    • The real secrets of how the pros retouch portraits
    • How to color correct any photo without breaking a sweat (you’ll be amazed at how they do it!)
    • How to use Camera Raw for processing not only RAW photos, but JPEGs and TIFFs, too! (And you’ll learn why so many pros like it best—because it’s faster and easier)
    • The sharpening techniques the pros really use (there’s an entire chapter just on this!)
    • How to deal with common digital camera image problems, including removing noise and avoiding halos
    • The most requested photographic special effects, and much more!

    THE BOOK’S SECRET WEAPON
    Although Elements 7 offers some digital photography features that Photoshop CS4 doesn’t offer, there are plenty of features that Photoshop CS4 has that Elements 7 still doesn’t have (things like layer masking, Channel Mixer, etc.). But in this book, you’ll learn some slick workarounds, cheats, and some fairly ingenious ways to replicate many of those Photoshop features from right within Elements. Plus, since this book is designed for photographers, it doesn’t waste your time talking about how to frame a shot, setting your exposure, etc., and there’s no talk about which camera or printer to buy. It’s all Elements, step-by-step, cover-to-cover, in the only book of its kind, and you’re gonna love it!

    ray1
    7
    477 forum posts England1 Constructive Critique Points
    3 Mar 2009 - 6:06 PM
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    You might find some of these useful

    link

    I have the Kelby on pre-order but it won't be out til end of month I think

    cheers folks - some great advice there. I'll give them all a serious look over very soon - soz for the delay in replies but I had disagreement with penicillin which it won, so I'm now itchy and blotchy (the new sidekick of scratchy) - evil little white tablets!

    StrayCat
    9 Mar 2009 - 12:59 AM
    0

    Hope you get over that soon Debs. Have a look at www.123di.com, there's no better way to learn, I;ve had it for about 5 years now, free updates, and you can download it, you don't have to wait for the post.

    GillR
    5
    68 forum posts United Kingdom
    10 Mar 2009 - 10:51 PM
    0

    There are a ton of tutorials to be found on the net, as has been said, but when I started out with PSE (v4) I found a book by Mark Galer very useful, as it talked you through a series of projects and came complete with DVD with video tuts and and sample images. Even the tuts I wasn't interested in for the sake of the type of pic (eg retouching a a beauty shot) still taught me stuff about the program & various adjustments.

    The edition for PSE v7 is here.

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