I bought this book expecting the enclosed CD to be a full tutorial. It is not. If you read far enough into the fine print it does say it is a trial (read demo) copy. To my sorrow I didn't see this; all I read was "100 before images" and "follow along with the book". Sounds great, but what you get is software that shows you what the real thing WOULD do if you bought it. Legal but morally reprehensible.

This is a wordy introduction to Elements 2. Mr. Aaland provides a good rationale for improvement with photographs and how they may be accomplished. This is important - as it is not immediately obvious what improvements need to be made to a photograph when starting out in digital photography.

However, his approach is wordy - and you have to plough through a lot of (unnecessary) text to go through the individual steps. Some people like wordy explanations, others a more visual guide to a visual medium.

Secondly, and this is a personal feeling, it is clear that Mr. Aaland makes his living by writing computer manuals and not in graphics or as a photographer. The photographs supplied on the CD and in the book are of the mundane snapshot variety. This may be fine if you are simply working on mundane snapshots - however, for me (and I am sure others), I am looking for approaches to improve more artistic photographs. (If you are looking for help with this and you are visiting the UK, I recommend you buy a copy of Digital Photo magazine [not Digital Photography or other similarly named magazines] - you will get a lot of clearly, explained advice there).

So a mixed bag. If you are looking for a reasonable comprehensive 'textbook' on PE2 then consider this. If you are through the basics and are looking for a deeper explanation of advanced features and artistic management, then I suggest you look elsewhere. For me, the book falls short of my needs and interests and the CD photographs are disappointing.

Hope this helps!

I've seen the author on TechTv explaining tips with Photoshop Elements...he's good. But, he wrote the book like you already know most things instead of a step by step approach. I've taught myself more just by using Photoshop 6.0 and Photoshop Elements through trial and error. Look for another author or go to a book store and look through one of these books to see if it will help you. This author can't even explain the red eye tool...I learned on my own. Bottom line...I threw the book in the recycling container.

I will be honest, and try to save some of you photoshop wannabes some $. Essentially, this book is a good read. recently, I read the first version, 'photoshop elements solutions (2001)' and was smitten by it. So much so that i wanted to see how the 2003 version for elements 2.0 went.

My only fear was that the book would not be much different from the earlier version. Previewing the content page gave me hints, but i thought, 'this is version 2, so it should be all new stuff right?' So, i read the reviews, and based of some other review (wonder who is the joker that wrote it...) who said that it was vastly different and much better than version 2001, so I bought it.

Alas, my fears were realized. 95% of the content is reused. some pictures may have been enhanced, but clearly the content is the same. I will admit that the 5% updates were new stuff, and good tips. But for 5% more content, doesn't quite justify buying it if you had the first version.

Bottom line: if you are new to photoshop elements, this is the book for you. If you have read his earlier classic, you will be disappointed.

I got this book because of the included CD and because everyone was raving about how it held your hand as you went through the steep learning curve. Well, the CD is next to worthless. It has pictures on it but finding the picture and putting it with the text is difficult.
The text seems to be written for someone who already knows the ropes. He takes you through how he did something true, but why is never explained. Example, "set the radius to 4 pixels". What's the radius? and what does it do? He often uses keyboard shortcuts but doesn't explain where he got that info.
As I said, I was looking for an introductory book--this ain't it.