Our book review of How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 7 in Paperback by David Asch and Steve Caplin

Title: How to Cheat in Photoshop Elements 7

Author: David Asch and Steve Caplin

ISBN: 0240521544

Publisher: Focal Press

Edition: Paperback

RRP: £21.99

Dimensions: 288 pages, 24.4 x 18.8 x 2.3 cm

At 280 pages, this is the thinnest of the four books and the one best suited to those looking to have a bit of creative fun with their photos. That’s because How to Cheat is dedicated to the art of montage – taking ordinary pictures, or elements within them, and twisting them to give a whole new appearance. If you’ve ever wanted to give someone a comedy-sized head, or add snow to a beach image taken in midsummer, How to Cheat is the perfect book for you.

Unlike A Visual Introduction… this book isn’t so concerned with helping the reader understand any of the intricacies behind digital image capture, and as such dives straight into useful tricks and techniques from the off with just a brief introduction into the various methods of image selection and using layer masks.

Most of the books individual ‘cheats’ are presented over the course of a spread (sometimes four pages), and cover topics as diverse as ‘Turning Day to Night’ to ‘Ageing Your Subject’. This style of presentation makes it very much a dip-in, dip-out kind of book, with readers more likely to use it to tackle a task at a time, rather than become well-versed in the fundamentals of the software.

Overall, while it is both useful and fun, it is by no means comprehensive. A DVD containing QuickTime tutorials to some of the lessons is also supplied.

 What Digital Camera Rating: 84%