The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

It was some time before I realised that Scott Kelby was quite so 'big'. I had also thought this was the first book of his I had read but it turns out Scott is something of a celeb in the Photoshop world.

I initally bought his book to see if there was something I was missing in terms of how other pros use Photoshop when editing images but I quickly realised his books are much more than simple how-to examples with well chosen images.

As a quick background, Scott Kelby is a professional photographer and picture editor, he's also the author of the official Adobe Photoshop CS4 Classroom in a Book, the 'manual' for learning Photoshop before doing the exams. His training company, Kelby Training hosts a huge range of course material and he's also the President of NAPP where he advises regularly to members via videos, news and tutorials. To top it all off he's also the Editor-in-Chief of Nikon's Capture User magazine and Editor-in-Chief of Mac Design magazine.

His writing is clear, easy to follow and includes all of the necessary steps to professionally editing your images. Unlike many tutorial books there is a real sense of 'having done it before' rather than simply explaining how to do it. You quickly get the impression Scott has edited images this way himself commercially and it has worked well for him.

He's also not afraid to quote other Photoshop users and credit them with editing techniques he's borrowed, something else lacking in many books. This combination of bringing techniques together and real world experience makes his book a must for your library.

Each tutorial is grouped into chapters based on either the Photoshop tool or the type of image you're trying to edit. The tutorials are also then divided into two where there is a simple and complex way of producing the effect you're after. This combination makes the table of contents a very quick and easy source of reference for the tutorial you're after.
If you have all weekend to work on one wedding portrait for example, portrait retouching is explained in great detail with step-by-step photos. Equally if you need to e-mail a photo quickly the short version of the tutorial will get the job done in a few minutes, it won't have the same beautiful finish as the complex route but it's definitely ten steps beyond the original image and sufficiently good looking to impress your clients and family.

The book itself is comprehensive covering a wide range of topics, tools and image types, certainly more than enough for the beginner or intermediate user. If you're after a huge array of special effects or a special focus on weddings for example this is not for you, but if you need a starting point for editing your photos, a quick reference to improving your shots or some ideas for creative editing then it's a superb book and easy to read, not too technical but you'll definitely learn something.

Notes
This is general guide to digital editing but it's firmly based in Photoshop, not Elements. It is also quite an old book (2003) but it's still perfectly relevant. If you want a more up-to-date version however Scott has a book out for digital editing in Photoshop CS4: