I have read all and used all or parts of the following books. The "odd" book in this group is the One Click Wow book. It doesn't teach you how to use Elements, it gives you dozens of styles to allow you to add "new" looks to your images, text, and shapes.
The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
I couldn't put this book down. It approaches Photoshop Elements from the photographers point of view. Whether you are taking family pictures are want to become and expert. This book is the most practicle of all the books on Photoshop Elements I have read. Scott covers things that other books don't even touch. He skips some of the basics, but get you up and running with clear directions. If you have Photoshop Elements You should have this book.
Adobe Photoshop Elements One-Click Wow!
by Jack Davis, Linnea Dayton
This is the latest book I bought on Photoshop Elements. It is not a tutorial, but rather contains a CD that adds new styles, brushes, and looks to Elements. It is well worth the $20 cost of the book. Amazon review reads: "From the creative team behind the best-selling Photoshop Wow! Book comes the indispensable companion to Adobe Photoshop Elements, the low-cost, easy-to-use alternative to Photoshop. In Adobe Photoshop Elements One-Click Wow!, authors Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton greatly extend the power of this digital imaging software by including over 300 stunning Layer Styles on the accompanying CD-ROM--Layer Styles that you couldn't create using Photoshop Elements alone. Whether you're a photographer, business user, or hobbyist, you can use these One-Click Wow! effects to transform your photos, type, or graphics from ho-hum to Wow! with a single click.
It also includes a printed catalog of all the mouth-watering effects on the CD-ROM, along with samples to help you pick the Layer Styles you want to apply."
Buy this book from Amazon.com
Sams Teach Yourself Photoshop Elements 2 in 24 Hours
by Carla Rose, Jennifer Fulton
This was my personal favorite tutorial book of the ones I have used. It is easy to understand and the lesson are truly one hour lessons. Also, it has a well done index when you want to look up a topic. Carla does a nice job of covering the entire program in small segments. The pictures and text flow well together.
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Photoshop Elements 2 : Top 100 Simplified¨ Tips & Tricks
If you are a visual learner, this is the book for you. Each of the 100 tips contains a two page layout with each step numbered and graphically illustrated. This tips are excellent and easy to follow.
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Create!: The No Nonsense Guide to Photoshop Elements 2
by Kate Bodenmiller, Greg Simsic, Katy Bodenmille
This small book is a treasure. It makes up for its size by providing simple instructive comments. If you are an intermediate computer user or above, you will like this books since it gets right to the point. It does waste time with flowery discriptioins. I learned a lot of tips from this book. It contains tips, features and projects that I didn't find in other books.
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0: A Visual Introduction to Digital Imaging
by Philip Andrews
This book is very well done and describes features that I didn't find in other books. I used this book after I had used several others, so some of the newness was not there for me. The review from Amazon reads: "This complete and easy-to-follow introduction to Adobe Photoshop Elements has been updated throughout to show all the new features of version 2.0, including digital video frame acquisition; the liquefy filter; the selecting/masking brush and the effects browser."
Buy this book from Amazon.com
If you don't have Photoshop Elements, the next best thing is Picassa. Picassa is a great free program from Google.
