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I make it a habit to always duplicate the background layer when editing an image, so that?s my first step, here. Grab the background layer in the Layers palette, and drag it onto the New Layer button, or choose Duplicate Layer from the Layers palette menu. If you use the latter method, simply click OK in the Duplicate Layer dialog box that appears. Select the new, duplicate layer in the Layers palette and then choose the rectangular marquee tool in the toolbox. In the rectangular marquee tool?s options bar, make sure Feather is set to zero Drag a selection that crosses either the vertical center or horizontal center of the flower. You want this marquee to cross the center and include all the rest of that side of the image. Here, I considered using the vertical center. However, I didn?t like the way the selection split the petals both above and below the center. They would not line up well in the next step. So, I deselected (press Ctrl-D) and dragged a horizontal selection instead. This selection splits the image in a much better spot. You can see that it cuts almost exactly across the petal on the left, and is nicely between the petals on the right. Also, it leaves all of the stamens (hope that?s the right term for the things in the middle of the flower) within the selection which is nice since they?re interesting. You can reposition your selection while you?re dragging it by pressing the spacebar (with the left mouse button still held down). If you don?t get what you want on the first drag, deselect (press Ctrl-D) and try again. Once you have the selection right where you want it, press Ctrl-J, or choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy. Next, with the new, top, copied layer selected (dark blue) in the Layers palette, click on the little arrow in the upper right corner of the Layers palette and choose Duplicate Layer from the menu. Click OK in the dialog box that appears. Or drag the copied layer you just made onto the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will create a duplicate layer without the dialog box. This duplicate layer should be at the top of the Layers palette. With that duplicate layer selected, choose Image > Rotate > Flip Vertical. (Photoshop users, choose Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.) Note that if you are using your own image, and chose to use a vertical selection in the first step, rather than the horizontal one used here, you should choose Flip Horizontal here. ...
Paint over all important edges and details in your image. As a rule, you want to outline only, not fill, though I always fill in the eyes and mouth. Please note that you can use any color you like to create this outline. The only thing that matters is that the brush opacity be set to 100 %. So, if you are outlining on a black image, use white as your outline color. The color makes no difference. You can use multiple colors if you like. Here?s what you layers palette should look like so far. When you have the black outline complete, Ctrl-click on the Black Outline layer?s name in the Layers palette. This will select all of the non-transparent content (the outline). With the selection outline active, click on the background copy layer to select it in the Layers palette (it will show as dark blue when selected) and press Ctrl-J, or choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy. A copy of the outlined image areas will be created on a new layer directly above the background copy layer. Double-click (Photoshop 6 users, Alt-double-click) on the layer and name it Colored Image Outline. Turn off visibility for the Black Outline layer by clicking on the eyeball icon at the left end of its layer. Click on the background copy layer again to select it. Then choose Filter > Artistic > Poster Edges. Click OK to apply the filter with the default settings. For simplicity, I have used the default settings for all filters (except one which is noted) applied in this tutorial. After filtering is complete (it may take a minute, depending on the size of your image file), click on the Colored Image Outline layer and change its blend mode to Multiply. At this point, your Layers palette should look like this. Remember to keep the Black Outline layer?s visibility turned off (note the grayed out box where the eyeball icon would be). Below, first, you can see the image with the Colored Image Outline layer?s visibility turned off. This is what your image would look like if you simply filtered the image without creating the outline as we did here. Directly below that, you can see the filtered image with the Colored Image Outline layer?s visibility turned on. This was a fairly moderate filter. I?ll show you two more dramatic ones, next.
I mentioned earlier that I also liked the right side of the image when I dragged my rectangular marquee, above. If you would like to see how both sides of your flower look with a double flip, you can flip the other side, too. Select the top layer which, in my example Layers palette above is called Copy 2nd Split. Press Ctrl-E, or choose Merge Down from the Layers palette menu. Then turn off visibility for this newly merged layer. Turn visibility back on for the combined first flip which is what we started with before dragging our second marquee. In the example Layers palette this layer is called Merged First Split. Use the same steps as before. Drag a vertical marquee, only this time select the right side of the image instead of the left. Proceed through the steps as I have already described. Copy. Duplicate. Flip. Drag. Merge. Enjoy. You can choose File > Save As and check the As a Copy button to save separate versions. Or, you can turn visibility on and off for the various versions to pick the one you like best. Note that when your rectangular marquee selection includes less than a full half of the image, you will end up with a strip of transparency on one side of the picture while visibility is still turned off for the layers below. You can remove this with the crop tool, but if you have multiple versions as we do here, use the crop tool only on a copy. The crop tool cuts all layers, and other versions won?t need cropping in the same place.
In the Layers palette, double click on the background (the only) layer. Double click anywhere on the blue part, where the finger icon is shown, below. In the dialog box that appears, give the layer a name that will help you remember what it is. Or, if you won?t be using many layers, you can simply accept Adobe?s default name of Layer 0, and click OK. I named mine, ?original image,? as shown. Background layers don?t allow transparency, and you can?t move any other layers below them. The lock icon you see at the right end of the layer is there because the layer is considered partially locked since it doesn?t allow transparency. As soon as you rename the layer, it becomes a ?regular? layer and the lock icon disappears. Next, I want to duplicate this layer. Click on the little arrow in the upper right corner of the layers palette to access the palette menu. Choose Duplicate Layer. I left the layer with the default name of ?original image copy?. We will use this duplicate layer to work on, while keeping the true original out of sight at the bottom of the layers palette. This is a good habit to get into. To lock the original image, select its layer, and then click the check box next to the lock icon at the top of the layers palette. Then turn off the visibility for this layer by clicking the eyeball icon at the far left end of its layer. Select the copy layer (the top, unlocked layer), and then click on the New Layer button at the bottom of the layers palette. New layers are added above the currently selected layer, and we want this new one on top of the original image copy. Double click on this new layer, and name it ?alpha channel.? With the alpha channel layer selected, choose the paintbrush in the toolbox. Make sure you have the default colors in your color boxes by clicking the default colors icon at the very bottom left corner of the toolbox. Be sure the Opacity is set to 100 % in the paintbrush tool?s options bar . Click on the little arrow next to the brush thumbnail (shown with the pointer, below) to access the brushes pop-up palette. Pick a hard edged brush from the top row. A shortcut to make your brush larger while you are painting is to click the right bracket key on your keyboard. To make your brush smaller, click on the left bracket, [. You?ll need to change brush size often as you paint around the flower?s edge. You?ll want to use a large brush to quickly paint over the areas away from the flower, and little brushes for precise edge details. Your first stage should appear as shown below. Be sure you are painting on the alpha channel layer.
What else can you do with simulated alpha channels? Regular Photoshop users can probably figure this out for themselves, but I believe you can do many things that you can do with a true alpha channel. Lets try adding a gradient mask to the flower image. If your flower is selected, deselect it by choosing Select > Deselect, or pressing Ctrl-D. Then click on the New Layer button at the bottom of the layers palette. Drag the new layer to be at the top of the stack, if it is not there already, and then rename it, ?gradient mask?. Choose the gradient tool in the toolbox. In the gradient tool?s options bar click the little down arrow next to the gradient thumbnail (not the thumbnail itself) to access the pop-up palette. Choose the Foreground to Transparent gradient, as shown. It?s second from the left in the top row. Choose the linear gradient. It?s the left most one on the options bar just to the right of the Edit button. The rest of your gradient tool?s options bar should appear as shown below. Make sure the new gradient mask layer is selected in the layers palette. Then click on the flower image just to the right of the flower?s yellow center, and drag straight across to the image?s right edge. The result, as shown below looks, well, very black. Don?t worry. I know what I?m doing ? I think.
Yet, almost every new (and experienced) user of Photoshop will look at a picture for a minute or two, say to himself ?That light isn?t right,? jump into the curves dialog, slap a dot (or two?or three, or four?) onto a line in a two inch square proxy, drag it this way and that, eyeball the picture and say, ?much better!? As if he or she knows more about light than light itself. Curves distort the relative values of light within a picture. There is no justification for such a distortion; the relative values of light are correct as the camera recorded them. You may be thinking that Ansel Adams manipulated his pictures in much the same way as curves does. No, he did not. He manipulated all of the tones in a given area (not a given tonal range), by dodging and burning or by manipulating the processing of his negatives or film. He made all of the tones within that area of the picture either brighter or darker, or he made all of the tones more or less compressed (contrast manipulation) but the relative brightness of the tones within that area were always maintained. He never distorted the relative tonal values. Levels adjustments also manipulate the tones in an image, but Levels respects the relative tonal values. You can apply a Levels adjustment to a particular part of a picture by using its adjustment layer mask, manipulating local brightness much as Ansel Adams did. The relative values within that area are respected. You can stretch all of the tones or compress all of the tones but you can?t take a limited set of tones and distort them relative to adjacent tones?and throughout the rest of the picture. When you apply a curves adjustment, when you drag a point on the tone curve, all tones of that brightness anywhere in the image are distorted. The relative values of those tones are ruined. Curves are useful for creating hot highlights on fake chrome. They are useful for commercial illustrations where arbitrary color and lighting are what is intended. Otherwise, curves are an abomination.
You got a warning about where your scratch disk is located when you first open Photoshop or Elements. This is a performance advisory. Elements and Photoshop will probably run just fine if you ignore the warning. However, if you are working on very large images, you should set your scratch disk to a drive other than the one where your OS and Windows swap file are. To set the scratch location, go to Edit > Preferences > Plug-ins and Scratch Disks... To find more information on scratch disks go to Adobe.com and search their knowledgebase for information on how to fix the problem [I used to post direct links to the relevant techdoc but every time I do that, they change the file location which kills the link]..
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Okay. Let?s get started. Create a new, white document, about four inches square, resolution - 72 dpi. Click the color square in the toolbar, and pick a light color other than white. Click OK to exit the Color Picker, and the press Alt-Backspace to fill your document with the new color. Choose the elliptical marquee tool in the toolbar, and drag to create a small circle, about two inches in diameter near the center of your image. Pressing the Shift key as you drag will cause your shape to be a perfect circle. Click the color box again to go to the Color Picker again and this time pick a medium to dark color that will contrast with your first, light color. Click OK to exit the Color Picker, and then press Alt-Backspace to fill your elliptical selection with the new, darker color. Press Ctrl-D, or choose Select > Deselect to deselect your shape. All we?re doing is creating a test document that is small enough to run the many steps in each effect easily, and rapidly. There?s no need for any fancy image to see what we are going to be looking at. Next, choose Edit > Preferences, and in General preferences, at the top, right side of the box, reset your History States number to 40. You?ll need to remember to reset this back to 20, or whatever you normally have it set for, when you?re finished. I?ll remind you at the end. Adding History states is very memory intensive, so you don?t want to keep that set to more than you need.
In the Hue/Saturation dialog box, move the Saturation and Lightness settings to -100 % (that?s minus) or whatever minus settings give you a result that matches the remaining part of the pupil which is not discolored (if there is any left). Make sure the Preview checkbox is selected so you can see how the eye looks. Click OK when you?re satisfied with the coloring of the pupil. Now, click on the Hue/Saturation layer?s mask thumb. Clicking on the mask thumb puts the layer into mask edit mode. You?ll be editing how much of the Hue/Saturation effect is visible by painting with black to remove, and white to add. The reason the mask is currently almost entirely black except for the white spot over the redeye is because you had a selection active (the elliptical marquee) when you created the adjustment layer..
Open the picture that you want to be your surrounding or background image. Or simply create a new document with a solid background of the color you want behind or under your hole. In my examples, shown above, I simply used the default white document background. Make a new, empty layer by clicking the New Layer button in the Layers palette, or by choosing Layer > New > Layer. Go to File > Open and open the image that you want to have (part of) show through a hole in the picture that is already open. In the toolbox, choose the move tool and click on the image. Drag it onto your first picture. Press the Shift key before you release it. The Shift key will cause it to "land" centered on the target document. You should now have three layers in the Layers palette; your background picture at the bottom, an empty layer in the middle and the picture that you just dragged onto the original image will be the topmost layer. The top image is probably obscuring most or all of the lower layers. That?s okay. Click on the top layer if it?s not still selected. Then choose Layer > Group With Previous. Once you do that, the top layer will totally disappear from sight. Click on the middle, empty layer. Choose a selection tool such as the elliptical or rectangular marquee tool in the toolbox. Drag a selection that is approximately the shape and size that you want for the hole through which the top layer will show. With that selection active, press Alt-Backspace (that?s the shortcut to fill with the current foreground color) or use Edit > Fill. It doesn?t matter what color you use. The Group With command allows the layer above to be visible only where there is content in the layer below. The layer below is, itself, invisible other than its limiting influence on the visibility of the layer above. You can now use the move tool to move the hole around. Just be sure the middle layer (the one with the hole shape on it) is selected in the Layers palette before dragging with the move tool. Or, you can drag the image above around within the hole by clicking on its layer and then using the move tool. If your top layer is the wrong size or if you would like to rotate it, click on its layer and then use the Image > Resize > Scale (not the Resize > Image command; that resizes your entire document), or Image > Transform commands. Be sure and press the Shift key as you drag on a corner handle of the bounding box. Pressing the Shift key will c...
[The Ctrl-J shortcut for duplicating a layer or selection contents to a new layer is disabled in Elements 2. Use Layer > New > Layer via Copy instead. There are some excellent new Wow styles that ship with version 2.] Elements has a fairly limited number of styles in its Layer Styles palette, but by combining them in different ways, you can make them go a lot farther. I?m going to show you how to apply styles to an image, as a frame, but these techniques will work just as well on buttons, or Web interface parts. Styles can be applied to (large) type, and to shapes made with the shape tools. Shown below is one of the People shapes with a Complex style applied. And, here?s a text example with a combination of Complex styles. I?m going to rattle these steps off without much elaboration, so please pay attention, and don?t skip anything. Each step is important.
The How To palette (formerly known as the Recipes palette, which is what it still contains) offers a ?cookbook? of mini tutorials for many popular tasks. Elements 1 came with thirty one recipes (if I?ve counted right), and more were supposed to be available as time goes by from Adobe Online. I downloaded seven new recipes the first time I accessed Adobe Online. However, the download process was so nutty, I never downloaded any more.
The commands in the palette menu are found by clicking the More button in the upper right corner of the palette, below right (white section). Deselect Expanded View if you want to get rid of the information display on the left side of the Browser. That will make room on your screen for more thumbnails. Or you can click the double-headed arrow at the bottom of the File Browser to do the same thing.
The particular way palettes are arranged on your screen can either be saved, or can always return to the default arrangement each time you open Elements. Choose either option in Edit > Preferences > General by checking or unchecking Save Palette Locations.
And, below, is the Options dialog box. Should be Option (singular) since there?s only one option. You can see the color I changed to. [Note that all illustrations shown above and below are from Elements 1. Except for cosmetic differences, they are the same in Elements 2.]
BUG - if you have an image open on top of the (open) File Browser, the color numbers in the Info palette will only display for about half a second once you stop moving your cursor over the picture. This behavior will persist even if you then minimize the File Browser. Closing the File Browser seems to correct the problem.
See an example of a hint, below. Note that there is more (see the scroll bar). Hints have been greatly improved over the rudimentary, one sentence notes that they contained in Elements 1.
To the right you see the selection of alternate palettes from which you can choose, with the exception of the CorrectGraySwatches palette, which is my own. I added that because the gray percentage swatches that ship with Elements 2 are not correct. Check them with the color picker (click the Brightness radio button). Note that Brightness percentages are the inverse of gray percentages.
Check the Only Web Colors box in the bottom left corner of the box if you want only Web-safe colors to be displayed in the big color box. You will see a different, banded, color display when this option is selected. (The banding in the illustration above is due to the JPG image quality of the screen capture. The Color Picker only shows banding when you choose the Only Web Colors option.)
[In Elements 1 this tool is called the paintbrush and is found at the #19 position on the toolbar.] The brush tool is grouped with the Impressionist brush in the toolbar. Click and hold on the icon that is showing to get the pop-up group.
Check the Only Web Colors box in the bottom left corner of the box if you want only Web-safe colors to be displayed in the big color box. You will see a different, banded, color display when this option is selected. (The banding in the illustration above is due to the JPG image quality of the screen capture. The Color Picker only shows banding when you choose the Only Web Colors option.)
Note - if your Alt key does not appear to be working in Elements, you may have another program running in the background that has taken over that key. GuruNet (Atomica) and FlySwat are two such applications. Uninstall them, or reassign the hot key in those programs to regain use of the Alt key in Elements.
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This is a broad overview of the Photoshop Elements window and its main features, with a few helpful tips. Shown below is the opening screen in a typical configuration. I reduced my monitor?s resolution to 800 x 600 to squeeze everything into a smaller screen shot. Such a low resolution is ridiculous when you have so many toolbars and palettes on screen. I keep my 19" monitor at 1152 x 864, and there?s barely enough room to work. Numbers have been added to identify the main features. They are: menu bar
Design your own DVD menu templates ? including backgrounds, buttons, and graphics ? in Photoshop Elements and save them to use again and again in Adobe Premiere Elements.
If you need to find what version of Elements you are using, and who it is registered to, choose the About Photoshop Elements command. For example, if there has been an update, or patch for the program, you can find out here if your copy has been updated.
If your picture looks nice but seems a bit dark or light, and/or has a color cast (blue, red, green?) click on the Color Variations shortcut button on the shortcuts bar. It looks like this: until you hover the cursor over it whereupon it looks like this: Once the Variations dialog opens, I?d recommend moving the Amount slider two notches to the left (the slider will jump as if notched). This will allow you to make smaller changes per click. Click on the thumbnail that does what you want. Watch the before/after display at the top of the dialog. The image behind the dialog won?t update, so you?ll have to depend on the smallish one within the dialog to make up your mind. As in Quick Fix, there is an Undo and a Reset Image button in case you don?t like what you get. When you?re happy with what you have, click OK to apply the changes. Choose File > Save or press Ctrl-S to save your edits. If you are like how your picture looks and are ready to print a picture, choose File > Print Preview. In that dialog, you have the option of causing your picture to print somewhere other than the very middle of the page. To do that, uncheck (deselect) the Center Image checkbox and make sure Show Bounding Box is selected. You can now place your cursor within the bounding box on the page proxy at the left side of the dialog and drag it around. Your cursor will look like a four-headed arrow. If, in spite of using Image > Resize Image, your picture doesn?t fit on the page, you can use the Scale to Fit checkbox, but make very sure you are not scaling to anything greater than 100%. Downscaling is okay, but upscaling is not. When the preview looks good, click the Print button. Your printer dialog will open. From here on, you?re on your own, though I will remind you to check that the proper paper is selected under Media and that you are choosing the Quality setting that you want. That?s it for the most basic picture edit. On the next page, I?ll go into a some slightly more complicated features such as batch renaming, and Picture Package.
The marquee tools are best for geometric selections. The lassos are fine for making loose, feathered selections to do mild corrections. If you want to precisely cut an irregular shaped object out of its background, or, conversely, if you want to select all of a multicolored background in order to change its content, I would strongly recommend that you paint on a separate layer and then Ctrl-click that layer to load your selection. This technique is described at length in the Simulated Alpha Channels tutorial. You can make intricate selections with the lasso by using the Add and Subtract buttons or keyboard shortcuts, but why do it that way when painting on a layer is so much easier and better? The new selection brush in Elements 2 is a great tool for beginners to use since it allows you to stop and start without losing your selection. However, it makes very imprecise selections. Once you have learned how to use other, better tools, I don?t recommend that you use the selection brush. Related tutorials and information on selections can be found in the Selections tutorial in the Photoshop section as well as on the Feathering and Anti-aliasing pages.
If you still have your clone document open, zoom back out to 100 % by double-clicking on the zoom tool?s icon in the toolbox. With your clone edit layer selected in the Layers palette, choose Edit > Fill and choose White from the Use menu. Click OK. Press the D key on your keyboard to make black your foreground color, then choose the shape tool in the toolbox. It?s the fourth one from the top on the left side of the toolbox. On its options bar, choose the ellipse. Then click on the ellipse icon at the extreme left end of the options bar. Choose Reset Tool from the menu that appears. Drag a nice big ellipse on your document. Creating a shape is the same as creating a selection?drag diagonally across the dimensions of the desired ellipse. When you first create a shape, it is selected. A selected shape has a slightly iridescent outline (though it doesn?t show color against the black that I?ve used) and is jagged looking. If you?re using one of the more complicated custom shapes, it?s easier to see what you?ve got if you deselect (click on another layer). The edge ?grittiness? will then go away. To reselect a shape, you use the black arrow that is part of the shapes group (find it on their options bar or from the flyout in the toolbox). To select type, use the type tool as you would in a word processing application. The other selection tools (the lassos, marquees, magic wand or selection brush) have no effect on vector objects. They ignore regular ?marching ants? selections. You cannot alter any limited part of a vector object. You can only alter the whole object. So what?s the point in using the black arrow? You can transform a shape by selecting it, and then choosing Image > Transform Shape. Using the transform bounding box, you can size, and distort the object. Also, if you create more than one shape on a single layer, you can use the black arrow to select one of the shapes in order to reposition or otherwise transform it. Find out more about shapes on my shapes page in the Tools section. If you try to edit a shape with any of the regular tools, you get an alert asking if you want to Simplify the layer. You get a variation of that message if you try to use any of the tools or filters on a type layer. If you click OK, your vector shape layer that you can see in the Layers palette with its sharp outline? ?will be turned into a regular raster layer that can be edited like any other image layer, but which loses the vector advantage...
The new, improved multi-picture Picture Package feature in Elements 2 has to be the most requested item that was missing in version 1. Find it at File > Print Layouts > Picture Package. Once in the dialog, be very sure to set Resolution to something above 150 ppi, preferably something between 200 and 300 ppi. The default 72 ppi is not what you?d want to use for prints. There are a ton of package size options for you to choose from. If you don?t like any of them, you can make your own (see Help). If you choose Frontmost Document from the Use menu, Picture Package will start out by setting up the layout using the currently active image. You can then add other pictures to your package by clicking directly on the preview. The Open dialog will appear and you can browse to pick a different picture for that slot in the package. If you want to make a package starting with a file other than the currently active document, choose File from the Use menu. Note that if you choose Folder, Picture Package will generate a picture package page for every file in that folder, but each individual package page (layout) will only use (multiple copies of) that single image. The last thing I can think of that new users find perplexing, is Elements constant attempts to update itself via Adobe Online. If you don?t like this or it doesn?t work, click the sunflower picture at the top of your toolbox. From the first dialog that opens, click the Preferences button. Once the Preferences dialog opens, choose Never from the Check for updates menu. If Elements ever starts acting really weird, and you can?t figure out what the heck is wrong, try deleting your preferences file. It?s a common, and perfectly safe cure for many mysterious ailments?always worth trying before calling tech support. To delete preferences, hold down the Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys immediately after you launch Elements (after you double-click the shortcut on your desktop). You have to be fast. An alert will ask if you?re sure. Click the Yes button. After Elements opens, be sure and go into Edit > Preferences > PlugIns & Scratch Disks and reset the Scratch Disk to something other than your startup drive.
The Zoom In, Zoom Out, Fit on Screen, Actual Pixels, and Print Size commands all affect magnification and should be self-explanatory.
[In Elements 1 the red eye brush is found at position #10 on the toolbar.] To use the red eye brush, select the tool in the toolbox, and then select your target color which is the one you want to remove. Next, choose your replacement color [see options bar below]. Choose a brush from the brushes pop-up palette, and then paint over the area you wish to correct. Only the target color will be replaced by the new color.
The Effects included with Elements are prepackaged actions that you can use in the same way. Alert boxes will pop-up to tell you if you need to have a particular type of image, or a selection active. Some of the effects will flatten your image.
On the right below, is the same palette showing List View. Use the palette menu (click on the arrow in the top right corner), or the buttons in the bottom right corner to switch between these two palette views. [Note that all illustrations shown below are from Elements 1. Except for cosmetic differences, they are the same in Elements 2.]
The illustration on the left, below, shows the Layer Styles palette in thumbnail view. In Elements 2, the little circle with a line across it is used for removing styles. It looks a lot more like a Cancel button when you hover your cursor over which causes it to turn red. In Elements 1, the firs thumbnail in each palette (white with a red diagonal line across it) is used for removing styles.
Rather than going to Help > Photoshop Elements Help and then clicking the Search button, you can access search directly from the edit window by typing your query into the search box at the top of the screen.
An excellent way to get a little bit of a feel for what can be done with layers is to look at one of the sample images that is installed with Elements (unless you deselected it in a custom install). Try looking at the Carp.psd , or Working.psd images, found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Samples. With the image displayed, click on the eye icon next to various layers to see where they are, and what they?re doing. When you close the image, don?t save any changes (choose No when Photoshop asks if you want to save changes).
After stepping back in History, and with the rectangular selection active once again, I clicked the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette to create a new layer. With that layer selected in the Layers palette (the selected layer is dark blue), I then stroked the selection, the same as before. However, this time, the stroked outline was created on its own layer, above the red circle?s layer. Remember to press Ctrl-D to deselect after you?ve finished adding the stroke. Now, to move the frame into alignment, I only have to select the move tool in the toolbox, and either drag the frame in the image, or use the arrow keys (with the move tool selected in the toolbox) to nudge it into position. Note that if you have Auto Select Layers checked in the move tool?s options bar, you will have to click directly on the black pixels of the frame to move it. If you have that option unchecked, you can click anywhere in the image and move the layer, so long as it is selected in the Layers palette. If you have difficulty aligning layers, here are two tips that may help. Unlike Photoshop, Elements does not have guides or align commands so you may have a hard time lining things up. First, try using the grid. Choose View > Show Grid. Second, try moving the ruler?s origin to a central location. To do this, choose View > Show Rulers. Place your cursor in the upper left corner of the document, at the zero point of both the horizontal and vertical rulers. Click and drag. Drop the origin as near as you can to the center of one of the objects you are trying to align. You will then be able to use the offsets to position the other object. See the example below. The zero point for both the horizontal and vertical has been placed at the circle?s center.
Clear that style by clicking the Default Style button, and then apply the Sunset Sky style with the Negative style. It doesn?t matter which is first, in this case. Some of the styles, like Negative, and Sepia are especially good for experimenting with. They have a simple, color-changing effect that can be combined easily with other styles. If you experiment, as I have, you?ll find that there are other styles that don?t want to combine with anything. They will always be dominant, and show little effect when other styles are added to them. The Molten Gold style used above, is one such. The example I give is about the only combination I found that showed much change from the base Molten Gold style which I find to be rather tacky.
For this demonstration, I?m going to use a ?fake? eye which was rendered from a 3D app. I added a big red spot to simulate flash redeye. Start the correction process by zooming way in so you have a good close view of the eye. Then use the elliptical marquee tool to drag a selection outline which circles the area you want to correct. Don?t worry if your selection isn?t perfect ? you?ll be able to refine it later.
You can proceed on your own from here. Remember to go back before the last effect in the History palette before you apply a new one. I think you can really learn a lot, and get some good ideas for things you?d like to try by dissecting effects. Note that if the effect name has (selection) next to it, you need to drag a selection somewhere in your image before clicking the Apply button. I used the marquee tool to drag a simple circle each time it was required. Some of the effects names have (layer) next to them. I have no idea what that indicates. If you figure it out, let me know. Also note that states called Blending Options may refer to the Layer palette Blend Mode, the Layer palette Opacity setting, or to a kind of blending that is in Photoshop, but not in Elements. Keep your eye on the Layers palette Blend Mode, and Opacity settings, in any case, because I noticed changes there that did not show up as history states. Whenever you can?t figure out what a state is, use the Appendix to find out. And, when you?re all finished, don?t forget to set your history states back to 20 in Edit > Preferences > General (or whatever you had them set to when we started). If you?re wondering why I asked you to set the history states all the way up to 40, there are two effects that have 32 states, or 33 if your image needs to be flattened. For example, the Brushed Aluminum effect, shown below. All that Duplicate Channel, Free Transform stuff followed by four Load Selections is taking place in channels, which you don?t have access to. If you watch your screen while that?s going on, you?ll see that it?s a rather kludgy way to resize the canvas. It turns up in most (all?) of the Frames effects. You could do it a lot more easily, by hand, or using the technique I show in the Playing With Styles tutorial. Many of the effects end, as this one does, by flattening the image. I would suggest that you make it a habit to always step back in history to the one step before that, after applying an effect. Flattening the image loses all your layers, and all your ability to edit those layers. By keeping them intact, you will have many more options to customize the effect, later. You can always flatten the image yourself by choosing Layer > Flatten Image.
Here it is, about one year since I first posted the original (much longer) layer mask method for Elements 1, and I?ve discovered a way to add a layer mask to any layer in Elements 1 that takes about five seconds. Sigh. Anyway, here is how it?s done: Press the following keys (in the order given with no other clicking in between!). Ctrl-A Ctrl-C Ctrl-Shift-V Ctrl-J For those of you who hate keyboard shortcuts, the menu steps are: Select > All Edit > Copy Edit > Paste Into Layer > New > Layer via Copy After you?ve done those steps, you?ll have your mask, but you need to link the mask to the image. To do this, click between the image thumbnail and the mask thumbnail on the layer. After you?ve clicked there, you?ll see the little chain icon that tells you the mask is now linked to the image. And that?s all there is to it. If you already know how masks work and how to edit them, you?re all done. If you don?t know how they work, read through the rest of this tutorial for some tips.
I hope you are clever enough to notice that adjustment layers and fill layers always have their own layer mask, already in place when you add the layer. All mask editing techniques work on those masks in the same way that they work on a ?regular? layer mask. Note that it is usually better to use soft, low opacity brushes to hand-edit adjustment layer masks (and the gradient tool). Think about that. You therefore have complete control over how much and where that adjustment or fill color is applied. By editing the mask, you can add or remove the adjustment or fill at will. And all without touching the original image below. This is true non-destructive editing. If you want to make use of all of the power that is in Elements, you have to master masks.
I've been patiently waiting to see if Photoshop Album 3 would be released, to fix some of the small things I've wanted. Nope -- no word from Adobe, despite being registered with them. Nope, no news on the web site.
Adobe? Photoshop? Album Starter Edition 3.0 software is a great way to get started with digital photography. Once you've mastered the basics, you can step up to Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 software for advanced editing, organizing, and sharing capabilities ? all in one simple yet powerful product.
Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop Elements at the Adobe Store. Elements 6 for Students. Get super savings at the Adobe Academic Store. Photomerge Tutorial - Working With Photomerge In Elements 6 Adapted from "Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 Maximum Performance" by Mark Galer (Download a free 30 day Photoshop Elements trial at the Adobe site.) They say that sequels are never as good as the original - try telling that to Adobe. There fully revamped Photomerge now comes in three flavors and is 'fully fantastic'. You get to explore the greatly improved Photomerge features only in Elements 6 and Photoshop CS3. Photomerge is now capable of aligning and blending images without any signs of struggle - banding in smooth areas of tone. The fully revised Photomerge feature first made its appearance with CS3 but the maths seems to have got even better with the release of Elements 6 and the stitching is so clever it will really have you amazed at the quality that can be achieved inside this budget program. The quality will be even better if you capture the component images of your panorama in vertical format (to reduce the effects of converging verticals) with a 50% overlap and you also use a manual exposure, focus and white balance setting on your camera (or process the images identically in camera Raw). The results will now truly be seamless - an excellent way of widening your horizons or turning your humble compact into a 30-megapixel blockbuster. The Photomerge feature in previous versions of Photoshop Elements (and the full version for that matter) left a lot to be desired. All of the flaws and weaknesses of the original feature are now gone with the release of Elements 6.0. Now the only limitation you may run up against is Photoshop's ability to align and blend strong geometric lines that come close to the camera lens. If the camera is hand-held to capture the component images (you have not used a specialized tripod head designed for professional panoramic stitching work) then the problem of aligning both foreground and distant subject matter is a big problem for any software (Photoshop handles it better than the rest). The camera should ideally be rotated around the nodal point of the lens to avoid something called parallax error. You will probably not encounter any problems with the new Photomerge feature unless you are working with strong lines in the immediate foreground. Notice how the curved lines in the image above are slightly crooked due to the fact that...
Using one of Photoshop Elements' built-in projects, make a single-fold greeting card. By default, the Greeting Card project makes a postcard, but we will modify the project to make a folded card that is blank inside.
Many people think that the Organizer is a place to store and organize digital files, and it is, but it's capable of so much more. From importing photos from your digital camera, to rotating them, adding keywords for easy reference, and the ability to store them neatly into stacks and albums, Photoshop Elements is the real-deal when it comes to organisation. There's no reason on earth not to use it!
The Full Edit mode unleashes the full power of Photoshop Elements in the form of layers, a full set of tools, full ability to select and move pixels, color adjusting and retouching tools beyond the realms of your wildest dreams and much, much more. This is where things start to get interesting. Follow me on a virtual tour of the workspace and rest assured that by time we're done, you'll choose power over ease-of-use any day of the week.
If you're new to Photoshop Elements then the Quick Fix and Guided Modes are for you! Designed as a gentle introduction to image editing, these modes offer a workspace that walks you through the process of improving digital photos with no more than a few simple movements of the appropriate sliders. Whether you're correcting for color, dark shadows, bright highlights or a soft focus, these modes are the fastest way to see better looking images.
In this lesson, we will create a colorful Web banner using simple shapes and text. The dimensions of the banner are 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high, with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. The finished banner will look like this:
Suppose you need to create 15 badges of the same shape, size, and style, but each badge must contain different contents. You can create a layered file to use as a template for your badges. You will create the badge effects once in a layer mask and apply the mask to any content you add to the file. In this example, we are using an American flag image as the source for the badge.
Let's add a little drama to this nice, but rather ho-hum sunset. We'll do this using just four layers that you can tweak for an infinite variety of effects. Adjustment layers and blending modes are key to achieving the dramatic effect.
Make a quick vignette to draw attention to one section of your photo. The area outside your selection is blurred and darkened.
Turn your travel photos into vintage postcards. This effect is based on old photochrom photos, like the one shown in the About Photochroms section of this lesson. This technique works best on colorful photos that have good contrast and lots of detail, especially architectural detail. For best results:
Be a hep cat and learn how to make a cool fifties pattern, Daddy-O. Download and use free fifties brushes, color swatches and fonts for the pattern.
Not all photos are winners, as we well know. If you have the perfect photo that seems ruined by being washed-out (overexposed), you can still turn it into a potential winner. In this lesson, we start with a seriously overexposed photo with a washed-out sky. We will use the Multiply blend mode to bring back the vibrant color and replace the white sky with a nice blue sky.
When you can't fit all of that spectacular view in your camera's viewfinder, you can recreate it by combining a series of photos to create a panorama. Stitch the photos together using the Photomerge� Panorama feature in Photoshop Elements. In this lesson, we have combined three photos to create a panorama of AT&T; Park in San Francisco.
When you want to combine multiple images into one new image, you must open separate files and then copy each file into the working image. Two common ways to do this are:
The Displace filter distorts the pixels in an image using another image called the displacement map. A displacement map is a grayscale image saved in Adobe Photoshop format (PSD). You can use the Displace filter to:
Make your own unique and colorful textured papers for backgrounds and scrapbooking. Follow this four-step process to make an endless variety of textured papers:
Use the Shift key with the Line tool or the Brush tool to draw a straight line. Use the Shift key with the Brush tool to create a dotted line or a decorative border.
Note: To change hair color from dark to light, see the video lesson, Lesson 9: Change Hair Color - Dark to Light.
Even your dullest photos can shine when you boost the contrast and brightness. Give your photos a quick color pop by using a Levels adjustment layer and the Soft Light blend mode. This pink bus looks a little washed out, but we'll make the color really pop with this quick fix.
Apply the Hard Light blend mode to the duplicate layer. In the Layers palette, click the duplicate layer, then select Hard Light from the blend modes drop-down list.
For taller buildings than the one-story Coney Island above, your brain expects to see at least a little distortion in perspective. Make sure you do not over-correct for the keystone effect.
For quick and easy scrapbooking, quick pages are perfect! A quick page is a predesigned scrapbook page with a transparent frame or frames to which you can add your own photos and journaling text. Most quick pages come in a single layer in the PNG file format because that format recognizes transparent sections. In this lesson, learn how to add your own photo and journaling text to a quick page in Photoshop Elements.
Templates are layered PSD files for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements that contain the framework for a layout to which you can add your own paper, elements and text. Each layer in the PSD file is a placeholder for an element in the layout. Templates come in handy for learning principles of page design and producing a well-designed page quickly. In this lesson, learn how to personalize a template in Photoshop Elements.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial, Photoshop Elements supports layer masks only with adjustment layers. So, since we need a layer mask, let's add an adjustment layer! Photoshop Elements gives us several different types of adjustment layers to choose from, but it doesn't really matter which one we choose here since we're not actually going to do anything with it. We only need one for its layer mask, and we need to add it between our two existing layers, so first click on the Background layer in the Layers palette to select it. It will turn blue, letting us know that it's selected:
Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop Elements now at the Adobe Store. Download a free 30 day Photoshop Elements trial at the Adobe site. Photoshop Elements Video Tutorial ? Adjust Hue/Saturation In this video clip tutorial you will learn the following: How to unleash the full potential of the Hue/Saturation Dialog Box. How to selectively shift the colors in an image down the color wheel. 3.6 MB / 2:00 min [Quicktime is required to view this video clip] [click on either of the 2 screenshots below to launch the video] Exclusive 20% Discount On Select Total Training Products & Bundles To redeem our exclusive discount coupon, use promotion code save20pss in your shopping cart. You could save hundreds of dollars. Use this special link to see the full offer. This clip is from Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 with Brian Maffitt. In the full Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, you will learn techniques for using digital cameras, as well as for using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 to edit, print, and share images. Video Tutorial � Total Training. Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Maximum Performance There's an interesting Photoshop Elements 5 book from Mark Galer that has come to my attention ? Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Maximum Performance. Part of the appeal is that the book ships with 5 hours of DVD tutorials and a whole bunch of free stock photos. That's a nice touch. And the book is getting a good amount of positive reviews, including this one: 'Using crafty work-arounds to achieve remarkable results, Mark Galer pushes Elements' capabilities to new levels.' ? Christy Brandt, Director of Engineering, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Systems, Inc. Here's some press on Mark's book: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Maximum Performance Get the most from your digital camera to produce high-end results that casual users only dreamed of. Your photos will look like a pro shot them as imaging guru Mark Galer shows you how to use critical but little-known techniques for professional quality editing.
Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop Elements now at the Adobe Store. Photoshop for Students. Get super savings at the Adobe Academic Store. Photoshop Elements Video Tutorial ? Save For Web In this video clip tutorial you will learn the following: How to use the Save For Web Dialog Box. How to take a high resolution image, compress it, crop it and e-mail it to a friend. 9.9 MB / 5:23 min [Quicktime is required to view this video clip] [click on either of the 2 screenshots below to launch the video] This clip is from Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 with Brian Maffitt. In the full Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, you will learn techniques for using digital cameras, as well as for using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 to edit, print, and share images. Video Tutorial � Total Training. The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby Like the best-selling former edition, The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that's rarely done ? 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-Mask-filter" 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 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. The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers ($23.09 - 34% off) Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One by Deke McClelland Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One marks a landmark in computer publishing. In addition to offering 12 lessons of project-based tutorials with all sample files included, each lesson starts with a video introduction, hosted by the author himself, Deke McClelland. And these are no ordinary videos. Produced by Adobe's official video training partner, Total Training, each video measures 960 by 540 pixels and plays at 30 frames per second, with no interlacing. That's a play rate of 15.5 million pixels per second, making this the first computer publication to include high-definition video, playable on any modern PC with a DVD-ROM drive. The picture is so crystal clear, it's like watching the world-reknowned expert work right along with you. Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One ($23.07 - 34% discount). PHOTO CREDIT: Product shots & logo (� Total Training) plus blur on color pools. � 2004 Eric Martin of Futura Studios
Buy. Download. Create. Get Photoshop Elements now at the Adobe Store. Photoshop for Students. Get super savings at the Adobe Academic Store. Photoshop Elements Video Tutorial ? Print Preview In this video clip tutorial you will learn the following: How to print an image. How to use and understand the functionality of the Print Preview Dialog Box. 3.1 MB / 1:52 min [Quicktime is required to view this video clip] [click on either of the 2 screenshots below to launch the video] This clip is from Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 with Brian Maffitt. In the full Digital Photography And Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, you will learn techniques for using digital cameras, as well as for using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 to edit, print, and share images. Video Tutorial � Total Training. The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby Like the best-selling former edition, The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that's rarely done ? 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-Mask-filter" 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 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. The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers ($23.09 - 34% off) Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One by Deke McClelland Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One marks a landmark in computer publishing. In addition to offering 12 lessons of project-based tutorials with all sample files included, each lesson starts with a video introduction, hosted by the author himself, Deke McClelland. And these are no ordinary videos. Produced by Adobe's official video training partner, Total Training, each video measures 960 by 540 pixels and plays at 30 frames per second, with no interlacing. That's a play rate of 15.5 million pixels per second, making this the first computer publication to include high-definition video, playable on any modern PC with a DVD-ROM drive. The picture is so crystal clear, it's like watching the world-reknowned expert work right along with you. Photoshop Elements 4 One-on-One ($23.07 - 34% discount). PHOTO CREDIT: Product shots & logo (� Total Training) plus blur on color pools. � 2004 Eric Martin of Futura Studios