Elements Tutorial

Image Editing Made Easy

© Arnie Abrams, 2003

If you can get access to Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can work through this tutorial in about three hours. It gives you a fairly in-depth background in image processing and photo editing techniques. Photoshop Elements is a slightly scaled down version of Adobe Photoshop. It works just about the same and has about 90% of its capabilities, but unlike Photoshop which costs hundreds of dollars, it can be purchased for under $100. There are both Windows and Macintosh versions of Elements available. A fully functional 30-day trail version is included on the PDQ Guide to Digital Photography CD or you can download one at Adobe’s Web site at www.adobe.com. Even if you end up using different image editing software in the future, these techniques will show you what the software is capable of. This printout covers the Windows version, but if you’re willing to experiment a bit, you can still do this tutorial with the Mac version. In late 2002 Adobe released version 2.0 of Elements. This tutorial covers that version, however for those who have version 1; we have noted any differences in procedures in parentheses in this tutorial. Elements version 2 requires Windows 98 or above (PC) or OS 9.1 or above (Macintosh). For those of you with older operating systems we have provided the trail version of Elements 1.0 for your use.

Overview of the Tutorial This tutorial includes dozens of digital photo files for you to work with; however, you can use your own images also (though you may need to tweak the instructions). In any case, you can use a combination of both approaches as you proceed. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use a digital camera to capture photos for your computer; you can use a flatbed scanner, have photos put on disk via Picture CD or other processing, or even have them posted to the Internet. Use of Photoshop Elements can be divided into four main processes: bringing images into the program, fine tuning the images, adding special effects, and outputting the images to a printer, the Internet, or other device. You’ll work with all of these in this tutorial. As you work with this tutorial, don’t worry if your images don’t look exactly like the screen shots. It’s OK to experiment also. The process is more important than the product. Each activity should take under five minutes and you can do them in any order. That said, I still recommend doing the tutorial in sequential order, because some of the techniques build on earlier explanations.

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Conventions Used in the Tutorial Commands are abbreviated with the > symbol. For example, Filters>Artistic>Watercolor means to first click on the Filters menu, then drag down in the menu to Artistic, and then drag over and down to the Watercolor command. Commands and on-screen tools, buttons and icons are formatted in bold and italics. I don’t refer to keyboard shortcuts in this tutorial (such as Control-O), but you will see them next to some commands in the on-screen menus. The names of files, folders and discs that you will be accessing are in italics. To save space, I often abbreviate Photoshop Elements as “PSE.” Throughout the tutorial, I offer quick tips for using Photoshop Elements; I call these “Q Tips”. You’ll need the Elements Tutorial Files folder of the CD-ROM available to access the sample files. You can’t save on the CD-ROM, so you will need to save your work on your hard drive or network folder. You can begin by copying the Elements Tutorial Photos folder to your hard drive or network drive. It’s not advisable to work with files on a Zip disk or floppy disk.

Quick Tour- Exploring the Photoshop Elements Interface First, you will need to launch the Adobe Photoshop Elements program. The CD-ROM has a folder called Elements Tutorial Photos that contains all of the files you’ll work with in this tutorial. If you want to use your own images in this tutorial, rather than the ones provided with it, put them all in one folder on your hard drive. I recommend creating a folder called “My Tutorial Pictures” or something like it. Have all images 72 ppi.

Starting Up the Program If there is a Photoshop Elements shortcut on your desktop, simply double-click on it. If not: 1. Move to the Start menu and drag to Programs, then over to Adobe>Photoshop Elements (or something similar). The program should open. 2. If the New File dialog box appears, click the Close button to close it. 3. For Macintosh Users: 4. To start up Photoshop Elements; double-click on your hard disk icon to open it. 5. Find the Adobe Photoshop Elements folder and double-click on it to open it. 6. In that window, double-click on the Photoshop Elements program icon. The program should start up. 7. If the New dialog box appears, click the Close box to close it.

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Exploring the Main Window The main screen, as shown below, is the control center of the program. This interface is where you open files from and proceed to various activities. Close box Menus Options bar Palette well Standard commands Pull-down options

Image window

Hints palette

Tools palette

Floating palettes

Image information

Helpful tips

You can access Photoshop Elements tools and features in any combination of three ways: choose commands from the pull-down menus, click on icons in palettes (windows with tools), or use keyboard shortcuts (pressing one or two keys on the keyboard).

Q-Tip: Recipes and Hints for Success Unlike Photoshop, Photoshop Elements has some built in “training wheels”. One of the most user- friendly is “Recipes”. These are step-bystep instructions for doing specific tasks, such as removing red-eye. They even have “do it for me” buttons to automate some of the processes. We’ll work with some recipes in just a bit. Elements also has a Hints box, that pops up to offer contextual help when you use a tool. Pausing the mouse over a tool causes a description of the tool to pop-up on screen.

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Exploring Menus 1.

Pull down and examine most of the commands in the various menus (but don’t actually select any of the commands). Can you guess what most of them do? Commands will be grayed out (dimmed) when not currently available.

2.

Click the Maximize button in the upper right hand corner of the window to make Elements appear full screen. Note the tabs in the upper right of the screen, this is the palette well.

3.

The tools palette floats, usually on the left side of the screen. This contains your basic painting and editing tools. If you pause the mouse on a tool, its name will appear.

Tools palette

4.

Note how the settings in the upper left, change as you click on different tools. This is called the Options bar.

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Getting Help Adobe PSE has an excellent online help mechanism. You view it via your Web browser, which allows quick access to new information online. Let’s give it a try: 1.

Select Help>Photoshop Elements Help. (V1= Help>Help Contents.)

2.

Click the Contents tab. A list of subtopics pops up.

3.

Click on Looking at the Work Area.

4.

Explore a topic by clicking on it. Click once on Getting familiar with the work area.

5.

Use the Previous and Next buttons (V1-Forward and Back arrows) to step through help screens.

6.

Click the Index tab to get an alphabetical list of topics. Click a letter.

7.

Click the Search tab.

8.

Click in the top box. Type the word: palette. Click the Search button.

9.

A list of topics appears. Click on one of them. Specific help appears on the right part of the window.

10.

You can drag the Help window around the screen by its title bar. You can also resize it. You can keep it open, but hidden, by clicking the Minimize button in the upper right corner of the screen. Click the Close box in the Help window to exit the help feature.

11.

Whenever you have a question or problem in this tutorial or when using PSE, don’t hesitate to get Help.

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Tips From the Hints Palette It might be hard to remember what all those tools in the palettes do, so Adobe has provided a device called the Hints palette to explain them. 1.

In the Window menu drag down to put a check next to Hints (V1= Window>Show Hints). If it already has a checkmark, don’t make a change.

2.

Move the cursor over the triangle in the tools palette. Notice that in the Hints palette it tells you how to use the Sharpen tool.

3.

You can also turn the Hints palette on or off by clicking its tab in the palettes bar.

4.

To keep a palette always displayed you “break it off” the palettes bar. Move the cursor onto the Hints tab. Drag the dotted lines just left of the Hints tab down. Now the Hints palette floats on the screen. Drag it in any position you desire.

5.

You can click the More button (V1= More Help) to bring up the topic on the selected tool.

Bringing in Images Before you can edit your photos, you need to get them into the computer. Elements is quite adept at doing this in a variety of ways. In this tutorial we’ve already got the images you’ll need to work with on the CD-ROM, but in actual work you can use PSE to import images directly from your scanner or digital camera without having to leave the program. In Elements you can also view thumbnails of a folder of image files via the File>Browse command. You can have as many images open at once as your computer’s memory will allow. Let’s open some files now: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Drag down in the File pull-down menu to select Open. Navigate in the dialog box to the disk or network drive that has the tutorial files. Click Open. Navigate to the Elements Tutorial Photos folder. Click the Open button. Click once on the A First Time file. Click Open. Select File>Open. Double-click on the Second Photo file to open that image also. Q-Tip- Scanning and Downloading Pictures After completing this tutorial, if you want to import pictures from a scanner, digital camera or Picture CD, use the File>Import command and select the driver for your scanner or digital camera.. You may first need to install software that came with your scanner or camera.

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Working with Multiple Images To switch between images: 1.

Select Window>Images and drag over to select the A First Time file (V1= Window>A First Time). Now you’re working on that file.

2.

Or, simply click anywhere in the other image’s window to make it the active window.

Saving a File If you just select File>Save you will update the existing file with any changes you made, but we want to make a new copy of the file with our changes. We’ll do this using the Save As command. This command is also used for saving a copy of the file in a different file format, such as JPEG or GIF. There is also a Save for the Web command, which we’ll use later. Elements normally saves files in Adobe’s proprietary Photoshop file format (PSD). This format will open in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but not in almost any other program. 1.

Select File>Save As.

2.

In the dialog box, navigate to the folder you want to save your work in (perhaps the My Tutorial Pictures folder).

3.

Give the file a new name, such as First Save

4.

Now click the Save button.

Q-Tip- Converting, Renaming or Resizing a Whole Folder of Files: You can use the File>Batch Processing command (V1= File>Automate>Batch Convert) in Elements to automatically convert an entire folder of files from one file format to another (such as from Photoshop to JPEG) or to resize them or rename them ((V2 only; this is a convenient way to rename digital camera files to more descriptive names).

Basic Editing Techniques Well, you came here to do some digital magic, so let’s start with some image manipulation. 1.

Select File>Open and open the Original Scan file.

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Customizing your View Before you go on, you may want to set up the interface the way you want it. If you need to know the dimensions of the image you are working on, you can display on-screen rulers. 1.

In the View menu drag down to put a check next to Rulers (V1= View>Show Rulers). Q-TIP: Checking File Size You can examine the dimensions and file size of the image by holding the mouse button down in the lower left corner of your window. You can also see its resolution.

Let’s also display a couple of other windows that we’ll need to use later in the tutorial. 2.

Select Window>Layers (or click the Layers tab- not the Layer Styles tab)(V1= Window>Show Layers). The layers palette allows you to work on or display separate layers of your image. For instance, text is always saved on a separate layer from the rest of the image. You can toggle a window back off again from the Window menu or by clicking on another palette tab. You can tear off a palette to keep it always visible.

3.

Tear off the Layers palette and drag it down.

4.

Maximize the view of the image by clicking the Maximize button of the image’s window.

5.

Drag the palettes by their title bars to a part of the screen where they are not covering up your image. You can resize the window by dragging on any of its sides.

Zooming In When you work with computer graphics and digital imagery, you need to get used to zooming in and out frequently. In PSE, you can magnify the view up to 16 times the original size. You’ll need to zoom in (magnify the view) to do detail work and zoom out (reduce the view) to get the big picture. In digital imaging, you often need to zoom way, way in, for example, to select a detail. 1.

Select View>Zoom In.

2.

Select View>Zoom Out.

Here’s a few faster ways to zoom in and out. 1.

Click the Navigator tab in the palette bar.

2.

Drag the palette out to park it for easy access.

3.

The fastest way to make radical zoom changes is to drag the Zoom Slider (the little triangle). Drag it to select around 400%.

4.

You can click the mountain icons to change scale in even increments.

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5.

For you keyboard fans, you can use Control + to zoom in and Control – to zoom out.

6.

Whoa, where are we? To move around in an image, first hold the spacebar down on the keyboard, and then drag the mouse around (or you can use the Hand tool from the Tool palette).

7.

Click the Zoom tool on the tools palette (the magnifying glass) and then click on a part of the image. This has the advantage of zooming in on a particular part of the image (you can Alt-click to zoom out).

8.

The View>Fit on Screen command is a good way to view all of a large image.

9.

Return to 100% magnification or select View>Actual Pixels.

Quick Image Fix When you first scan in an image, it almost always needs a bit of adjusting. PSE affords a couple of tools to automate this task. 1.

With the Original Scan file open, select Enhance>Auto Levels.

Did that help much? Let’s try the manual way of adjusting the image: 2.

Select Edit>Undo Auto Levels.

3.

Select Enhance>Adjust Brightness/Contrast>Brightness/Contrast. (V1= Enhance> Brightness/Contrast>Brightness/Contrast). Play with the settings. Notice that you can preview the settings as you adjust them. Click OK. Explore the Enhance>Quick Fix commands for more options (V2 only).

4.

Remember, that when you print images on paper they become slightly darker, so you should boost brightness here before printing. Also, apparent brightness and contrast can be affected by your monitor’s settings, so try to keep your monitor set at consistent levels. PSE Q-Tip: Do Undo Any time something goes wrong, immediately select Edit>Undo. You can undo all of your moves, one step at a time. If things get real botched up you can use the File>Revert command to reload the original file back in (assuming you had previously saved the image). 1.

Select Edit>Step Backward to undo a previous procedure. You can repeat this to keep going back in time.

2.

Or… you can click the Undo History tab (V1= History). to display the History palette. This shows you all of your work, broken into steps. To delete a step, drag its title onto the Trash icon at the bottom of the palette. Try it if you like. You can slide the arrow on the left of the palette to move through steps.

.

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Sharpening the Image The Sharpen command tries to achieve the illusion of sharper focus by adding contrast. This often is not very attractive. In reality, no image-processing program can add detail to an out of focus image. 1.

Have the Original Scan file open. Select Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen.

2.

Do you like the results? Select Edit>Undo Sharpen.

Most scans benefit from a bit of sharpening; to do this manually you apply the Unsharp filter. Contrary to its name, the Unsharp Mask actually sharpens the image by adjusting how adjoining pixels interact. There are almost limitless setting combinations, but here’s a set that experts recommend: 1.

Select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.

2.

Set the Amount to 100, the Radius to 2, and the Threshold to 2.

3.

Click the Preview button on and off to check the effect.

4.

Click OK to process the effect.

How did those results compare with the Filter>Sharpen technique? This brings up an important concept in image processing; results depend not just on what effects you apply, but also on how you adjust them. Using the setting controls opens almost limitless adjustments. With experience, experimentation, and guidance, you’ll get a feeling for effective settings.

Adjusting Color and Saturation While we’re in the neighborhood, let’s look at the other Enhance commands. When you get pictures back from the processing lab, they usually “soup up” the colors, creating deep blue skies and really brilliant reds. If you like this kind of color, you can boost your images’ saturation level. 1. Select Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation (V1= Enhance> Color>Hue/Saturation). Now you can experiment adjusting the intensity of the photo’s colors and tinting. Hue adjusts the overall color balance in the photograph. Click OK. 2. My favorite way to play with color balance is the Variations command. Select Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations (V1= Enhance>Variations). 3. Click on any of the bottom thumbnail pictures. Click repeatedly to keep adjusting the color balance. If things get real screwed up, click on the Reset Image icon (V1= Original) to restore the original settings. When you like the results, click OK. 4. Close all open files without saving changes.

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Selection Tools Let’s fix a scratch with the selection tool. 1.

Open the file, Nasty Scratch.

2.

In the tools palette select the Rectangular Marquee tool (the Elliptical Marquee tool may be currently showing).

3.

Drag a rectangle around the scratch on the image in the file. If you’re using your own file, drag a box around an area with a line.

4.

Now, select the Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches effect and see if you can adjust the settings to “soften” the scratch. Click OK.

Let’s use some of the other selection tools. 1. Click the Select>Deselect button to “unselect” our rectangle (or click outside the selection area). 2.

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The Elliptical Marquee Tool works pretty much like the Rectangle tool (although obviously with a different shape). Try it out if you wish.

In the Tools palette, select the Lasso Tool. Drag the mouse around an area to select it. Click outside the selected area to deselect. In the Tools palette drag the Lasso Tool down to select the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Click the mouse button where you want to start your selection. Click the mouse again at each desired corner. Double-click to close the polygon.

Once you’ve got an area selected you can cut, copy, or duplicate it, or apply a filter to just that area. 1.

Select an area using any of the above selection tools.

2. 3.

Choose the Move Tool form the Tools palette. Place the mouse in the middle of that area and drag the selection to another part of the image. That leaves a big hole in the picture, so select Edit>Undo Move.

4.

In just a bit, we’ll show you a better way to move a part of an image by cloning it. For now, close the current file without saving it.

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Magnetic Lasso Tool Here’s one of PSE’s most useful tools. Selecting objects with irregular edges can be a difficult task; the Magnetic Lasso tool does a good job of automatically doing this for you. 1. Open the file: Portrait 2.

In the Tools palette, drag down on the Lasso or Polygon to choose the Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Notice that new settings appear in the Options bar. This is where you can fine-tune how the tool works. We won’t adjust it right now. 3. Position the cursor near the edge of the face. The screen should display a magnet cursor. 4. Click once. You should now see a small blue dot on the screen. 5. WITHOUT HOLDING THE MOUSE BUTTON DOWN, slowly drag the cursor around the outline of the head. Notice how the selection snaps into place. 6. When you get all the way back around to your starting place the magnet disappears. Now, click the mouse button (you can also double-click to end the selection). How did the Magnetic Lasso tool do? If it didn’t work well, you can choose the Deselect command in the Selection menu, adjust the settings for Edge Contrast in the Options bar, and try again. It takes a little practice to get the hang of the Magnetic Lasso tool. Consult the Help system for more information about using it. 7. Close the file without saving changes. Magic Wand Tool My personal favorite selection tool is the Magic Wand tool. This works by selecting adjoining pixels that are of a similar color. You can specify how similar the colors need to be. I often use this tool to select backgrounds. 1. Open the Color Sky file. 2.

We want to alter the look of the sky without affecting the foreground objects. From the Tools palette, select the Magic Wand Tool.

3. Click on any part of the sky in the image. PSE selects similarly colored pixels. 4. We want to “grow” our selection to get more of the sky. Hold down the Shift key.

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5. Now, while still holding down the Shift key, click repeatedly on other areas of the sky to increase the selection. 6. Continue to click until there are no “islands” or holes left in the background selection. 7. Select Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation. Play with the settings. Click OK. Notice how only the sky changes. Inverting a Selection Here’s a little trick to select objects with irregular outlines; select everything but the thing you want to select and invert the selection. 1. With the sky still selected, choose Select>Inverse. Now everything but the sky is selected. 2. Choose Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen to alter the foreground. A trick to make a blurry picture look a bit sharper is to blur the background. 3. Close the file without saving changes.

Q-Tip- Select a Layer: You can use the Select>All command to modify an entire layer of an image. First click on that layer in the Layers palette, then choose Select>All. Once you've selected the layer, you can apply a filter or transformation to just the pixels in that layer. We’ll work with layers a bit later.

Feathering a Selection to Vignette an Image: 1.

Open the Vignette file.

2.

Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to drag an oval around most of the person.

3.

Choose Select>Feather.

4.

In the Feather Selection dialog box, type in 30 for the Feather Radius pixel value. Feathering softens and extends the edges of the selection. This is how you can cut and paste something out without it having a sharp edge. Click OK.

5.

Choose Select>Inverse.

6.

Choose Edit>Cut. Now you have a soft-edged portrait. Pretty cool, huh?

7.

Use File>Save As to save it under a different name. Close the file

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Duplicating by Cloning If you need three flowers in an image, but only have a picture of two, there’s a tool to almost magically duplicate one. 1.

Open the file called Flowers.

2.

Zoom in to 200%

3.

In the Tools palette select the Clone Stamp Tool.

4.

Move the target icon onto a flower. Hold down the Alt key on the keyboard and click the mouse.

5.

Let go of the Alt key. Move the mouse to a portion of the background.

6.

Hold the mouse button down and drag in a circular motion. Cool! You’re cloning.

7.

Alt-click on another flower, and clone it in another area. You can change the size of the Clone Stamp brush in the Options bar.

8.

Close the file without saving changes.

Resizing and Resampling Changing the Image’s Size To change the dimensions of the entire image, use the Size menu. This menu offers you many more tools than simply enlarging or reducing the size of your image. You can also distort the image into different perspectives or change the resolution of the image (resampling).

1.

Open the file Size Me.

2.

Select Select>All.

3.

Select Image>Resize>Scale.

4.

Drag a corner handle of the image in and stretch it to smaller dimensions.

5.

Double-click to apply the transformation.

6.

Select Edit>Undo Free Transform Selection.

The problem with the Scale command is that it distorts the image, something rarely desirable in a photograph. What you usually want to do is change the size proportionally. If you hold the Shift key down while you resize you will scale the width and height proportionally.

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PSE has a command to change an image’s size to exact dimensions. 1.

Select Image>Resize>Image Size.

2.

In the dialog box, notice the pull-down menu in the Pixel Dimensions area next to the width box (it probably currently reads Pixels). Drag down to select Percent. Type 50 in the width box.

3.

Make sure the Constrain Proportions box is checked. This will change the width and height proportionally. Notice the file size has been reduced also.

4.

Click OK. The image becomes half-sized.

5.

Select Edit>Undo Image Size.

Resampling an Image Earlier we spoke of the importance of understanding resolution. Let’s change the resolution of this image. We will downsample it, that is, reduce its resolution. This will shrink its file size. It’s rarely a good idea to upsample an image, which doesn’t add detail, but makes the file size larger. 72 ppi is monitor resolution. 1.

Select View>Actual Pixels. That’s a big hand!

2.

Select Image>Resize>Image Size. Note the file size next to the words “Pixel Dimensions”

3.

Type 72 in the Resolution box. Notice that the file size decreases. Click OK.

4.

Select View>Actual Pixels. Changing the resolution also changes the dimensions of the image. You only see things on screen at approximate real size when the resolution is around 72 ppi (because that is screen resolution).

5.

Save the file with the same name.

Distorting the Image You can skew the look of the entire image by distorting its dimensions. 1.

Choose Select>All.

2.

Select Image>Transform>Distort.

3.

Drag any of the image’s corner handles in to change the shape of the image.

4.

Double-click on the image to confirm the change.

5.

Select File>Revert.

6.

Select Image>Transform>Perspective.

7.

Drag a corner handle. Now, two handles at a time move, creating a psuedo-perspective effect.

8.

Double-click on the image to confirm the change.

9.

Close the file without saving changes.

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Enlarging the Canvas Size You probably will not need to enlarge the canvas size very often, but it’s useful to know how, nonetheless. The “canvas” refers to the background area of your image. You can enlarge this area to allow room to add additional information. You might want to use this to create a photo composite. 1.

Open the file Before.

2.

Open the file After.

3.

Select Image>Resize>Canvas Size.

4.

In the After file, type in a new width in the Canvas Size dialog box; about twice the value of the existing one. Click the left-center Placement box. Click OK.

5.

Switch back to the Before file.

6.

Choose Select>All.

7.

Select Edit>Copy.

8.

Switch back to the After file.

9.

Select Edit>Paste.

10.

Click the Move tool. Drag the image of the second apple to the right half of the screen.

11.

Apply an effect to this half, perhaps Filter>Artistic>Watercolor.

12.

Now you’ve got a “before-and-after” illustration.

13.

Select File>Save As to save this new split-screen version of your image.

Trimming and Framing Cropping (Trimming) a Photo Perhaps you’ve got a photo with a distracting element, such as a person you don’t like. You can trim or crop that area out of your photo. This is also a good way to improve an image’s composition. We’ll work on an image with too much sky. 1.

2.

Open the Big City file.

Select the Crop Tool from the Tools palette.

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3.

Drag a box around the bottom half of the image. The darkened area will become the eliminated area.

4.

You can drag the mouse inside the box to adjust the crop area or drag a corner handle.

Tip: If you move the cursor outside the crop box, you can rotate the image. 5.

Double-click inside the crop box to delete the unneeded area.

Adding a Frame to your Image This one’s almost too easy: 1. Choose Select>All. 2. Select Edit>Stroke. 3. In the dialox box specify a width of 10 pixels and choose a color for your borderline. Make the Location Inside. Click OK. Now you’ve got a frame for your image. If you had made a smaller selection first, the border would have been applied just to the selected area. Fancy frames using the Effects Palette Something that Elements has that Photoshop doesn’t is pre-built Effects. These are one-click commands that apply a complex special effect to your image. There are dozens of these Effects, all available via the Effects palette. If you want a really fancy frame use an Effect to apply an edge effect. 1.

Open any file you wish.

2.

Click the Effects tab.

3.

Change the type from All to Frames.

4.

Drag and drop a frame effect from the palette on top of your picture.

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5.

Select Edit>Undo to try another frame (V1= answer No to “Do you wish to keep this effect”).

6.

Repeat step four with other frames till you find one you like. Note: some frames require a selection first, so use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select some of the image.

7.

Click Yes to keep a frame effect.

8.

Close the file; save the file if you want to.

Using Other Effects The Effects palette has some really cool special effects. Try experimenting with some of the Image Effects for a bit. We’ll work with Textures and Text Effects later in the tutorial.

Fun With Filters You’ve already worked with several transformations, called Filters, in previous sections. Working with filters is one of the most fun parts of image editing. You need to be a little careful; however, not to get carried away or too gimmicky with your photos. Filters can be used to improve the quality of a photo or to distort it by adding special effects. Remember that the settings within the dialog boxes also dramatically affect the effect of the Filters. In this section, we’ll introduce you to three Filters, but then set you loose to discover many others. 1)

Getting Artistic 1.

Open the Filters file.

2.

Select Filter>Artistic>Colored Pencil.

3.

Play with the settings in the dialog box. Notice their effect in the preview box. If you click the + you’ll zoom in on the preview. You can move around in the preview by dragging the mouse in the preview box.

4.

When you have settings you like, click the OK button to apply the filter.

5.

Select Edit>Undo Colored Pencil to try the next filter.

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Distorting Reality 1.

With the Filters file still open, select Filter>Distort>Twirl.

2.

Drag the slider back and forth. This control works differently than in the previous dialog box. As you drag the slider to the center, you lessen the effect (and bring the value closer to 0). Keep an eye out for this in filter dialog boxes.

3.

Apply the filter and then select Edit>Undo Twirl.

3)

Creating a Mosaic

After all the time we’ve spent trying to eliminate jagged edges, you’d think we wouldn’t want to create them now. Wrong! 1.

With the Filters file still open, select Filter>Texture>Patchwork.

2.

Play with the settings. Click OK.

3.

Instant mosaic! Select Edit>Undo Patchwork.

Q-Tip: Adding PhotoShop Plug-ins As you have seen, Adobe Photoshop Elements comes with dozens of filters, but you can add many more. You can purchase sets of filters or find free ones on the Internet. Most of them are labeled as PhotoShop filters or plug-ins, but they are interchangeable with most image editing programs. Some of these are really wild. You make them accessible to Photoshop Elements by copying these filters into Photoshop Elements’ Plug-ins folder. On Your Own Those are three of the most fun filters. Now it’s your turn to discover. Mark the time. Spend up to thirty minutes experimenting with filters on your own. But, then it’s back to the tutorial! Use any files you wish. Don’t get discouraged if some of the filters look pretty bad. Some only look good with certain types of images, and there are many variables, so just experiment.

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Getting Assistance via Recipes Some Photoshop techniques are complex and may take some time to learn. Fortunately, Photoshop Elements has included some guided instruction for some complex procedures; these are called “Recipes”. Each step in the process is explained and the computer can automatically do some of the steps for you. You might be familiar with these in other software programs where they are referred to as “wizards.” The good thing about these is that they hold your hand while you learn a new procedure. The bad thing is that they are usually less flexible and slower than doing it on your own. Let’s pull out the recipe for aging a photo.

Recoloring and Aging a Photo 1.

Open the Old Time file.

2.

In the palette well, click the How To tab (V1= Recipes). Even better, drag it down to become a floating window.

3.

Drag down in the Select a Recipe box to select Fun Stuff.

4.

Click on the Create an Old Fashioned or Tinted Photo recipe.

5.

Follow the steps in the recipe. Clicking on the Do This Step for Me text to have Elements execute the commands automatically.

6.

After following all of the steps, use Save As to save your work under a new name and close all open files.

Recipes are a great way to learn to use Photoshop and to introduce it to students. Spending some time exploring them exposes you to many of the capabilities of PSE. As you get more experienced you won’t need to rely on a recipe to cook up some great effects. Note that there are many more Recipes under the other topic areas.

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A Quick Review Merging Photos Before moving on to layers, let’s stop and give you a chance to review some of your recently learned skills. Let’s have some fun by combining two photos into an impossible scene. 1.

Open the Background file.

2.

Open the Foreground file. Drag the files side by side.

3.

To make it easier to make a selection it’s a good idea to get a closer look, so zoom in to 200% view.

4.

From the Tools palette, select the Magnetic Lasso tool (it might be hiding under the Lasso tool).

5.

Click once on the edge of the skater and drag around the entire skater (without holding the mouse button down). Don’t worry about being too exact.

6.

Double-click to complete the selection.

7.

We’ll soften the edge by feathering the selection a bit. Choose Selection>Feather and add 2 pixels of feathering.

8.

Choose the Move tool and drag the skater into Background file (on to the moon!).

9.

Drag the skater around. Resize him by dragging a corner handle.

10.

Save your work under a new file name. Close all open files.

The skater and the moon are on different layers, so you can alter them or apply filters to them separately. Let’s go on to learn about using layers.

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Learning to Love Layers Layers are the professional digital imager’s secret weapon. By taking advantage of layers, you can save yourself time, and achieve many creative effects that just aren’t possible without this feature. Layers set Photoshop Elements and Photoshop apart from less capable photo editors. Once you learn to love layers, you’ll never want to live without them. Layers allow you to apply effects to just one part of your image and to experiment with filters without wrecking your final image. Dividing an image into layers is the cyber equivalent of having acetate overlays on an overhead transparency. Although each part of your overhead exists on a separate level, the pieces are stacked together to form one composite visual. Here are some factoids about PSE’s layers: • You can edit on one layer without affecting the rest of the image. • You can copy your image to a new layer, play around with it and if things go really bad, delete the new layer and still have the original layer in pristine shape. • Only one layer at a time is active. Edits or filters take effect only on the active layer. • You can easily create new layers, delete layers and have as many layers as you desire. • You can merge layers. • Layers can be opaque or transparent by various degrees. Thus, you can cover up the parts of the image on the underlying layers or blend pixels between layers. • You can change the order of layers from front to back. • In PSE text is always on its own layer. • When you use the Paste command, the selection is placed on a newly created layer. • Layers are a key component of creating photo collages. Each picture is placed on a separate layer for editing. • Sometimes you may have ten or more layers. Each layer makes the file size larger. At the completion of your work, you can “flatten,” or combine your image into one layer to shrink file size. • When you save your work in any format other than Photoshop Elements or PhotoShop (PSD), all layers are flattened (become one layer). Adding a Layer Let’s put this information into practice: 1.

Open the file Fruit.

Photoshop Elements Tutorial

2.

Click the Layers tab and tear it off to float on the screen as a palette.

3.

Before we mess with this masterpiece, let’s duplicate it onto a new layer. This is really easy. Drag the name Background onto the New Layer icon at the bottom right of the layer palette.

4.

Double-click on the Background Copy layer name.

5.

Type in Test Layer as a name for this layer. The name doesn’t matter, but it can help identify the layer. Click Enter ((V1= OK).

6.

Now select Filter>Distort>ZigZag. Apply the filter.

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Hiding or Displaying Layers It’s sometimes beneficial to temporarily hide some layers of the image, so you can better see just the parts you need to work on. The little eye icon to the left of each layer indicates whether that layer is visible or not. 1.

Click on each Eye on the left edge of the Layers palette to hide each layer. The layers still exist; you’ve just temporarily hidden them from view.

2.

Click on each Eye to again display each layer.

Deleting a Layer 1.

Dragging a layer’s name up in the palette brings it to the front or on top of the other layers, however you can’t move the Background layer forward.

2.

If a layer gets too weird you can dump it. Drag the layer’s name to the Trash icon to delete the layer (you can’t dump the Background layer though). No harm, no foul!

Making a Layer Active It’s important to know which layer you are working on. To make a layer the “active” layer, you simply click on it in the layers palette. Let’s use layers in another way: 1. Open the Dog file. 2. Use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to roughly select the dog. Select Edit>Copy 3. Select Edit>Paste. Notice that in the Layers palette a new layer called Layer 1 has been created. 4. Click the Move tool. Drag the new dog to another part of the screen. That’s one way to clone. 5. In the Layers dialog box, set the Opacity to 50% and Blend to Multiply. Now you start to see some of the possibilities.

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Merging Layers Finally, to shrink our file size, we’ll “flatten” our image. 1.

In the Layers palette, press down on the More button ((V1= right facing arrow) and drag down to select Flatten Image (or you could choose Layer>Flatten Image).

2.

Save and close the file. Note, when you save a file in JPEG format it becomes flattened, so keep a copy in Photoshop format if you’ll need to work with its layers in the future.

Creating a Photo Collage Well, here’s the “piece de resistance”, where you literally put it all together. We’re going to create a photo collage of Alaskan wildlife by taking pictures from three different photos and combining them together into one composite image. This can be a complex process, so let’s take it one step at a time. 1.

Open the Caribou file.

2.

Open the Moose file.

3.

Open the Bears file.

4.

With the Bears file active, go to the Selection tool palette and choose the Elliptical Marquee selection tool.

5.

Drag an oval around the bears in the image.

6.

Choose Select>Feather.

7.

In the dialog box, set the feather radius to 20 pixels. Click the OK button.

8.

Select Edit>Copy.

9.

Switch back to the Caribou file via the Window menu.

10.

Select Edit>Paste.

11.

Click the Move tool. Drag the bears around into position. Resize them by dragging a corner handle. Double-click to set the image.

12.

Now we need to get our moose. Switch to the Moose window.

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13.

Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select the moose.

14.

Select Select>Feather and keep the feather radius at 20 pixels. Click OK.

15.

Select Edit>Copy.

16.

Switch back to the Caribou file; select Edit>Paste.

17.

Click the Move tool. Drag the moose into position, resize if desired. Double-click to set your image.

18.

Now you’ve got your collage, with each of the animals on a separate layer. You can touch up each layer separately if needed.

19.

Use File>Save As to save your work as Alaska Wildlife. Close all files.

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Getting Tricky with Text If you would like to add a title, a label or other text to your photos, here’s how: 1. 2.

Open the Text file Select the Horizontal Type Tool from the Tools palette.

3.

Click near the top center of the picture. Type in a title for this image.

4.

Drag the mouse over the text to highlight it.

5.

In the Text Options bar select a font, size, and color for the text.

6.

Press on the letters and drag the text to an effective part of the image.

7.

To change some aspect of the text, such as the letters or the style, simply choose the Horizontal Type Tool, click on the lettering and retype it or change the Options. Edit your text.

8.

For real fun, click the Warp Text tool in the Options bar and select an effect.

In PSE you can edit text; something not possible in many image editing programs.

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Teaching Text New Tricks 1.

Select Filter>Distort>Ripple.

2.

You can’t apply a filter to text until its layer is simplified. So select OK to the simplify text message ((V1= select Layer>Simplify Layer, then apply the filter). After a text layer has been simplified you will no longer be able to edit the text on that layer.

3.

Select Edit>Undo and try some other filters on the text.

Filling a Selection with an Image Here’s a cool little trick. You can fill text (or any other selection) with another image. 1.

Open the Text-Books file.

2.

Open the Books file.

3.

In the Books file, select Select>All.

4.

Select Edit>Copy.

5.

Switch back in the Text-Books file to make it active.

6.

Use the Magic Wand selection tool to select the first letter.

7.

Hold down the Shift key and click on the other letters to select them also.

8.

Select Edit>Paste Into (not just Paste).

9.

You can use the Move tool to adjust the position of the books.

10.

Save your work under a new name and close the file.

Creating Text Effects with Layer Styles To make your text stand out from the background you can give it a shadow. To make it extra cool you can give the shadow a soft edge. You do this using Layer Styles, which is a rather hidden feature. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Open the Text Effects file. In the Layers palette, click on the text layer. Click the Layers Style tab in the palette well. In the drop down menu, choose Drop Shadows Drag the High style on to your text to apply it.

6.

Click the Clear Style icon to remove the text effect. (V1= select Default Style). Try some of the other styles, such as Bevels and Outer Glows. Choose Complex for really wild effects. Use File>Save As to save this work as Shadow Text.

7. 8. 9.

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Q-Tip- Style Settings: Use the Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings command and dialog box to fine tune the adjustments.

Q-Tip- Text Effects in Effects: The Effects palette has a collection of really cool text effects listed under Text Effects.

The Poor Painting Tools Photoshop Elements is considered an image editing program, not a computer graphics program. Its painting tools are rather limited. When you want to combine computer graphics with your digital photos, you should create the graphic with a paint or draw program and then import the file into PSE. But, sometimes you just need to paint a few quick lines. We’ll show you some of the painting tools PSE puts at your disposal. 1. 2.

Open the file Paint Me. Click the Brush tool (V1=Paint Brush tool).

3.

Drag the brush around to paint a few lines.

4.

You can choose between brush sizes and characteristics in the Brush Presets part of the Options bar or specify a brush size in the Size box (V1= to change the width of the line, click on a brush size in the Brushes Options box (pull-down in the Options box).

5.

Try some of the other options in the Brushes box for really wild effects. Elements now supports pressuresensitive graphics tablets for painting thick and thin lines. 6.

When you click on the Set Foreground Color box in the Tools palette you bring up the color picker, where you can choose from millions of colors. Try it.

7.

Try painting a few more lines. If you hold down the Shift key while you paint, you’ll create straight lines.

8.

You can use the Pencil Tool for creating narrower lines.

Photoshop Elements Tutorial

Q-Tip: Transparent Lines Want to make your lines partially see-through? Press a number between 0 and 9 before painting the line. 0 represents fully opaque strokes, 9 represents 90 percent opacity, 1 is almost completely transparent. You can also change Opacity in the Brush Options bar (V2 only). Finger Painting with the Smudge Tool Do you long for those good ol’ kindergarten days when you got to finger paint? The Smudge tool may remind you of those days. 1.

Open the Desert Tree file.

2.

Click the Smudge Tool in the Tools palette.

3.

In the Brushes options bar select a medium-sized hard-edged brush.

4.

Drag the Smudge Tool back and forth along the top edge of the trees to make them look like they’re on fire.

5.

Experiment a bit more with different brushes. I sometimes use this technique to blur out distracting lines.

6.

You can experiment with the Impressionist Brush tool from the Tools palette for some painterly effects if you’d like.

7.

Close the file without saving changes.

Using the Dodge tool to Lighten Things 1.

Open the file Erase Me.

2.

Select the Dodge tool from the Tools palette.

3.

Drag the tool around. It lightens those parts of the image. This is useful if part of your picture is too dark.

4.

You can use the Burn Tool in a similar way to darken an area.

5.

To change the power of the Dodge or Burn tool use the Exposure control in the Options bar (V1= press 1-10 on the keyboard before using the tool).

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Removing Red Eye: Many cameras offer built-in red eye reduction that reduces or eliminates those glowing red pupils from the people and animals in your pictures. Red-eye is caused when light enters the eye and bounces back to the camera from the red blood vessels in the retina. Cameras with red eye reduction use a preflash that causes the subject's iris to close a little before the camera fires the main flash and shoots the picture. However, if you still have red eye in your photos, here’s how Elements can help get rid of it. 1.

Open the Red Eye file.

2.

Zoom in to 400% and scroll around, so you can really see those red eyes.

3.

Click on the Red Eye brush tool in the Tools palette.

4.

Choose a small brush from the options palette and drag the Size option to around 8 (just big enough to cover the pupil).

5.

Make sure the Sampling pop-up menu is set to First Click and not to Current Color.

6.

Click the Replacement color patch. In the Color Picker palette choose a nice dark green. Light colors will give an unnatural glowing eyes effect.

7.

Click the mouse on the red part of each eye. Colors that match the target color will be replaced with the new color.

8.

Zoom back out to 100% view to check the effect.

9.

If you want to darken the eyes, select the Burn tool (from the Tools palette), set a brush size and drag over the area you want to darken.

Keep in mind, Elements eliminates red eye on most photos but will not work on every case. If the Red Eye brush doesn’t cover up the red, try using the normal brush tool and setting the opacity to an amount high enough to cover up the red.

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Drawing Shapes: The Shapes tools let you draw simple figures such as boxes, circles, and some special shapes. You can even alter the shapes and easily fill them in. These can be useful for creating buttons and banners. All of these tools are accessed from the Shape tool in the Tools palette. 1.

Open the Dumb Box file.

2.

We want to make a box to put the title on. From the Tools palette, select the Shape Tool and then drag over to the Rectangle Tool (not the Rectangle Marquee Tool) (V1= Rectangle Tool in the Tools palette).

3.

Draw a rectangle around the lettering on the image.

4.

Go to the Layers palette and drag the text layer to the top.

5.

In the same file, select Shape Tool>Ellipse Tool (just for variety).

6.

Drag to make a circular selection.

7.

The Custom Shape Tool is pretty cool. Drag down to select it.

8.

Drag diagonally in your image to draw the shape.

9.

For more shapes pull down the Shape menu in the Options bar.

10.

The other shapes tools work pretty much like those in any graphics program, try them if you wish.

Selecting and Filling a Selection: 1.

Drag down in the Shape Tool in the Tools palette to select the Shape Selection Tool.

2.

Click on the box around the lettering you drew. This is pretty unique for an image editing program… it allows you so select an object.

3.

Click in the Set Foreground Color in the Tools palette and choose a new color.

4.

Select Edit>Fill.

5.

In the dialog box select Use: Foreground Color. Click OK.

You can also fill an area with a pattern. Patterns come in handy when creating a textured background. 1.

In the Edit>Fill dialog box, select the Pattern option and drag down to select a Custom Pattern, click OK.

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Shaded Fills: You can create pretty shaded fills in Elements with many variables. 1. 2.

Select File>New to create a new file. Click OK. Select the Gradient Tool from the Tools palette.

3.

Drag a line from the center of the image window to any corner.

4.

Try dragging the Gradient Tool to a different corner or side.

5.

To change the colors of the gradient, choose new Foreground and Background colors in the Tools palette.

6.

Click on the different gradient types in the Options bar.

7.

To fill a selection, select an area with the Rectangular Marquee Tool or other selection tool. Drag the Gradient Tool across the selection area. Q-Tip- Fill Layers:

You can put the fill on a separate layer. Select Layer>New Fill Layer>Gradient. Make some decisions in the dialog box. Click OK. You can always return to this layer to change your fill by double-clicking its icon in the Layers palette.

Q-Tip- Fancy Fills: In the Layer Style palette you can drag one of the styles onto your shape to apply a fancy fill effect. Try it. The Glass Buttons and Complex ones are especially striking.

Gray Scale and Other Modes If you want an old-fashioned look to your image or to see how it will look when printed in black and white, you can change your photo into a grayscale image very easily. 1.

Choose Image>Mode>Gray Scale.

Printing If you want to get your photos beyond the cyber-world and into the physical world, you’ll need to print them. People still like to put prints in albums or send them to friends and family, so here we go. Printing a digital image is easy; just choose File>Print. Getting a good print is more complicated. Many factors affect the quality: the printer you use, how you set it, the paper you print on. But how you prepare the image on your computer is also a major factor. Let’s prepare to print.

Photoshop Elements Tutorial

1.

Open the Print Me file.

2.

Select Print>Print Preview. Click Cancel.

3.

Select File>Page Setup to specify a paper size and an orientation for the printing.

4.

Click the Printer button (V1= Properties). Click the Properties button. This brings up your particular printer’s settings. Click OK to close the dialog box or boxes.

5.

Select Image>Resize>Image Size. We won’t make any changes.

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This will show you the resolution of the file. As we discussed earlier, on-screen images are fine at 72 ppi, but for ink-jet or laser printing a resolution from 150 to 300 ppi gives better results. This file has a 300-ppi resolution. Most of our other files in this tutorial have had 72 ppi resolutions. We won’t make any changes, so close the dialog box. By the way, you can print specific sections of your image by first making a selection. You can also print only specific layers by turning off unwanted layers (via the Layers palette). 1. Select File>Print Preview to see how the image will be placed on the paper. Click OK or Print to print your photograph.

Q-Tip: Printing Contact Sheets To save paper you can use the File>Print Layouts>Contact Sheet (V1= Automate>Contact Sheet II) command to print miniature versions of all of the images in a folder on one page. To print several copies of the same image (in various sizes) on one piece of paper you can use File>Print Layouts>Picture Package command (V2 only).

Getting Web Ready Saving for the Web To get your photo ready for transfer over e-mail, or for placement on a Web page, simply choose File>Save for Web. 1.

Open any file. Select File>Save for Web.

2.

Experiment with the settings.

3.

Save a copy of your file under a different name.

The Save for Web dialog box displays a split screen of your original image on the left and how the compression settings will make it look. You can specify file formats (GIF, JPEG, etc), color palettes and compression ratios. The preview also tells you what size the file will be in that format and how long it will take to download at specific transmission rates.

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Q-Tip: Creating Web Photo Gallery Pages Elements has a cool utility which can automatically build Web pages that are a gallery of your photos and images (including thumbnails with links to the full-size images). To do this you simply select the File>Create Web Photo Gallery command (V1= File>Automate>Web Photo Gallery), make a few choices and sit back and watch your Web pages be created.

Two other useful features added to Elements version 2 are the Attach to E-mail command and the create PDF Slide Show feature. You can quickly send any of your image files as an e-mail attachment by selecting File>Attach to Email. The program can automatically resize the image and convert it to JPEG format for efficient transfer over the Internet. Then it opens your e-mail program with the file already attached and ready to send. One of the most powerful new features of Elements is its ability to take a series of image files and build them into a slide show that can be shared with friends, families and students. The entire show (including transition effects and timings) is saved as a single Adobe Acrobat file. This can be read by the free Acrobat Reader program. If you’d like to try this select the File>Automation Tools>PDF Slideshow command and experiment with the options.

Final Pep Talk Well, that’s about it. We’ve explored most, but not all of Photoshop Elements’ features and capabilities. Although PSE doesn’t have ALL of Photoshop’s features, it has about 90% of them (primarily dealing with printing color separations). I think you’ll agree it is quite powerful and there’s a lot to it. In fact, there are almost limitless possibilities to what you can do with it. The challenge is to use it in creative, effective ways. It can truly extend the quality and application of your digital photography. So, keep on exploring and creating. This is not the end; it’s only the beginning. Most image editing programs (such as Microsoft Picture It) use many of the techniques you learned in this tutorial, so you’ll be able to transfer many of your newly developed skills to those other programs. If you decide to move up to PhotoShop, you will have a good feel for it, because Photoshop Elements is built on the PhotoShop “engine” and uses most of the same commands (alas, there are no Recipes).