Index to Easy Photoshop for Elements 8 (Content based on Photoshop 8)
Introduction
Understanding the Workspace Layout
Setting your default preferences
3. Using Shadows/Highlights, Brightness Contrast and Levels
6. Black and White Image with a touch of color
Rotate, Flip or Transform the Image
Batch Processing and Watermarks
Introduction
Photoshop is the program that is used to change a picture if it was not taken correctly. The only thing that would have to be done to a good photo before publishing it, would be to re-size it if required or to change the resolution to 72 (web friendly) if it is going to be published on the web.
As some photos cannot be fixed, it is most important to understand the basics in taking a good photo.
Most common errors:
Light in the photo. It is either too dark or too light overall or certain parts of it are too dark or too light. This occurs frequently when the light in the image is not even, for example, on the beach where the sand is very bright compared to the subject in the photo, or when a picture is taken in front of a window with bright light outside behind the subject. In both cases the subject will be very dark.
If there is too much light in the photo, you can also get a washed out picture with no impact. Or, if there is too little light, the whole picture will be dark.
Focus: The camera moved when the shot was taken. The less light is available, the more chance there is of the picture being out of focus. Also, most cameras beep when in focus and if the picture is taken before the beep, then it will be out of focus.
Focal Point: The camera is not zoomed in enough to what is important. There is too much surrounding unwanted detail, while the subject is small and difficult to see. This often happens in wildlife shots, as the subject if far away because the photographer is in the car.
Composition: A photo of the same subject can be brilliant or poor, depending on the angle it was taken from and what has been included or excluded from the picture. You need to learn to SEE the picture before you take it.
These topics have all been covered on the ShowMe Mini Photography Lessons.
See the basic lessons on ShowMe for using a digital camera.
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Welcome Screen
This is the first screen you will see when opening Elements 8 for the first time.
Although you can save and organise your photos in Elements, we will assume you have your photos saved on your computer in my pictures and dive straight into editing photos.
At the end of the editing lesson, there will be a quick chat about organising your photos in Elements.
NOTE: This explanation of Elements is brief, so you can learn the basics very quickly. For additional information on using any functionality, click on the help button at the top of the screen for excellent in-depth explanations of every aspect of the program.
Click on Edit.
The opening screen will come up. To understand the workspace layout it is best to open a picture. To open a picture that you wish to edit, go to the Menu Bar at the top of the screen.
Select File/Open and find the picture you want to open. Once you have opened the picture, your work space will look like this.
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Understanding the Workspace layout
It is most important to understand the terminology used to describe areas of the workspace. If you do not take the time to become familiar with the layout, you could get lost in the instructions.
Look at the above image for the location of the ABC etc.
A. Inactive tab, B. Active tab – if you have more than one photo open, which can be seen in the Project Bin at the bottom of the screen, you can click between them here which will make the one you want to work on active and the other inactive.
C. Active image area is the current active photo.
D. Menu Bar:
Contains menus for performing tasks. The menus are organized by topic. For example, the Enhance menu contains commands for applying adjustments to an image.
E. Tool box: The tool box is used for quick access to all the tools you can use to edit photos. We will discuss all the important ones. Some of these tools are also available from the Menu Bar.
TIP: If your tool box goes from a double row to a single row and you cannot see the bottoms tools, look at the top of the tool box and you will see an arrow icon. Click here to get the box back to two rows.
F. Organizer button: this is used for accessing and storing photos in Photoshop. We are not discussing the organization of your photos, as we are assuming they are stored in a suitable place on your computer. This area of the screen also has quick access to Undo and Redo the last action as well as resetting the panels back to the default setting.
G. Options bar: Provides options for the tool you select. Every tool can be set up (called presets). This is like taking a paint brush with a small tip, or wanting to use a large fat paint brush or when using the crop tool, deciding on the size to which you want to crop the photo. In this example, these are the options for the crop tool. You can set the pixel width and height, set here at 630 px wide and 400 px high. Please note, you must enter the px after the number.
You must get into the habit of look at the options bar when you are working. It makes life a lot easier if your tool is set correctly.
In this document, everything is worked in pixels and should be set in Setting Your Default Preferences.
H. Panels:
Panels are found on the right hand side of your workspace. They help you to see what you are doing, especially the Layers Panel and the Undo History. The Layers Panel will be discussed later. The Undo History Panel works like this. Let’s say you have made 5 changes to your picture, but decide you want to go back to either see step 2 or revert to step 2. Instead of having to press Menu Bar > Edit > Step Back 4 times, you just click on the Undo History Panel on step 2 and carry on from there.
To Open or Close Panels, go to Menu Bar>Window>Tick or untick Panels required. If you want a lot of panels open, but don’t want them to take up space, just minimize them.
The Effects panel helps you to apply different artistic effects to your picture. For normal photo editing, you would not use this functionality except maybe to make a faded photo.
It is most important you have the Layers panel open. In Photoshop, the picture opened in the beginning is called Background Layer. If you add images or text to the image, it will be done on a new layer. You will see the new layers added to the layer box. If you then want to change the text or images, you will have to select the layer on which the information is held. If you are trying to do something to the picture and nothing happens, you are probably on the wrong layer.
TIP: Think of this – You are doing a painting on a canvas. The white blank canvas would be the background. You then add paint and paint a picture. This would be layer 1. You then decide to stick down some fabric in certain areas to give the painting texture. This is layer 2. Finally, you sign the picture. This is layer 3. In Photoshop, you can edit each layer separately, without spoiling the other layers – if only we could do this on a real painting! See a more detailed discussion on Layers.
J. Panels bin: Here you can select if you wish to add, delete, lock and merge layers.
I. Project Bin: This shows all the pictures you currently have open in your workspace. You can click on any one of them to make them active to work on them.
Status Bar: In the Editor Mode, the Status bar (just above the project bin) has buttons for showing or hiding the Project Bin.
Setting Your Default Preferences
You can set Elements for the way you want to work including the unit of measure like pixels.
Menu Bar > Edit > Preferences > General
This is how I like my Elements to be set up. I prefer the light screen. I also like the Move Tool to come up automatically after pressing commit because you usually want to re-position the text.
I also set the zoom to re-size the windows, else when you change the size of a picture, it goes into a small box and you have to move around the box using the hand tool.
Menu Bar > Edit > Preferences > Units and Rulers – set rulers to pixels
Editor Modes
Edit Full is where you have access to all the functionality and is more suited to users with some experience. However, there are many functions that can only be accessed in Editor Full Mode.
Edit Quick is the easiest way to begin using Photoshop Elements. It only brings up the most common functionality needed to fix a photo with a few additional tools.
Edit Guided is very useful to achieve a number of effects automatically as well as teach you how to do many things in Photoshop.
Understanding Tools
Tools are mainly used to change certain parts or all of an image.
Imagine you are an artist. You have a canvas in front of you. You may want to look very closely at a very small area of the painting in order to fix it. Select that part of the canvas and choose the zoom tool.
You may want to paint a certain area of the canvas with blue. Choose the paint brush, with the blue you want selected in the color box, select the part of the canvas you want to change and brush over your selection.
You may want to start again on a certain area of the canvas, and delete what is there. Use a selection tool to choose the problem area and press delete to remove everything inside the chosen area.
The point is, you use the tools to create or change your image, exactly as an artist would.
Creating and editing images also involves combining images, type, textures and other techniques to achieve the desired result. Have a look at some examples.
This is a combination of photos, type and patterns.
Here, photos of the bread and the menu board are put on top of a patterned background. The logo in the middle was created separately and put onto the background. We shall talk about layers later, but the patterned background is the first layer, then the bread was placed on a second layer over the first layer; the menu board on a third layer and the logo on the last layer. When the picture was saved, all the layers were automatically flattened into one layer.
Here, pictures were used in a montage, discussed later, with a logo placed in between them.
Here a background picture was used. The selection tools were used to cut out the curved shape and the space was colored white. The selection tools were then used to make the red shape which was placed on a new layer and filled with a red gradient. The logo was place on the top layer.
The Tools
The tool on the left is the Move Tool. Once you have edited some aspect of the photo, like cropping, and then wish to move between layers, then you must click on the Move Tool.
The tool on the right is the Zoom Tool. This will zoom into the picture. If you right click on the picture, with the zoom tool active, you will be able to choose the zoom level options.
The tool on the left is the Hand Tool. It is used to move the image around in the preview box, if the whole image is not visible.
The tool on the right is the Eyedropper Tool. This tool is very useful for selecting an exact color from the picture that you want to match. By clicking on the color you want with this tool, the color in the box at the bottom of the tool box will change to the selected color.
Selection Tools: These tools are used to select particular areas of your picture that you wish to change, whether for sorting out exposure issues, to change colors, to delete or edit in some way without changing any other part of the image.
The tool on the left is the marquee selection tool and on the right is the lasso selection tool. Now, if you choose the rectangular marquee tool on the left, you can right click on the tool to decide whether you want to select a rectangular marquee tool that selects a rectangular area or an elliptical tool that selects an area in the shape of an ellipse. If you select the rectangular area, and hold down the shift key while you drag the tool, you will create a square rather than a rectangle. If you select the elliptical tool, and hold down the shift key, you will create a circle rather than an ellipse.
The tool on the right is the Lasso Tool.
If you choose the lasso tool on the right, you can choose irregular areas. Right click on the lasso tool and you will find 3 options. The lasso option allows you to select an area totally manually for very precise selections. Start at the first position by clicking on the photo and then drag along the area that you want, clicking at various points to force the selection where you want it and finishing back at the beginning. Release or double click the mouse to end the selection.
The Magnetic lasso option automatically snaps to the outline of an area that is distinct in color from the rest of the photo. You work it in the same way as the lasso, but you do not have to be so accurate. Release the mouse to end the selection.
The Polygonal lasso allows you to select an irregular area that has straight edges. Start by clicking the mouse on the start position, and when you drag you will see the selection has straight lines. Release the mouse when you get back to the starting point.
Tip 1: All the selection tools allow you to add to the selection by holding down the Shift key and deduct from the selection by holding down the Alt key. Or you can use the menu in the Menu Bar which comes up once you have selected a selection tool.
The first 4 icons on the left allow you to create, add to or take away from a selection. Setting the feather option at 0 px does not allow for any blending from the selected area into the rest of the picture to take place when changing, and increasing the number of pixels allows the changes you have made to the selected areas to blend in to the rest of the picture.
The anti-alias smooths the edges of the selection.
Tip 2: You can select an area, then choose Select from the Menu Bar and click on inverse to select everything in the photo except the selected area.
Tip 3: To de-select an area, either go to the Menu Bar, choose Select>Deselect or use the shortcut key Ctrl D.
On the left is the Magic Wand Tool. Use this tool to quickly select an area of the same color, like the sky.
First use the Eyedropper Tool to select the color in the image that you want to select with the magic wand. You will see the color appear in the foreground color box at the bottom of the tool box.
Then, look at the Tolerance in the Menu Bar. The lower the value, the closer the selection will stick to the color selected in the color box.
Then choose the Magic Wand Tool, and click on the color in the photo that you want to select, say the sky. At one click, most of the sky will be selected. Where the Magic Wand does not select a colour close to the colour selected you may hold it over the colour not selected, press Shift, and click again – the colours missed on the first selection will then be added.
Add or remove areas from the selection as required by pressing either Shift to add or Alt to subtract. You can then improve the color of the sky by choosing Enhance from the Menu Bar, either auto color correction or adjust or replace colour.
Note: If you replace color with a solid color you will lose all shadows and the color will not look natural. Rather select the area and go to Menu Bar > Enhance > Adjust Color > Saturation and change the saturation setting.
On the right is the Selection Brush Tool. This tool is more advanced, and is not for discussion here. However, in this box is also the Quick Selection Toolthat works very similarly to the Magic Wand Tool, so try it out and see which you prefer.
On the left is the Text Tool. Use this tool if you want to add text to the image. Once the tool has been selected, you can select the typeface and text size from the Menu Bar.
Note: To move the text on the image, first select the move tool, then you will be able to move the text. You cannot move it while the Text Tool is selected. Also, you will see that text is added to a separate layer in the layers box on the right. You have to make sure the correct text layers box is selected if you want to change the text. Then either change the text or highlight the text to change its color or font characteristics. Click on any position in the text and click enter if you want the text to continue on a new line or press delete if you want to take away spacing or get text onto the same line.
It is always best to use fonts like Ariel, Calibri and Georgia for the Web. Italic is not very good because it can be difficult to read on the web as you can see from this example.
On the right is the Crop Tool. The crop tool reduces the size of the image. Often, you can turn an average picture into a reasonable picture by cropping around the important part and getting rid of extra uninteresting surroundings.
To set the size that you wish to crop to, enter the pixels in the Menu Bar once the crop tool has been chosen. You can set the width and height, the width only or the height only. If you select width or height only, the other measurement is not restricted. Set the width or height as follows: 600 px for 600 pixels. Before you crop an image, look at the size of the image by Menu Bar>Image>Resize>Image Size. You must NOT crop the image to a size bigger than the original because it will pixelate. If the image becomes big and fuzzy after cropping, then you have made it bigger than the original.
On the image size, check that the resolution of the image is 72. This is perfect for the web. Bigger photos will just take longer to load and slow down a website for no benefit.
Note: If you want to keep the original image on the workspace and want to use part of it, you can use the selection tools to select an area, then copy the selection (Crtl C) and go to File>New>Copy from Clipboard and a new image will be created, whilst the original image remains the same. However, selection tools do not give the option to set the size.
Inside the crop tool is the recompose tool. This tool is more advanced, and is not for discussion here.
On the left is the Cookie Cutter Tool. Use this tool to cut pieces out of your image in a fun shape.
Select the shape you want from the Menu Bar and the shape options from the Menu Bar. Play around with the options. Press enter when you are happy to finish cropping.
The tool on the right of the cookie cutter is the Straighten Tool.
Use this tool to straighten you image. After the tool has been selected, draw a horizontal line in the image, placing it at the angle to which you wish the image straighten the image. As soon as you release the mouse, the image will move.
The tool on the left is the Red Eye Removal Tool.
Select the red eye removal tool, then either draw a selection over the red pupil as in the first picture or click on the red pupil as in the second picture.
The tool on the right hand side is the Healing Brush.
For small blemishes, right click on the Healing Brush and choose the Spot Healing Brush.
Then set your brush size in the Menu Bar to be just bigger than the blemish. Click on the blemish. If the spot is not removed to your satisfaction, click undo, and then change the Proximity Match setting in the Menu Bar to Create Texture and see if that works better.
You may wish to replace a larger area in your picture, which you don’t want, or may be ugly like a patch of sand in the middle of a lawn. Right click on the Healing Brush and choose the Healing brush.
On the Menu Bar, select Replace as the Mode and set the Brush Size to be approximately the size in this example picture if you wanted to remove the girl. The brush must be as small as possible to do the job. Then press Alt and click on a spot that you wish to copy over the problem area and a symbol will come up as in the example. Then release the mouse and take the brush to the area you wish to replace and click. Carry on like this, copying with the Alt Key and pasting by clicking.
On the left is the Clone Stamping Tool. This tool works in exactly the same way as the Healing Brush. The only difference is that you may be able to see the edges of the pasted areas. Sometimes you need to fix the Clone Stamping visible edges with the healing brush to blend the edges.
If you right click on the Clone Stamping Tool, and select the Pattern Stamp Tool, you can select an area in the photo and replace it with a pattern which could then be use as a background for text. Select a pattern from the Menu Bar. In this case, I have ticked the impression option in the Menu Bar so that the stamp color is not busy – you can’t have a busy pattern if you want to put text on top.
See the help menu if you wish to make a custom pattern to add to the patterns. Or, you can access all the other patterns available by:
Click on the currently selected pattern, pink in this case, then the default pattern box will come up as in the above picture. Then click on the small and difficult to see black arrows on the right >> and a menu will come up. At the bottom of the menu are all the patterns.
On the right is the Eraser Tool. Used to rub out a selected area. The opacity of the erasure has been set to 100% on the left and 50% on the right. This means that 100% of the pixels were rubbed out on the left and 50% of the pixels were rubbed out on the right. The eraser setting determines the edges of the stroke. (Note: The color you apply to the Background layer with the Eraser tool is called the background color. This means if you wish to erase an area, but instead of white, you wish to replace it with say green, you would pick green for the background color.) See the color picker under brushes.
By right clicking on the Eraser Tool, you can the select the Magic Eraser Tool. This tool is useful if you want to remove parts or all of the background from a picture.
To use this tool, just select it and click in the picture on the color pixels you want to remove. You can set the tolerance in the Menu Bar to include a wider or smaller range of color.
The Brush Tool is on the left. It will put color onto the image just like a paint brush would. First you must select the color you want to paint on by clicking on the Color Tool Foreground Color which in this case is blue. (Note: The color you apply to the Background layer with the Eraser tool is called the background color. This means if you wish to erase an area, but instead of white, you wish to replace it with say green, you would pick green for the background color.)
This will take you to the Color Picker Palette. Let’s say you want pink.
Click in the color slider on the right and slide it up to the pink area as shown. You will see the new color goes to the new color in the box at the top and the blue goes to the current color. You can then move the cursor around in the big window to get to the exact shade of pink you want. If you want an exact corporate color, then get its color code from the client and enter it in the # box. Once you are happy with the color choice, press OK. It will now replace the foreground color in the color picker.
Setting options for the brush tool. If you only want to paint a certain area, then first select the area. In the Menu Bar, seen below, you can set from the left: the type of brush you want (soft edges, hard edges, patterns), the brush size, the mode (advanced), the opacity (paint coverage) required, whether you want the brush to act like an air brush (spray can) or lastly additional options (advanced).
In the picture below, the brush was set from left to right: 100% opacity, 50% opacity, 50% opacity with the mode set to dissolve.
Examples of Brush Strokes
Play around with the settings by creating a new image: Menu Bar>File>New> with a size of 600×300 pixels. Paint the background a solid color. Then select each different type of brush and paint a stroke. You can also vary the modes and opacity, or set the brush to an airbrush.
TIP: To draw a brush stroke in a straight line, click on the image at the starting point, hold down shift, and click at the ending point.
The Impressionist Brush option is accessed by right clicking on the brush tool. It is not discussed here.
The Color Replacement Tool option is accessed by right clicking on the brush tool. It is not discussed here.
The Pencil Tool option is accessed by right clicking on the brush tool. It draws lines like a pencil would.
The Smart Brush Tool is on the right of the brush tool. Useful to paint over the sky to make it bluer.
The Paint Bucket is used to quickly cover a selected area with a color or texture.
From the Menu Bar, the pattern can be chosen, the opacity or if a plain color is required, make sure the pattern tick is off.
On the right is the Gradient Tool. Once again, the opacity can be set.
From left to right: Click on the top of the image and drag the gradient in a straight line to the bottom; Click on the left side of the image and drag the gradient in a straight line to the right side; Click on the right side of the image and drag the gradient in a straight line to the left; Click on the top right hand corner of the image and drag the gradient in a diagonal to the left hand bottom corner.
Here a new layer was created with a 30% opacity. In the menu bar the type of gradient selected was “Foreground to Transparent. The gradient was dragged from top to bottom. The gradient gives the photo a moody feel and also to helps the white text to stand out. A separate artwork was created for the competition and angled using the free transform option.
For the competition, a white box was created. With the selection tool and the paint bucket, a red box was created inside the white box. The word competition was typed inside the red box. Then to rotate the box, Menu Option > Image > Transform > Free Transform. The rotation degree angle was set to 30. The aspect ratio was set (constrain proportions) in the tool options so that the text stayed in proportion.
The Rectangle Tool on the left with all the other options accessed by right clicking on rectangle tool, add shapes on the image – the opposite of the cookie cutter that cuts shapes out of the image.
The color of the shapes added is the foreground color. Custom shapes are available if custom shapes are selected from the drop down list and can be chosen from the menu bar, like the musical note. The rounded corner rectangular shape is very useful. Each shape can be moved, edited or rotated by using the Shape Selection Tool from the drop down list and clicking on the shape you want to edit.
On the right is the Blur Tool. This box also contains the Smudge and Sharpen Tools. The blur tool enables you to select an area and blur the details where the tool is dragged to focus better on the subject. The smudge tool smudges the area where you drag it. However, these tools are not easy to use properly and are more likely to make a mess of your photo. To sharpen your image, it is best to use the Unsharp Mask, discussed in Editing Photos.
The Sponge Tool is use to wipe over all or parts of the image as a sponge would if loaded with color. It increases the color saturation. See how much brighter the colors are on the right. You can also desaturate an area in the same way. Select from the Menu Bar to choose saturate or desaturate.
Another way to saturate your picture is to choose the Saturated Slide Film Effect in the Edit Quick at the bottom of the menu.
Right Click on the sponge tool, and you will find the Dodge Tool and the Burn Tool. The Dodge tool and the Burn tool lighten or darken areas of the image. You can use the Dodge tool to bring out details in shadows and the Burn tool to bring out details in highlights.
In this example the dodge tool was used to lighten her face and the burn tool was used to bring out the details in the background behind her head.
Other Tools
When you have selected functionality to edit the photo, a different tool box comes up.
You will see a tooth brush for whitening teeth, a cloud with a brush and blue paint for changing a dull sky color to a better blue, and on the bottom right, a black and white high contrast.
Editing Photos
Introduction
Before using the editing functionality, you need to understand what the problems look like.
The most common problem in poor pictures is lighting. Luckily, there are great tools to help fix exposure (lighting) problems.
Both of these photos have exposure problems. In the photo on the left, the beach sand is very bright while the faces are in shadow cast by a beach umbrella and are difficult to see. On the right, the exposure can also be miscalculated if the face has a very dark skin tone against the light background of the white wall. Automatic exposure takes the whole picture into account, and if the light is not evenly distributed but has very bright areas contrasted against dark shadow areas, then the camera will not calculate the exposure correctly.
Just a quick word on exposure. Digital cameras on program mode will see the whole picture and will decide on how much light it needs to take the picture (called exposure). Mostly, if the light is even throughout the picture there will not be a problem. If however, there is a great variance in light, as in these pictures, then errors in exposure can happen. The steps we take here to fix the exposure issues on these pictures can be applied to any picture with exposure issues.
Look at our lessons on Lighting
Focus is also a common problem and is not easy to fix unless the photo is maybe just ever so slightly out of focus when we use the Unsharp Mask discussed later.
Composition is also a common problem. Cropping can often help to improve the composition.
Look at our lessons on composition
Quick Edit
The best place to start editing, especially for a novice, is the Quick Edit option. This will help correct exposure, color and sharpness all in one place. Unless you have selected a particular part of the photo, the editing will take place across the whole photo.
It is far better to work across the whole photo in the beginning as you can make a real mess of the picture when you are trying to edit only certain sections, until you have some experience. In most cases, I would recommend you start here, in Quick Edit.
Quick Edit is accessed at the top right hand side of the screen. Click on the drop down box of Edit Full and select the Edit Quick Option.
Note: For a really good explanation of all the edit options, take a look at the Edit Guided. You cannot really work here, but you can see all the different editing options with an explanation. It will be much easier to understand these options, once you have actually done some hands on editing.
The Edit Quick option brings up the following screen:
The tools for editing are on the right hand side of the screen.
SmartFix: Start here. Click on Auto. Photoshop tries to adjust the photo automatically. Or you can drag the slider to the right, keeping your eye on the image. If this does not fix the picture, click on Edit on the menu at the top of the screen and Undo the SmartFix.
Tip: Keyboard Shortcut to Undo any change is Ctrl Z.
Lighting: If SmartFix has not helped, then try the following.
Levels. Click on Auto. This fixes many pictures. If there is no real improvement, undo, as described above.
Contrast: Click on Auto. If there is no real improvement, undo, as described above.
Manual Adjustments are really the best to use. Play with the sliders to lighten the shadows, darken the highlights or change the midtone contrast. As you adjust any slider, look carefully at the image changing. Be very careful that it does not start to look unrealistic. Most changes needed will only be minor.
Color: You can pump up the color a bit here if required by sliding the saturation to the right. Alternately, if you want a black and white image, then slide the saturation right to the left. Later, I will discuss another option for black and white and sepia images.
Balance: You can change the tone of the image to a colder tone by sliding towards the blue, or a warmer tone by sliding towards the red. If the sunset has caused a picture to be too red, slide towards the blue.
Detail: Here you can sharpen your image if it is slightly blurred. Do not sharpen too much as the image will look unnatural.
Unsharp Mask.
It is often best to work with the Unsharp Mask to sharpen the image, the reason being that you can better control the % increase in sharpening. You should be careful of sharpening more than 100 to 140%. Go to Menu Bar > Enhance > Unsharp Mask. If a picture has a lot of small detail, do not go above 100%.
It is handy to have the before and after image up in the workspace so you can see the difference your changes have made. Do this by changing the view just above the picture bin.
Change the View to Before and After, Horizontal. You will then see the Before (original) picture on the left, and the edited picture on the right.
Load your picture on the workspace. Then, go through each slider to see if it fixes or improves the image. If changing a slider does not improve, undo that correction and try the next slider. When you are happy with the result, you may wish to further correct certain specific areas of the photo with tools as discussed in the tools section. The Edit Quick adjusts the whole photo, and not specific parts of the photo.
Look at this picture compared to the original below. It still looks natural, but the facial detail is more visible.
It was not fixed with the auto options, but with the lighting options. The shadows were lightened; the highlights were slightly darkened and the midtones were slightly increased.
This resulted in the color looking a bit washed out on the dune foliage so in the color options, the saturation was increased slightly to keep some color on the green foliage on the dunes.
Look at this picture compared to the original below. It still looks natural, but the facial features can be seen.
It was not fixed with the auto options, but with the lighting options.
The shadows were lightened; the highlights were slightly darkened and in the color options, the saturation was increased slightly to pump up the color on the blue boxes and yellow gloves.
Using Shadows/Highlights, Brightness Contrast and Levels
If using the Quick Edit tools did not sort out the exposure problem in your picture, there is one other route available – manual adjustments. If you go to Menu Bar > Adjust Lighting, there are 3 options for manual adjustment. They are Shadows/Highlights, Brightness/Contrast and Levels. Brightness/Contrast and Levels manual adjustment is not available in Quick Edit.
The Brightness/Contrast works with sliders in the same way as in Quick Edit. You can bump up or lower the light in the image and increase or reduce the color contrast.
Levels is a bit different.
The Levels graph shows how light is distributed throughout the picture. You can either use the three little triangle sliders, representing shadows on the left to increase detail in dark areas, midtones and highlights on the right to reduce highlights in areas where details has been lost. You can also use one of the 3 droppers to set the gray, white or black points in the picture. Just select the dropper you want and then click on the picture on an area that represents a white point if you chose a white dropper for example.
Sepia Image
The step by step instructions in the Edit Guided are very easy to follow. Choose the option Old Fashioned Photo. See how our beach photo has come out using these instructions.
Black and White Image
You can also turn the image into different types of black and white photos with different effects. This is part of the process of turning an image into an old fashioned photo.
You can also make a photo black and white by Menu Bar > Enhance > Convert to Black and White.
Another way to make an image black and white is to take the saturation level right down until the picture appears black and white. The difference is that you will be able to bring back the color when you desaturate (as in a black and white picture with a red rose) but not if you change the picture to black and white as in the previous example. Only use desaturation if you wish to bring back color, not for black and white images.
Black and white with a touch of color
This is if you wish to make you colored image (below) black and white, and keep one or more aspects in the original color.
The way this is done is by opening the color image. Then create a duplicate layer by Layer > Duplicate Layer > Layer 1 copy. See picture below.
Then, working on the background copy layer, choose Menu Bar > Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Hue Saturation and slide the saturation right over to the left. The copy image will now be black and white.
What we do next is, is to rub out sections on the copy layer and the color from the underneath color layer will come through. Still working on the background copy layer, we are going to select an area that we want to bring the color back in. Once the area is selected, select the eraser and drag it over the selected area. If you want to bring in another area in color, deselect the first area and select the next area. Once you have created your color sections you can then edit them as you wish, like making the red heart redder.
Adjust a color cast
When a picture looks too red, yellow or blue or the color has an unnatural cast due to lighting, you can adjust the color cast by Menu Bar > Enhance > Adjust color > Remove color cast. The eyedropper tool will come up on the image. Click on any area that should be gray, white or black and then click OK. The image will be adjusted.
To have even more control over the color, go to Menu Bar > Enhance > Adjust color > Color Variations. The following options will come up. Just try different actions to see the results. It’s all a matter of trial and error.
Once you have had some experience, you can use the same functionality, but with more options by choosing Menu Bar>Enhance. Explore all the different options.
Pencil Drawing
You can change a photo into a pencil drawing to great effect. See how this photo changes.
Go to Quick Edit > Pencil Drawing. We clicked on the opacity a few times to bring in some more detail from the original conversion to a pencil drawing. Then we went to Edit Full and Menu Bar> Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness Contrast and first made the photo darker and then pumped up the contrast a bit. Here is the result.
Filters
Most Filters are used to change the photo’s look into an artistic version. Here, you need to experiment for yourself.
These are a few examples. The original is on the left.
Menu Bar > Filters > Adjustments > Inverse – the blue has been picked up from the background color set in the color picker.
Menu Bar > Filters > Adjustments > Posterize
Menu Bar > Filters > Adjustments > Photo Filter (Warm Filter)
Menu Bar > Filter > Artistic – here there are so many filters to choose from. This is the Poster Edges.
In this last example, on the left, the roses were selected and the Blur filter was applied. On the right, Stylize, Glowing edges was used.
For a full explanation go to Help on Filters and Effects
Canvas Size
You can create space around a picture to give it a border or to make the image bigger. Go to the Menu Bar>image>resize>canvas size and put in the new dimensions. In order to move the image around, choose the Move Tool, and try to move the picture. The following message will come up.
Just click on OK and accept adding the new layer. Then you will be able to position the picture where you would like it. If you want to add a border, just select the picture with the rectangle marquee tool, choose Menu Bar>Select>Select Inverse and then color in the border with the paint brush and your preferred color.
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Rotate, Flip or Transform the Image
You can rotate your image by a fixed number of degrees or a custom number of degrees to the left or right. Or you can flip the image to a mirror it, left, right, up or down. You can also move the picture around with Free Transform where you grab a corner of the picture and move it around. You will find this functionality on Menu Bar > Image > Rotate or Transform.
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Layers
Layers are like stacked, transparent sheets of glass on which you can paint images. You can see through the transparent areas of a layer to the layers below.
You can work on each layer independently, experimenting to create the effect you want. Each layer remains independent until you combine (merge) the layers.
The bottom most layer in the Layers panel, the Background layer, is always locked (protected), meaning you cannot change its stacking order, blending mode, or opacity (unless you convert it into a regular layer).
You can manually merge a layer or layers are automatically merged when you save the file in any format other than .PSD. If you wish to edit the photo later but want to use the current version, then save both as a .PSD and a JPEG file format.
The layers panel is open and dragged next to the picture for ease of explanation.
First, the picture was opened and this created the background or layer 0.
Then, a new layer was created purposefully and called Layer 1. The area where the dark blue is, was selected and filled with the bucket.
Lastly the text was added which automatically creates its own layer. Each layer has a little eye icon on the left. You can turn layers on or off by clicking on the eye icon.
If you think you may want to edit layers in the future, save the photo twice. Once in the Photoshop format, .PSD (default format) and once as a JPEG. When the picture is saved as a JPEG, all the layers are flattened, and the next time it is opened, it will appear as a background image.
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Make a collage
It is very important to know how to make a collage of 2 or more pictures. See example below.
The collage should be 626 px wide by 150 pixels deep or if you want 2 rows then 626×301 pixels. The extra pixel allows for spacing on the height. Go to the Menu Bar > File > New Blank File. Put in the size 620 x150 pixels.
Once the file is open, open each picture you would like in the montage and size it to the correct size. Do this by dividing the available space by the number of pictures, and decide if you would like to allow a little space between each picture as in this example. Here, each picture was made to be 200×150 pixels leaving 26 pixels for spacing. I normally use 208 which totals to 624 allowing 1 pixel each side of the picture.
Now, move the first re-sized picture into the empty box with the Move Tool. You will see it creates its own layer. Then move in the second and third pictures. Each will have its own layer and if you want to move the pictures around, make sure you have selected the correct layer. Save the collage as you normally would save a picture.
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Stitching together panoramas
You may want to create a panorama of a city skyline for example. Many of the latest cameras and cell phones do this for you. If yours does not, then Photoshop will help you.
As this is a process from how you take your photos to how you put it together, please click here for details on Photoshop Help.
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Animated Images
In the Editor, place the images you want to appear in each frame of the animation on separate layers of the Layers panel. For example, to create an animation of an eye blinking, you would place an image of the open eye on one layer, and an image of the closed eye on another layer. Here we have put the night scene as layer 1, the boat as layer 2 and the sea view as layer 3.
Choose File > Save As and select Compuserve Gif. Select layers as frames at the bottom of the dialog box. See the image below.
The save for web screen will come up with the picture on the left and how it will look on the web on the right. Make sure that animated is ticked as in the image below.
Set the Animation requirements as in image above. Loop must be ticked so the image will loop through. Set the frame delay for the speed you require. It should not loop so fast that it cannot be read or is irritating on the eye. Frame Delay specifies the number of seconds that each frame is displayed in a web browser. Use a decimal value to specify fractions of a second. For example, use .5 to specify half a second.
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Rulers and Grids
Menu Bar > View > Rulers. In Full Edit, rulers, grids, and guides help you position items (such as selections, layers, and shapes) precisely across the width or length of an image. In Quick Fix, only guides and grids are available.
You can also tick grids in the same way as rulers. A grid will be place over the image for assisting in lining up.
For help on rulers and grids click here.
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Saving your Image
Once you are happy with your image, you must decide on the file format and the resolution at which to save your image.
For this course, the file format used would be one of the following:
JPEG. All images must be saved as JPEG if they are being used on the web. Although other formats have useful features, the JPEG format saves images across the board with the smallest sizes. The downfall of the JPEG format is that each time you re-save the picture is that it loses quality. To overcome this, rather keep saving in the Photoshop format PSD, until you are ready for publishing on the web, in which case you will then save as a JPEG.
The PSD format is also excellent to use if you have many layers and may want to go back later to change the image. If you save it as a PSD, then you will also need to save it as a JPEG for the web as the web cannot work with a PSD.
Resolution. As large images slow down the loading of websites, all images must have a resolution of 72 pixels. The web cannot display a higher resolution but will take time to load down the larger images. If however you want to use the image for printing as in a brochure, business card etc., then save the image at a resolution of 300 pixels to get the required quality.
As you save your image in Photoshop, the screen will come up and ask the save quality level as in the picture below.
Make sure it is set to 8.
Batch Processing and Watermarks
Create a folder on your PC and copy the pictures that you wish to re-size into this folder. In this way your original pictures are safe.
Then, within the new folder, create a sub folder for the landscape pictures and one for the portrait pictures and move all the pictures onto the correct folders. The reason we do this is that portrait and landscape pictures need to be re-sized to different sizes.
Now, re-size the pictures. Go to the folder with the landscape pictures. Then go to Photoshop>File > Process Multiple Files and the following screen will come up.
Fill in as follows:
Source: the folder with the landscape pictures or the folder with the portrait pictures
Destination: The NEW folder for the batch processed landscape pictures or portrait pictures
File Naming: Document Name + 3 digit number e.g. The Nelspruit Family Fun Day + 3 will rename each pic to The Nelspruit Family Fun Day 001.jpg
NOTE: DO NOT USE ANY CHARACTERS IN THE NAME OF YOUR PICTURES LIKE DASHES, COMMAS ETC. RATHER GIVE THE PICTURES A NAME THAT YOU CAN ALSO USE FOR THE ALT TEXT.
Image Size: 800 pixels width (landscape for both gallery types) or 600 pixels width (portrait next-gen gallery) or 265 x 400 pixels (portrait smooth gallery) and constrain proportions ticked.
Resolution: 72
Photoshop creates a new set of photos if you have re-named them. Delete the old set at the bottom of the folder. It could be easier to not rename them here, but once they are re-sized to rename them in the folder itself by: Select all the pictures, right click, select Re-Name and then put in the name you require. Although it looks like it will only re-name one, it re-names them all.
To add the watermark: Go to Photoshop Elements >File > Process Multiple Files and the following screen will come up.To add the watermark add the following text (ShowMe your franchise name) into the watermark field with the settings below.These settings should work on either landscape or portrait. If the name of your franchise is too long, then you will have to reduce the size of the text from 60 to maybe 48. Try it out as a test to be sure you are happy with the result before batch processing a whole file. Remember to create a new folder, copy all pictures to be re-sized and/or watermarked in the folder, and use that folder as the source. Follow a YouTube tutorial on watermarking.
Then Click OK.
Additional Tips
TIP: If your picture is suddenly black and white or you cannot select a color in the color picker other than gray, the chances are you have accidentally changed the mode from RGB Color to Grayscale. Check on Menu Bar > Image > Mode > and make sure RGB is ticked and not Grayscale.
TIP: If you have a picture on your computer screen that you wish to copy, and it is NOT COPYRIGHT PROTECTED, then you can press either Crtl or Fn Prt Sc (Print Screen) and go straight to Elements Menu Bar > File > New > Image from Clipboard. The whole of your screen will copy over and you can then crop or edit the image
TIP: If you put more color saturation into a picture, be aware it may look ok on your screen but not on someone else’s. For this reason, do not be tempted to overdo enhancing photos.
TIP: When re-sizing a picture, avoid re-sizing more than once. Every time you re-size you will lose quality so if you have re-sized to the incorrect size, undo and then start from scratch.
TIP: If you tool has been set in a way you don’t like and you cannot figure out how to change it back to the original settings, go to the very left hand side of the Menu Bar. There is an option there to reset the current tool or reset all tools.
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