The Photoshop Elements Book Revised

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Photoshop

Elements

The

®

TM

The ultimate guide to getting the most out of Photoshop Elements

Getting started • Amazing techniques • Creative projects

NEW

tutorials f

_or

Elements 11

_inside

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We’re very excited to have an entire book dedicated to this fantastic image-editing software aimed at consumers, particularly as it’s often overshadowed by its CC sibling. Sharing many of the features the professional version boasts, the revised edition of The Photoshop Elements Book explores updates to Elements 11. Discover how to edit your images, create digital art and share your projects with the wider world. Providing you with an in-depth guide and step-by-step tutorials to fine-tune your techniques, this book also comes with a free disc so you can follow along and experiment with free resources.

Welcome to

Photoshop

Elements

The

® ® TM

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Imagine Publishing Ltd Richmond House 33 Richmond Hill Bournemouth Dorset BH2 6EZ % +44 (0) 1202 586200 Website: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk Head of Publishing Aaron Asadi Head of Design Ross Andrews Production Editor Sarah Harrison Senior Art Editor

Greg Whitaker Design Perry Wardell-Wicks

Printed by

William Gibbons, 26 Planetary Road, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT Distributed in the UK & Eire by

Imagine Publishing Ltd, www.imagineshop.co.uk. Tel 01202 586200 Distributed in Australia by

Gordon & Gotch, Equinox Centre, 18 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Tel + 61 2 9972 8800

Distributed in the Rest of the World by

Marketforce, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU Disclaimer

The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this bookazine may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review. Although the bookazine has endeavoured to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change. This bookazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries and is used with express permission.

Photoshop

Elements

The

® ® TM

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PAGE 154

08 Ultimate guide

Explore all Photoshop Elements has to ofer, from editing images, creating projects and sharing masterpieces

6 The Photoshop Elements Book

PAGE 76

Clone objects

Duplicate people in your photos

26 Get started

with selections

Manipulate your images

28 Master selections

and masking

Create the out-of-bounds efect

30 Retouch photos

Touch up your portraits

32 Control colour

Improve the colour of photos

34 Get to know Gradients

Master this essential tool

36 Rescue old photos

Restore faded family photos

40 Use brushes effectively

Discover how to use the Brush palette to its full potential

44 Make one-click fixes

Discover auto options

58 Top guided edits

Make your editing easier

62 Make essential

adjustments

Use blend modes for this efect

64 Edit portraits

Improve your portrait shots

66

70 Add drama with

_{Dodge and Burn}

Adjust lighting

Master HDR toning

Fake the HDR look

72 Fix images with curves

Push contrast as far as you can

74 Convert images to

black and white

From colour to monochrome

76 Get the Lomo effect

Push colour limits

78 Edit colours with

Photo Filter

Fix white-balance problems

80 Perfect macro

Add layered macro efects

84 Fix heavy shadows

Bring back some light

88 Create exposure

effects

Make a layered composition

90 Light up your

seascapes

Create some atmosphere

94 Improve exposure

Bring life back into images

48 Make creative

panoramas

Use the Photomerge function

52 Sharpen your images

Remove subtle blurring

46 Photo editing

Techniques

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PAGE 26

PAGE 30

PAGE 36

PAGE 58

PAGE 166

PAGE 90

PAGE 140

The Photoshop Elements Book 7

Improve your

landscapes

Adjust colour and exposure

98 Create the

Dragan effect

Get creative with this efect

100 Retouch for

classic effects

Create a vintage portrait efect

Use the Lighting

Effects filter

Add stunning lighting efects

110 Add emphasis to eyes

Apply a rainbow efect

114 Create a comic-

book effect

Use the Color Halftone ﬁlter

122 Use Elements for

stunning effects

Make the most of Elements

126 Smudge your way to

an oil painting

Create an oil portrait with the Smudge tool

130 Create a family portrait

Fake a painted-portrait efect with your family snaps

134 Create an art-deco style

Master the Mezzotint ﬁlter

140 Design an abstract

Control the Custom Shape tool for abstract artwork

144 Paint portraits

Mix tradition with digital

148 Create instant pop art

Re-create Andy Warhol's work

154 Make your own

watercolour

Merge traditional art efects

156 Turn photos to sketches

Get creative with your images

160 Customise brushes

Create eye-catching art

162 Create underwater

scenes

Use ﬁlters and blend modes to create a photomontage

184 Play with Perspective

Create a miniature efect

188

192 Design your own

holiday postcard

Send a modern-day postcard the digital way

194 Build a photo album

Create your own virtual album

196 Compose a

mixed-media piece

Create a musical composition with a variety of media

200 Create a

panoramic planet

Make a 360-degree planet

202 Compose

surreal artwork

Create a bizarre composite

Achieve a retro

photo effect

Send your photos back in time with a retro efect

206 Photo project

Digital art

Create splatter effects

Combine brushes and assets

166 Apply textures

Add some texture to your shots

170 Make water effects

Use ﬁlters and blend modes

174 Design ancient patterns

Create some ancient designs for use in a variety of projects

180 Selective colour creations

Bring out the tones

116

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Photoshop Elements

Photoshop

Elements

The ultimate guide to

Explore Photoshop Elements and find

out how it can transform your photos

T

he CS6 version of Photoshop is a wonderful program, packed with tools, filters and advanced facilities for performing an enormously wide range of adjustments on your images.

However, though its breadth and depth is its biggest strength, it can be rather too much when you just want to do some simple image editing and create some straightforward effects. Sometimes, Photoshop CS6 is a bit more than you need.

This is where Photoshop Elements 11 comes to the rescue. It contains a large number of the features that

make its big brother such an impressive piece of software, but strips away some of the more complex aspects, resulting in a program that is both sleek and easy to use.

It’s still an extremely powerful program that can enable you to produce some incredible effects, so you’ll need to spend some time getting to grips with everything that it has to offer.

Over the next few pages, we’ve prepared an easy-to-follow guide to help you uncover some of the many ways in which Photoshop Elements 11 can help you to make the very best of your favourite images in no time at all.

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Ultimate guide

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Photoshop Elements

Toolbar

Access a range of very powerful editing tools via the Toolbar thatÕs on the left-hand side of the screen. How many tools you have access to will vary, depending on which editing mode you are using in Elements 11.

Main menu

The top bar of the Photo Editor interface has the main menu options you might need to access during editing. Advanced features include image and canvas size adjustments, image adjustments, filters and view options.

Photo Bin

When working in the Photo Editor, the images youÕve opened to edit will appear in the Photo Bin along the bottom. This means you have quick access to images and can view a sequence of images easily.

Layers palette

When editing an image, you can use the Layers palette to build up the enhancements non-destructively. You need to be working in Expert mode in order to access the range of Layers options available in Elements 11.

Edit mode

Within the Photo Editor interface, choose between Quick, Guided and Expert editing modes, depending on your skill level and how in-depth the editing will be. Each mode functions very differently.

“Select between Full

edit, Quick edit or

Guided edit depending

on skill level and intent”

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Ultimate guide

Share mode

Click on the Share tab to explore the many ways of sharing your shots with family members and friends. You need to be in the Organizer interface to access this in Elements 11.

Tool adjustment panel

Whenever you select a tool from the Toolbar, adjust its settings by clicking on Tool Options at the bottom of the interface. If youÕre using the paintbrush, for example, this panel will allow you to change brush-size settings and strength to suit your needs.

Create tab

Click on the Create tab to output images into personalised keepsakes and products. YouÕll be able to construct and customise photo books, greeting cards, calendars and collages. There are extra Create options when you are working in the Organizer interface.

Layout

Click on the Layout button at the bottom of the interface in order to change the way the images are arranged within the Photo Editor. This is great if youÕre looking to replicate a specific effect across several images.

The Organizer

At the bottom left of the Photo Editor, you can access the Organizer. The Photo Editor wonÕt close down; instead the Organizer will open in a separate window.

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Photoshop Elements

W

hen you load up Elements 11, you’ll see a splash screen that enables you to choose between the Organizer and Photo Editor.

These two main choices offer completely different functions, but retouching your images and adding effects is one of the first things that you’ll want to do so we’re going to take a look at the incredible range of editing possibilities on offer in Elements 11. Simply click on the Photo Editor tab to start working on your images. Elements 11 will load up and you can begin to edit, enhance and add effects to your photographs. If you want to access the Organizer simultaneously, click on the relevant button at the bottom of the Photo Editor interface and you can have the two windows open up at once.

To make things as straightforward and user-friendly as possible, the Photo Editor provides you with three separate tabs to choose from at the top centre of the interface; the choice you make will be informed by the complexity of editing and retouching that you wish to carry out.

For very basic image touch-ups, the Quick tab is definitely the best option. Here, you are restricted to six quick editing tools at the left-hand side of the interface, with just the Quick Selection Tool, Red Eye Removal Tool, Whiten Teeth Tool, Horizontal Type Tool, Spot Healing Brush Tool and Crop Tool at your disposal. If you just want to remove a few blemishes from a family snap or make some very simple improvements to an image, the Quick tab will be all that you need.

The Guided tab, meanwhile, works very differently. In this tab, the Tools palette disappears from the left-hand side of the interface, but there’s actually a much wider range of options available for retouching your images than found in the Quick tab. The image-editing tools in the Guided tab are divided into three subsections at the right-hand side of the interface. As the name implies, when you click on each of these, Elements 11 provides a clear set of instructions to ensure you know what each slider and control will do, allowing you to create some quite advanced effects with a minimum level of difficulty.

The Touchups menu allows you to perform a dozen different basic image corrections, some of which, like the Crop Photo facility and the Sharpen feature,

Edit

Discover how you can transform your images using

filters, frames, text and more, right in the Photo Editor

in Elements 11

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Ultimate guide

are fairly basic, but others are much more in-depth and powerful, like the Perfect Portrait feature and the Recompose option.

If you want to get creative with your images, the Photo Effects subsection has plenty of fun on offer. There are ten effects to choose from, including a feature to help create an Old Fashioned Photo, a Line Drawing effect and the ability to add Depth of Field, Tilt-Shift and Vignette effects.

Photo Play is the third and final subsection, featuring four fairly advanced effects that would otherwise be difficult to reproduce. Out Of Bounds allows you to create the illusion of a part of your image, such as someone’s leg kicking a ball, coming out of the bounds of the image. Picture Stack allows you to present your image as four, eight, or twelve individual tiles, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. Pop Art allows you to

choose from two different, Warhol-esque Pop Art effects, while the Reflection option allows you to create a reflection effect completely from scratch.

If you want to take things further, visit the Expert tab. This is similar to the main Photoshop interface, and offers significant levels of creative control once your image-editing confidence grows.

There is an extensive Tools palette at the left-hand side of the interface, with four different selection tools, six enhancing tools, eight drawing tools and four modifying tools. Over on the right-hand side of the interface, there’s a Layers palette. When combined with blending modes, this allows you to take very extensive control over your image adjustments, and it’s not too difficult to get to grips with after a little bit of experimentation.

Guided edits

If you’re a complete beginner to Photoshop Elements 11, use the Guided edits section to ensure you get the image results you want. Easy to access via the main Photo Editor interface, you can explore a whole range of semi-automated editing options. Elements 11 will guide you through the entire editing process, even showing you how to customise each effect’s result. Guided edits are a great way to get familiar with image editing and ensure professional-looking results.

Quick

The Quick edit tab restricts you to a very limited range of Tools, allowing you to make minor, simple adjustments with a minimum of fuss.

Guided

Guided editing allows you to produce some really great effects without even needing to be particularly experienced with Photoshop or even with

Photoshop Elements.

Expert

Use this mode when you want to take full creative control of your images. You have access to the full range of Tools and you can also make use of Layers.

Use features such as Enhance Colors in Elements’ Photo Editor to improve the appearance of colours in your images.

The Perfect Portrait feature allows you to easily make the most of your people photos, taking you through the retouching process.

Add impact and get creative with your presentation by adding a frame around the edges of your images within the Expert editing tab.

Create incredible artistic effects using the Guided editing tab, including professional-looking treatments such as this Pop Art look.

Not just for beginners, you can use Guided edits to learn how to apply specific styles to a shot such as Lomo or Orton.

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Photoshop Elements

T

he Create tab can be found in both the Photo Editor section and the Organizer section in Elements 11, although the Organizer version features two additional options: Instant Movie and DVD With Menu. In both cases though,

the Create tab is designed to make it easy for you to take your images beyond the editing stage and incorporate them into fun, creative and practical projects that you can enjoy with friends and family.

As you start to explore the Create tab, youÕll find that there are plenty of user-friendly and powerful options for each project, enabling you to make all of the creative decisions when it comes to page

design, text and image layouts without the need to be an experienced user. You begin by first selecting a design theme or basic template, which you can then customise and develop as the project progresses.

Once youÕve selected a project, you can then start to work on it to build it up until you have produced the desired result. You can select the Page tab to work with the individual pages in your project or use the Layouts tab to select from an array of ready-made page template designs. The Graphics tab provides options for backgrounds and frames, allowing you to add artwork onto the design for creative background effects or photo framing,

and thereÕs even an option to include customisable text. Drag and drop is all thatÕs required to position images within the project that you are creating.

Traditional photo prints can also be prepared for home printing Ð and for extra convenience ordered via online services Ð using the Create tab. As with everything in Photoshop Elements 11, the Create tab offers plenty of guidance along the way so whether you are making a detailed photo book or a one-page collage, youÕll be able to do so with absolute ease. In fact, itÕs incredible how much you can actually achieve with the Create tab in a relatively short space of time.

Create

Output your images to a range of fun

creative projects using the Create

section of Elements 11

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Ultimate guide

Creating a

photo book

A photo book is a fantastic keepsake that can take far less time to put together than a photo album, full of prints. Easy to design and customisable in the Create tab of Elements 11, you can decide on page layouts, design and text as you go. There are plenty of starter themes and optional book sizes you can select from before you begin too. To get started on your own photo-book project, select the Photo Book option from the available projects in the Create tab. You can now follow along with us as we take you through the basic steps of putting together your own personalised photo book in Elements 11.

Inside page

Using the arrows along the bottom, scroll through to the inside pages. If text is not available on the layout but you would like to add some, go to the Create tab and text then click Add Text Block and apply anywhere on the page.

Create a photo book

Click on the Create button and locate the Photo Book option from the drop-down menu. In the dialog box select a Photo Book style that you would like, add in the page amount and then un-check ÔAutofill with Selected imagesÕ.

Design layout

You can scroll through the Create tab options and add in additional artwork to your photo book design or alternatively change the page layouts by selecting a new page template from the Layouts tab.

Design your cover

You can now begin designing your cover. Drag an image from the Project Bin up or double-click on the space to open one from a separate file. Drag to the space allocated.

Add in pages

You may need more pages than you originally intended. To add more into your photo book, go to Pages in the Create tab and select the + sign to add more in.

Add in text

Click on the text space to activate and adjust the text font, size, style and alignment within the Create tab. You can also adjust colour here and warp text for more creative results. Now type in your photo book title.

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Photoshop Elements

O

ne of the joys of photography, and indeed one of the chief reasons for actually taking photos, is to share the images you’ve captured with other people, particularly family and friends to whom the images may have a meaning.

Where once upon a time this was largely restricted to leafing through a family album, thanks to the development of the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, there’s no longer a need to have our photos printed before we share them.

This instant process means all of us are sharing more images, more

frequently. To fulfil the need for this, and to make the shoot-edit-share process a fully integrated one, Elements 11 features a dedicated Share tab in its interface.

Once you’ve finished making all of your final editing tweaks, head to the Organizer interface where you can then simply click on the share tab to upload your images straight to the likes of Facebook, Flickr or Adobe Revel, Adobe’s own cloud-based storage, editing and browsing service.

You can also opt to share them via an online album, separately as an email attachment or alternatively, burn them

onto a CD or DVD. The Organizer allows you to add in keywords and tags to your images, which is an ideal way to keep track of your shots as you can specify who’s in them, where they were taken and at what event. Portrait and group-shot images can even be tagged using your Facebook friends’ names to save you the trouble of having to do it separately on the online social networking site.

Depending on how you’ve opted to share your images, the Organizer will take you step-by-step through the entire upload process. To share your images via the likes of Flickr and Facebook, you

Share

Discover how to really enjoy your

favourite images with friends and

relatives using the Share tab in

Elements 11

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Ultimate guide

The big share

Email images

ItÕs easy to attach or embed images into an email directly through Elements 11; simply follow the on-screen instructions for correct image sizes.

Share to Flickr

Keep your online portfolio up-to-date by sharing and uploading edited images instantly onto your Flickr profile. You are able to add relevant image tags within the Organizer.

Share to Facebook

You can share your images via your own Facebook account through the software. Go to the Share tab, choose Facebook and then tag people/places within the Organizer before uploading.

Online album

Create an album that you can share online via the Create tab. Once completed, you can upload it to Photoshop Showcase. Alternatively, you can export the album onto a Hard Disk, CD or DVD.

will have to have already registered with either site and set up a viable account. You can then begin editing and adding images directly onto your online profile through the software. Sharing images by email is also easy, as Elements 11 gives you the option to either email shots directly or embed them within an existing email. You can adjust image sizes within the email preferences and even opt to create and send shots as a PDF. The

Organizer also enables you to set up a contacts book, which will allow you to input and then search for contacts so that you can send shots more efficiently. The online album-sharing option will enable you to export images onto a Hard Disk or alternatively share them via Showcase online. Photoshop Showcase is a media-hosting gallery site that lets users upload and share their images and videos directly through Photoshop software. Once youÕve

created a profile on the site, you can send family members and friends a link to your online gallery and share your latest Elements creations. Keen videographers will also appreciate the video sharing options within the OrganizerÕs Share tab. Here, youÕll be able to upload and share video files on YouTube, burn them onto a DVD or BluRay disc, and even upload them onto mobile phones or other portable video playing devices.

“Share precious

moments and

memories with your

friends and family”

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Photoshop Elements

A

fter shooting hundreds or thousands of images, it can be all too easy to upload images onto your computer or portable hard drive and then just leave them there, disorganised in various folders without being edited or even correctly named. To help you get into the habit of

managing your workflow, the Organizer interface in Elements 11 has been designed to make it easy to sort, rate, tag and keyword your shots before filing them away. You can use the Organizer to import images, edit down a shoot size, create an album, create personalised photo or video keepsakes and instantly share shots. To save you the bother of loading up the Photo Editor interface, the Photo Fix Options tab allows you to make minor corrections to photos. In fact, thereÕs so much on hand, thereÕs now no excuse for not keeping on top of managing your photo masterpieces.

Manage

_{You can sort, rate, tag and keyword your images in Elements 11}

Importing images

If you have a batch of images to edit and enhance from a shoot, avoid opening them all in Elements 11 in one go. Unless you have a really powerful computer, this will cause a crash. First use the Organizer to help narrow down which shots are worth working with. This is also a time-saving way to import images into the software, as you wonÕt have to load them individually. YouÕll also be able to see them all clearly in one place; great if creating a series and you want to determine what images work together. If youÕre only looking to edit one or two specific shots, use the quicker File>Open process.

You can use the Elements 11 Organizer to import media from multiple sources, whether itÕs image or video files from a digital camera, USB, mobile phone device, CD/DVD, scanner or even a separate hard drive and so on. By importing a batch of images from a portable device, youÕll be asked to create a catalogue, which you can opt to save in an existing file location on your computer desktop or documents folder. This will ensure your shots stay together and that the selected few can go through to editing in Elements 11 software. If however, you have already uploaded images onto your computer, you can simply select to open them all with this interface to edit without having to create a catalogue.

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Ultimate guide

Find images

Keyword Tags

Photo Bin

Once youÕve built up a good image-management system with the use of keywords and tags, youÕll be able to search for and find specific shots quite easily. Photoshop Elements 11 features a simple search-and-find function for efficiency. To search-and-find tagged images, you can simply enter a keyword into the search bar or alternatively, select one of the active key words from the lists of Keywords and Smart Tags to bring up the right results.

Keywording is an essential part of managing your workflow and organising your images.

Once youÕve imported shots through the Elements 11 Organizer, you can insert relevant keywords using the Keyword Tag menu. This will help you to file and later find specific images on your computer. You can keyword tag people, places, events and other important things about the image, such as lighting style, effects or colours. Provided all of your keyword tags are relevant and useful they will help you to stay organised and make finding specific shots more efficient. To keyword your images correctly you need to focus on highlighting the most important elements within the shot. If youÕve got a portrait image for example, you can keyword tag the name and the word ÔportraitÕ. This will ensure the image appears in multiple portrait searches, including those that are not name related. The best thing about the Elements Keyword Tag system is that it then organises the rest for you. Searching for shots is much easier and results can be more specific, which makes the possibility of sharing images instantly more of a reality.

ItÕs worth noting that the keyword tag system is not only great for images, but you can also use it to manage and tag video files, audio clips, PDFs and projects.

Once youÕve imported images into the Organizer and selected the ones to edit, transfer them over to the Photo Editor in Elements 11. Your shots will appear automatically as thumbnails in the Photo Bin along the bottom of the interface. Just click the Photo Bin icon at the bottom left of the interface if the panel isnÕt visible.

This is a fantastic tool if editing a series of images as you can see how well they work as a collection. To change the order of your shots for a different view, simply click and drag them into a new position. To change your editing screen view and activate a shot to edit, double-click on a thumbnail in the Photo Bin, it should then appear large on screen. You can also action some adjustments in the Photo Bin via the drop-down menu in the right-hand corner. Here, you can get a view of any images currently active in the Organizer, print all of the Photo Bin files or save them as an album. This is a great way to process multiple files quickly, rather than having to trawl through loads of images and save them individually.

Search bar

When searching using keywords in the search bar, you can enter multiple tags for more specific results. If youÕve tagged an image with a personÕs name and a place that the image was captured, you can search for both of these elements to get more accurate search results.

People recognition

Once youÕve tagged a person within a portrait using a specific name, Elements 11 will attempt to recognise this person in other images. Once you open a shot it will ask you to confirm if itÕs correct.

Keyword Tags panel

Another way to find specific photos is to click on the box next to the relevant tag in the Keyword Tag panel. Elements 11 will then automatically bring up all of the images that carry this tag.

Select the green + symbol to create a tag. In the dialogue box, you can select a category and add in a keyword and notes. Once you’ve created the tag you can drag the tag icon onto any other image that the keyword applies to.

Once Elements 11 is familiar with a face it will attempt to use people recognition in order to tag that person in multiple images. Simply click to confirm if it’s correct, as it saves extra tagging time.

You can opt to edit images through the Photo Bin by using the drop-down menu. Click Create to construct a project, Share to upload images online, Print to print all of the images within the bin, and Save to group all of the shots together in an album.

To activate an image in the Photo Bin to edit, you’ll need to scroll through the options and double-click on a shot to expand in the main screen.

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Photoshop Elements

Gallery

Elements can help you achieve a wealth of different effects

Ð here is a roundup of some of the possibilites open to you

Filter and auto effects

Just because something is easy doesn’t mean to say that it can’t be beautiful. The range of automatic efects in Elements is staggering and each one can be used to create

something to be proud of. The obvious place to go for the auto options is the Filters menu. In here you can access ﬁlters to get a certain style efect or apply a set edit. You can enjoy a wealth of options here, from inky sketch efects through to getting creative with blur. The Artistic range of ﬁlters are a good place to start, as are the Render and Pixellate.

For complete beginners, pay a trip to the Guided edits. These will let you edit photos and apply styles with just a few clicks of the mouse. Simply run through the steps and enjoy results such as sepia photos or pop-art-inspired prints. And once you’ve made your images, use the Share workspace to create a presentation package or to ready the images for print.

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Ultimate guide

Creative layers

The Layers palette is your best friend when it comes to larger edits, as it enables you to control elements and separate them from others. Layer masks were introduced in Elements 10, which enables users to enjoy even more control. The layer blend modes are great for building up collages such as the one above.

Paint effects

Digital painting is a fantastic way to turn your photos into something truly special, and with Elements you can paint even if you have no natural artistic talent. We’ve spoken about the ﬁlters, but the Smudge tool is also worth investigating. As you brush over a photo, it pulls up the colour information and uses it to make realistic brush strokes.

Photo edits

Being able to transform your ordinary photos into something to be proud of is at the heart of Elements. Each version comes equipped with a range of powerful editing tools, allowing you to perfect aspects such as colour, lighting and sharpness. If you don’t feel conﬁdent, most editing tools come with Auto options.

Traditional photo effects

If you are a fan of traditional photography and want to bring some of the style to your own images, Elements can help. There are various options for bringing traditional efects such as depth of ﬁeld or high contrast, in addition to colour and tone edits such as monochrome. These can be achieved through dedicated tools or through ﬁlters.

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QUICK, GUIDED AND EXPERT MODES

01

The three modes in Photoshop Elements 11 have taken centre stage. Edit images in either Quick, Guided or Expert mode. Quick contains a few of the basic tools for enhancing images, Guided guides you through some great creative effects, and Expert features the entire program.

Ten reasons why Photoshop Elements is better than ever

P

hotoshop Elements 11 has been altered; not just in the way that it looks, but also in the effects and tools it has on offer.

Here are ten improvements to the latest version of the beginner’s choice in photo-editing software.

10 improvements to

Photoshop Elements 11

GRAPHIC NOVEL The Graphic Novel ﬁlter, new to version 11, gives images a sketched effect. There are options to alter the mood of the effect, depending on the scene, by using the Painted Gray, Fine Detail, Hard Edges and Twisted Plot presets.

LOW KEY EFFECT New Guided Edits, such as this Low Key effect, provide quick ways of putting a creative spin on ordinary images. Low Key darkens the background and increases the overall mood of the image.

A NEW LOOK

02

The new version has been given a grey interface, which is different to their traditional black interface. The whole program has been refined to make it easier to follow, and effects can now be applied to images faster and more effectively. Icons and text are bigger and bolder, and the on-screen options and menus are much tidier too.

Photoshop Elements

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ONLINE ALBUM

07

There’s a new set of templates for printing and creating Online Albums. This feature, specific to the Organizer, lets you store images using a variety of layouts and creative designs, categorised under Family, Occasions and Interactive.

ACTIONS

08

Actions are one-click solutions to creative effects. These are new to Elements in version 11, and include borders, resizing and cropping commands. They also include effects such as sepia toning, faded ink and instant Polaroid.

PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS

03

The Organizer is where images are collated and shared. You can categorize and tag them depending on the people involved, where they were photographed and when they were created. People can be grouped quickly using the simple, icon-based approach and faces can be tagged ready for uploading straight to social networking sites.

SHARE VIDEOS

09

Photoshop Elements 11 lets you upload videos to online portals Vimeo and YouTube. Since every digital camera and mobile device has video capture available, there should be no reason why sharing these is left out of the frame.

GUIDED EDITS

10

Unique to Photoshop Elements 11 is its range of Guided Edits. They now include four new effects: Miniature, Vignette, Low Key and High Key. Following step-by-steps, they only take minutes to apply, and this is one reason why Elements 11 has proved popular with artists looking for quick, fun effects.

LOCATION SPECIFIC

04

If you’re a keen traveller and aim to capture moments as you go, then the Places section of the Organizer will prove invaluable. Photos and videos can be placed inside a world map with details of their exact location. This is great for keeping snapshots together and locating them at a later date.

BETTER REFINE EDGE

05

Reflecting Photoshop CS6, the Refine Edge command now has more options. Selections can be controlled using the full range of adjustments and sliders, including Decontaminate Colors, which is useful for sorting out those stray pixels between cutouts. Smart Radius makes selecting difficult outlines such as hair a breeze, along with the feathering, smoothing and contrast sliders for perfecting the overall area.

COMIC FILTERS

06

For more cartoon-like image effects, there are three new Sketch filters that can give images a range of fun finishes, including Comic, Graphic Novel and Pen and Ink. These are useful for imitating drawn effects, with colour, line thickness and shading all forming part of their adjustments.

Ultimate guide

ACCURATE SELECTIONS The improved Reﬁne Edge is a blessing when it comes to selecting and cutting out tricky subjects. Plus, the Smart Radius comes with a brush that can be used to paint out unwanted areas around hair and other intricate subjects.

MAPS

It’s easy to remember where photos were shot by using Organizer’s new Places feature. It uses Google Maps and is perfect for travellers.

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Techniques

PAGE 28

PAGE 30

PAGE 52

PAGE 26

Enhance your skills and improve your projects with these techniques

Clone objects

Duplicate people in your photos

26 Get started with selections

Manipulate your images

28 Master selections and masking

Create the out-of-bounds ef ect

30 Retouch photos

Touch up your portraits

32 Control colour

Improve the colour of photos

34 Get to know Gradients

Master this essential tool

36 Rescue old photos

Restore faded family photos

40 Use brushes effectively

Tips for using the Brush palette

44 Sharpen your images

Remove subtle blurring

46 PAGE 150

Improve exposure

Bring life back into images

48 Make creative panoramas

Get to grips with the Photomerge function

52 WorldMags.net

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PAGE 40

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Techniques

Understand the effect

Cloning subjects across your image

Set up the tool

01

Select the Clone Stamp tool from the Toolbar, or press the S key for a shortcut to take you straight there. Go to the Tool Options bar and click on the Brush preview thumbnail. Pick a soft-edged brush, with a diameter that is just larger than the subject you want to clone.

Clone objects

Duplicate the people in your photos

using the Clone Stamp tool

C

loning is a feature that has been around since the early versions of Elements. It is a feature that is

mainly used in retouching to remove blemishes, freckles and wrinkles, but can be adapted for creative purposes too. In fact, you can clone absolutely anything onto anything, so long as the tool has the right settings in the Tool Options bar.

Using a soft-edged brush is fundamental when you are painting with the Clone Stamp tool, because this helps to blend the two areas together. There are other essential options to tick as well, such as Align, and we will cover how you can use masks in order to create a successful cloned subject.

“You can clone absolutely

anything onto anything,

so long as the tool has the

right settings in the

Tool Options bar”

Add a new layer

02

Keep Opacity set to 100% and tick Aligned. This enables you to paint the cloned subject to any area of the image. Make sure Sample All Layers is ticked to account for any new layers. With this set, add a new layer above the Background image.

Use Clone Stamp

03

To use the tool to create a clone of the subject, press Alt/Opt and click on the part of the subject you want to clone. Release Alt/Opt and then paint the subject back in to a different part of the scene.

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Clone objects

Clone options

Alter the settings and combine with other Elements features

What

does it mean?

MODE When cloning objects, change the Mode setting (found in the Tool Options bar) to alter the way

they appear and interact with your image. Overlay, for example, creates

a high-contrast effect, whereas using Screen mode will reduce

the contrast and turns objects into ghost-

like ﬁgures.

Retouch clone

05

To smarten up the edges of the subject, add a layer mask

(Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All). Now use the Brush tool set to black to remove the rough edges and reveal the background around the subject.

Flip subject

04

Once your subject has been completely cloned to the new position, go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal to mirror it. Rotate it for variation using Image>Rotate>Free Rotate Layer and dragging the corner points.

Perspective

Create a new layer each time before the brush is applied, so the cloned area can be resized. We can use Image>Transform> Free Transform to shrink down the duplicate and stay in perspective.

Blur distant subjects

The smaller cloned subject in the distance has been given a slight Gaussian blur (Filter>Blur). This is to match the rest of the background elements, which are a little blurry.

Aligned

Tick the Aligned box in the Tool Options bar so that the Clone Stamp tool continues to work from where you left off. Otherwise, the tool will reset its position.

No selection

Subjects can be cloned and flipped around as many times as you like. The best thing of all is that no selection is needed to create duplicates.

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Techniques

S

elections form one of the cornerstones of

Photoshop editing, and mastering the skills to neatly isolate areas of your image opens up a host of possibilities for creative editing. Photoshop Elements has

a number of built-in selection options ranging from the very basic to the more complex. We’ll be looking at the more simple options to get your selection skills up to scratch in this tutorial.

Selection options are laid out in the Select menu with Photoshop of ering some additional choices to Elements that perform more complex functions. However, Elements has some fantastic options on of er. The annotations walk you through the basic, need-to-know features in this menu to give you control over your selections from modifying, inverting and saving them. The selection tools are purpose-built and each is suited to a particular type of selection, from the Marquee tool that makes selections based on shapes to the Magic Wand tool which makes automatic selections based on colour. The software realises that freehand drawing is inaccurate but sometimes necessary, so a host of magnetic and smart tools assist you in tracing outlines and selecting only the part of an image that you need.

Learning the option menus that go with each tool will help you better control it and get the most out of its functionality. Above all, knowing what a particular tool was built for will enable you to select the correct one for the correct purpose and be able to make seamless and accurate selections, time and time again.

Get started

with selections

Streamline your selections with our overview of

tools and tricks to control and manipulate the

elements of your images

Quick mode

Options for speedy edits

Photoshop Elements 11 has three edit modes: Quick, Guided and Expert. If youÕre new to editing and choose the Quick mode, selection options are limited to the Quick Selection and Selection Brush tools. With one click the Quick Selection tool will read pixels and guess selection parameters depending on how similar the pixels are to each other. The Brush Selection tool offers more accurate results as you control the selection yourself. Change the brush size to suit your selection. If you require more intuitive tools, switch between the Guided and Expert modes while working on an image.

Marquee tool

Shape-based selections

Make selections based on shapes in your image with the Marquee tool. You can choose either the Rectangular or Elliptical tool to make a selection within your image. Begin at a point on the image and drag the tool across your target as you hold the mouse down. Hold down the Shift key to create a perfect square or circle with each tool respectively. Make the selection carefully, as you canÕt change dimensions once the selection is complete. This tool works best with simple elements in an image or to make precise and even selections.

Reﬁ ne Edge and FeatherThis set of commands is available when using any selection tool and gives you options to change the edges of your selection. The Smooth slider removes bumps along the selection line, Feather softens the edges in a uniform blur and Contract/Expand either increases or decreases the selection edge.

Tool OptionsEach selection tool comes with its own settings. These include the Add to Selection command that enables multiple selections to be made on the same image. Subtract from Selection excludes the new area from the current selection and Intersect with Selection will let only areas in your new selection that intersect with previous ones be highlighted.

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Get started with Selections

Add to Selection

02

In the Magic Wand’s Tool Options, select Add to Selection (two squares). With this selected, click in the sky area to make a second selection of those same-coloured pixels to be added to the ﬁ rst.

Lasso selections

Freehand and magnetic options

The Lasso tools include the basic Lasso, Magnetic Lasso and Polygonal Lasso. The basic tools enable rough freehand selections, good for situations where precision isn’t required. The Polygonal tool lets you add reference points as you draw by clicking the mouse, which is especially handy for drawing straight lines.

The Magnetic Lasso traces along the edges of objects with strong colour contrast and, as with the Polygonal, you can create reference points as you draw, pressing the Backspace key to return to the last reference point. Finish back at your start point or double-click to complete a selection.

Magic Wand

Automatic selections by colour

A single click and the Magic Wand makes an automatic selection within your image based on the colour that you clicked on. This tool gives fairly accurate results in images with strong, similar colours and varying accuracy in more complex images. To get better results with the tool, pay attention to the Tolerance level that appears in the Tool Options bar when the tool is selected. This determines how closely the selection will match the clicked colour. The higher the value, the wider the colour range.

Isolating elements within an image enables you to inject enhancements where needed without affecting the whole of your shot. In this image the greens, yellows and browns are dynamic but the blues seem washed out against them. By selecting the sky and the water, the colour can be adjusted to marry perfectly with the rest of the image.

Enhance selected colour

Use Elements to balance an image

Magic Wand

01

Select the Magic Wand tool and make a selection of the water by clicking in a dark blue area. Zoom in to ensure you select the right shade rather than the surrounding pigments such as the boat or riverbank.

Enhance colour

03

Go to Enhance> Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves and increase the Midtone curve by half the available value. The adjustment will only be applied to the two blue selected areas.

Anti-alias and ToleranceAnti-aliased is used with the Marquee tool and automatically smooths out the edges of circular or elliptical shapes. Keep the box ticked to have the function on. Tolerance controls the degree to which the automatic selections recognise similar or different pixels and gives a greater degree of control when using the automatic selection functions.

Save selectionSave selections for later use by choosing Select>Save Selection, naming your ﬁ le appropriately and then clicking OK to save. Access the saved data via Select>Load Selection and choosing it from the list. Your selection will then appear on your image.

Inverse and deselectThe Inverse option enables you to choose the opposite part of the image from the selection you’ve made. This is useful when working with the Marquee tool to select borders. Deselecting is to come out of any area, and is the only command that can do this (Ctrl/Cmd+D).

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T

he ‘out of bounds’ effect in Elements 11 is actually a Guided Edit. This only goes so far, however, and restricts the level of

control that you have over the effect. To create our own version of the effect, we need to look at layers more closely in Expert Mode.

With masking techniques, the water in our seascape can be made to look like it’s spilling out of the frame, and by making a selection, a part of the image can be made to emerge from the frame beneath

this. We can even expand this out of the image, to make it look as though it’s coming right at us!

Selections can be made quickly using a number of different tools. The first one that we use is the Polygonal Lasso tool, which draws straight selection lines – perfect for selecting the frame. Also, since the colour in the seascape is so vivid, we’ll remove colour from the background to improve the composition and give it more impact.

Master selections and masking

Explore the potential of masking and selections by creating this out of bounds effect in

Photoshop Elements

Before

Techniques

Source ﬁ les available

Use the ﬁ les on the site to re-create this: http://blog. photoshopcreative. co.uk/tutorial-ﬁ les

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Create the effect

Nine steps to out of bounds magic!

Create selection

02

Zoom into the image a couple of times. Click on each corner of the digital frame using the Polygonal Lasso tool. Once all four lines are connected, a selection area will appear.

New layer mask

03

Click on the Create a New Layer button in the Layers panel, then on the Add Layer Mask button. The selection area will disappear once you’ve done this, but will be stored as the layer mask.

Polygonal Lasso tool

01

Open ‘Digital frame.jpg’ from blog. photoshop creative.co.uk/tutorial-files. Enter Expert Mode. Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) then tick Anti-aliasing in the Options panel. Set Feather to 0px.

Control opacity

08

Lower Opacity of the Eraser tool to 20% and reveal the water over the table the further out it goes. Drag Layer 1 (between the Seascape and Digital Frame layers) onto the trash icon to remove it.

Desaturate

09

Click Background layer and add Hue/Saturation adjustment. Reduce Saturation to -100 to remove colour from the Digital Frame. You should be left with just the colour groyne exiting the frame.

Water spillage!

07

Go Select>Deselect. Locate Eraser tool (E) and set Size to 600px, Opacity to 100%, choose a soft tip, and make Foreground colour black. Paint over the seascape layer mask to reveal spillage.

Quickly select

05

Use the Quick Selection tool (A), set to Size: 40px and Auto-Enhance in the Options panel, to select the part of the groyne on the beach. Turn its layer on and off to make sure the selection covers the digital frame.

Combine masks

06

Click Add Layer Mask to apply this selection as a new mask to the seascape. Add the other mask by Cmd/ Ctrl+clicking on its thumbnail to reactivate it, then pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Backspace. Foreground colour must be black to do this.

Place image

04

Go to File>Place and upload ‘Seascape.jpg’ from the resources. Move the placed image up so in line with the top of the digital frame image. Holding Shift, drag the bottom-right box to enlarge it so it fits over the image. Press Enter to apply.

Master selections and masking

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Techniques

E

lements is the tool of choice for starting out with retouching. You

are given the same tools as the pros to give your own portrait shots a desirable veneer. Before you fl ick past in horror, we aren’t going to suggest you spend your life airbrushing through your family photos. Even fi ve-minute edits can suddenly bring a portrait to life and Elements users will fi nd a lot of automated options for retouching tasks. However, we are going to look at the manual tools here and show you how easy it is to create the maximum impact.

Common retouching tasks will focus on the face, whether it’s smoothing out skin or doing a touch of spot or blemish removal. Whitening the eyes or teeth is another easy edit that can really make a

Don’t be intimidated by the thought of retouching portraits – Elements has

a host of beginner-friendly tools that do most of the work for you

Retouch photos

“Even ﬁ ve-minute edits can suddenly

bring a portrait back to life”

The camera was set incorrectly here, causing the image to be overexposed. This harsh light has accentuated the woman’s lines.

We have applied a colour correction as well as using the Clone Stamp and Spot Healing Brush to tame the lines and wrinkles.

dif erence. The most important thing to remember, though, is to keep your edits subtle. Like it or not, wrinkles and wobbly bits give us character and if you wade in with a virtual plastic surgeon’s knife, you won’t improve an image. A light touch here and there is all you need for the best results.

We’re also going to be covering another Elements skill within the ‘retouching’ monicker, and that is restoring old photos. Similar skills and tools can be transferred from something like removing wrinkles to removing creases and tears in scanned images, so the two really go hand in hand.

It’s also worth pointing out that some of the other tools we’ve looked at can be called upon here. For example, if you want to whiten eyes or teeth, use one of the selection methods we suggested and then use the Color Curves command to target the highlights and brighten things up. As you use Elements more and more, you’ll see these repetitions pop up time and again.

BEFORE

AFTER

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Retouch photos

The major retouching tools

The toolbar delivers pretty much all you need

Clone Stamp is the king of ‘patching’ up unwanted areas but an easier option is the Spot Healing Brush.

Spot Healing Brush

Remove blemishes easily

Red Eye tool Even with fancy cameras,

red eye is a really common problem that is thankfully very easy to f x. Simply pick the tool, place it over the of ending area and click. If it refuses to budge, go to Edit>Undo and use the Pupil Size and Darken Pupil settings to make adjustments and try again.

Healing Brush tool Like the Clone Stamp, this

allows you to replace areas with information from other parts of an image. However, the Healing Brush also matches the texture, transparency, lighting and shading. This makes it easy to f x complicated areas.

Spot Healing Brush

Good for smaller areas that need f xing. Again, you use a brush to dab over the area that needs f xing. Edits made with this tool should be made with one click.

Pick a brush size

01

Pick a brush size that’s slightly larger than the area to be edited. This lets you perform a one-click ﬁ x, and gives you the most accurate results.

Set the tool

02

There are various options available. Proximity Match uses pixels from the edge as a Patch. Create Texture uses all pixels in the selection, while Content-Aware will create magic replacements!

Use the lot

03

Achieve best results by selecting Sample All Layers from the Tool Options bar. This uses information from the whole image. To make the edit, click on the area and Elements will work its magic.

Final touches for better images

In addition to the tools mentioned below, there are some ﬁ lters than can help you make the perfect edit. For example, old photos tend to be blighted by noise, so a blast of the Despeckle ﬁ lter (Filter>Noise) can work wonders. If you want to soften areas to draw attention to others, apply a very low Gaussian blur to a selected area, or use the Blur tool from the toolbar to paint blur on. Finally, Unsharp Mask (Enhance>Unsharp Mask) is good for adding clarity to important areas such as eyes.

Useful filters

Clone Stamp tool_{The mother}

of all retouching tools, this allows you to sample parts of an image and transfer it to another part. This is achieved using a brush. Use the largest, softest brush you can and transfer the sampled area using small dabs.

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Techniques

C

olour is a vital part of any image. If you have a photo with

weak colour, it doesn’t matter how impressive the composition or how sharp the detail – all anyone will see is the ﬂat colour.

As you should come to expect by now, Elements has many diferent options when it comes to adding and editing colour and most of them are really simple to use. For adding colour, you will spend most of your time in the Color Picker. This is activated by clicking the two little colour squares at the bottom of the toolbar. The top square is for the foreground colour (or the main colour) and the bottom square is the background.

The Color Picker gives you access to all the diferent colours you could possibly want and selecting them is really easy. Just click on the bar to pick a colour and then position the little circle over the particular hue that you want. There are loads of other libraries and settings you can use, but you don’t

have to go any further than clicking on a colour to select it.

Editing colour in an image is also easy. Elements has Auto Color options (Enhance>Auto Color Correction). This is pretty much the easiest edit you can make and both ﬂavours do a good job of ﬁxing problem images. But there are plenty of alternatives if you want to have a bit more control over proceedings. Hue/Saturation is an excellent choice, allowing you to alter not only the colour of things, but also the intensity of the colour. In a similar vein is the Color Variations command. This is suited to beginners in particular because you click on preview images to make the changes, so you always know what the outcome will be.

The Replace Color alters a chosen colour in your image, which can either be a simple case of improving one colour, or something more creative. Read on and discover how these tools work, how you can use them and how you can take your ﬁrst steps to conquering colour!

Being able to control colour is an essential

skill for improving images

Control colour

The Variations command

The Color Variations command isn’t high on a lot of users’ lists when it comes to altering the colour properties of an image, which is a shame because it’s a very intuitive way of editing, especially for beginners. It allows you to target the shadows, highlights and midtones and set what colour you want them to be. You need to go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations. Once open, you see a range of small thumbnails showing the image with a certain colour applied. The intensity can be adjusted to suit and you just click to apply.

See how your edit will look

Hue/Saturation

Have fun with the Hue/Saturation command. It works using sliders, and enables you to alter the colour of an entire image or just target a speciﬁc colour to change. You can also use the Saturation slider to increase or decrease the intensity of a colour, proving particularly useful in photo edits and also converting to black and white. It is very easy to overdo the Saturation slider, though, so always keep the Preview box ticked to keep on top of things. You’ll ﬁnd Adjust Hue/Saturation under Enhance>Adjust Color.

The Photoshop Elements Book Revised

Photoshop

Elements

The

®

®

The ultimate guide to getting the most out of Photoshop Elements

Getting started • Amazing techniques • Creative projects

NEW

tutorials f

or

Elements 11

inside

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Welcome to

Photoshop

Elements

The

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Photoshop

Elements

The

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Contents

PAGE 154

08 Ultimate guide

PAGE 76

Clone objects

26

Get started

with selections

28

Master selections

and masking

30

Retouch photos

32

Control colour

34

Get to know Gradients

36

Rescue old photos

40

Use brushes effectively

44

Make one-click fixes

58

Top guided edits

62

Make essential

adjustments

64

Edit portraits

66

70

Add drama with

Dodge and Burn

Master HDR toning

72

Fix images with curves

74

Convert images to

black and white

76

Get the Lomo effect

78

Edit colours with

Photo Filter

80

Perfect macro

84

Fix heavy shadows

88

_or

_inside

_{Dodge and Burn}