Photoshop Elements for Genealogists Part 1

Photoshop Elements for Genealogists Part 1 By Barry J. Ewell Topics Covered Photoshop Elements Workspace Exploring the Tools Quick Fix Preview

Photoshop Elements Workspace

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help Take particular note that many of the commands have a keyboard shortcut that will enact that menu option immediately For example, Ctrl+S By holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and simultaneously pressing the S key will save your document

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help File/Open You'll note that many menu commands are not available until you use this command to open an image

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help File/New You can also create an empty canvas to compose a new image from scratch Try something about 500 x 500 pixels if you want to experiment

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help Edit/Preferences You can reset most of the defaults here, so if you find yourself changing a particular option over and over again, this can help

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help Edit/Undo (Ctrl+Z) Everyone makes mistakes Undo makes it as if your mistakes never happened

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help Enhance The Enhance menu contains a number of tools for making digital photos look better

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help Window If you can not find a palette, there is a list of all of them under this menu A check mark means it's already visible on the screen, so clicking it again will make it disappear

Workspace Shortcut 2 Menu

Workspace Options 3 Bar Auto Select Layer Show Bounding Box Show Highlight on Rollover Arrange Align Distribution

Workspace Tool Bar 4

Workspace Any tool with a triangle in the lower right corner will reveal variations on that tool if you click and hold or right click on it

Workspace When the mouse cursor is hovered over a tool, a tag will appear to show you the name of the tool

Workspace Most of the tags can also link to the explanation of the tool

Workspace Floating 5 Palette

Workspace Docked 6 Palettes

Workspace File Edit Image Enhance Layer Select Filter View Window Help All of the palettes can be opened under Window men

Workspace Effects Special effects that can be applied to an image. When used, they can make an image look like a sketch, or being

Workspace Effects When used, they can make an image look like a sketch, or being

Workspace Layers One of the most powerful features of both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, the Layers palette allows you to control the order and interactions between layers

Exploring the Tools

Exploring the tools The Move Tool is used to move elements from one area to another

Exploring the tools When you hover over a tool, a tool tag will appear right below the selected tool The keyboard shortcut of the tool ( C" in this case) and a link will lead you to the help tips for the particular tool

Exploring the tools Click on your image using the Zoom Tool to zoom in one level.

Exploring the tools The Hand Tool is an alternative to the scroll bars

Exploring the tools The Eyedropper Tool takes whatever pixel is clicked on, measures the color there, and makes that color the foreground color

Exploring the tools The Marquee Tools are used to create selections Selections are a way of telling PSE that you want to act only on one particular area of the image

Exploring the tools The Magic Wand Tool makes selections using math and lets you select a similarly colored area

Exploring the tools The Quick Selection Tool will create selections in a more natural way than the other tools Use the Selection Brush Tool to make brush-like selections in an image

Exploring the tools The Type Tools are used to add text to the image

Exploring the tools The Crop Tool is used to discard excess image areas

Exploring the tools The Cookie Cutter Tool let's you cut out parts of your image in a particular shape

Exploring the tools The Straighten Tool is used to straighten a skewed image that is resulted from digital capture or scanning in an inappropriate angle

Exploring the tools The Red Eye Removal Tool allows you to select an area in the picture where there is a red eye

Exploring the tools The Healing Brush & Spot Healing Brush tools fix large and small areas of imperfections when you drag over them

Exploring the tools The Clone Tool behaves like a brush, but instead of painting the foreground color it paints pixels from elsewhere in the image

Exploring the tools The Eraser Tool will clear out pixels unless they are on the bottom layer

Exploring the tools The Brush Tool works just the way you would expect Click and drag on your image to paint the foreground color

Exploring the tools The Smart Brush Tools apply tonal and color adjustments to specific areas of the photo

Exploring the tools The Paint Bucket Tool works the same way as the magic wand, except that instead of selecting that area, it re-colors the area using your foreground color

Exploring the tools The Gradient Tool is used to apply a gradual change from one color to another

Exploring the tools The Shape Tools let's you create shapes on your image, everything from squares and circles to word balloons and animal shapes

Exploring the tools The Blur Tool will blur all the pixels below it This is a good tool for softening seams when trying to combine two images

Exploring the tools The Sponge Tool will pull the color and "life" out of a photograph

Exploring the tools The Color Chips are used to determine your foreground and background color

Correct Color in Quick Fix

Correct Color in Quick Fix Quick Fix conveniently assembles many of the basic photofixing tools in Photoshop Elements As you work in Quick Fix, limit the number of color and lighting controls that you apply to a photo

Correct Color in Quick Fix Smart Fix Lighting Color Balance Detail

Correct Color in Quick Fix Generally, you use only one of the auto controls on a photo If that control doesn't achieve what you want, click the Reset button and try another one

Correct Color in Quick Fix You can also adjust your image using the slider controls, whether you've used an auto control or not Perform the Sharpening fix last on an image

Correct Color in Quick Fix Using the Auto Lighten Shadows adjustment in Quick Fix to instantly fix the photo

Quick Fix Preview

Quick Fix Preview Photoshop Elements enables you to preview how a photo looks after adjustments, before you apply the adjustment to the image Before After

Quick Fix Preview Use Quick Fix preview icon to preview how a photo looks after adjustments, before you apply the adjustment to the image Before After For example, you can preview a color change in an image before you apply the change

Quick Fix Preview In the Quick Fix panel, make the necessary adjustment using the sliders, and click the Quick Fix preview icon beside the slider You can view thumbnails of the variations available

Quick Fix Preview Click the Quick Fix preview icon beside the slider You can view thumbnails of the variations available

Quick Fix Preview original Hover the mouse over the thumbnails to preview the adjustment on the photo

Quick Fix Preview Click the thumbnail to apply the adjustment on the image temporarily

Quick Fix Preview Click the Commit button to save the adjustment, or Cancel to cancel the change

Quick Fix Preview To fine-tune a picture using a preview as the starting point, click and hold the mouse button, and then drag right or left

Quick Fix Preview Click and hold the mouse button, and then drag right or left

Quick Fix Preview Smart Fix Lighting The Quick Fix panel provides the following tools to refine your photos Color Balance Detail

Quick Fix Preview Smart Fix Adjusts lighting and color Smart Fix corrects overall color balance and improves shadow and highlight detail, if necessary

Quick Fix Preview Click the Auto button to apply this command

Quick Fix Preview Amount Drag the slider to vary the amount of the adjustment original

Quick Fix Preview Lighting Adjusts the overall contrast of an image, and sometimes affects its color

Quick Fix Preview Adjusts the overall contrast of an image, and sometimes affects its color. If your image needs more contrast and it has a color cast, you can use the following two options: Levels Contrast

Quick Fix Preview Original Levels (Auto) Contrast (Auto) These options work by individually mapping the lightest and darkest pixels in each color channel to monochrome To apply the settings, click the Auto button beside any of these options

Quick Fix Preview Lighting: Lighten Shadows Drag the slider to lighten the darkest areas of your photo without affecting the highlights Pure black areas are not affected

Quick Fix Preview Original Mid Level Far Right

Quick Fix Preview Lighting: Darken Highlights Drag the slider to darken the lightest areas of your photo without affecting the shadows Pure white areas are not affected

Quick Fix Preview Original Mid Level Far Right

Quick Fix Preview Lighting: Midtone Contrast Adjusts the contrast within the middle tonal values (values that are about half way between pure white and pure black) It does not affect the extreme highlights and shadows