Photoshop Elements for Dummies

This friendly guide covers all of the major features and functions of Adobe's new Photoshop Elements software including: the Quick Start Screen, Hints Palette, Recipes Palette, File Browser, Filter Browser, Photomerge, Lighting and Color Cast Adjustments, Automatic Straightening and Cropping of scanned images, GIF Animations, and On line Print Services. Filled with to-the-point tips and easy-to-follow instructions, this book will provide real-world examples to show you how to put concepts to use immediately for stunning results. Includes both Windows and Mac coverage.

Contents

Introduction

Photoshop Elements Is Photoshop

About This Book

What's in This Book

Part I: Element-ary School

Part II: Be Prepared

Part III: Realer than Life

Part IV: The Inspiration/Perspiration Equation

Part V: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Feedback, Please

Chapter 1: Braving the Elements

The Bland but Benevolent Dr. Jekyll

The Dynamic but Dastardly Mr. Hyde

The Two Elements of Photoshop Elements

Painting without the mess

Editing existing image detail

Psychiatric Help (The Doctor Is Built-in)

The Quick Start screen

The Hints palette

The Recipes palette

Chapter 2: Dissecting Your Desktop

Giving Elements the Electronic Breath of Life

Working with Windows

Switching between Elements and the Finder

Maneuvering through Menus

Talking Back to Dialog Boxes

Playing Around with Palettes

Opening Up Your Toolbox

Chapter 3: "Open!" Says Me

Don't Just Sit There, Open Something!

Opening via the File Browser

Opening the ordinary way

Creating a new image

Behold the Image Window

The Screen Is Your Digital Oyster

Using the Hand tool

Using keyboard shortcuts

Zooming in and out on your work

Navigating by palette

Tools for the Terribly Precise

Switching on the rulers

Turning on the grid

Information, please

Chapter 4: Pixels: It's Hip to Be Square

Welcome to Pixeltown

Screen Pixels versus Image Pixels

Image Size, Resolution, and Other Tricky Pixel Stuff

Resolving resolution

Changing pixel dimensions

Changing the physical dimensions of the image

Keeping things proportionate

Using the Image Size dialog box safely

What Does This Canvas Size Command Do?

Trimming Excess Gunk Off the Edges

The sharp edges of the Crop tool

More good news about cropping

The Straighten and Crop commands

Image Gymnastics

Chapter 5: Over (and Under) the Rainbow

Looking at Color in a Whole New Light

Managing Photoshop Elements Color

Gimme good gamma

Choosing your color settings

Picking Color the Mix and Match Way

Juggling foreground and background colors

Defining colors

Going Grayscale

The road to grayscale

A few more tips in black and white

Chapter 6: Saving with Grace

Save an Image, Save a Life

Saving for the very first time

Joining the frequent-saver program

Creating a backup copy

The Elemental Guide to File Formats

What is a file format, anyway?

TIFF: The great communicator

Photoshop PDF: The can-do kid

PICT File: The picture format for Mac users

BMP: The wallpaper glue for PC users

What about Elements' native Photoshop format?

What format to use when

Saving for the Web

Hey -- what about PNG?

The Save for Web command

JPEG: The best choice for photos

GIF: The choice of choosy Web designers

The Preview menu

Good Night, Image -- and Don't Let the Programming Bugs Bite

Chapter 7: It's Perfect. No, Wait! Okay, Print.

Time Traveling

Exploring the History palette in 11 easy steps

Travel restrictions

The History palette

Abandoning Edits en Masse

The Command Still Known as Print

This May Be All You Need to Know about Printing

Choosing a Printer in Windows

Choosing a Printer on a Mac

Getting Image and Paper in Sync

Sending the Image to the Printer

Chapter 8: Herd Them Pixels

Learning the Ropes of Selecting

Throwing lassos

Using the marquee tools

Wielding the wand

Selecting everything

Deselecting everything

Editing Selections

Adding and subtracting from a selection

Intersecting a selection with a selection

Avoiding keyboard collisions

Automatic selection discombobulators

Hiding the Ants

Chapter 9: Layer Layer

Pasting Images Together

Filling a selection with a selection

Resizing an image to match its new home

Excuse Me, but What's a Layer?

Finding your way around the Layers palette

Moving and manipulating layers

Flattening and merging layers

Locking Layers

Moving and Cloning Selections

Transforming Layers and Selections

Using the Image menu's commands

Using the Transform tool

Ending your transformation

Chapter 10: Dusting Off Images (Without the Lemony Scent)

Introducing Filters

Applying filters

A few fast filter facts

Using the Dust & Scratches Filter

Previewing the filter effects

Specifying the size of the speck

Experimenting with the Highly Ethical Clone Stamp Tool

Stamping out splatters

Performing more magic with the Clone Stamp Tool

Getting the Red Out

Chapter 11: What Kind of Tool Am I?

Touching Base with Retouching Tools

Smudging Away Imperfections

Light on the smudge, please

Smudge-specific controls

All Them Other Edit Tools

Dodge? Burn? Those are opposites?

Playing with the Color knob

Focusing from the hip

Sharpening Those Wishy-Washy Details

The single-shot sharpeners

Unsharp Mask: The filter with a weird name

Some sharpening scenarios

Blurring Adds Depth

Chapter 12: The Rainbow Correction

Color-Correcting Correctly

Levels and Variations

Those "other" color correctors

Leveling the Contrast Field

Fiddling with adjustment layers

Making friends with the Levels dialog box

Brightness and contrast as they should be

Using the Adjust Backlighting and Fill Flash commands

Variations on a Color Scheme

Turning plain old color into Technicolor

Removing that color cast sure feels good

Using the Replace Color command

Chapter 13: The Stylish Retouch

Using Layer Styles to Shine and Shadow

Tending Your Many Splendid Blends

Fooling with layer opacity

Playing around with blend modes

Those Phunky Philters

Creating motion and puzzle pieces

Giving your images that gritty, streetwise look

Stamping your image in metal

Merging colors in flaky images

Making Taffy with the Liquify Filter

Chapter 14: If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words . . . Then Shut Up and Paint

Doodling with the Pencil, Paintbrush, and Airbrush

Performing Special Painting-Tool Tricks

Choosing Your Brush

Switching the brush size

Making your own brush

Going nuts with the Brushes palette

Exploring More Painting Options

Experimenting with brush modes

"Painting" with the Impressionist Brush

The Powers of the Eraser

Working with the regular ol' Eraser tool

Trying out the somewhat Magic Eraser

Using the more magical Background Eraser

Isn't Elements Just a Paint Program?

The Shape drawing tools

The Shape Selection Tool

Chapter 15 : The Digital Stencil

Painting within the Lines

Dribbling Paint from a Bucket

Applying Color to Selection Innards

Fill, I Command You!

Selecting your stuffing

Mixing colors the wrong way

Gradients: The Ever-Changing Color Sea

Checking out the Gradient tool

Changing the way of the gradient

Becoming a gradient wizard

Taking on Borders with the Stroke command

How the border rides the track

Mix your stroke after you press Enter (Return)

Chapter 16: Type Righter

Working with the Type Tool

Putting Your Words Onscreen

Typing what must be typed

Changing how the type looks

Warping type into strange and unusual shapes

Editing the Text Layer

Simplifying a Text Layer

Declaring Open Season on Type Selection Outlines

Tracing outlines around your letters

Chapter 17: Can Photoshop Elements Do That?

Taking on the Effects Palette

What's an effect?

To apply effects

Batch Processing

Creating and Printing a Contact Sheet

Creating and Printing a Picture Package

Creating a Web Photo Gallery

Creating an Animated GIF

Creating Panoramic Pictures with Photomerge

Chapter 18: Ten Shortcuts to Commit to Long-Term Memory

Displaying and Hiding the Toolbox and Palettes

Changing an Option Box Value

Scrolling and Zooming

Changing the Brush Size

Creating Straight Lines

Adding to, Subtracting from, and Reselecting Selection Outlines

Moving, Nudging, and Cloning

Filling a Selection

Making, Switching, and Selecting Layers

Stepping through the History Palette

Chapter 19: Ten Digital Facelift Techniques

Creating the Movie Starlet Glow

Turning the Face into a Button

Creating a Painted Masterpiece

Giving the Face a Bath

Stretching the Face This Way and That

Applying the Atomic Sunburn Effect

Applying the Cubist Look

Stamping the Face in a Marble Haze

Effecting a Total Molecular Breakdown

Framing the Goofy Pose

Chapter 20: Ten Reasons You Might Possibly Want to Upgrade to Photoshop One Day

Ctrl+H (Ô+H on the Mac)

The Channels Palette

CMYK Color Mode

Masking

Following the Paths

Eyeing Those Curves

Lights . . . Camera . . . Actions

Being an Art Historian

Photoshop Speaks!

A Little Help to Get Your ImageReady

Appendix