These editing tools are just a small part of what
you can do with Elements, and while this is not a
book on image editing, photographing at night
and in low light usually produces images that
could use a little color editing. These are the tools
that will help you get the best-looking image.Using layers, layer masks, and blend modes in Elements
A key component to image editing is the use of
layers, layer masks, and blend modes. These are
the powerful tools that really allow you to
enhance your images. The idea behind layers and
blend modes is pretty simple: You can stack■ Color Variations. This is a fun way to adjustthe color in your image. The first step is to
pick the area that you want to adjust. You can
choose from Midtones, Shadows, Highlights,
or Saturation. The next step is to adjust the
color intensity, and then you can click the
thumbnails to pick the image you think looks
best. For the first three choices, you can
increase or decrease the Red, the Blue, or the
Green, and you can lighten or darken that
area. For the Saturation adjustment, you can
decrease or increase the saturation. As you
can tell in Figure 11-14, the adjustments are
cumulative and the preview window allows
you to see the changes in real time.
11-14
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The Color Variations menu in
Elements allows you to adjust
the image without using any
math; instead, you can make
the adjustments based on the
appearance of the image.