Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

Editing with Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Elements is available for Mac and PC computers and includes features

designed specifically for amateur photographers. Table 9.1 highlights several fea-

tures found only in Photoshop Elements by comparing it with the industry-standard

Photoshop, the most powerful image editor available for non-Unix systems.

Table 9.1 Features Present in Photoshop CS Versus Photoshop Elements 2

In Photoshop CS, But Not In Photoshop Elements 2,

in Photoshop Elements 2 But Not in Photoshop CS

Paths Auto import of digital camera images

Actions Palette and Recordable Actions Auto conversion of photos for the Web and

email distribution

CYMK Support Quick Fix window, Adjust Lighting, and Auto

Color Correction

Channels, Curves, and Guides Better menu bar and simplified toolbar

Masking Palette Well & PhotoMerge, a panoramic stitch-

ing program

Editable Vector Shapes Visual representation of filters and effects

Photoshop CS retail price: $649 Photoshop Elements retail Price: $99

Many of these features might sound like marketing-speak at the moment, but stick

with this chapter and you’ll learn the purpose of each. The bottom line is that for

the price, Photoshop Elements is pretty powerful!

Printing Resolution

One of the most confusing parts of digital photography to a beginner is printing res-

olution. The act of scanning in a picture or taking a picture with a digital camera at

one resolution and printing at another causes endless headaches for most amateurs.

Fortunately, today’s entry-level digital imaging software—Elements and iPhoto—

makes this process easier than ever.

Resizing an Image Step by Step

If you use an image more than once, you’ll probably need to change its size. In digi-

tal imaging, changing the dimensions of an image is called resizing. In Adobe

Photoshop Elements 2.0, resizing is performed via the Image, Resize, Image Size

command.

116 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TODIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY