Teach_Yourself_Photoshop_Elements_2

AN INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

T

raditional film photographers

could use a host of darkroom tools

to develop their negatives into

prints. Some of these tools

enabled them to change contrast. By placing

a piece of card over part of the print they

could selectively lighten (dodge) tones in that

part of the photo. By cutting holes in card

they could mask most of an already exposed

image and let more light hit certain areas to

darken (burn) details. Photoshop Elements is

your digital darkroom, with its own

collection of photo-fixing tools. Indeed,

many of the tools in Elements share the

names of their analogue predecessors, such

as the Dodge and Burn tools.

Most of the tools can be found in the

Toolbox, located at the left of the Expert

Editor’s workspace. These tools enable you

to produce a wide range of photo-fixing

tasks. You can give reality a nip and tuck by

removing unwanted objects (or even people)

from a scene by using tools such as the

Clone Stamp, or perform a bit of cosmetic

enhancement by erasing a model’s blemishes

with the Spot Healing brush. Elements has a

new Content-Aware Move tool that enables

you to reposition a subject with ease (and

automatically fill in the space that they

occupied with appropriate pixels). We’ll look

at this new tool in more detail in Chapter 7.

Once you select a tool, you can modify the

way it behaves using the Tool Options at the

bottom of the workspace. The Toolbox and

the Tool Options work together to help you

make a wide range of image adjustments.

An overview of the Toolbox and Tool Options .........................

Customise the powerful array of tools in Elements with Tool Options