The Photoshop Elements Book Revised

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Photoshop Elements ®

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The ultimate guide to getting the most out of Photoshop Elements

Getting started • Amazing techniques • Creative projects

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Welcome to

Photoshop Elements The

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We’re very excited to have an entire book dedicated to this fantastic image-editing software aimed at consumers, particularly as it’s often overshadowed by its CC sibling. Sharing many of the features the professional version boasts, the revised edition of The Photoshop Elements Book explores updates to Elements 11. Discover how to edit your images, create digital art and share your projects with the wider world. Providing you with an in-depth guide and step-by-step tutorials to fine-tune your techniques, this book also comes with a free disc so you can follow along and experiment with free resources.

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Photoshop Elements The

®

®

TM

Imagine Publishing Ltd Richmond House 33 Richmond Hill Bournemouth Dorset BH2 6EZ % +44 (0) 1202 586200 Website: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk

Head of Publishing Aaron Asadi Head of Design Ross Andrews Production Editor Sarah Harrison Senior Art Editor Greg Whitaker Design Perry Wardell-Wicks Printed by William Gibbons, 26 Planetary Road, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT Distributed in the UK & Eire by Imagine Publishing Ltd, www.imagineshop.co.uk. Tel 01202 586200 Distributed in Australia by Gordon & Gotch, Equinox Centre, 18 Rodborough Road, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086. Tel + 61 2 9972 8800 Distributed in the Rest of the World by Marketforce, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU Disclaimer The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this bookazine may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review. Although the bookazine has endeavoured to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and availability may change. This bookazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries and is used with express permission. The Photoshop Elements Book Volume 1 Revised Edition © 2013 Imagine Publishing Ltd ISBN 978-1909372726

Part of the ®

bookazine series

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Contents 08 Ultimate guide Explore all Photoshop Elements has to ofer, from editing images, creating projects and sharing masterpieces

PAGE 154

Techniques Clone objects

26 Duplicate people in your photos started 28 Get with selections

your images 46 Sharpen Remove subtle blurring

72

exposure 48 Improve Bring life back into images

images with curves 74 Fix Push contrast as far as you can

creative 52 Make panoramas

images to 76 Convert black and white

Use the Photomerge function

Manipulate your images

selections 30 Master and masking

Create the out-of-bounds efect

32

Retouch photos

Touch up your portraits

colour 34 Control Improve the colour of photos to know Gradients 36 Get Master this essential tool

Photo editing Make one-click fixes

58 Discover auto options

the Lomo effect 78 Get Push colour limits colours with 80 Edit Photo Filter

Fix white-balance problems

essential 64 Make adjustments

heavy shadows 88 Fix Bring back some light

Use blend modes for this efect

brushes effectively 44 Use Discover how to use the Brush

drama with 70 Add Dodge and Burn

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From colour to monochrome

macro 84 Perfect Add layered macro efects

portraits 66 Edit Improve your portrait shots

palette to its full potential

Fake the HDR look

guided edits 62 Top Make your editing easier

40 Rescue old photos

Restore faded family photos

Master HDR toning

Adjust lighting

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exposure 90 Create effects

Make a layered composition

up your 94 Light seascapes

Create some atmosphere

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PAGE 30

PAGE 36

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your 98 Improve landscapes

134

Adjust colour and exposure

PAGE 58

PAGE 90

Create a family portrait

an art-deco style 140 Create Master the Mezzotint filter

104

an abstract 144 Design Control the Custom Shape tool

Get creative with this efect

Retouch for classic effects

Create a vintage portrait efect

110

Use the Lighting Effects filter

Add stunning lighting efects

114

Add emphasis to eyes

116

Selective colour creations

Apply a rainbow efect Bring out the tones

Digital art a comic122 Create book effect

Use the Color Halftone filter

Elements for 126 Use stunning effects

Make the most of Elements

your way to 130 Smudge an oil painting

Create an oil portrait with the Smudge tool

Photo project

Fake a painted-portrait efect with your family snaps

the 100 Create Dragan effect

underwater 184 Create scenes

Use filters and blend modes to create a photomontage

for abstract artwork

with Perspective 188 Play Create a miniature efect

148 Mix tradition with digital Paint portraits

your own 192 Design holiday postcard

154 Re-create Andy Warhol's work Create instant pop art

Send a modern-day postcard the digital way

your own 156 Make watercolour

a photo album 194 Build Create your own virtual album

Merge traditional art efects

a 196 Compose mixed-media piece

photos to sketches 160 Turn Get creative with your images brushes 162 Customise Create eye-catching art splatter effects 166 Create Combine brushes and assets

170

Apply textures

Add some texture to your shots

water effects 174 Make Use filters and blend modes ancient patterns 180 Design Create some ancient designs

PAGE 140

Create a musical composition with a variety of media

a 200 Create panoramic planet

Make a 360-degree planet

202 Compose surreal artwork

Create a bizarre composite

a retro 206 Achieve photo effect

for use in a variety of projects

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Send your photos back in time with a retro efect

The Photoshop Elements Book 7

Photoshop Elements WorldMags.net

The ultimate guide to

Photoshop Elements Explore Photoshop Elements and find out how it can transform your photos

T

he CS6 version of Photoshop is a wonderful program, packed with tools, filters and advanced facilities for performing an enormously wide range of adjustments on your images. However, though its breadth and depth is its biggest strength, it can be rather too much when you just want to do some simple image editing and create some straightforward effects. Sometimes, Photoshop CS6 is a bit more than you need. This is where Photoshop Elements 11 comes to the rescue. It contains a large number of the features that

8 The Photoshop Elements Book

make its big brother such an impressive piece of software, but strips away some of the more complex aspects, resulting in a program that is both sleek and easy to use. It’s still an extremely powerful program that can enable you to produce some incredible effects, so you’ll need to spend some time getting to grips with everything that it has to offer. Over the next few pages, we’ve prepared an easy-to-follow guide to help you uncover some of the many ways in which Photoshop Elements 11 can help you to make the very best of your favourite images in no time at all.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 9

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Toolbar

Access a range of very powerful editing tools via the Toolbar thatÕs on the left-hand side of the screen. How many tools you have access to will vary, depending on which editing mode you are using in Elements 11.

Edit mode

Within the Photo Editor interface, choose between Quick, Guided and Expert editing modes, depending on your skill level and how in-depth the editing will be. Each mode functions very differently.

“Select between Full edit, Quick edit or Guided edit depending on skill level and intent” Layers palette

When editing an image, you can use the Layers palette to build up the enhancements non-destructively. You need to be working in Expert mode in order to access the range of Layers options available in Elements 11.

Photo Bin

When working in the Photo Editor, the images youÕve opened to edit will appear in the Photo Bin along the bottom. This means you have quick access to images and can view a sequence of images easily.

Main menu

The top bar of the Photo Editor interface has the main menu options you might need to access during editing. Advanced features include image and canvas size adjustments, image adjustments, filters and view options.

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Layout

Tool adjustment panel

Click on the Layout button at the bottom of the interface in order to change the way the images are arranged within the Photo Editor. This is great if youÕre looking to replicate a specific effect across several images.

Whenever you select a tool from the Toolbar, adjust its settings by clicking on Tool Options at the bottom of the interface. If youÕre using the paintbrush, for example, this panel will allow you to change brush-size settings and strength to suit your needs.

Share mode

Click on the Share tab to explore the many ways of sharing your shots with family members and friends. You need to be in the Organizer interface to access this in Elements 11.

Create tab

Click on the Create tab to output images into personalised keepsakes and products. YouÕll be able to construct and customise photo books, greeting cards, calendars and collages. There are extra Create options when you are working in the Organizer interface.

The Organizer

At the bottom left of the Photo Editor, you can access the Organizer. The Photo Editor wonÕt close down; instead the Organizer will open in a separate window.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 11

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Edit W

Discover how you can transform your images using filters, frames, text and more, right in the Photo Editor in Elements 11

hen you load up Elements 11, you’ll see a splash screen that enables you to choose between the Organizer and Photo Editor. These two main choices offer completely different functions, but retouching your images and adding effects is one of the first things that you’ll want to do so we’re going to take a look at the incredible range of editing possibilities on offer in Elements 11. Simply click on the Photo Editor tab to start working on your images. Elements 11 will load up and you can begin to edit, enhance and add effects to your photographs. If you want to access the Organizer simultaneously, click on the relevant button at the bottom of the Photo Editor interface and you can have the two windows open up at once.

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To make things as straightforward and user-friendly as possible, the Photo Editor provides you with three separate tabs to choose from at the top centre of the interface; the choice you make will be informed by the complexity of editing and retouching that you wish to carry out. For very basic image touch-ups, the Quick tab is definitely the best option. Here, you are restricted to six quick editing tools at the left-hand side of the interface, with just the Quick Selection Tool, Red Eye Removal Tool, Whiten Teeth Tool, Horizontal Type Tool, Spot Healing Brush Tool and Crop Tool at your disposal. If you just want to remove a few blemishes from a family snap or make some very simple improvements to an image, the Quick tab will be all that you need.

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The Guided tab, meanwhile, works very differently. In this tab, the Tools palette disappears from the left-hand side of the interface, but there’s actually a much wider range of options available for retouching your images than found in the Quick tab. The image-editing tools in the Guided tab are divided into three subsections at the right-hand side of the interface. As the name implies, when you click on each of these, Elements 11 provides a clear set of instructions to ensure you know what each slider and control will do, allowing you to create some quite advanced effects with a minimum level of difficulty. The Touchups menu allows you to perform a dozen different basic image corrections, some of which, like the Crop Photo facility and the Sharpen feature,

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Guided edits The Perfect Portrait feature allows you to easily make the most of your people photos, taking you through the retouching process.

Use features such as Enhance Colors in Elements’ Photo Editor to improve the appearance of colours in your images.

are fairly basic, but others are much more in-depth and powerful, like the Perfect Portrait feature and the Recompose option. If you want to get creative with your images, the Photo Effects subsection has plenty of fun on offer. There are ten effects to choose from, including a feature to help create an Old Fashioned Photo, a Line Drawing effect and the ability to add Depth of Field, Tilt-Shift and Vignette effects. Photo Play is the third and final subsection, featuring four fairly advanced effects that would otherwise be difficult to reproduce. Out Of Bounds allows you to create the illusion of a part of your image, such as someone’s leg kicking a ball, coming out of the bounds of the image. Picture Stack allows you to present your image as four, eight, or twelve individual tiles, similar to a jigsaw puzzle. Pop Art allows you to

If you’re a complete beginner to Photoshop Elements 11, use the Guided edits section to ensure you get the image results you want. Easy to access via the main Photo Editor interface, you can explore a whole range of semiautomated editing options. Elements 11 will guide you through the entire editing process, even showing you how to customise each effect’s result. Guided edits are a great way to get familiar with image editing and ensure professionallooking results.

Add impact and get creative with your presentation by adding a frame around the edges of your images within the Expert editing tab.

choose from two different, Warhol-esque Pop Art effects, while the Reflection option allows you to create a reflection effect completely from scratch. If you want to take things further, visit the Expert tab. This is similar to the main Photoshop interface, and offers significant levels of creative control once your imageediting confidence grows. There is an extensive Tools palette at the left-hand side of the interface, with four different selection tools, six enhancing tools, eight drawing tools and four modifying tools. Over on the right-hand side of the interface, there’s a Layers palette. When combined with blending modes, this allows you to take very extensive control over your image adjustments, and it’s not too difficult to get to grips with after a little bit of experimentation.

Quick

The Quick edit tab restricts you to a very limited range of Tools, allowing you to make minor, simple adjustments with a minimum of fuss.

Guided

Guided editing allows you to produce some really great effects without even needing to be particularly experienced with Photoshop or even with Photoshop Elements.

Expert

Create incredible artistic effects using the Guided editing tab, including professional-looking treatments such as this Pop Art look.

Not just for beginners, you can use Guided edits to learn how to apply specific styles to a shot such as Lomo or Orton.

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Use this mode when you want to take full creative control of your images. You have access to the full range of Tools and you can also make use of Layers.

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Create T

he Create tab can be found in both the Photo Editor section and the Organizer section in Elements 11, although the Organizer version features two additional options: Instant Movie and DVD With Menu. In both cases though, the Create tab is designed to make it easy for you to take your images beyond the editing stage and incorporate them into fun, creative and practical projects that you can enjoy with friends and family. As you start to explore the Create tab, youÕll find that there are plenty of userfriendly and powerful options for each project, enabling you to make all of the creative decisions when it comes to page

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Output your images to a range of fun creative projects using the Create section of Elements 11

design, text and image layouts without the need to be an experienced user. You begin by first selecting a design theme or basic template, which you can then customise and develop as the project progresses. Once youÕve selected a project, you can then start to work on it to build it up until you have produced the desired result. You can select the Page tab to work with the individual pages in your project or use the Layouts tab to select from an array of ready-made page template designs. The Graphics tab provides options for backgrounds and frames, allowing you to add artwork onto the design for creative background effects or photo framing,

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and thereÕs even an option to include customisable text. Drag and drop is all thatÕs required to position images within the project that you are creating. Traditional photo prints can also be prepared for home printing Ð and for extra convenience ordered via online services Ð using the Create tab. As with everything in Photoshop Elements 11, the Create tab offers plenty of guidance along the way so whether you are making a detailed photo book or a one-page collage, youÕll be able to do so with absolute ease. In fact, itÕs incredible how much you can actually achieve with the Create tab in a relatively short space of time.

Ultimate guide WorldMags.net Creating a photo book

A photo book is a fantastic keepsake that can take far less time to put together than a photo album, full of prints. Easy to design and customisable in the Create tab of Elements 11, you can decide on page layouts, design and text as you go. There are plenty of starter themes and optional book sizes you can select from before you begin too. To get started on your own photo-book project, select the Photo Book option from the available projects in the Create tab. You can now follow along with us as we take you through the basic steps of putting together your own personalised photo book in Elements 11.

Add in text

Create a photo book

Click on the Create button and locate the Photo Book option from the drop-down menu. In the dialog box select a Photo Book style that you would like, add in the page amount and then un-check ÔAutofill with Selected imagesÕ.

Inside page

Using the arrows along the bottom, scroll through to the inside pages. If text is not available on the layout but you would like to add some, go to the Create tab and text then click Add Text Block and apply anywhere on the page.

Design your cover

You can now begin designing your cover. Drag an image from the Project Bin up or double-click on the space to open one from a separate file. Drag to the space allocated.

Design layout

You can scroll through the Create tab options and add in additional artwork to your photo book design or alternatively change the page layouts by selecting a new page template from the Layouts tab.

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Click on the text space to activate and adjust the text font, size, style and alignment within the Create tab. You can also adjust colour here and warp text for more creative results. Now type in your photo book title.

Add in pages

You may need more pages than you originally intended. To add more into your photo book, go to Pages in the Create tab and select the + sign to add more in.

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Share O

ne of the joys of photography, and indeed one of the chief reasons for actually taking photos, is to share the images you’ve captured with other people, particularly family and friends to whom the images may have a meaning. Where once upon a time this was largely restricted to leafing through a family album, thanks to the development of the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, there’s no longer a need to have our photos printed before we share them. This instant process means all of us are sharing more images, more

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Discover how to really enjoy your favourite images with friends and relatives using the Share tab in Elements 11

frequently. To fulfil the need for this, and to make the shoot-edit-share process a fully integrated one, Elements 11 features a dedicated Share tab in its interface. Once you’ve finished making all of your final editing tweaks, head to the Organizer interface where you can then simply click on the share tab to upload your images straight to the likes of Facebook, Flickr or Adobe Revel, Adobe’s own cloud-based storage, editing and browsing service. You can also opt to share them via an online album, separately as an email attachment or alternatively, burn them

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onto a CD or DVD. The Organizer allows you to add in keywords and tags to your images, which is an ideal way to keep track of your shots as you can specify who’s in them, where they were taken and at what event. Portrait and groupshot images can even be tagged using your Facebook friends’ names to save you the trouble of having to do it separately on the online social networking site. Depending on how you’ve opted to share your images, the Organizer will take you step-by-step through the entire upload process. To share your images via the likes of Flickr and Facebook, you

Ultimate guide WorldMags.net will have to have already registered with either site and set up a viable account. You can then begin editing and adding images directly onto your online profile through the software. Sharing images by email is also easy, as Elements 11 gives you the option to either email shots directly or embed them within an existing email. You can adjust image sizes within the email preferences and even opt to create and send shots as a PDF. The

Organizer also enables you to set up a contacts book, which will allow you to input and then search for contacts so that you can send shots more efficiently. The online album-sharing option will enable you to export images onto a Hard Disk or alternatively share them via Showcase online. Photoshop Showcase is a mediahosting gallery site that lets users upload and share their images and videos directly through Photoshop software. Once youÕve

The big share

created a profile on the site, you can send family members and friends a link to your online gallery and share your latest Elements creations. Keen videographers will also appreciate the video sharing options within the OrganizerÕs Share tab. Here, youÕll be able to upload and share video files on YouTube, burn them onto a DVD or BluRay disc, and even upload them onto mobile phones or other portable video playing devices.

“Share precious moments and memories with your friends and family”

Share to Flickr

Keep your online portfolio up-to-date by sharing and uploading edited images instantly onto your Flickr profile. You are able to add relevant image tags within the Organizer.

Share to Facebook

Email images

ItÕs easy to attach or embed images into an email directly through Elements 11; simply follow the on-screen instructions for correct image sizes.

Online album

You can share your images via your own Facebook account through the software. Go to the Share tab, choose Facebook and then tag people/places within the Organizer before uploading.

Create an album that you can share online via the Create tab. Once completed, you can upload it to Photoshop Showcase. Alternatively, you can export the album onto a Hard Disk, CD or DVD.

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Manage

You can sort, rate, tag and keyword your images in Elements 11

A

fter shooting hundreds or thousands of images, it can be all too easy to upload images onto your computer or portable hard drive and then just leave them there, disorganised in various folders without being edited or even correctly named. To help you get into the habit of managing your workflow, the Organizer interface in Elements 11 has been designed to make it easy to sort, rate, tag and keyword your shots before filing them away. You can use the Organizer to import images, edit down a shoot size, create an album, create personalised photo or video keepsakes and instantly share shots. To save you the bother of loading up the Photo Editor interface, the Photo Fix Options tab allows you to make minor corrections to photos. In fact, thereÕs so much on hand, thereÕs now no excuse for not keeping on top of managing your photo masterpieces.

Importing images If you have a batch of images to edit and enhance from a shoot, avoid opening them all in Elements 11 in one go. Unless you have a really powerful computer, this will cause a crash. First use the Organizer to help narrow down which shots are worth working with. This is also a time-saving way to import images into the software, as you wonÕt have to load them individually. YouÕll also be able to see them all clearly in one place; great if creating a series and you want to determine what images work together. If youÕre only looking to edit one or two specific shots, use the quicker File>Open process.

You can use the Elements 11 Organizer to import media from multiple sources, whether itÕs image or video files from a digital camera, USB, mobile phone device, CD/DVD, scanner or even a separate hard drive and so on. By importing a batch of images from a portable device, youÕll be asked to create a catalogue, which you can opt to save in an existing file location on your computer desktop or documents folder. This will ensure your shots stay together and that the selected few can go through to editing in Elements 11 software. If however, you have already uploaded images onto your computer, you can simply select to open them all with this interface to edit without having to create a catalogue.

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Keyword Tags Keywording is an essential part of managing your workflow and organising your images. Once youÕve imported shots through the Elements 11 Organizer, you can insert relevant keywords using the Keyword Tag menu. This will help you to file and later find specific images on your computer. You can keyword tag people, places, events and other important things about the image, such as lighting style, effects or colours. Provided all of your keyword tags are relevant and useful they will help you to stay organised and make finding specific shots more efficient. To keyword your images correctly you need to focus on highlighting the most important elements within the shot. If youÕve got a portrait image for example, you can keyword tag the name and the word ÔportraitÕ. This will ensure the image appears in multiple portrait searches, including those that are not name related. The best thing about the Elements Keyword Tag system is that it then organises the rest for you. Searching for shots is much easier and results can be more specific, which makes the possibility of sharing images instantly more of a reality. ItÕs worth noting that the keyword tag system is not only great for images, but you can also use it to manage and tag video files, audio clips, PDFs and projects.

Find images

Select the green + symbol to create a tag. In the dialogue box, you can select a category and add in a keyword and notes. Once you’ve created the tag you can drag the tag icon onto any other image that the keyword applies to.

Once youÕve built up a good imagemanagement system with the use of keywords and tags, youÕll be able to search for and find specific shots quite easily. Photoshop Elements 11 features a simple search-andfind function for efficiency. To find tagged images, you can simply enter a keyword into the search bar or alternatively, select one of the active key words from the lists of Keywords and Smart Tags to bring up the right results.

Search bar Once Elements 11 is familiar with a face it will attempt to use people recognition in order to tag that person in multiple images. Simply click to confirm if it’s correct, as it saves extra tagging time.

When searching using keywords in the search bar, you can enter multiple tags for more specific results. If youÕve tagged an image with a personÕs name and a place that the image was captured, you can search for both of these elements to get more accurate search results.

Photo Bin

You can opt to edit images through the Photo Bin by using the drop-down menu. Click Create to construct a project, Share to upload images online, Print to print all of the images within the bin, and Save to group all of the shots together in an album.

To activate an image in the Photo Bin to edit, you’ll need to scroll through the options and double-click on a shot to expand in the main screen.

Once youÕve imported images into the Organizer and selected the ones to edit, transfer them over to the Photo Editor in Elements 11. Your shots will appear automatically as thumbnails in the Photo Bin along the bottom of the interface. Just click the Photo Bin icon at the bottom left of the interface if the panel isnÕt visible. This is a fantastic tool if editing a series of images as you can see how well they work as a collection. To change the order of your shots for a different view, simply click and drag them into a new position. To change your editing screen view and activate a shot to edit, double-click on a thumbnail in the Photo Bin, it should then appear large on screen. You can also action some adjustments in the Photo Bin via the drop-down menu in the right-hand corner. Here, you can get a view of any images currently active in the Organizer, print all of the Photo Bin files or save them as an album. This is a great way to process multiple files quickly, rather than having to trawl through loads of images and save them individually.

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People recognition

Once youÕve tagged a person within a portrait using a specific name, Elements 11 will attempt to recognise this person in other images. Once you open a shot it will ask you to confirm if itÕs correct.

Keyword Tags panel

Another way to find specific photos is to click on the box next to the relevant tag in the Keyword Tag panel. Elements 11 will then automatically bring up all of the images that carry this tag.

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Gallery

Elements can help you achieve a wealth of different effects Ð here is a roundup of some of the possibilites open to you Filter and auto effects

Just because something is easy doesn’t mean to say that it can’t be beautiful. The range of automatic efects in Elements is staggering and each one can be used to create something to be proud of. The obvious place to go for the auto options is the Filters menu. In here you can access filters to get a certain style efect or apply a set edit. You can enjoy a wealth of options here, from inky sketch efects through to getting creative with blur. The Artistic range of filters are a good place to start, as are the Render and Pixellate. For complete beginners, pay a trip to the Guided edits. These will let you edit photos and apply styles with just a few clicks of the mouse. Simply run through the steps and enjoy results such as sepia photos or popart-inspired prints. And once you’ve made your images, use the Share workspace to create a presentation package or to ready the images for print.

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Paint effects

Digital painting is a fantastic way to turn your photos into something truly special, and with Elements you can paint even if you have no natural artistic talent. We’ve spoken about the filters, but the Smudge tool is also worth investigating. As you brush over a photo, it pulls up the colour information and uses it to make realistic brush strokes.

Creative layers

The Layers palette is your best friend when it comes to larger edits, as it enables you to control elements and separate them from others. Layer masks were introduced in Elements 10, which enables users to enjoy even more control. The layer blend modes are great for building up collages such as the one above.

Photo edits

Being able to transform your ordinary photos into something to be proud of is at the heart of Elements. Each version comes equipped with a range of powerful editing tools, allowing you to perfect aspects such as colour, lighting and sharpness. If you don’t feel confident, most editing tools come with Auto options.

Traditional photo effects

If you are a fan of traditional photography and want to bring some of the style to your own images, Elements can help. There are various options for bringing traditional efects such as depth of field or high contrast, in addition to colour and tone edits such as monochrome. These can be achieved through dedicated tools or through filters.

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10 improvements to Photoshop Elements 11 Ten reasons why Photoshop Elements is better than ever GRAPHIC NOVEL The Graphic Novel filter, new to version 11, gives images a sketched effect. There are options to alter the mood of the effect, depending on the scene, by using the Painted Gray, Fine Detail, Hard Edges and Twisted Plot presets.

LOW KEY EFFECT

P

hotoshop Elements 11 has been altered; not just in the way that it looks, but also in the effects and tools it has on offer. Here are ten improvements to the latest version of the beginner’s choice in photo-editing software.

QUICK, GUIDED AND EXPERT MODES

The three modes in Photoshop Elements 11 have taken centre stage. Edit images in either Quick, Guided or Expert mode. Quick contains a few of the basic tools for enhancing images, Guided guides you through some great creative effects, and Expert features the entire program.

01

A NEW LOOK

The new version has been given a grey interface, which is different to their traditional black interface. The whole program has been refined to make it easier to follow, and effects can now be applied to images faster and more effectively. Icons and text are bigger and bolder, and the on-screen options and menus are much tidier too.

02

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New Guided Edits, such as this Low Key effect, provide quick ways of putting a creative spin on ordinary images. Low Key darkens the background and increases the overall mood of the image.

Ultimate guide WorldMags.net ACCURATE SELECTIONS The improved Refine Edge is a blessing when it comes to selecting and cutting out tricky subjects. Plus, the Smart Radius comes with a brush that can be used to paint out unwanted areas around hair and other intricate subjects.

COMIC FILTERS

MAPS It’s easy to remember where photos were shot by using Organizer’s new Places feature. It uses Google Maps and is perfect for travellers.

PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS

The Organizer is where images are collated and shared. You can categorize and tag them depending on the people involved, where they were photographed and when they were created. People can be grouped quickly using the simple, icon-based approach and faces can be tagged ready for uploading straight to social networking sites.

03

LOCATION SPECIFIC

If you’re a keen traveller and aim to capture moments as you go, then the Places section of the Organizer will prove invaluable. Photos and videos can be placed inside a world map with details of their exact location. This is great for keeping snapshots together and locating them at a later date.

04

For more cartoon-like image effects, there are three new Sketch filters that can give images a range of fun finishes, including Comic, Graphic Novel and Pen and Ink. These are useful for imitating drawn effects, with colour, line thickness and shading all forming part of their adjustments.

06

ONLINE ALBUM

There’s a new set of templates for printing and creating Online Albums. This feature, specific to the Organizer, lets you store images using a variety of layouts and creative designs, categorised under Family, Occasions and Interactive.

07

ACTIONS

Actions are one-click solutions to creative effects. These are new to Elements in version 11, and include borders, resizing and cropping commands. They also include effects such as sepia toning, faded ink and instant Polaroid.

08

SHARE VIDEOS

BETTER REFINE EDGE

Photoshop Elements 11 lets you upload videos to online portals Vimeo and YouTube. Since every digital camera and mobile device has video capture available, there should be no reason why sharing these is left out of the frame.

05

GUIDED EDITS

Reflecting Photoshop CS6, the Refine Edge command now has more options. Selections can be controlled using the full range of adjustments and sliders, including Decontaminate Colors, which is useful for sorting out those stray pixels between cutouts. Smart Radius makes selecting difficult outlines such as hair a breeze, along with the feathering, smoothing and contrast sliders for perfecting the overall area.

09

Unique to Photoshop Elements 11 is its range of Guided Edits. They now include four new effects: Miniature, Vignette, Low Key and High Key. Following step-by-steps, they only take minutes to apply, and this is one reason why Elements 11 has proved popular with artists looking for quick, fun effects.

10

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The Photoshop Elements Book 23

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PAGE 28

PAGE 52

PAGE 30

Techniques

Enhance your skills and improve your projects with these techniques 26

Clone objects

28

Get started with selections

30

Master selections and masking

32

Retouch photos

34

Control colour

36

Get to know Gradients

Duplicate people in your photos

Manipulate your images

Create the out-of-bounds efect

Touch up your portraits

Improve the colour of photos

Master this essential tool

old photos 40 Rescue Restore faded family photos brushes effectively 44 Use Tips for using the Brush palette

PAGE 26

24 The Photoshop Elements Book

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46

Sharpen your images

48

Improve exposure PAGE 150 Bring life back into images

52

Make creative panoramas

Remove subtle blurring

Get to grips with the Photomerge function

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PAGE 40

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The Photoshop Elements Book 25

Techniques WorldMags.net

Clone objects Duplicate the people in your photos using the Clone Stamp tool

C

loning is a feature that has been around since the early versions of Elements. It is a feature that is mainly used in retouching to remove blemishes, freckles and wrinkles, but can be adapted for creative purposes too. In fact, you can clone absolutely anything onto anything, so long as the tool has the right settings in the Tool Options bar. Using a soft-edged brush is fundamental when you are painting with the Clone Stamp tool, because this helps to blend the two areas together. There are other essential options to tick as well, such as Align, and we will cover how you can use masks in order to create a successful cloned subject.

“You can clone absolutely anything onto anything, so long as the tool has the right settings in the Tool Options bar”

Understand the effect Cloning subjects across your image

Set up the tool

Select the Clone Stamp tool from the Add a new layer Use Clone Stamp 01 Toolbar, or press the S key for a Keep Opacity set to 100% and tick To use the tool to create a clone of shortcut to take you straight there. Go to 02 Aligned. This enables you to paint the the Tool Options bar and click on the Brush cloned subject to any area of the image. Make 03 the subject, press Alt/Opt and click on the part of the subject you want to clone. preview thumbnail. Pick a soft-edged brush, sure Sample All Layers is ticked to account for with a diameter that is just larger than the subject you want to clone. 26 The Photoshop Elements Book

any new layers. With this set, add a new layer above the Background image.

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Release Alt/Opt and then paint the subject back in to a different part of the scene.

Clone objects WorldMags.net Clone options Alter the settings and combine with other Elements features Blur distant subjects

Perspective

Aligned

No selection

The smaller cloned subject in the distance has been given a slight Gaussian blur (Filter>Blur). This is to match the rest of the background elements, which are a little blurry.

Create a new layer each time before the brush is applied, so the cloned area can be resized. We can use Image>Transform> Free Transform to shrink down the duplicate and stay in perspective.

Tick the Aligned box in the Tool Options bar so that the Clone Stamp tool continues to work from where you left off. Otherwise, the tool will reset its position.

Subjects can be cloned and flipped around as many times as you like. The best thing of all is that no selection is needed to create duplicates.

What does it mean?

Flip subject

Retouch clone

Once your subject has been completely cloned to the new position, go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal to mirror it. Rotate it for variation using Image>Rotate>Free Rotate Layer and dragging the corner points.

To smarten up the edges of the 05 subject, add a layer mask (Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All). Now use the

04

Brush tool set to black to remove the rough edges and reveal the background around the subject.

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MODE When cloning objects, change the Mode setting (found in the Tool Options bar) to alter the way they appear and interact with your image. Overlay, for example, creates a high-contrast effect, whereas using Screen mode will reduce the contrast and turns objects into ghostlike figures.

The Photoshop Elements Book 27

Techniques WorldMags.net

Get started with selections

Tool Options Each selection tool comes with its own settings. These include the Add to Selection command that enables multiple selections to be made on the same image. Subtract from Selection excludes the new area from the current selection and Intersect with Selection will let only areas in your new selection that intersect with previous ones be highlighted.

Streamline your selections with our overview of tools and tricks to control and manipulate the elements of your images

S

elections form one of the cornerstones of Photoshop editing, and mastering the skills to neatly isolate areas of your image opens up a host of possibilities for creative editing. Photoshop Elements has a number of built-in selection options ranging from the very basic to the more complex. We’ll be looking at the more simple options to get your selection skills up to scratch in this tutorial. Selection options are laid out in the Select menu with Photoshop ofering some additional choices to Elements that perform more complex functions. However, Elements has some fantastic options on ofer. The annotations walk you through the basic, need-toknow features in this menu to give you control over your selections from modifying, inverting and saving them. The selection tools are purpose-built and each is suited to a particular type of selection, from the Marquee tool that makes selections based on shapes to the Magic Wand tool which makes automatic selections based on colour. The software realises that freehand drawing is inaccurate but sometimes necessary, so a host of magnetic and smart tools assist you in tracing outlines and selecting only the part of an image that you need. Learning the option menus that go with each tool will help you better control it and get the most out of its functionality. Above all, knowing what a particular tool was built for will enable you to select the correct one for the correct purpose and be able to make seamless and accurate selections, time and time again.

Refine Edge and Feather This set of commands is available when using any selection tool and gives you options to change the edges of your selection. The Smooth slider removes bumps along the selection line, Feather softens the edges in a uniform blur and Contract/Expand either increases or decreases the selection edge.

Quick mode

Marquee tool

Options for speedy edits

Shape-based selections

Photoshop Elements 11 has three edit modes: Quick, Guided and Expert. If youÕre new to editing and choose the Quick mode, selection options are limited to the Quick Selection and Selection Brush tools. With one click the Quick Selection tool will read pixels and guess selection parameters depending on how similar the pixels are to each other. The Brush Selection tool offers more accurate results as you control the selection yourself. Change the brush size to suit your selection. If you require more intuitive tools, switch between the Guided and Expert modes while working on an image.

Make selections based on shapes in your image with the Marquee tool. You can choose either the Rectangular or Elliptical tool to make a selection within your image. Begin at a point on the image and drag the tool across your target as you hold the mouse down. Hold down the Shift key to create a perfect square or circle with each tool respectively. Make the selection carefully, as you canÕt change dimensions once the selection is complete. This tool works best with simple elements in an image or to make precise and even selections.

28 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Get started with Selections WorldMags.net Anti-alias and Tolerance Anti-aliased is used with the Marquee tool and automatically smooths out the edges of circular or elliptical shapes. Keep the box ticked to have the function on. Tolerance controls the degree to which the automatic selections recognise similar or different pixels and gives a greater degree of control when using the automatic selection functions.

Inverse and deselect The Inverse option enables you to choose the opposite part of the image from the selection you’ve made. This is useful when working with the Marquee tool to select borders. Deselecting is to come out of any area, and is the only command that can do this (Ctrl/Cmd+D).

Enhance selected colour Use Elements to balance an image Isolating elements within an image enables you to inject enhancements where needed without affecting the whole of your shot. In this image the greens, yellows and browns are dynamic but the blues seem washed out against them. By selecting the sky and the water, the colour can be adjusted to marry perfectly with the rest of the image.

Magic Wand

01

Select the Magic Wand tool and make a selection of the water by clicking in a dark blue area. Zoom in to ensure you select the right shade rather than the surrounding pigments such as the boat or riverbank.

Add to Selection

02

In the Magic Wand’s Tool Options, select Add to Selection (two squares). With this selected, click in the sky area to make a second selection of those same-coloured pixels to be added to the first.

Enhance colour

03

Go to Enhance> Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves and increase the Midtone curve by half the available value. The adjustment will only be applied to the two blue selected areas.

Save selection Save selections for later use by choosing Select>Save Selection, naming your file appropriately and then clicking OK to save. Access the saved data via Select>Load Selection and choosing it from the list. Your selection will then appear on your image.

Lasso selections

Magic Wand

Freehand and magnetic options

Automatic selections by colour

The Lasso tools include the basic Lasso, Magnetic Lasso and Polygonal Lasso. The basic tools enable rough freehand selections, good for situations where precision isn’t required. The Polygonal tool lets you add reference points as you draw by clicking the mouse, which is especially handy for drawing straight lines. The Magnetic Lasso traces along the edges of objects with strong colour contrast and, as with the Polygonal, you can create reference points as you draw, pressing the Backspace key to return to the last reference point. Finish back at your start point or double-click to complete a selection.

A single click and the Magic Wand makes an automatic selection within your image based on the colour that you clicked on. This tool gives fairly accurate results in images with strong, similar colours and varying accuracy in more complex images. To get better results with the tool, pay attention to the Tolerance level that appears in the Tool Options bar when the tool is selected. This determines how closely the selection will match the clicked colour. The higher the value, the wider the colour range.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 29

Techniques WorldMags.net

Before

Source files available Use the files on the site to re-create this: http://blog. photoshopcreative. co.uk/tutorial-files

Master selections and masking Explore the potential of masking and selections by creating this out of bounds effect in Photoshop Elements

T

he ‘out of bounds’ effect in Elements 11 is actually a Guided Edit. This only goes so far, however, and restricts the level of control that you have over the effect. To create our own version of the effect, we need to look at layers more closely in Expert Mode. With masking techniques, the water in our seascape can be made to look like it’s spilling out of the frame, and by making a selection, a part of the image can be made to emerge from the frame beneath

30 The Photoshop Elements Book

this. We can even expand this out of the image, to make it look as though it’s coming right at us! Selections can be made quickly using a number of different tools. The first one that we use is the Polygonal Lasso tool, which draws straight selection lines – perfect for selecting the frame. Also, since the colour in the seascape is so vivid, we’ll remove colour from the background to improve the composition and give it more impact.

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Master selections and masking WorldMags.net Create the effect Nine steps to out of bounds magic!

Polygonal Lasso tool

Create selection

New layer mask

01 

02 

03 

Place image

Quickly select

Combine masks

Open ‘Digital frame.jpg’ from blog. photoshop creative.co.uk/tutorialfiles. Enter Expert Mode. Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) then tick Anti-aliasing in the Options panel. Set Feather to 0px.

Zoom into the image a couple of times. Click on each corner of the digital frame using the Polygonal Lasso tool. Once all four lines are connected, a selection area will appear.

Click on the Create a New Layer button in the Layers panel, then on the Add Layer Mask button. The selection area will disappear once you’ve done this, but will be stored as the layer mask.

04 

05 

06 

Water spillage!

Control opacity

Desaturate

Go to File>Place and upload ‘Seascape.jpg’ from the resources. Move the placed image up so in line with the top of the digital frame image. Holding Shift, drag the bottom-right box to enlarge it so it fits over the image. Press Enter to apply.

07 

Go Select>Deselect. Locate Eraser tool (E) and set Size to 600px, Opacity to 100%, choose a soft tip, and make Foreground colour black. Paint over the seascape layer mask to reveal spillage.

Use the Quick Selection tool (A), set to Size: 40px and Auto-Enhance in the Options panel, to select the part of the groyne on the beach. Turn its layer on and off to make sure the selection covers the digital frame.

08 

Lower Opacity of the Eraser tool to 20% and reveal the water over the table the further out it goes. Drag Layer 1 (between the Seascape and Digital Frame layers) onto the trash icon to remove it.

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Click Add Layer Mask to apply this selection as a new mask to the seascape. Add the other mask by Cmd/ Ctrl+clicking on its thumbnail to reactivate it, then pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Backspace. Foreground colour must be black to do this.

09 

Click Background layer and add Hue/Saturation adjustment. Reduce Saturation to -100 to remove colour from the Digital Frame. You should be left with just the colour groyne exiting the frame.

The Photoshop Elements Book 31

Techniques WorldMags.net We have applied a colour correction as well as using the Clone Stamp and Spot Healing Brush to tame the lines and wrinkles.

The camera was set incorrectly here, causing the image to be overexposed. This harsh light has accentuated the woman’s lines.

BEFORE

AFTER

Retouchphotos

Don’t be intimidated by the thought of retouching portraits – Elements has a host of beginner-friendly tools that do most of the work for you

E

lements is the tool of choice for starting out with retouching. You are given the same tools as the pros to give your own portrait shots a desirable veneer. Before you flick past in horror, we aren’t going to suggest you spend your life airbrushing through your family photos. Even five-minute edits can suddenly bring a portrait to life and Elements users will find a lot of automated options for retouching tasks. However, we are going to look at the manual tools here and show you how easy it is to create the maximum impact. Common retouching tasks will focus on the face, whether it’s smoothing out skin or doing a touch of spot or blemish removal. Whitening the eyes or teeth is another easy edit that can really make a

“Even five-minute edits can suddenly bring a portrait back to life” 32 The Photoshop Elements Book

diference. The most important thing to remember, though, is to keep your edits subtle. Like it or not, wrinkles and wobbly bits give us character and if you wade in with a virtual plastic surgeon’s knife, you won’t improve an image. A light touch here and there is all you need for the best results. We’re also going to be covering another Elements skill within the ‘retouching’ monicker, and that is restoring old photos. Similar skills and tools can be transferred from something like removing wrinkles to removing creases and tears in scanned images, so the two really go hand in hand. It’s also worth pointing out that some of the other tools we’ve looked at can be called upon here. For example, if you want to whiten eyes or teeth, use one of the selection methods we suggested and then use the Color Curves command to target the highlights and brighten things up. As you use Elements more and more, you’ll see these repetitions pop up time and again.

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Retouch photos WorldMags.net Useful filters

Spot Healing Brush

Final touches for better images

Remove blemishes easily

In addition to the tools mentioned below, there are some filters than can help you make the perfect edit. For example, old photos tend to be blighted by noise, so a blast of the Despeckle filter (Filter>Noise) can work wonders. If you want to soften areas to draw attention to others, apply a very low Gaussian blur to a selected area, or use the Blur tool from the toolbar to paint blur on. Finally, Unsharp Mask (Enhance>Unsharp Mask) is good for adding clarity to important areas such as eyes.

Clone Stamp is the king of ‘patching’ up unwanted areas but an easier option is the Spot Healing Brush.

Pick a brush size

01

Pick a brush size that’s slightly larger than the area to be edited. This lets you perform a one-click fix, and gives you the most accurate results.

The major retouching tools The toolbar delivers pretty much all you need

Red Eye tool Even with fancy cameras, red eye is a really common problem that is thankfully very easy to fx. Simply pick the tool, place it over the ofending area and click. If it refuses to budge, go to Edit>Undo and use the Pupil Size and Darken Pupil settings to make adjustments and try again.

Spot Healing Brush Good for smaller areas that need fxing. Again, you use a brush to dab over the area that needs fxing. Edits made with this tool should be made with one click.

Clone Stamp tool The mother of all retouching tools, this allows you to sample parts of an image and transfer it to another part. This is achieved using a brush. Use the largest, softest brush you can and transfer the sampled area using small dabs.

Set the tool

02

There are various options available. Proximity Match uses pixels from the edge as a Patch. Create Texture uses all pixels in the selection, while Content-Aware will create magic replacements!

Healing Brush tool Like the Clone Stamp, this allows you to replace areas with information from other parts of an image. However, the Healing Brush also matches the texture, transparency, lighting and shading. This makes it easy to fx complicated areas.

Use the lot

03

Achieve best results by selecting Sample All Layers from the Tool Options bar. This uses information from the whole image. To make the edit, click on the area and Elements will work its magic.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 33

Techniques WorldMags.net

Controlcolour Being able to control colour is an essential skill for improving images

C

olour is a vital part of any image. If you have a photo with weak colour, it doesn’t matter how impressive the composition or how sharp the detail – all anyone will see is the flat colour. As you should come to expect by now, Elements has many diferent options when it comes to adding and editing colour and most of them are really simple to use. For adding colour, you will spend most of your time in the Color Picker. This is activated by clicking the two little colour squares at the bottom of the toolbar. The top square is for the foreground colour (or the main colour) and the bottom square is the background. The Color Picker gives you access to all the diferent colours you could possibly want and selecting them is really easy. Just click on the bar to pick a colour and then position the little circle over the particular hue that you want. There are loads of other libraries and settings you can use, but you don’t

have to go any further than clicking on a colour to select it. Editing colour in an image is also easy. Elements has Auto Color options (Enhance>Auto Color Correction). This is pretty much the easiest edit you can make and both flavours do a good job of fixing problem images. But there are plenty of alternatives if you want to have a bit more control over proceedings. Hue/Saturation is an excellent choice, allowing you to alter not only the colour of things, but also the intensity of the colour. In a similar vein is the Color Variations command. This is suited to beginners in particular because you click on preview images to make the changes, so you always know what the outcome will be. The Replace Color alters a chosen colour in your image, which can either be a simple case of improving one colour, or something more creative. Read on and discover how these tools work, how you can use them and how you can take your first steps to conquering colour!

The Variations command

Hue/Saturation

See how your edit will look

Go wild with your colour

The Color Variations command isn’t high on a lot of users’ lists when it comes to altering the colour properties of an image, which is a shame because it’s a very intuitive way of editing, especially for beginners. It allows you to target the shadows, highlights and midtones and set what colour you want them to be. You need to go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations. Once open, you see a range of small thumbnails showing the image with a certain colour applied. The intensity can be adjusted to suit and you just click to apply.

Have fun with the Hue/Saturation command. It works using sliders, and enables you to alter the colour of an entire image or just target a specific colour to change. You can also use the Saturation slider to increase or decrease the intensity of a colour, proving particularly useful in photo edits and also converting to black and white. It is very easy to overdo the Saturation slider, though, so always keep the Preview box ticked to keep on top of things. You’ll find Adjust Hue/Saturation under Enhance>Adjust Color.

34 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Control colour WorldMags.net In balance A useful tool for adjusting hues Chosen colour This is the colour you’ve picked.

The Balance command lets you easily fix colour casts by adding complementary colour to an image. You will need to take a trip to the Quick mode to use the Balance slider.

The edits

01

The Balance command adjusts the temperature and tint of a photo, with a slider for each. It’s just a case of moving the slider left or right to increase or decrease the effect.

HSB values HSB (or HSL) values describe the colour in terms of its hue (wavelength), saturation (vividness) and lightness.

Warm up

02

The plan is to warm this image up. We pushed the Temperature slider to the right, towards the red part of the slider. The colours underneath each slider will let you know what the effect is going to look like, so pay attention!

# hex value The same RGB code expressed in hexadecimal, used for website design.

Pick the shade Click here to select the exact shade that you want. The colour gets more saturated towards the right and lighter towards the top. Spectrum bar Choose a hue from the spectrum here. Rather than the real spectrum, it represents a colour wheel, flattened out – that’s how red gets to be at both the end and the beginning.

Balance out RGB values These describe the colour as quantities of red, green and blue light, on a scale of 0-255.

03

Warm images look good if the shadows are contrasted and therefore cool in colour. We can do this by moving the Tint slider to the left, which represents the green end of the colour spectrum. This will inject green into the image.

Replace Color

Edit skin tone

Don’t like a colour? No problem!

Retouch with Adjust Color for Skin Tone

Elements offers a quick way of replacing one colour with another and that is the aptly-named Replace Color command. Found in Enhance>Adjust Color, it works in a similar way to the Color Range command, in that you use an eyedropper to click on your image to select the colour to edit. There is a Fuzziness slider to control the selection and then it’s just a case of using the Hue, Saturation or Lightness sliders to make the new colour that you want to use. Thankfully the sliders make simple work of the whole process.

Elements makes it really easy to adjust skin tone to ensure the best portraits. Open the Enahnce>Adjust Color menu and pick Adjust Color for Skin Tone. Click on the person’s skin and Elements will adjust the whole photo to improve the colour. If you need more correction, you can use the Tan slider to boost/ reduce warm tones or the Blush slider to boost/reduce redness.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 35

Techniques WorldMags.net

AFTER 36 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Get to know gradients WorldMags.net

Get to know gradients

BEFORE

The Gradient tool can be extremely useful in all types of Photoshop scenarios so take a closer look

T

he Gradient tool can be a very exciting and underestimated feature. You shouldn’t be shy to use them, but if you are just use these tips and tricks to get to know them a bit better. They can be used in numerous ways to achieve several effects within your work, and when used cleverly they can help you soften transitions from one image or colour to another. The Gradient tool can be used on its own to build

dynamic backgrounds and textures, and it can also be used to create masks and feathered edges. You can even fake depth of field through gradient masks for a photographic touch. Here we’ll show off the tool in full colour, as we teach you how to create a rainbow using the Radial Gradient preset. We’ve chosen a holiday snap from Thailand for this example and you can download that from the website,

www.photoshopcreative.co.uk, but any image you want to jazz up with a beautiful rainbow will work. You’ll also learn how to use the Gradient tool to mask the cloudy sky, so let’s jump right in and explore some of the options.

The Gradient Editor

Use a gradient preset or load a new one GRADIENT PRESETS

GRADIENT TYPE Choose your gradient type here, or double-click to open the Gradient Editor.

Choose one of the gradient presets or load more via the toggle. They all create different levels and shading effects, so try them all out and get used to the many looks.

PLAY WITH VARIANTS Adjust the colour stops to alter your gradient precisely. ThereÕs a lot of trial and error here, and playing with the variants can create different effects and outcomes.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 37

Techniques WorldMags.net Make a rainbow Use the Gradient tool to create a simple rainbow

Make a new layer

Select the Gradient tool

01

To explore the Gradient tool, creating a rainbow is ideal practice. Download ‘Thailand.jpg’ from our site or use your own photo. Add a new blank layer by clicking the New Layer icon at the bottom of the palette and call it Rainbow. This will appear above the Background.

02

Select the Gradient tool from the Toolbar, click the drop-down arrow in the Options bar, then click the right pointing arrow to see another menu. Pick Special Effects to see new patterns appear.

Radial Gradient option

Russell’s Rainbow

03

Click on the Russell’s Rainbow gradient. Hover your cursor over the gradient thumbnail to find the correct one.

04

Click the Radial Gradient option. This works from the starting point to the ending point in a circular pattern and makes the rainbow appear as an arc. It is very important that Transparency is switched on.

Create a rainbow

05

Click from outside the canvas on the left and drag to the right while holding down Shift to keep the angle straight. Let go when you are happy – this will be trial and error. Now position the rainbow where you want it on the image.

Expert tip Remember shortcuts In the fast-paced world of

Gradient mask

06

Select the Gradient tool again, but this time use the first gradient in the menu as shown. With the Rainbow layer selected, click the mask icon at the bottom of the palette. Click down and let go when you are happy with the angle. Have a play and if you make a mistake or are unhappy with the result, just press Ctrl/Cmd+Z.

38 The Photoshop Elements Book

Final touches

07

To go further and make the rainbow more realistic, adjust two simple settings. Set the Rainbow layer to Screen in the Blend Modes menu, then set the Opacity to about 45%. Play with these options until you are happy with the result.

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creative design, it’s a good idea to get to know all the keyboard shortcuts. When the Gradient tool is selected (G), you can press the full stop or period key (.) to navigate through the gradient styles. To Help menu contains lists of shortcuts, or you can find them out by looking in menus or hovering over tools with your cursor. You obviously don’t have to use shortcuts, but they do speed things up with the tools and techniques you use the most.

Get to know gradients WorldMags.net Custom gradients

Gradients explained

Making a gradient from scratch is often the best way to achieve an effect – and it’s easier than you might think

The Gradient tool works by gradually blending different colours. To do that you begin by deciding what kind of blending effect you want – moving from the middle or the outer edges, for example. Choose an effect from the preset gradient fills or create your own. These are the presets most regularly used. Explore the options and be creative!

Linear Gradient

Gradient editor

01

Creating a gradient is often an essential trick for Photoshop users whether it’s for graphic design or photo editing. Select the tool and tick Radial Gradient. Click the Gradient Picker in the top menu to open the Gradient Editor.

Blends from the starting point to the ending point in a straight line. Great for faking depth of field in a photo or adding in a blue sky.

Radial Gradient Works outwards from a centre point to make a circle. Try a few different colours and see what happens with this popular effect.

Change the colour

02

Alter the first colour of the gradient by double-clicking the bottom-left colour stop and changing it to blue.

Colours fading together

03

Double-click the bottom-right colour stop and change it to red or a colour you like. You should now see your two chosen colours fading together. Click OK.

Angle Gradient Works in a counterclockwise sweep from a starting point. Good for creating fake metal. Add some noise to grade and texture.

Reflected Gradient Mirrors a gradient from the start point. Use it to Create metal bars/general metal effects and fake reflected surfaces.

Alter the angle

04

Now click from the centre of the canvas and drag to the right holding Shift. Let go when you are happy with the angle.

Finished radial gradient

05

You now have a radial gradient ready to use! Play with more colours by selecting a default gradient with more colour options or play with the final effect by adjusting the line and/or the angle.

Diamond Gradient Creates a diamond-shape gradient from the start point. As the name might suggest, this one’s perfect for diamond shapes and patterns.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 39

Techniques WorldMags.net

Spot healing The Spot Healing Brush tool is a fast way to get rid of specks – just stamp and watch the mark leave the image’s surface.

BEFORE Clone Stamp tool The Clone Stamp tool enables you to directly place good pixels over bad ones. This is an effective feature for those slightly larger areas.

AFTER Dust & Scratches

Chop it up

Where the image has been permanently Any spots or small marks will disappear instantly using the Dust & Scratches filter. It’s found in the damaged in the corners, it’s time to cut and paste surrounding areas over the top. Filter menu under the Noise options.

Rescue old photos

How to edit and reduce image defects in your archived collection

I

mages of the past are not only filled with memories but can also give an interesting insight into what life was like back then. From the poses they made and the clothes people wore to the activities they got up to, these images deserve our care and attention. Retouching and rescuing damaged photos is quite simple. As long as you know which tool to

40 The Photoshop Elements Book

call upon, removing marks and blemishes should be a breeze. Signs of aging come in the form of specks; both black and also white ones. These are commonly seen on images or negatives that have been scanned in. Here we show you quick ways to remove these artefacts and defects. But image degradation can take the shape of other kinds of marks, such as hairline

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fractures, fading and damaged corners, and much more. When you think an image is beyond help, however, there is always a technique that you can use in order to rescue it. By using just a handful of the very best tools that Elements has to offer, we are able to reveal their original and flawless states.

Rescue old photos WorldMags.net Remove dust and scratches Dust & Scratches ElementÕs Dust & Scratches filter works like magic on most old images in order to clear up marks.

Make light work of getting rid of unsightly marks Use the Dust & Scratches filter if your image is speckled all over with spots and scratches. What would otherwise be an arduous task using a tool such as the Spot Healing Brush becomes a two-minute job, and it’s all done for you!

Radius

Your best bet

For this image the Radius amount was set to 2px. Look to remove the majority (ideally all) of the spots by increasing this slider. You may only need a 1px Radius.

For removing lots of tiny specks of dust in one go, there really is no substitute option in Elements.

Threshold

Threshold will bring back image details that were lost after setting the Radius amount. A Threshold of 20px worked here. Start at 0 and work your way up gradually.

BEFORE

AFTER

Spot Healing Brush tool Take control of images with a dedicated tool

Tool setup Why this tool?

01

If you want to be more accurate when removing marks than a blanket filter effect can be, use the Spot Healing Brush tool. This is especially helpful for retouching damaged pixels around people, as details in other areas go unaffected.

02

Select the tool from the Toolbar and go to the Options bar at the top. If your image has a paper texture to it, tick the Create Texture option. Otherwise, tick Proximity Match. Zoom in by holding Ctrl/ Cmd and then tapping the + key. Open the Navigator palette from the Window menu to see how close you are.

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Paint away marks

03

Adjust the size of the brush using the [ and ] keys so that it’s just larger than the size of the mark being removed. Now it’s just a matter of clicking once over each speck to remove it. For longer marks, click and drag to paint over them and they should disappear. The Photoshop Elements Book 41

Techniques WorldMags.net Clone, copy, paste Restore damaged corners Sometimes the corners and edges of an old image can end up faded or even completely destroyed, whether that’s because of the way they were stored or just general wear and tear over the years. We can restore these areas, though, and to do so we need to combine the Clone Stamp tool with the copy and paste commands, which will cover these with existing parts of the image.

What does it mean?

BEFORE AFTER

DUPLICATE LAYERS ThereÕs no limit to how times a layer can be duplicated. We can continually select, copy and paste parts of the image and transform it until the damaged area has been covered. When using the Polygonal Lasso, select different areas for variation.

Set opacity and hardness

Stamp with the tool

02

03

Click on the Clone Stamp Tool in the toolbar. Drag the Background onto the Create a New Layer button to duplicate it. This preserves the original.

Keep the tool’s Opacity in the Options bar set to 100% to create a solid stamp of pixels on your image. Click the brush mark icon in the Options bar and then select a soft-edged brush. This keeps the results nice and smooth. Set the brush size to slightly bigger than the area you want to clone.

Polygonal Marquee tool

Copy and paste

Transform to fit

04

05

06

Pick the Clone Stamp

01

For the corners of an image that are completely destroyed, select the Polygonal Marquee tool from the Toolbar. This enables us to make a selection of an area in the image to copy and paste over the corners.

42 The Photoshop Elements Book

Make a selection with this tool by clicking and drawing lines over an area of good pixels. Join the ends together to complete the selection and then press Ctrl/Cmd+C. Now press Ctrl/Cmd+V and you should notice a new layer appear.

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To use the Clone Stamp tool, hold Alt/Opt and then click on a part of your image that’s next to the damaged area. Release Alt/Opt and click once over the damaged pixels to replace them with your sample. Repeat this process until the entire area has been covered up.

This new layer contains the pasted pixels. Use the Move tool to drag this new patch over the damaged area. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T to activate the Transform command. Hold Shift and click and drag on a corner of the area to enlarge it.

Rescue old photos WorldMags.net

Merge layers

Duplicate patch Blend new area

07

After resizing and placing the new area, select the Eraser tool. Pick a nice, soft brush and then paint away the hard sides of the new section to blend it into the image for a seamless appearance.

08

Drag the layer of this patched area onto the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers palette to duplicate it. Move the area to a new position and erase any obviously repeating pixels. By duplicating layers and resizing them, you should end up with a good section over the damaged area.

New layer When you’ve selected the subject for sharpening, place the area onto a new layer by pressing Ctrl/ Cmd+J.

Quick Selection We used the Quick Selection tool to apply a selection to the boy in this old image. The Magic Wand tool is also handy for quickly laying down a selection.

Sharpening You access the Unsharp Mask feature by going to Enhance>Unsharp Mask.

09

Each time you copy and paste a selected area, it will be given its own layer. Once this has been positioned and blended in using the Eraser tool, you can press Ctrl/Cmd+E to merge the layer with the one below. By repeatedly merging these areas, they’ll be included in the next selection with the Polygonal Marquee tool.

Unsharp Mask Reduce blurriness in an old image Sharpening images is also an important part of the retouching process and should be done as the last few steps after cloning and patching up areas. This is because if you sharpen before you have completely cleaned up the picture, you will end up sharpening and enhancing the defects. With the help of a selection over the main subject, you can selectively apply sharpening to the image and bring out what’s important.

“With the help of a selection… selectively apply sharpening to bring out what’s important”

Unsharp Mask By setting the Amount to 114 in the filter and Radius to 1.8, more edges are sharpened. Depending on the size of the subject, you’ll need to adjust these two carefully.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 43

Techniques WorldMags.net What does it mean?

Use the slider to alter the size of the brush.

Click this arrow to see more options and to load or replace the current brush set.

APPEND If you’ve selected a brush set beyond the basics, Elements will ask if you want to append or replace. Appending keeps the basic set visible, adding the new tips to it.

Click on the brush preview to access the different brush tips.

Use brushes effectively Brushes crop up everywhere in Elements so it is important to understand how they work

B

rushes are obviously linked with digital painting, but they are also vital to a lot of other Elements tools. They are incredibly powerful and thankfully enable you to create a lot of different effects.

44 The Photoshop Elements Book

The Elements brush tips vary dramatically. You have the choice of simple round or square ones, all the way up to ones that mimic the kind of paintbrushes you’d find in an art shop. It’s really easy to change which tip you

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are using and the Brush options enables you to control what they look like. You can even make your own. Here, we will show you how to select, load and edit a brush to do whatever you wish it to do.

Use brushes effectively WorldMags.net Select and control brushes Show the brush who is boss

Pick a brush

Make a change

01

02

The first step in picking a brush is selecting the Brush tool from the Toolbar. It is easy to spot – it looks like a brush! Click the brush preview in the Tool Options bar to select the brush you want.

You can also use the Tool Options bar to control how a brush looks. The setting you will use most is Size, which uses a slider. Simply drag left to make smaller and right to make bigger.

More options

03

You have other choices for controlling brushes in the Tool Options bar as well. For example, you can pick a blend mode for the brush to work in, set the Opacity and also pick controls for working with a graphics tablet.

Change a brush set Pick and choose

Get to the sets

Your new brushes

Go back to before

01

02

03

With the Brush tool selected, go to the Tool Options bar and click on the Brush Picker. Once it opens, click the Brushes drop-down arrow and scroll down the brush choices. Click one to pick it.

The new brushes will appear in your Brush Picker. Simply click on one to pick it. If you hover over the brushes, a descriptive name will pop up helping you to decide exactly which to use.

If you ever get swamped in the different brushes you have picked, click the right-pointing arrows in the Brush Picker and then select the Reset Brushes option. This takes you back to the default.

Load brushes Add to the collection

Permanent fixture Load and go

01

With your Brush tool active, click the right arrow in the Brush Picker and select Load Brushes.

Pick it

02

Navigate to the brush file, click it and then press the Load button. You are looking for an .abr file.

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03

The brush (or brushes) will appear in the Brush Picker. To make it a permanent resident, add it to the Brush Support Files folder, found within the Elements Applications folder. The Photoshop Elements Book 45

Techniques WorldMags.net

Sharpen your images Use two simple techniques in Photoshop Elements to remove subtle blurring Blurred shot

BEFORE

Without sharpening, ✗ the bird’s feathers lack definition and the overall image is softer than it should be.

AFTER

After sharpening up the image, the highlights have much more detail and the outline of the bird is far more defined.

46 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Sharpen your images WorldMags.net

N

ot every image you take will come out the camera pin-sharp. The chances are that they may still come out slightly soft, or even with blurred subjects in some cases. This is where sharpening comes in, bringing back essential crispness to the shot. Photoshop Elements 10 has some of the best tools to counteract blurring. The two methods described here require little to no knowledge of the software, learned skill, or artistic aptitude. The best way to see how sharp your image looks is by zooming in. Zoom until you reach 100% magnification, as this shows how each

pixel appears when printed out. When taking your photos, be aware of over-blurring images because sometimes the blurring is too severe and can’t be rescued. The techniques shown here use two diferent filters and approaches. The High Pass filter uses an extra grey layer on top of the photo. This layer is given a blend mode and a touch of filter to bring details into your images. The Unsharp Mask filter is a similar method, but instead, the filter is applied directly on to the image, where you can see the results straight away. So open an image and get cracking with these quick steps.

3 of the best Ways to avoid blurry shots

Keep steady Avoid camera shake and keep your camera still by resting it on a hard surface or by using a tripod if you have one.

“Some images might come out soft, but sharpening brings back crispness to the shot”

Sharpening methods Easy ways to sharpen shots Use autofocus Half press your shutter before you take the shot to ensure your camera’s autofocus has time to lock onto the subject.

Duplicate the layer

Apply filter

The first and most important step when using this method is to make a copy of the image’s layer. In Elements 10, find the Layers panel and simply drag and drop the Background layer on to the Create A New Layer button at the base of the panel.

01

02

Change blend mode

Unsharp method

Set variables

03

04

05

When you’re happy with the amount of Radius in the High Pass dialog, hit OK. The photograph will be completely grey at this point. To apply this sharpening, go to the Layers panel and change the Mode from Normal to Hard Light.

To apply the High Pass filter, go to the Filter menu at the top. Select High Pass, which is found inside Other. The High Pass dialog pops up, and you need to adjust the Radius slider until you see strong definition in the edges of subjects.

Another way to sharpen a photo is using the Unsharp Mask option. With a blurry image open, in Photoshop Elements 10 go to the top of the interface into the Enhance menu. The Unsharp Mask is found at the bottom of this menu.

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Select the focus If your camera has them, use your autofocus selection points to more accurately select what the camera focuses on.

In the Unsharp Mask dialog, tick Preview. Set Amount to 100%, Radius to 2.0 pixels, and Threshold to 0 levels. This gives an average amount of sharpening for slightly-blurred images. For extreme blurring, push the amounts further. The Photoshop Elements Book 47

Techniques WorldMags.net Levels adjustment The Levels adjustment shows the balance of exposure through your image. Shadows are dealt with on the left and the highlights on the right.

Brightness/Contrast The Brightness/Contrast adjustment is split into two. Brightness first, then Contrast second. This gives a quick boost to the overall exposure.

Shadows/ Highlights Use Shadows/Highlights to target specific areas and alter exposure. The results are more instant than the others, but it’s harder to work with.

Shadow areas Adjustments can help lighten up areas steeped in dark shadow, such as the grass in this image.

Improve exposure

Adjustments and masks can produce stunning changes to images

E

xposure is not easy to get right, and even with your camera set to autopilot it can still produce mixed results for the final image. The term exposure is a way of describing how much light has been captured. For an image to looks its best, correct exposure is key and there are a number of ways to ensure this and create a better balance of lighting throughout compositions.

48 The Photoshop Elements Book

Problems can quickly arise when images have either too much light (overexposed) or too little light (underexposed). There are even images that can have both, which prove difficult to adjust and turn into a normallooking shot. The techniques we take you through in this tutorial range from using a basic adjustment, such as the Brightness/Contrast, to a slightly

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more difficult method using multiple masks We suggest giving all three a try and experimenting in order to find out exactly which one has the desired effect. Whether you want to make the subject of a portrait brighter or lighten up a landscape, we’re sure there’s a technique here for you that will put your exposure right. Take a closer look and decide for yourself.

Improve exposure WorldMags.net

Get off the ground Start with the Brightness/Contrast adjustment Brightness

The Brightness slider determines how much light is added into the image.

Contrast

The Contrast slider changes the intensity of the light that’s in the image.

Your first port of call for improving exposure should be the Brightness/Contrast adjustment. Using only two sliders, the adjustment provides the essential edits for altering the strength of light and contrast of highlights and shadows. It’s the easiest adjustment out of them all, and results can be seen very quickly.

Shadows

The Contrast slider will darken shadows. Look for the darkest part of your image and decide on how much detail needs to be there.

Highlights

Look to bring the highlights in your image to a bright white, but not bleached out.

Bring life back into images Brightness and contrast improved in no time

Load adjustment

Adjust brightness

Boost contrast

01

02

03

Find the Brightness/Contrast adjustment from inside the Enhance menu under Adjust Lighitng. Usually, if an image needs brightening up then it needs an increase in contrast too.

The first thing to do is boost the Brightness slider. This affects the entire image in terms of exposure. Take this slider up to a point where the highlights start to lose detail, but not entirely.

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With the Brightness set, you’re now ready to increase the Contrast slider. Start by moving this to the same value. This gives an even balance, but it won’t do it any harm pushing it up more for extra impact.

The Photoshop Elements Book 49

Techniques WorldMags.net Improve exposure with Levels and masks

BEFORE

The Levels adjustment is ideal for balancing lighting in your image There is absolutely nothing stopping you from using two or more adjustments in one image to alter lighting. In this portrait, the background was considerably lighter than the person in the

foreground, so its exposure needed to be balanced. By using a mask we were able to darken the background and lighten the person in separate stages.

Masks and more

AFTER

Have extra control over exposure

The Quick Selection tool

01

The Quick Selection tool is available in Elements 6 and above. Select the tool and tick Auto-Enhance in the Options bar. Diameter can be set to 50px to begin with.

Select the person

02

Load Levels

Adjust Levels

04

Draw over the main person or object in your image to form a selected area. The tool will find the edges of your subject and wherever you draw with the tool. Lower the Diameter value for smaller parts.

03

Load and flip selection

Levels number two

Darken background

05

06

07

To reload the selection around the main subject, Ctrl/Cmd-click on the layer mask of the Levels adjustment. Go to Select>Inverse to flip the area over to the background, ready for the next adjustment.

50 The Photoshop Elements Book

From inside the Layers palette, open up the adjustment options. Pick on the Levels adjustment and you should see the selection added to the adjustment mask.

With the background now highlighted as a selection, add another Levels adjustment. You’ll see a new adjustment layer with a mask but this time the white areas are black and vice versa.

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The main subject should be singled out and the Levels adjustment can be edited. Move the far-right marker under the graph to brighten the subject. Move the middle of the three to boost brightness.

Darken or lighten the background parts of your image using the Levels adjustment layer. If it needs darkening, slide the far-left marker over to the right, and the middle marker to the right too.

Improve exposure WorldMags.net AFTER

Recover underexposure Rescue dull photographs

Slider control

Make the edits using the three sliders.

The Shadows/Highlights adjustment is another one of Photoshop’s exposurecorrection features, designed to retrieve lost details in under and overexposed parts of an image. The adjustment works instantly to adjust both the brightest and darkest areas. This one’s a bit easier than the previous method, but it’s worth trying out both to see which works best.

Control shadows

Because there are lots of shadows across the building as well as on the ground, this adjustment affects all these areas in one go.

Better lighting Dealing with difficult exposure

BEFORE

Open the command

01

To open up the Shadows/Highlights command you need to visit Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadows/Highlights.

Instant effect

02

The adjustment goes to work straightaway on your image by giving a default effect. Assess the effect of this on your shot as in a lot of cases it will suffice.

Readjust shadows

Highlight control

03

04

Depending on how dark your shadows are, boost the Lighten Shadows slider up gradually to bring back details into the areas. With Preview ticked you can see how the changes will affect your image.

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If the highlight areas of your image look too bright as a result of the changes, slide the Darken Highlights up to lower the exposure and balance things out. This is usually necessary to get the perfect look.

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Techniques WorldMags.net

Make creative panoramas The Photomerge function in Elements makes generating stunning panoramas a piece of cake

H

ow many panoramas do you own? WeÕre guessing not very many. For some reason, people either forget about the format or just donÕt think they can create one. This is a shame, as the format enables you to capture large scenes with the kind of detail not possible with a single lens. A panorama is an image created by stitching together individual photos. There is a bit of thinking needed at the photo-taking stage, but if you can hold a camera steady you can take the necessary shots. Keep the same settings and then start to snap while slowly rotating. You need to keep the camera level and ensure thereÕs overlap on each image to be joined. Once you have your images, open up Elements and use the Photomerge function. WeÕll show you how easy it is to do and since itÕs so simple, weÕll even make some colour adjustment to the final image for an extra bit of pop.

52 The Photoshop Elements Book

Use Photomerge Transform individual photos to achieve lovely panoramas

Gather your files

01 

You can use images from a designated folder, add them individually or use those currently open. This is our preferred method and it can be done by dragging the images in.

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Light prep work

02 

The Photomerge function blends images together but check to see if major edits are needed. Since the images have been dragged into the workspace, just cycle through each one. With these we’ll use the Crop tool to cut a bystander out.

Make creative panoramas WorldMags.net Source files available Use the images provided to re-create this

Original images

Enter Photomerge

03 

The other photos are fine, so enter Photomerge. Go to File>New and you’ll see Photomerge options. The one we want is Photomerge Panorama. Once you select it, a new window will appear.

Panorama options

Wait and be amazed

The Photomerge window is where you decide on the type of panorama you want and set photos to use. Click the Auto option, select Add Open Files, ensure Blend Images is ticked and click OK.

05

04 

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Your images will be stitched together. There will be lots of space around the final image and you’ll be asked if you would like Elements to fill this space. If you prefer to use the Crop tool, just click No. The Photoshop Elements Book 53

Techniques WorldMags.net

Crop to the edges

Prepare for the edit

06 

Pick the Crop tool from the toolbar and then click and drag to draw a rough rectangle. Now release this and use the corner anchor points to click and drag out so as much of the image is kept as possible, while all the white space is deleted.

Getting smart

08 

It was a bright day when this photo was taken, but we want some drama. Head over to the Smart Brush tool from the toolbar and pick the Blue Skies from the Nature set. Now click and drag over the entire image with a large brush.

Brighten up

09 

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to deselect, then with the Smart Brush tool, pick the Sunset brush from the Nature set. Sticking with a large brush, click and drag over the entire image once more.

10 

Deselect, pick the Brighter brush from the Lighting set and do the same as before, clicking and dragging across the whole image. This pulls the image out of the dirge realm it was in.

Final touchups

Things are much fresher now, but we aren’t finished yet. Deselect once more and click the New Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers palette (the half black-and-white circle). Choose Levels, then set the white slider to 210 and the grey to 1.11.

54 The Photoshop Elements Book

Now the basic panorama has been created. You can either stop here or apply further edits (which is what we are going to do). Go to the Layers palette and click the dropdown options. Choose Merge Visible to work on just the one file.

Sunset effect

Adjust the tone

11 

07 

12 

Take a last look at the image. You might notice areas with dark lines – this is where an original overlap has been highlighted by the colour tweaks. To fix this, merge layers as before, pick the Spot Healing Brush set to Proximity Match in the Options bar and apply.

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Make creative panoramas WorldMags.net Get the perfect panorama

Combine several photos into one impressive result

START THE PANORAMA Kick things off using the Photomerge Panorama option from the File>New menu.

SMART MOVES

CROP THE EXCESS

FROM MANY TO ONE

LAYER CONTROL

The Smart Brush tool makes it easy to add colour and lighting tweaks to make panoramas sing.

The final panorama will have untidy edges. Tidy up by using the Crop tool to delete excess edges.

To make a panorama you need a series of overlapping photos, as our example shows here.

Once the panorama is complete, the Layers palette holds each image so you can make any edits.

Photomerge window When you select the Photomerge function, you will be greeted with a window. From here you can select the images, whether theyÕre the currently open files or a folder of files. You also get to choose the type of panorama you want. The Auto option will be fine most of the time, but you can pick different finishes from the left-hand side. These show a little preview of the effect. The bottom of the window holds three options, the most important being Blend Images Together.

Create a manual panorama

If you revel in panoramas, you may prefer to take the manual route. Go to File>New>Photomerge Panorama as usual but tick Interactive Layout as your Layout option. This opens another dialog that enables you to manually move your source files into the right position, as well as dictate the vanishing point. Elements will still blend between the images and once you click OK the panorama will open as a new file.

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PAGE 62

PAGE 72

PAGE 66

Photo editing Learn how to fix, edit and retouch your photos for better effects one-click fixes 58 Make Discover auto options

heavy shadows 88 Fix Bring back some light

guided edits 62 Top Make your editing easier

exposure effects 90 Create Make a layered composition

essential 64 Make adjustments

up your seascapes 94 Light Create some atmosphere

Use blend modes for this efect

portraits 66 Edit Improve your portrait shots

PAGE 110

drama with Dodge 70 Add and Burn Adjust lighting

your landscapes 98 Improve Adjust colour and exposure the Dragan effect 100 Create Get creative with this efect for classic effects 104 Retouch Create a vintage portrait efect

HDR toning 72 Master Fake the HDR look

the Lighting Effects filter 110 Use Add stunning lighting efects

images with curves 74 Fix Push contrast as far as you can

emphasis to eyes 114 Add Apply a rainbow efect

images to 76 Convert black and white

colour creations 116 Selective Bring out the best in your images

From colour to monochrome

the Lomo effect 78 Get Push colour limits colours with 80 Edit Photo Filter

Combat white-balance problems

PAGE 76

56 The Photoshop Elements Book

macro 84 Perfect Add layered macro efects

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PAGE 58

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The Photoshop Elements Book 57

Photo editingWorldMags.net

COLOUR BOOST The blues in the original were a little reserved, but a blast of the Color option has sorted this out.

SHARP EDGES The original suffered from soft edges, which were easily fixed with the Sharpen option.

FINAL SWEEP Once you have targeted certain areas, it doesn’t do any harm to treat the final image to a sweep of the Smart Fix option. This tidies anything you may have missed.

SEE DETAIL The distant hills were originally in deep shadow, but a Levels layer has brought detail to the fore.

Make one-click fixes

Get to know the Auto options in Elements and improve images with just a click of the mouse

W

e will always encourage that you take some time to explore the different commands and techniques in Elements, as they give you all you need to create outstanding images. However, time is precious for most, so the prospect of spending ages editing one image when you have a whole stack to get through could often mean you leave them as they are. Even a well-designed interface like Elements can be a bewildering maze of menus and tools. So, thank goodness for the Quick Edit section of the program, where you have a complete environment in which to make all

58 The Photoshop Elements Book

the edits you need to improve most images. There are options for tackling exposure, colour, blurriness, colour casts and tone. Each edit automatically makes a series of corrections using different settings, then presents you with the result of each. What this means is that you have a kind of editing market, where you get to browse the final images and pick the one you want. Simply open the fix you want by clicking on the arrow next to its title, scroll over an option to see what it looks like and then click the one you want. This will be outlined in blue, so commit to the edit by closing the arrow.

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Make one-click fixes WorldMags.net Auto Smart Fix Hand control to Elements and achieve impressive results fast The Smart Fix option sits at the top of all the Quick Edits and is a one-hit wonder. This puppy enables you to automatically correct lighting, colour and contrast; essentially giving you most of the Auto edits in one place. The differences between the edits are quite small, so make sure you zoom in to get a good idea of the result.

REDUCE THE SHADOW AREAS The outer edges of the original photo were dark previously. This has now been fixed.

TRUE COLOURS Colours are much brighter in the edited version, especially the eyes and nose.

Before BRIGHTER TONE The fixed image is bright, especially the white fur that was originally quite dull.

After KEEP THE MOOD

Auto Exposure Overcome troublesome light levels in a flash

Taken at twilight, the original had a sky moving into a sunset. Although the edited version is brighter, it hasn’t lost atmosphere.

Exposure is tricky to get right in-camera and as a consequence is a common problem with a lot of photos. We’ve all been there: skies that are bleached or valuable detail lost in deep, dark shadows. Once you add limited light into the mix, you have little choice but to make edits. The Exposure option will automatically lighten or darken areas, meaning you just have to pick the result you like the best.

REVEAL DETAIL The original image was very dark, meaning that the carving on the building was lost. Now you can read the text.

IMPROVED COLOURS Because the original was underexposed, the colours were dull. Now they are cleaner and true to life.

Before WorldMags.net

The Photoshop Elements Book 59

Photo editingWorldMags.net Auto Levels

Instantly restore balance to your photographs The Levels command enables you to alter the tones in an image, essentially the shadows, highlights and midtones. The Levels Auto option is more intense than the others, in that you can choose from edits for the three tonal ranges, but everything else is the same. Simply click the one you want, pick the area that needs most work and then adjust the other two. MIDTONE TWEAKS A click on the Midtones tab revealed a whole bunch of edits here. Nothing too strenuous was needed, but the final effect has more zing.

HIGHLIGHTS It doesn’t cost anything to also test the Highlights tab, but in this case the whites were bright enough following the other edits.

Before SHADOWS FIRST The shadows in the original were dragging it down, so we tackled these first. Foreground and background detail became brighter.

Auto Color

THE CHERRY ON TOP

Pump life back into your tones in a heartbeat

When happy with the saturation, click the Vibrance tab. Things can go too far pretty quickly here, so stay with the small edits.

The Color option is where you can have most fun and satisfaction. The brightest of days can be rendered dull by a digital camera, so this edit will sprinkle some life onto your images. There are three types of edits: Saturation, Hue and Vibrance. Hue alters the actual colours, so start in Saturation, then click on Vibrance to squeeze out a bit more drama. IMPROVE THE SATURATION Make Saturation the first edit. Our original had a dull blue sky and lacklustre bunting.

KEEP AN EYE ON THINGS Ensure you look at the entire image when making the edit, otherwise you could miss some areas that become over-saturated and exhibit an unholy glow!

60 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Before

Make one-click fixes WorldMags.net Auto Balance Replace original vibrancy and heal undesirable effects The Balance option primarily sorts colour casts. If your image was taken under artificial light, it will probably have a yellow wash over it, so use the Temperature tab in the Balance command to counteract this and produce a neutral image. The Tint tab produces subtle shifts in colours and can help restore any of the original strength.

BACK ON TRACK The original image was a lot cooler than the flowers were in real life, so we needed to sort that out.

BACK TO PINK The Saturation tab presented an option that was true to the original, with warm pinky tones rather than a cold purple.

Before TINT A quick visit to the Tint tab offered an option where the flowers’ tones became dominant, forcing the green to recede.

After

Auto Sharpen

ZOOM

Quickly refine your close-up shots for quality results

Look at your image and decide on the area that you want to sharpen, which should be the point in the most focus. Use the Zoom slider to enlarge this.

Regardless of the type of camera you have, or your abilities as a photographer, digital images will suffer from softness. A lot of the time this isn’t noticed, but when it comes to close-up shots, those soft edges make themselves known. The Sharpness option tackles this and defines the edges across the image. This may not work on extremely blurry images, but it will sort out most.

SECOND PASS A good technique is to make a small edit, commit to it and then open Sharpen once more to add another tiny edit.

EXPLORE THE OPTIONS It’s best to keep edits small, otherwise you will end up with halos around the edges.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net

Top guided edits in PS Elements 11

BEFORE

AFTER

We explore three exciting guided edits in Elements version 11 that make life easier for those new to the photo-editing game

E

lements 11 has many guided edits, which include an efect called Orton, named after the photographer Michael Orton and his signature editing style. This efect changes your photo in several creative ways by saturating the colours and then blurring the focus to achieve an artistic-looking dream efect. Then there is the Depth of Field efect that enables you to apply a blur or fake bokeh by selecting and dragging with the Gradient tool and recovering the area you want to remain in focus. Last but not least, the Picture Stack edit takes a single photo and breaks it up so that it resembles a collection of prints laid out in front of you. This one is a lot of fun and works best with group shots. You can choose to divide your photo into four, eight or twelve prints, and pick the border size and background. If you switch to Full Edit mode, you can resize and reposition the frames. These editing guides are a great way to easily add some professional efects without buying any of the special camera gear and require very little editing experience, so let’s give them a try!

Start with a great image To get the best outcome with the guided edits, be sure to start with a good image. These tools are meant to increase the quality and enhance your favourite shots, but do not expect too much. The Depth of Field will not bring a blurry image into focus.

Use discretion When doubling up on editing effects, it is a lot of fun to play around and see what you can come up with. However, use discretion and adjust the sliders under each effect with care. Sometimes all it takes is a slight adjustment to make your image shine, so don’t overdo it.

Orton effect

Magical depth of field

Add vibrance and fun

Beautiful bokeh at your fingertips

The Orton effect is named after Michael Orton, as he is the photographer who first made this style popular. It is an easy way to add a dreamy, watercolour look to your portraits or landscapes. Just open your image, click on Guided along the top and under Photo Effects you will see the BEFORE AFTER Orton Effect icon. After you choose the effect you can alter the blur, noise and brightness of the image by adjusting the sliders. Here you see a before and after of a portrait shot with the Blur and Brightness at the halfway settings and the Noise at 0.

Have you ever wished you could have the beautiful background blur that you see in professional images, but can’t afford to spend a fortune on the right camera lens for the job? Well now you can have the ability to apply beautiful bokeh to your background while keeping AFTER BEFORE your model in perfect focus.

62 The Photoshop Elements Book

Just open your image and find the Depth of Field option in the Guided menu. Click on Add Blur, then choose the Gradient tool and select the focal point of your image with one click of the mouse. Magic!

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Guided edits in Elements 11 WorldMags.net Expert tip Where to focus When using Depth of Field, be sure to study the image and choose the most important area to add sharpness to. This will usually be the face of the model. You will want to blur the background quite a lot to really add focus to the face.

Know where to find it The effects can all be found on the right side under the Guided menu. Both Orton Effect and Depth of Field are under Photo Effects, and Picture Stack under the Photo Play options.

The Depth of Field edit The Depth of Field effect is wonderful, but there are a few things you need to know before just punching it in. We want you to get the best bokeh while recovering the important aspects of your image and maintaining sharpness in the right places, so follow these simple tips.

Create bokeh

01

Open your image, select the Depth of Field guided edit and click on Simple then Add Blur. There is a slider at the bottom of your view that says Blur, so move this to the right to increase the effect.

Define the area of focus

02

Now click on the second option, which is the Gradient tool. Select this and you can click your mouse directly on the area that you want to bring back in focus.

Which effect first? Sometimes it is important to add effects in the proper order. With this image, we used the Depth of Field effect first because the Orton image adds more blur.

More focus selection

03

Before closing your image, try out the Custom options to choose other important elements of your image. Here we selected the pet’s face.

The subject matters Both of these effects together create a dreamy and soft look, so be sure your subject matter is appropriate. For instance, this application looks great on our model and would also look pleasing on an autumnal landscape, but would not suit a male model very well.

Picture Stack effect

Mix it up

Separate the group with one click

Let’s try a few edits together

This effect is great for group pictures such as sports or family shots. Just open your image in the Guided mode and you will see the Picture Stack effect in the list. Select it and then click on the number of prints you want to appear (we chose eight). You then have a choice of border and background styles. This effect is sure to be a great scrapbooking or poster choice, so have fun and experiment.

Here we played around a little and tried two of the guided edits on one image. First we applied the Depth of Field effect, focusing on the model’s face, making it nice and sharp and blurring the background. We then added the Orton effect and really made this model shine. You don’t have to stop with one effect, though. You can add as many as you want to one image, just remember to click Done before moving on to the next one.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 63

Photo editingWorldMags.net AUTO The fastest way to make changes to an image’s lighting is by pressing Auto in Levels – though this isn’t always the most effective way.

LEVELS Light is represented as a graph in the Levels adjustment, showing the spread of light inside the visible spectrum.

EYEDROPPERS

MANUAL CONTROL

The three eyedropper tools enable you to choose, with precision, which parts of your image you want to be the darkest or the lightest.

Take control of the highlights yourself with the white marker and the shadows with left marker. Any part of the graph outside these markers will lose its detail completely.

Make essential adjustments

Spruce up any image using these basic adjustments in Photoshop Elements

T

he following techniques can be practised on any type of image, although depth of field (the blurring on either side of a subject) works particularly well on portraits. Photoshop Elements makes these essential edits very easy to apply. Using masks, brushes, filters and adjustments, we can vastly improve a photo’s exposure and general composition.

64 The Photoshop Elements Book

There are, of course, Guided Edits in Elements, which will perform these edits quickly and automatically, and version 11 has specific adjustments for portraits. However, Guided Edits can be restricting for some, so follow our guide and find out how we can make these improvements to our image manually and with more control.

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Make essential adjustments WorldMags.net Give your photos an instant boost Take control of light and depth in an image to vastly improve its composition and impact

Crop for impact

Automatic start

Shadows

Remove background parts of your image and centre the subject by using the Crop tool (C). Click and drag with the tool from one corner to another, lining up the central crosshairs with the person.

Open up the Levels adjustment from the black and white circle in the Layers panel. ‘Levels 1’ should appear above the Background layer. Click on Auto inside the adjustment.

If Auto hasn’t produced the ‘goods’, 03  hit Reset to undo. Click on the Black eyedropper tool in the adjustment and click

Brightest spots

Depth of field

Select the White eyedropper in Levels and click on a bright area of the image. This should increase contrast of the image significantly. If you need to undo changes at any point, press Cmd/Ctrl+Z.

Click the Background layer and go 05  to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and boost Radius

Mask away!

Custom depth

In the Layers panel, click Add Layer Mask to apply a white mask to the blurred layer. Hit D to reset Foreground colour to black. Grab the Brush tool (B) and set Opacity to 100% with a soft brush tip.

Start with faces and remove blurring 07  by painting over them repeatedly. Get close to the edges to reveal the person.

01 

02 

on a dark part of your image, like a shadow. This will darken the image’s exposure.

START PHOTO The quality of this portrait is lacking in exposure and contrast, and it needs a stronger composition

04 

What does it mean?

OUTPUT LEVELS In the Levels adjustment, the Output Levels sliders control the lightness of the image, rather than the exposure. Sliding the black marker will lighten and fade the image, whereas the white marker has the opposite effect.

06 

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to 27 pixels. This will blur the entire image, but it’s the background we must look at.

Get creative with the blurring, so leave some clothing blurred and shift the depth of field.

The Photoshop Elements Book 65

Photo editingWorldMags.net Textures

Textures can help to make the image look like It’s printed on old rough paper. Combine these with blend modes and the results will look more authentic.

Light control

Photoshop Elements is very handy for correcting light and colour in images. Read on to find out how this is done.

Before GRAPHICS

Edit portraits

Photoshop Elements comes equipped with many preset effects. These can age a photo, tint colour and much more.

Get creative and improve your portrait shots with these simple techniques

W

hether you are looking to add an artistic effect to a portrait image, or are trying to capture a portrait of someone so it is as natural-looking as possible, here are some rather straightforward Photoshop tricks to help you out in the process. Here we will call upon Photoshop Elements and take advantage of some of its key effects that are ready to go. The Graphics and Effects sets of options contain some useful adornments that we’ll put to the test in these images. Once you have grasped the techniques, you will be able to apply them to any of your own shots.

66 The Photoshop Elements Book

Photoshop Elements should not be underestimated in terms of its editing power. The Smart Brush tool can enliven portraits and with adjustment layers, such as Photo Filter and Hue/ Saturation, the possibilities are endless. From brightening up teeth and eyes, to adjusting the exposure, there is a list of ways to improve portraits. We’ll also look at creating a grunge effect with a rough border, applying a texture to the image for a worn feel. Best of all, nothing is permanent in Photoshop, so each effect can be removed using layers. If you know where to look, these require little effort to apply.

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Edit portraits WorldMags.net Grunge portraits Get a duotone effect with a border

ART FRAMES To apply the rough frame, go into the Graphics tab, apply Filter options by Style and Artistic and select Crop Shape 22 from the presets.

RESIZE Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl+T) was used to enlarge and shape the frame inside the composition.

Crop to square

01 

Open your image in Elements and select the Crop tool. Locate the ratios in the options and select 5x5in. Set to a Rule of Thirds guide and crop the portrait, placing the middle square over the face.

NEW LAYER In the Layers panel, Opt/Alt-doubleclick on the Background layer and drag it above the frame layer to reorder them.

CLIP IT

EASY SHORTCUT

Clipping masks are indicated by small arrows next to the thumbnail of the layer.

Hold Opt/Alt while clicking between the two layers to apply a clipping mask and to place the portrait inside the frame.

Grunge it up

02 

Now apply an authentic worn feel. Select the Effects tab, move to the Filter options and choose the Old Photo preset. This may take a few moments to apply the necessary adjustments.

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Blend layers

03 

Click the Layers tab. There’s now another Background layer above the first. Change the blend mode of the Background Copy to Screen to lighten the effect. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge the layers.

The Photoshop Elements Book 67

Photo editingWorldMags.net

After

Improve portraits When the light hasn’t come out right, Photoshop Elements comes to the rescue

Add a Levels adjustment

Before

Auto adjust

Tweak exposure

Inside the Levels adjustment, click Auto to let Photoshop decide the best edit. It should brighten up a lot at this stage, but the result won’t be perfect yet.

After pressing Auto, the Midtone ranges will be too dark, so click and drag the middle arrow under the graph to the left. Move this across until it reads 1.30.

01 

02 

Use the Photo Filter

Adjust your tones

Tweak the Density

To remove the orange cast, click on the colour swatch in the adjustment and set it to a light-blue (91a8ff).

Reduce the Density slider to 0% and increase until you see a better colour cast. 45% works here, but this will vary.

Open up the image you need to edit. Firstly, let’s go ahead and improve the lighting. Click on the black-and-white icon in the Layers palette and choose Levels.

04 

Lighting has been fixed, but the image still has an orange cast. Click the Photo Filter adjustment layer.

68 The Photoshop Elements Book

05 

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03 

06 

Edit portraits WorldMags.net Get a new hair colour

Focus on faces Use Photoshop Elements to enhance teeth and eyes, or even change the colour of hair

Before After Start with adjustments

01 

To change the colour of the hair, or to add colourful highlights, start by applying Hue/Saturation (Layer>New Adjustment Layer). Hit OK in the dialog.

What does it mean?

Shift the hue

02 

Before tweaking colour, change the blend mode of the Hue/Saturation adjustment to Color to ensure the image’s brightness isn’t affected by the changes.

Use clipping masks Add a clipping mask to your composition to merge two layers together. These are ideal for framing an image, because the frame will hide the areas outside the design. Once applied, this is much like having a window in your Layers panel.

Add new colour

03

Use the Hue slider to set a new tone for the hair. Ignore the rest of the image and just focus on the hair’s tone.

Brighten the eyes

Find the supplied ‘Portrait_eyes and teeth. jpg’ to follow these enhancements. The Smart Brush tool in Photoshop Elements is designed to make editing tasks easy to perform, so select it by hitting the F key and change the category to Portrait in the tool’s options. The Brighten Eyes option should be listed inside. With this setup, drag a selection over each eye to boost the brightness. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to remove the selection, then reduce the Opacity to 40%.

Whiten the teeth

To produce a whiter set of teeth, start in Quick mode in Photoshop Elements. With your image open, click on the Quick button at the top of the interface, then select the Whiten Teeth tool. This works by dragging a selection over the teeth in your portrait and an adjustment is instantly applied. This tells Photoshop to brighten up anything inside the selection, so be careful not to select the gums or lips and to set the Size slider to just cover the extent of the teeth.

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Edit with a mask

04 

Flip the mask, select the Brush tool and set white as Foreground. Pick a soft brush at 300px and paint over the hair.

The Photoshop Elements Book 69

Photo editingWorldMags.net BEFORE

AFTER

Add drama with Dodge and Burn

You don’t have to make a raft of selections, just use the Dodge and Burn tools to adjust lighting exactly where you want to

A

nyone who has been using Photoshop Elements for a while will know that there are many ways of doing the same thing. There are times when this feels like a curse but, more often than not, it is a blessing because if you can’t face a certain task you can bet your bottom dollar there is a swift workaround somewhere. The Dodge and Burn tools offer such a solution. Ordinarily, if you have a photo that

70 The Photoshop Elements Book

needs some areas to be darker or lighter, but different strengths of light and dark, you would be looking at making selections for the different edits. This isn’t a problem if it’s an image made up of simple shapes but not so great if it’s a bit more complicated (like trees), or an image with a lack of definition between colours. The Dodge and Burn tools are useful in cases such as this because you use brushes to apply the effect. You can adapt

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the size of brush to suit different areas and can also adjust the Flow value to set how intense the edit is for each of the parts. Dodging and burning is a destructive method in Elements, so always make sure that you are working on duplicate layers or a copy of your original image so that you always have a backup. The prinicples covered here will work on any image, or download our one from kozzi.com, image number 24708757.

Add drama with Dodge and Burn WorldMags.net Strengthen shadows and highlights Improve exposure with ease

Expert tip Brush size It’s important to pick the correct brush size so you edit the areas you want. Do this easily using the [ and ] keys on your keyboard. The [ key reduces brush size while the ] key increases it.

Select the Burn tool

01

The Burn tool lives with the Dodge and Sponge tools in the Toolbar. If it isn’t showing itself, click and hold whatever tool is showing and then scoot along to it when it appears in the fly-out menu.

Start small

02

Go to the top Options bar and set Exposure to 20% so the intensity won’t be so huge. Select Shadows from the Range drop-down menu. We are going to brush over the tyres, so pick a brush size to suit.

Go bigger and more intense

03

The tyres will start to get darker. Increase the brush size and set the Exposure to 50%. Brush over the foreground to darken it down and make the car become the focal point.

What Dodge and Burn do Understand how the tools work

Highlights

04

With the Dodge tool (50% Exposure) set a brush to go over highlights. Set a big brush (20% Exposure) for bright skyline areas.

The Dodge and Burn tools target specific areas of an image, either the shadows, midtones or highlights. You can decide which areas they edit in the top Options bar. You can also set how intense the effects will end up

with the Exposure slider. It is generally best to go for a low setting and repeatedly brush over the same area to build up the effect. See the table here for a guide to the intensity of the Exposure slider.

Burn tool

Exposure: 25%

Exposure: 50%

Exposure: 75%

Exposure: 100%

Exposure: 50%

Exposure: 75%

Exposure: 100%

Dodge tool Final touch

05

For a boost, pick the Sponge tool, set the Mode to Saturate and 20% Flow. Choose a big tip and lightly brush over the sky and truck.

Exposure: 25%

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The Photoshop Elements Book 71

Photo editingWorldMags.net

Master HDR toning

Fake the HDR look using a combination of filters and adjustments in Elements

T

he HDR effect has gradually become more popular as a creative way to manipulate photos, making them seem highly detailed and more vivid than before. This is especially easy to do now that there’s the HDR Toning adjustment in Photoshop, which requires just a couple of clicks to create achievable HDR tones. Just because there’s no direct equivalent in Elements, this doesn’t mean the effect is out of reach. By carefully applying adjustments to alter colour and using filters to alter focus, we can form an eye-popping HDR effect.

Photoshop Elements 11 is demonstrated throughout this tutorial, but these steps can be applied using earlier versions of the program, too. You’ll learn to take masking by the horns and apply depth of field blurring to really make this image jump off the screen. In this tutorial, you will also be getting to grips with the colour adjustments and light enhancements that Photoshop Elements 11 has to offer. As well as these, we will be visiting sharpening techniques using filters, which will help to bring out the finer details in this dramatic sports moment. Read on and have a go yourself.

Step by step Prepare your layers The fastest way to HDR colour and detail

Expert tip Target colours

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

72 The Photoshop Elements Book

The Hue/Saturation adjustment, set to Master, will affect the entire range of colours in the image. To target just one colour that stands out, change Master to Blue (for example) and adjust Saturation to either increase or decrease the strength of this particular colour. Use the bar below the slider to assign the exact range of colours that you want the adjustment to fix.

Quick duplicate

01 

Open up ‘bike rider.jpg’ from the disc in Elements. Start by creating a duplicate of the Background layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. ‘Layer 1’ should appear in the Layers panel on the right.

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Master HDR toning WorldMags.net

Shadows/Highlights

Boost lighting

Overlay new layer

02 

03 

04

Sharpen details

Improve colour

Merge all

Go to the Enhance menu at the top and down to Adjust Lighting> Shadows/Highlights. The three sliders Ð Lighten Shadows, Darken Highlights and Midtone Contrast Ð will help us to create that special HDR feel.

In the Shadows/Highlights adjustment, set Lighten Shadows to 60%, Darken Highlights to 23% and Midtone Contrast to 50%. This combination dramatically alters the lighting in the image, enhancing detail at the same time.

Duplicate Layer 1 by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer, and in the pop-up box enter the words High Pass. Hit OK, then change the layerÕs blend mode in the panel to Hard Light to prepare this image for sharpening.

05 

06

07

Alter focus

Masked control

Light levels

Head to the Other filters through the Filter menu at the top and select the High Pass option. Set Radius to 6px and hit OK. High Pass sharpening targets edge detail, enhancing the image so it looks more HDR.

08

Head to the Filter menu and down to Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 14px. Look at the background elements when applying the filter, because this is designed to create a sense of depth in the image.

Colours could do with more life. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer and choose Hue/Saturation, then hit OK. Increase the Saturation slider to 15 to see an improvement in the blues and yellows on the manÕs shirt.

09

Click on the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers panel, and select the Brush tool (B). Set the toolÕs Opacity to 100%, Size to 500px, choose a soft edge tip and set it to black. Carefully paint over the man and bike to reveal the clear layers below.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E to create a merged version of all the layers, which appears at the top of the stack. After making this layer, any edits made to the Hue/Saturation adjustment wonÕt be visible. Click the layerÕs name and rename it Blur.

10

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Add the Levels adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer) to make the final tweaks to the lighting of the image. Enter 15, 1.00 and 227 into the three boxes under the adjustmentÕs graph. Save the image as a PSD to keep the layers intact. The Photoshop Elements Book 73

Photo editingWorldMags.net

AFTER BEFORE

Fix images with Curves

Pull your images back from mediocrity by pushing contrast as far as it will go using the essential Curves command

On the web Pick up a Curves learning pack online photoshopcreative. co.uk

74 The Photoshop Elements Book

F

or many artists, Curves are the saviour of dull images. There, we’ve said it. We try hard not to have favourites in the world of Elements tools, but if we had to name one, Curves definitely ranks pretty high. It’s easy to see why they are so good the first time you use them. Curves enable you to make deft edits to contrast and help your images really sing. As the name suggests, the process takes place around a curve structure. Well, it

actually starts out as a diagonal histogram line, but by making it into a curve you get to make shadows nice and rumbly, while highlights reach the high notes. The high-contrast effect is a great one to start with as it really adds pop to an image. You can use any starting photograph for this – the process is exactly the same. As you get more confident, try pushing the curve further for even more drama.

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Fix images with Curves WorldMags.net Expert tip Take the cheat’s way

The list of Color Curves presets is a great timesaver. Use them to not only fix photos with one click, but as a way to prep images for other creative projects. For example, before turning into digital art.

Open Curves

01

Your first step is to get the Curves dialog open. This is a quick trip to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves.

Sort the highlights

02

Go to the Adjust Highlights slider and drag it to the right. This increases the photo’s highlights. The aim is to push as far as you can without causing any blow-out.

Midtones

03

Turn to the Midtone Brightness slider, which sees to the midtones. This time you need to drag it to the left. You are looking for more definition here.

Shadow time

04

Our final stop is the shadows and darker portions of you image. These are represented by the Adjust Shadows slider. Your task is to drag the slider to the left to enhance.

What to avoid Although the high-contrast effect is about pushing shadows and highlights to the maximum, you still need to be mindful of going too far. Whites can quickly blow and, if you have people in your picture, you can end up with some odd skin tones! Here is an example where we have gone too far with the midtones.

Once-click edit

05

Elements comes with preset styles that will achieve a certain look with just one click. Open the Color Curves dialog as before but ignore all of the sliders. Look to the left for a list of different styles. Simply click one to apply it.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 75

Photo editingWorldMags.net AFTER

BEFORE

Convert images to black and white Learn how to convert your captures from colour to black and white in Elements

C

onverting colour captures to black and white is one of the quickest and easiest things to do in any photo-editing software. Removing colour is simple, but adding depth and bringing out contrasting tones requires a little more technique. In this tutorial we are going to show you how to do just that. In only six very simple

76 The Photoshop Elements Book

steps for each, we will take you all the way through the conversion process and then we’ll show you exactly how you can create your very own perfectly contrasted monochrome masterpieces. Working with your software’s essential all-in-one conversion tools, we take you through the ins and outs of black and white image adjustments. For you Elements

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people, this involves the Convert to Black and White command. With this simple mode of converting to monochrome, you will be able to apply the steps to many of your own photographs. We will finish of the tutorial with some extra black-and-white tips and adjustment techniques in order to add a creative twist to your conversions.

Convert images to black and white WorldMags.net Convert colour in Elements Use the Convert to Black and White command

Convert to Black and White

Channel adjustments

Convert your image by going to Enhance>Convert to Black and White. Your original colour photograph should now appear in the command adjustment box showing a before and after preview. Begin by selecting the appropriate image style option; Portraits in our case. You can preview alternative adjustments for a comparison.

02

03

Tonal enhancement

Control contrast

Save it out

04

05

06

Prepare the image

01

Open your image in Elements. Select it from the bar at the bottom, ready to begin making adjustments. Click on the Background layer in the Layers palette and Ctrl/right-click to select Duplicate Layer. Rename the new layer Black and White.

Adjust the Green and Blue sliders to add more tonal contrast to the image. Set the Green to around +39 and Blue to +14. You can also use the Undo and Redo buttons on the left if you make a mistake or want to go back to a previous slider position.

Now adjust the Contrast slider to create a punchier result. Bring the value up to around +7 and make sure you preview the results as you go to avoid creating an unwanted posterisation effect on the image. Once you are happy with the results, click OK.

You will need to make further adjustments to the channel sliders in the Effects palette to increase contrast and improve the effect. Slowly increase the Red channel to around +43 which will add a punchier contrast result. This will work particularly well on skin tones and red lipstick.

Finally you will need to flatten the original and the black and white layer in order to save your image. Select Flatten Image in the Layer’s palette and you can then go to File>Save As and save it as a JPEG.

Monochrome in Elements Understand the options 1. Select the appropriate style option to help save time when converting colour captures to black and white. 2. Use the Red, Green and Blue channel adjustment sliders to increase contrast and add more tonal definition to your image. 3. Punch up the tones using the Contrast adjustment slider, increase it slowly and preview the result. 4. Use the Undo and Redo buttons to correct any mistakes or return to a previous setting.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 77

Photo editingWorldMags.net BEFORE

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

AFTER

Get the Lomo efect Digitally master the effects of Lomography using Elements as your darkroom

T

he Lomo effect has become something of a classic style to emulate, and Elements has alll you need to be the program of choice for a do-it-yourself digital Lomograph. The original Lomographic camera came out of Austria in the early Nineties after the discovery of the captivating Lomo Kompakt Automat, a Russian film camera of the time. The style of this little shooter sparked the inspiration for the hundreds upon hundreds of photo effects that soon followed. Through these steps, we show you how this stylish and distinctive type of photograph can be re-created. We’ve pulled out some of the finest adjustments that Elements has to offer, with a few brush techniques thrown in for good measure. The strong and abstract mixture of colours in a

78 The Photoshop Elements Book

Lomo image can be made using a gradient map, and this is really open to artistic interpretation. The number of possible styles is endless, as it’s an expression of creativity rather than an effect that can ever be rendered correctly or with precision. For inspiration for more effects, look up www.lomography.com, the official website that exhibits the creations of Lomographers and puts the multiple cameras and films to use. The combinations vary greatly, with effects including overexposure, blurring, fisheye, distorted hues, grain and a film negative frame. You can really let your hair down on this project, with no boundaries on what’s wrong, right, bad or good. Follow our steps for an effective variant, but don’t be afraid to experiment.

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Get the Lomo effect WorldMags.net Push colour limits for the Lomo look Turn an image into an artistic and wacky version of itself

Expert tip

Add grain

01

Open up the start image provided for this tutorial. Duplicate the Background layer by dragging it onto the Create a new layer button. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and set Amount to 10%, Distribution to Uniform and tick Monochromatic. Hit OK for a grainy effect.

Anything goes here!

Motion effect

02

For a moving, blurry effect, go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. Set Amount to 5, Blur Method to Zoom and Quality to Best. Hit OK. The image will look like it’s had zooming issues, but this is fine.

Gradient map

Abstract colour

03

04

Head to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map and hit OK in the pop-up window. In the Gradient Editor (click once on the gradient to open) load up the Color Harmonies 2 gradient set from the small arrow at the top.

Increase brightness

Apply vignette

05

06

Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer from either the Layers menu or inside the Layers palette using the black and white button. Increase the Brightness value to 40 to boost the whites in the image, replicating overexposure in your image.

The Lomo effect can essentially be given any colour variations. Opening the Gradient Editor inside its adjustment layer, try out different coloured gradients with the layer set to Color Burn and 60% Opacity. Depending on your image, you may want to change the colours used from this tutorial.

Choose the Green, Yellow gradient from the examples and hit OK in the Editor. Select Reverse in the Gradient Map adjustment to flip the colours. Change the adjustment layer’s blend mode to Color Burn and lower its Opacity to 60%.

Add a new blank layer at the top of the stack above both adjustments. Select the Brush tool, set to black with a brush size of approximately 600px and zoom out of your image. Paint around the corners of the image in a curved fashion to apply a vignette.

Bleach out highlights

07

To exaggerate overexposure, select the Background Copy layer and then the Dodge tool with Midtones chosen from the Options bar and set to 80% Opacity. With a large soft brush, dodge the sky and water’s surface to lighten the areas.

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Photo editing Edit WorldMags.net

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AFTER

Edit colours with Photo Filter WorldMags.net BEFORE

Edit colours with Photo Filter Take a leaf out of traditional photographers’ books and use coloured filters to combat white balance problems or go further by using them to enhance your hues

T

raditional photographers have long used coloured filters in front of the camera lens to improve the colour balance and temperature of a photo. This is applied over the entire image or is graduated to concentrate on one area (such as the sky). The Elements equivalent of this is the Photo Filter tool, which can be found lurking in Filter>Adjustments. This tool enables you to gently coax extra colour out of your image or push things further

that of editing colours. The beauty of using the Photo Filter over something like Hue/Saturation is that you are provided with a batch of ready-made improvements. This makes it less likely for you to create something that looks a bit fake. There is no start image for this tutorial on the disc, but the technique can be applied to any shot. If you do want to use the same image as us, download it for free from http://tinyurl.com/63b8gmo.

for more dramatic efects. The easiest application of this tool is to make light work of dodgy white balance by reaching for the Warming Filter (80) or Cooling Filter (80) settings. These fix the two most common balance problems (too blue or too yellow, respectively), but if you have sufered a more unusual blight, just pick a complementary colour to tame things down. However, we are going to concentrate on a diferent aspect of the tool, namely

Select your areas Keep editing zones separately for total control

Make a copy

01

It might be that you want to apply one of the filters to the entire image, in which case just open up the command, pick a colour and press OK. We want to be a bit more selective, though. Go to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Name this layer ‘Copy’.

Select areas

02

Time to start carving up the image. Pick the selection tool of your choice (we plumped for Magnetic Lasso) and select an area (in our case, the sky). Go to Edit>Copy and then Edit>Paste and call the new layer ‘Sky’.

The first edit

03

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Repeat the selection process for the other areas (ours were the sea, the grass and the brickwork of the lighthouse). Before making a selection, make sure you click on the Copy layer.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net Work through the layers Click on your areas and then have fun with colours

Expert tip Smooth transition Make the adjustment

04

Click on a layer and then go to Image> Adjustments>Photo Filter (Photoshop) or Filter>Adjustments>Photo Filter (Elements). We clicked the Sky layer to boost the intensity of the blue a little.

Enrich the blue

Land locked

05

06

Make sure that the Filter circle is selected in the dialog and then pick Cyan from the drop-down menu. The Preserve Luminosity option is usually best left checked, as it keeps the highlight information, but we are unchecking it as we have white areas. Move the Density slider to set the intensity of the colour.

We settled on a Density setting of 44 for the sky. Click OK to exit the Photo Filter dialog and then click on another layer. We picked our grass area. Open the Photo Filter as before. This time we picked Green and kept Preserve Luminosity checked. A setting of 50% sorted us.

It doesn’t matter how you select areas and you don’t even need to be that accurate. However, if you find that the edges look false once you have applied the Photo Filter, flatten the images and use the Blur tool on a low setting to smooth the edges.

Using the Photo Filter tool Just select options and watch the magic happen.

Final edit

07

Now move on to the body of the lighthouse. When making the colour edits, try to enhance what is already there. In the case of our brickwork, we went for the Deep Red filter at 29%.

Go your own way

08

We have concentrated on the supplied colours, but if you click on Color instead of Filter and then click the coloured square, you will see a picker. Simply click on the colour you want to use as your filter. We used this approach on the Sea layer.

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Pick a colour If you need a colour that isn’t supplied in the Filter menu, simply click the Color setting to call up a picker and use that to set a colour.

Set the intensity You control how aggressive the filter is by way of the Density slider. Left for less, right for might!

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Pick the filter Use this dropdown menu to select one of the supplied filter colours. Most of these will do what you need.

Light show In most cases, the Preserve Luminosity option should be left checked, as this keeps the highlight detail in the image. However, if you have areas where you want to kill the highlight, simply uncheck the box.

Edit colours with Photo Filter WorldMags.net Photo Filter options in full Check out what’s on offer The diferent coloured filters are perfect for quick colour corrections, or to be used as the basis for a more intense image makeover. Here’s a look at what they all do – each filter has been applied to the same image at 70% Density with Preserve Luminosity selected.

Warming Filter (85)

Warming Filter (LBA)

Warming Filter (81)

Cooling Filter (80)

Cooling Filter (LBB)

Cooling Filter (82)

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Cyan

Blue

Violet

Magenta

Sepia

Deep Red

Deep Blue

Deep Emerald

Deep Yellow

Underwater

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Photo editingWorldMags.net

Source file available

Before

Use the image provided to re-create this

Perfect macro

Use Photoshop Elements to add stunning, layered macro effects to your images

M

ost digital cameras can capture macro images, with some zooming as close as 1cm or less to the subject. But what do you do when you want to convert an image to macro that wasn’t captured using that effect? Call upon Photoshop Elements! Here’s a way to apply the effect quickly using layers and masks. Elements can create this effect with just a few layers and the whole process is simple. Start off with the right aspect ratio and you’re all set to make a close-up macro image.

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Most of the blurring occurs in the background areas behind the main subject. However, the subject is also blurred, though not to the same extent. Using selections and masks, we’re able to isolate both parts of the image and add depth. Head to the last page of this tutorial for a quick look at the interfaces of both Photoshop Elements and standard Photoshop, to see the differences. The latest version of Photoshop Elements 11 has had some big changes made to it, and looks very different to earlier versions.

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Perfect macro WorldMags.net Crop to size

01 

Open the image ‘Flower.jpg’. Before we begin to edit the image, it needs to be cropped to look more like a macro image. Select the Crop tool (C) and head to the various options assigned to the tool. From the list of preset sizes, change it from No Restrictions to 8 x 10in.

Double up

03 

Before any further edits are made to the image, make a copy of your image’s layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. Layer 1 should now appear in the Layers panel just above Background.

Crop down

02 

Click and drag with the Crop tool over the flower in the image. Aim to leave a slight gap between the top and bottom of the cropping boundary and the edge of the flower. Place the centre point over the middle of the flower. Click on the green tick to apply the crop.

Magic selections

04 

Select the Magic Wand tool (W) from the Toolbar (in Elements 11 this is hidden under the Quick Selection tool). In the tool’s options, set the Tolerance to 50 and untick the Contiguous box, so that the maximum number of pixels is selected.

Expand the selection

05 

With the Magic Wand tool ready, click once on the flower to select it. A selection should now appear over the whole flower, but some parts may be left out. Hold Shift and click on those areas of the flower that were left out of the initial selection until the entire flower is selected.

Expert tip Refine Edge

Refine the selection

06 

Remove areas of the selection on parts other than the flower – such as the background – by ticking the Contiguous box. Increase the Tolerance to 80 to make this easier and then click over these areas, holding Opt/Alt to remove them from the selection.

Blur background

07 

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy and paste the flower onto a separate layer. Click on the duplicated background layer (Layer 1) and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set Radius to 45 pixels to blur the areas behind the flower, then hit OK to apply the filter.

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Photoshop Elements has a Refine Edge option that comes with all the selection tools. After using the Magic Wand tool, head to the tool’s options to find Refine Edge. Change the View to see how the area looks against various colours. Use the Shift Edge slider to adjust the position of the selection and tidy it up. For macro effects, selections don’t have to be perfect because the blurring hides any rough edges.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net Expert tip Visual clues Opt/Alt-click on the layer’s mask to reveal a black and white overlay on your image. This indicates just how soft the transitions are between the blurred and sharp parts. From here, the Brush and Eraser tools can be used to paint or remove the mask. Opt/Alt-click on the mask again to return your image to its original, colourful state.

Invert mask

Add depth

08 

Select the flower’s layer (Layer 2) and make a direct copy of it by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. This new duplicate will contain the in-focus flower. Click on the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers panel, and then press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert it from white to black.

The Eraser tool

10 

Select the Eraser tool (E) and set your Foreground colour to black by clicking on the front swatch beneath the tools. Set the eraser’s Opacity to 100%, Size to 250px and choose a soft edge brush. Now select the layer mask on Layer 2 Copy.

Goodbye blur!

11 

Work out from the centre of the flower with the Eraser tool, removing the blurry areas to reveal the in-focus flower underneath. The layer mask in the Layers panel should show the changes in white. For areas surrounding the centre, lower the eraser’s Opacity to 30% to give it a soft blur.

09 

To help add depth to the effect, select Layer 2 and then go to the Gaussian Blur filter again. Reduce the Amount slider to 15px, so it’s not as blurry as the background of the image, and hit OK.

Flip selection

12 

The background colours can be reduced to draw more attention to the flower. Cmd/Ctrl-click over the flower’s layer thumbnail to activate it as a selection. Go to Select>Inverse (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I) to flip the area, so the background is selected.

Expert tip Sharpen it up

Adjust colour

13 

With the selection showing around the background, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Hit OK in the pop-up box and reduce the Saturation slider to -25. This will reduce the green colours, making the reds seem stronger.

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In this image, as with many macro images, the main focal point could do with sharpening. This feature in Photoshop Elements is under the Enhance menu and is called Unsharp Mask. Set the Amount to 100% and Radius between 2-10 pixels. For high Radius values, increase the Threshold slider gradually to around 5-10 levels to lessen the effects and prevent over-sharpening.

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Perfect macro WorldMags.net Photoshop Elements Developing the effect in this beginner’s choice software LAYERING UP

MASK A LAYER

After separating the flower from the background using the Magic Wand tool, different amounts of blurring can be applied for depth with the Gaussian Blur filter.

A mask was added to the top layer, enabling us to use the Brush and Eraser tools for customising the effect non-destructively.

HISTORY STATES The History panel comes in handy, as it lets you jump back to any point if you don’t like how the effect is looking.

BRUSH-LIKE QUALITIES The Eraser tool works just like a brush, with Size and Opacity sliders for adapting its shape. This was used on the layer mask to selectively blur parts of the image.

VERSION 11 This is the new Photoshop Elements 11 interface. If you’re using an earlier version then it’ll look very different. Additional panels are opened from the More button next to Favorites.

Photoshop Using the more advanced features in Photoshop SMART FILTERS

EXTRA CONTROL The Color Balance adjustment (Layer>New Adjustment Layer) gives the freedom to tweak colours in the highlight, midtone and shadow regions for just the flower.

Use Smart Filters (Filter>Convert for Smart Filters) for any layer, so that settings can be readjusted at any stage. Doubleclick on the Smart Filter’s layer and the options will open.

ANY DIFFERENCE? The final image is just as good as the one made in Elements. One big difference is that Photoshop contains more options for making selections and controlling colour such as Color Range from the Select menu.

CHOOSE A CHANNEL The Channels palette shows which areas of the image are found under the colours red, green and blue. Cmd/ Ctrl-click over one of the channels to activate it as a selection.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net TARGET YOUR ADJUSTMENTS The background didn’t need to be made lighter, so we used a selection around just the subjects. This enabled us to make adjustments in only one area.

SHADOW LIFT

RESPECT SKIN TONES

We used Levels to lift the shadows in our image so that they’re less harsh.

Brightening and using Levels on our image also enhanced the orange glow on the subjects’ faces, so we had to correct the lighting for their skin tones.

PROTECT YOUR ORIGINAL All our adjustments were made on a duplicate layer. This means we have the original intact in case we need it again in the future.

Before

Fix heavy shadows

Dark shadows can ruin a portrait shot, but simple selections can help to bring them back to life

I

t’s hard enough to get the family to sit still long enough to get the perfect group photograph and it’s even more difficult to make sure that your composition, lighting and background are just right as well. Here we have a lovely shot, but there are heavy shadows cast across the faces of our subjects due to the bright window in the background. However, rather than resign it to the digital bin, we can use Photoshop Elements 11 to fix this.

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We will have to delve into the world of selections to do this though, as we don’t want to simply brighten the whole image, or the already-bright background would blow out. This means we’re going to make a selection around just the people in the picture, so that we can lighten them and soften the shadows without affecting the background. We’ll also be sympathetic to skin tones, so that we’re left with a natural shot.

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Fix heavy shadows WorldMags.net Bring back the light

Remove harsh contrast in a few simple steps

THE QUICK SELECTION TOOL Use the Quick Selection tool to isolate your subjects in the photo, so that you can edit just them and not the background.

ADD TO SELECTION Make sure that this is selected at first to start adding to the selection area.

Duplicate the original

SUBTRACT FROM SELECTION If you include bits in the selection you don’t need, switch to Subtract mode to remove them again.

BRUSH SIZE The smaller the brush size, the more accurate your selection, but the longer it will take. Adjust it as needed here.

Play with Levels

More precise adjustments

01 

02 

03 

Refine the selection

Edit brightness and contrast

Perfect the skin tones

Open Elements and go to Expert. Make sure the Levels panel is open, Cmd/right-click on the Background layer and select Duplicate Layer. Ensure the new Background copy layer is highlighted.

04 

At the bottom of the screen, in the Quick Selection options, you can make your brush add to or subtract from the selection. Experiment until you get a reasonable selection around your subjects.

Go to Quick mode. In the View menu, select Before & After – Horizontal to see what you’re doing. Open the Levels option and click the previews to find the one that best improves the image.

05 

To tweak the figures go Enhance> Adjust Lighting>Brightness/ Contrast and play with the sliders until happy. We pulled the Brightness slider to the right and the Contrast a little to the left.

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Go back to Expert mode. Pick the Quick Selection tool from the Select category of tools. Begin to draw around just the subjects in your image so that they are surrounded by marching ants.

06 

Go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color for Skin Tone. Click on a skin tone and the image will be adjusted. Use the sliders to perfect your result, which should now look a lot better.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net LAYERS Layers contain various effects that are stacked up, the order of which can be altered by dragging them up or down the panel.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 11 This is how the Layers panel looks inside Photoshop Elements 11. Commands for adding new layers, masks and adjustments are featured at the top.

EXTRA STYLE To add some distortion to the effect, the highlights were bleached out in this image by using the Levels adjustment.

What does it mean?

Layer masks – When a mask is applied to a layer, parts of the image can be hidden by using the Brush tool. Masks offer the best way to edit images without actually deleting any of the important pixels.

LEVELS ADJUSTMENT The Levels adjustment layer only affects the layers underneath it. Pull the points under its graph to the left and right to adjust the contrast in the highlight and shadow regions.

Create exposure effects Add movement to subjects and double up on exposure with these techniques in Elements

S

ome artists refer to Photoshop Elements 11 as a condensed Photoshop CS6. To an extent this is true, but this shouldn’t lower your expectations of what can be done. For effects such as these that involve exposure, Photoshop Elements performs just as well as its big brother. Masking, blurring and adjustment layers are all included in Elements, and in an interface that’s much friendlier for beginners. Here, we show you three types of effects involving layering and blurring. The double-exposure effect creates a

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two-in-one image, whereby details from one are overlapped onto another and then faded out. Any images can be used to create this, and the results can be quite abstract. Following this, we show you blurring techniques for adding movement and rotation to objects such as water and an umbrella. These are the sorts of effects that photographers capture by adapting their camera’s settings, but, thankfully, Photoshop Elements lets us skip this difficult camera work and get straight to it!

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Create exposure effects WorldMags.net Create the double-exposure effect

How to use Photoshop Elements 11 for creating a layered composition

Layer mask

Radial Blur

01 

Duplicate the Background layer of your image. Head to the Filter menu and down to Blur>Radial Blur, then set Method to Zoom and Amount to 10.

Boost contrast

02 

03 

Double up

Blend layers

Click the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers panel. Select the Brush tool (B) and set brush size to 700px. Set Foreground colour to black and paint over faces and central parts of your image.

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer and add the Levels adjustment. Increase contrast by sliding black and white markers inwards. The adjustment layer comes with its own mask for customising.

Source images

04 

Load up your second image by going to File>Open. When it’s loaded, head to Select>All and then Edit>Copy. Turn to the first image by double-clicking on its picture in the Photo/ Project Bin and then head to Edit>Paste to insert the new image into the first.

Customise effect

06  Having contrasting images will make for a stronger double-exposure effect.

Details can be removed by adding a layer mask to the second image. Use the Brush tool to hide areas of the second image that cover up the subjects in the first image. This will depend on the images you use for the double-exposure.

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05 

Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to activate Free Transform. Use the corner boxes around the second image to resize it so it fits over the first. Change the blend mode of the second image’s layer to Lighten from inside the Layers panel. Changing the blend mode creates different effects.

Save As

07 

As a multi-layered image, it needs to be stored as a PSD to retain all layers. Go to File>Save As and change Format to Photoshop. Enter a name and make sure Layers is ticked. Hit Save to finish. The Photoshop Elements Book 91

Photo editingWorldMags.net Source image

Fake movement in water

Use the Blur filters for a long exposure effect Long exposure effects are usually created using a camera set to a slow shutter speed. Using Photoshop, we can experiment with just how much blurring we need and also adjust where the blurring occurs in the image. For water, we can select just that and then apply a level of blurring that suits. Follow the steps below to learn how the Motion Blur filter can be used in conjunction with the Magic Wand tool. USING MASKS After the filter was applied, a black layer mask was used to hide parts of the blurring. The Eraser tool was then used to selectively bring blurring back through in certain areas.

MOTION BLUR FILTER This filter blurs subjects in a given direction. Used with a selection of the water, we’re able to add movement to otherwise static images.

MOTION BLURRING The movement of the water can be captured using Photoshop’s filters and masks. It’s as if a long exposure was used at the time the photo was taken.

Magic Wand tool

01 

Open an image with water and select the Magic Wand tool (W) from the Tools panel. Set Tolerance to 23 in the tool’s options; this figure will depend on the resolution of your image and may need increasing if your image is high-res. Untick the Contiguous box to finish setting up.

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Make selection

02 

Click on the water to apply a new selection. Contiguous isn’t ticked, so all water areas should be included. With the selection active go to Layer>New>Layer via Copy (Cmd/Ctrl+J). This places selected water onto a new layer for further editing.

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Motion Blur

03 

Go to the Filter menu and then down to Blur>Motion Blur. Set the Distance slider to around 100px. Alter the Angle in the filter to match the direction of the water in your image. If it’s falling straight down then a setting of 90 degrees will work.

Create exposure effects WorldMags.net Refine Edge

Preview the selection The Magic Wand tool comes with the Refine Edge command, found with the tool’s options. Click and select a View mode such as On Black to see just how the selection looks and which areas have been included or excluded. Adjustments inside Refine Edge enable you to customise the selection and tweak it for a better Motion Blur effect.

Duplicate Background

04 

Click on the Background layer and create a duplicate. Go to the Blur filters and this time to the Gaussian Blur option. Set the Radius slider to 12 pixels and hit OK. The entire image will appear blurry, but this can be fixed with a layer mask.

Add blur

05 

Click the Add Layer Mask button then press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the white mask to black. The blurring should disappear. Select the Eraser tool (E), then set its colour to black, Size to 200px and Opacity to 50%. Paint over and around the water to soften hard edges.

Circular blur effects Use this quick technique for spinning objects SPIN BLUR Movement was added to this umbrella by setting the Radial Blur filter to Spin.

HIDING LAYERS

Source image This visual trick makes an object appear as if it’s spinning around quickly in a circle. This uses the Radial Blur filter and clever brushwork to make the object appear as though it’s moving quickly, without affecting the person or the background areas. This works best on round objects, such as umbrellas or wheels of some sort, as the filter uses a central point to rotate around.

Duplicate and spin

01 

Duplicate the Background layer. Apply Radial Blur filter. Set Amount slider to 20 and Method to Spin. Ensure the Blur Center box shows blurring around the same location as your image’s main object.

AFTER EFFECT This is a creative way to transform a normal image with a blurring effect.

Masks are crucial in this effect to hide the background and woman from the blurry umbrella.

Eraser tool

Invert mask

02 

Apply a layer mask to this duplicate layer from inside the Layers panel. Go to Filter>Adjustments>Invert to turn the white mask to black.

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03 

Grab the Eraser tool (E) and set it to a soft brush tip at around 400px. With your Foreground colour set to black, paint over the part you want blurry. Note how white areas appear on the mask, indicating changes being made. The Photoshop Elements Book 93

Photo editingWorldMags.net

Light up your seascapes

Shine new light into your seascapes with atmospheric rays of sunshine using Photoshop Elements

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

L

ighting is a strong dictator of the mood of an image. Learning how to adapt light in Photoshop is a very useful skill to have, as you’ll likely need to call upon this on more than one occasion. Rays of light can be used to turn a normal seascape image into something of a natural marvel. We explore how Photoshop Elements handles the task of transforming an image. Elements has many of the same controls as Photoshop CS versions, as the

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essential adjustments and filters are all there. With Photoshop Elements 11, the interface has changed considerably from earlier versions, but the tools, panels and menus have (helpfully!) all kept the same names. Although this tutorial was performed in Photoshop Elements, it can be done in Photoshop CS versions as well. Just follow through the steps to discover how filters and layers can be used alongside brushes and clipping masks to create shining beams of light.

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Light up your seascapes WorldMags.net

Before

New layer

Render clouds

01

Open ‘Seascape.jpg’ from the supplied files in Photoshop Elements, then add a new layer to the image by clicking on the folded paper icon in the Layers panel (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N). A new layer called Layer 1 should appear above the Background. Having cont rasting imag es will make for a stronger double-exposure effect.

02

Go to the Filter menu at the top of Elements and then down to Render>Clouds. An instant black and white smothering of clouds should appear over the image. As this is on a separate layer, the main image has been left untouched.

Blend layers

03

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In the Layers panel, change the blend mode of the Clouds layer from Normal to Overlay. This will reveal the original image underneath. Also, lower this layer’s Opacity to 80% to fade it slightly. The Photoshop Elements Book 95

Photo editingWorldMags.net

Transform rays Motion Blur

04

Apply the Motion Blur filter to the Clouds layer by going into the Filter menu and to the Blur options. In the Motion Blur dialog box, set Angle to 90 and Distance to the maximum setting. Hit OK to apply.

Soften clouds

06

To remove the hard edges of the Clouds layer, go to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur. In the filter’s menu, set Radius to 12 pixels and hit OK. To remove some of the layer overlapping the sea, use the Eraser tool (E) at 100% Opacity and 700px.

05 

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T to activate the Free Transform controls. Using the corner boxes around the edges, shrink down the Clouds layer and squash it to fit just under the main point of the light in the image. Ctrl/right-click over the layer and then select Skew from the list to slant the direction of the new rays.

More clouds!

Boost effect

07

Duplicate the Clouds layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. This will strengthen the appearance of the light rays. Press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge both layers containing the Clouds filter.

08

Add a new layer to the top of the stack and apply the Clouds filter once more. Lower this layer’s Opacity to 60% and then change its blend mode to Screen. This will merge the new Clouds layer with the rest of the image.

Expert tip A new perspective If you want to try a new angle for the light rays, go back to Layer 1 (containing the rays) and select Image>Transform> Perspective. Drag the bottom corner of the transform box to the left and the top corner to the right. This will reposition the rays so they’re more central and change the look of the composition. Alternatively, choose the Flip Layer Horizontal transform option to make the rays point in the opposite direction.

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Clipping mask

09

To make sure that the new Clouds layer only affects the light rays, go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask. This should also help to remove a few of the darker parts of the light rays coming down from the sky.

Levels adjustment

10

Add a Levels adjustment layer by going into the black and white circular icon in the Layers panel. Add a clipping mask to this layer to link it with the Clouds layer below (this can be done by Opt/ Alt-clicking on the line between the two layers).

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Light up your seascapes WorldMags.net Expert tip Editing light rays

Surface light

Brighten rays

11

Inside the Levels adjustment layer, drag the middle marker to the left until it reads 1.20. Then drag the white marker inwards to around 200. These Levels adjustments will brighten up the light rays and make them stand out more.

Add definition

13

To create more defined rays of light, select the Eraser tool (E) and then click on Layer 1 to edit it. Click once over the top of the rays and, holding Shift, click over the point where they meet the sea to create straight, cutaway lines between the rays.

12

Select the Brush tool (B) and set the size of the tip to around 370px and Opacity to 10%. Be sure to have a soft-edged brush selected, and then paint over the parts of the sea which the light rays fall onto.

Save as PSD

14

To save a version of the composition with all its layers intact, go to File>Save As. Choose a location to store the file and set its Format to ‘Photoshop’ (PSD). Tick the Layers box and hit Save. The image can now be opened at any time in the future if some re-editing is required.

When editing light rays and the white glow seen on the surface of water, make sure that the Eraser tool is set to a large, soft brush tip such as 300px Round. In Photoshop CS versions this can be done with the Softness setting which Elements doesn’t include. Using a soft tip means that any areas of transition between layers are unnoticeable. The large brush makes it easier to mould the shape of the light to how you want it to look.

Compressed version

15

To save a smaller version of the composition, after saving it as a PSD, go to Layer>Flatten Image. This compresses all the layers into one Background, instantly making its file size much smaller. Save this version as a JPEG, which is ideal for printing or uploading to online galleries.

Opacity mismatch Beware of imperfect blends When working with multiple layers, each with different opacities, it can be easy to get a mismatch of settings, especially if you’re focussing too much on the positioning and transformations. For instance, the surface glow on the sea needs to match up with the strength of the light rays that are coming down from the sky, or else you’ll lose the detail of the waves and end up with an unrealistic seascape. Keep an eye on the Opacity settings for both layers when painting and erasing to make sure that the layers are the same brightness. Lowering the Opacity setting will make a layer appear less obvious in the final effect, so it’s best to err on the side of caution.

Wrong WorldMags.net

Right The Photoshop Elements Book 97

Photo editingWorldMags.net BLURRY MOUNTAINS

What does it mean?

The image’s brightness is quite low, so it could do with these essential adjustments

Hue or saturation? – Hue controls the actual colour of an object. Saturation, on the other hand, deals with the intensity of that colour. Setting higher saturation values gives more vibrant colour.

MISTY MOUNTAINS It’s a combination of all these different edits and adjustments that make this landscape much more impressive to look at.

Source image BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST The Brightness slider in this adjustment controls the overall exposure, and is our first stop in the editing process.

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LIGHTER SHADOWS

MIDTONE CONTRAST

Shadows can be controlled separately from everything else using the Shadows/Highlights adjustment under the Enhance menu.

This slider inside the Shadows/Highlights dialog box controls the contrast of the regions that fall between the brightest and darkest subjects.

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Improve landscapes WorldMags.net

Improve landscapes

Achieve better colour and exposure in landscapes with Elements

W

ith any form of editing in Photoshop, the results can easily be overcooked. When editing landscape images, for example, the trick is to pick and choose the adjustments carefully. Adjustment layers are ideal as they’re not permanent edits, and can be changed at any point. When using tools such as the Burn tool to adjust exposure, however, a duplicate layer needs to be added. This enables us to backtrack any edits and undo any mistakes more easily. For this image, we’ve taken a look at improving the exposure, contrast and colour, to make the grassy mountains in the background and the cool water in the foreground stand out. The

Shadows/Highlights feature can be used to bring out the details in poorly exposed regions of the image. If you have any images that didn’t quite turn out the way that you had hoped, then try out these techniques and inject some life back into them.

“Adjustment layers are ideal as they are not permanent edits, and can be changed at any point” Essential photo edits in Elements Bring out the colours in a landscape using the tools and adjustments in Elements

Upload image

Improve exposure

Smarter editing

01 

02 

03 

Shadow detail

Better colour

Darker mountains

Find an image you have taken for which you would like to improve exposure and colour. We’re going to start off by boosting the exposure here, so head to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness/ Contrast and then hit OK.

04 

Go to the Enhance menu and to Adjust Lighting>Shadows/Highlights. The image will look lighter upon opening. Lower the Lighten Shadows slider to 5% and boost Midtone Contrast to 11%. The shadow regions will have more detail Having contnow. rasting images will make for a stronger double-exposure effect.

In the Adjustment panel, boost Brightness to 54. You’ll notice a huge improvement to the exposure. Increase Contrast to 14 to add punch to the lighting. Close this adjustment via the ‘x’. To reopen, double-click the layer’s thumbnail.

05 

Make extra improvements to colour by clicking on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button at the top of the Layers panel. Select the Hue/Saturation option and adjust the Saturation to around +15 for extra colour throughout the image.

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We’re going to use the Shadows/ Highlights adjustment, which needs to be applied to a duplicate copy of the Background layer. Click on the Background layer and go to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Name it ‘Shadows/Highlights’ then hit OK.

06 

To deepen the exposure of the mountains in the background, select the Burn tool (O) from the Toolbar. Set it to Midtones in the tool’s options, then set the Size to 1000px and Exposure to 23%. Brush over the mountains to darken them.

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Create the Dragan effect WorldMags.net BEFORE

Create the Dragan effect Give your photos a professional, high-contrast look using sharpening techniques and a mix of adjustment layers

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

T

he Dragan effect is sometimes referred to as Draganising images because it replicates the style of imagery from photographer Andrzej Dragan. The renowned artist captures a person at their most natural, resulting in beautiful portraits. The style of his images involves lots of detail, sharpened edges and strong contrast. From the glints in a subject’s eyes to the wrinkles around their gleaming smile, there is a lot to get stuck into when re-creating this effect. We will show you how to inject high levels of detail into your portraits and how to bring out the highlights in a controlled fashion. More emphasis is placed on the atmosphere of the

image, such as using a vignette to darken the background and making the main subject stand out with more distinction. Brightening up the highlights in the eyes is also an important feature we don’t want to miss out. Check out our tips for improving these aspects for a powerful Dragan-esque image. There is no better way to capture the character of a person than a down-the-lens pose. Whatever the person’s mood may be at the time, using Elements we can exploit and enhance this unique moment with the techniques described here. The start image is provided on your free disc courtesy of Hector Landaeta (www.sxc.hu/profile/coloniera2).

Prepare your image Organise the Layers palette for non-destructive editing

Duplicate layer

And again

Open up your starting image, go to the Layer menu and then Duplicate Layer. The Duplicate Layer dialog will open and show the name of the new layer as Background Copy. Hit OK to create it.

01

02

Add High Pass

Set Radius

03

04

Find the option Other inside the Filter menu. Here you’ll see the High Pass filter. This contains a preview of the image with a grey overlay and a Radius slider underneath. You’re image should just be visible under the grey.

Duplicate this for a second time by dragging the Background Copy layer onto the Create a New Layer icon (which you can find at the bottom of the Layers palette).

The Dragan effect is known for quite pronounced details. The High Pass filter should usually be kept quite low, but for this image it needs to be used heavily. Push the Radius slider up to 11px.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net

New mode

Boost contrast

05

06

When the High Pass filter is applied, a grey film is placed over the image. To blend this with the layer underneath, change the blend mode from Normal to Hard Light.

Scurve

07

Inside the Color Curves dialog, click the Increase Contrast preset and then move the Midtone Contrast slider to the right. Move the Adjust Shdows slider to the left. Keep details in the shadows, but make sure highlights are bright and white.

It’s time to increase and control the lighting. Draganised images have high contrast and focus on the face of the person. Go to the Enhance menu and select Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves.

Adjust the levels

08

Add a Levels adjustment from the New Adjustment Layer options. Levels enables us to control the midtones in our image. This is done using the middle marker under the graph. Push this to the left until it reads 1.30. This should bring back more details in the shadows.

Understand Dragan The key features to replicate this distinct style of imagery THINK IN CONTRAST A balance between highlights and shadows is vital to get right. There needs to be detail in both areas, but enough contrast to really make the image sing.

BRIGHT EYES The eyes in this were made brighter. This is one aspect of the Dragan effect that’s important to include if your model is lacking contrast.

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THE FINE LINES Look to exaggerate even the finest of lines and wrinkles in the face. This is controlled with Levels and Color Curves.

SHARPEN EDGES The High Pass filter lets you sharpen every edge in the image, making it pop. This is an effective way to replicate the original style in Elements.

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HIDE BACKGROUND Reducing the impact of background elements is another trait of the Dragan effect. This draws attention to the face and makes for a more dramatic portrait.

Create the Dragan effect WorldMags.net Expert tip Brighten the eyes

A Dragan image places strong emphasis on the eyes. To brighten them up in this or any portrait image, select the Dodge tool and set its Range to Midtones in the Options bar. Make its brush size just smaller than one of the eyes and then, using the duplicated Background layer, paint over the eyes to bring through their colour and highlights. This will help to make the person more engaging and also stay true to the Dragan effect.

Control highlights

Paint back details

09

10

Your image’s highlights may bleach white at this point. Adjustment layers come with masks enabling you to edit them so click on the white mask of the Levels layer and select the Brush tool.

Perfect the effect

11

Paint over the bright areas in the face and hair of the man to reduce the brightness. Try to avoid sweeping over all of the face and only touch on the bright spots.

Set the Brush tool to around 350px Size. Press X to reset your Foreground and Background swatches to the default black and white.

Reduce colour

Darken background

12

13

The colour in this image is too saturated for the Dragan effect, so add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. The middle slider, Saturation, controls the strength of the colour. Reduce this down to -50 to see a significant drop in tone throughout the image.

Add a blank new layer to the top of the layer stack. We need to darken the background to draw attention to the face as it’s our focus. Select the Brush tool with black set as your Foreground swatch. Increase its Size to around 1,000px and lower Opacity to 50%.

Expert tip Black and white

Add a vignette

14

By painting over the background of the image with the Brush tool set to black you can add a fake vignette. Cover most of the wall and don’t worry about painting over the man. Dab the brush over the image to apply the effect carefully.

Final tweaks

15

Select the Eraser tool and lower its Opacity down to 50%. Set its size to 600px and remove the parts of the vignette that have spilled onto the man’s face. You can lower the layer’s Opacity to 90% to fade the harshness of the vignette.

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The photographer himself, Andrzej Dragan, produces not only coloured effects but monochrome ones too. You can still follow this tutorial for a black and white Draganised image but, when it comes to reducing the Saturation adjustment, you should move the slider to 0. You’ll now have removed all of the colour from the image. Adjustment layers can be re-edited at any point, so this isn’t permanent. For black and white Draganised images, even stronger contrast is a prominent part of the effect.

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AFTER

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Retouch for classic effects WorldMags.net BEFORE

Retouch for classic effects

Take a standard photo and turn it into a glamorous portrait using retouching tricks filters, colour and contrast control

W Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

hen it comes to creating a classic Hollywood-style portrait, the techniques here can get you half way; the other half requires a little dressing up and some basic lighting. The lighting popular for pinups in this period was typically high contrast and angled 45-degrees up and to one side to give depth to the face. If you don’t have a studio flash

light, a desk lamp held high and to the left or right will do the job. Position it around two metres away. A white sheet will be fine for the backdrop. A vintage dress and a Fifties wig is all that’s left – the rest is covered by us. We will show you how to make the most of that strong lighting, to replace the background with something more fitting and to airbrush the skin for a professional look.

Vintage portrait effects Get this great look by following our tutorial

Apply the crop

02

Change aspect ratio

01

Open up your start image. It’s taken with a 2 x 3 full-size sensor, so the first thing we want to do is apply a more suitable crop ratio for an upright portrait. Press C for the Crop tool and enter 3 for Width and 4 for Height in the Options bar. Make sure Resolution is empty.

Click and drag on the image and draw a crop box over it to suit. We’re going to lose a little from the left-hand side as well as the top and bottom to bring the model into the centre of the frame. You can use the grid lines to help align the model in the frame for the most pleasing composition. Press the tick icon to apply the crop.

Add a Levels layer

Expert tip

03

Refine mask in earlier versions If you don’t have the Refine Mask feature, we can use an alternative method. Ctrl/Cmd-click the layer mask on the subject layer to load it as a selection, then go to Select>Modify>Contract. Enter 4px. With the selection active, drag the layer mask to the trash can and add a new layer mask, which will be based on the new contracted selection. Go back in History and try a different pixel setting if the reduction is too much or too little.

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We want the lighting to look dramatic, so we need to check that we have the full contrast range from black to white. Add a Levels adjustment layer using the button in the Layers palette.

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Set black point

04

We can see detail goes all the way to the right, so highlights are as bright as possible. The shadow information doesn’t reach the left, so we drag the left black slider in to meet it and strengthen our blacks.

Adjust with Color Curves

05

The face has turned too dark, so we need to lighten it. Click on the Background layer and duplicate. Go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves. Push Adjust Highlights to the right.

Leave the shadows Lighten the eye

06

The right eye is a little dark so we can lighten it by again. Select with the Selection Brush tool and open the Color Curves. Push Adjust Highlights to the far left.

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Boost contrast

07 

We want to increase the sense of contrast further on the face, so we deselect the eye and open the Color Curves again. Push Midtone Contrast ever so slightly to the right.

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08

It’s often too much to darken shadows and lighten highlights to increase contrast. If you lighten highlights, for example, shadows appear heavier anyway and vice versa. Lighten the highlights slightly and leave the shadows otherwise the image would look too dense.

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Zoom out

09

Although there is a preview function in the Color Curves, don’t rely on it. It is quite small, so the best way to assess how a change is shaping up is to press OK in the Curves dialog and then return to full screen.

Select the background

11

We wouldn’t expect a white backdrop for a Hollywood shot, so next we’re going to drop in a new background. Press A for the Quick Selection tool and set it to Sample All Layers in the Options bar. Click and drag in the white background to select it.

Refine Mask

14

We can still see some of the original white background. Ctrl/Cmd-click the top layer mask to select the lady and then click the Refine Edge button in the top Options bar.

Merged duplicate layer

12 Experiment with skin tone

10

You can experiment with the highlight point in the Color Curves. Push harder if you wish. Our skin tones look redder and more saturated now, but this works well for a vintage finish.

With the top layer active, use Ctrl/ Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+E to create a merged duplicate on top. Now click the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers palette. Invert the mask using Ctrl/Cmd+I.

Expert tip Improve skin tones A fairly warm white balance was used in processing this image. We’ve added pink to simulate colour spill in the skin highlights, and help give an overall vintage feel to the image. When you are adding a background colour, it is always important to ensure it works with the rest of the image. If you pick a colour that doesn’t work, your image will always look wrong. So choose wisely and if in doubt, stay neutral!

Bring in the pink

Tweak the settings

13

15

Make the next layer down active and Make sure View is set to On Black. go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color. Increase the Smooth and Feather Click OK on the dialog and pick a nice shade slider. Decrease the Contract/Expand. of pink. We went for #CBAAAA, which you The white halo should be reduced. Click can enter in the relevant box. OK when you are happy.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net What can go wrong Radius for smoothing

INCORRECT

CORRECT

On the final page of our tutorial we use a technique for smoothing skin in which Gaussian Blur is utilised. The Radius setting required depends on the image size. A high-resolution image might require 10-15px, while a lower resolution image will need less. Use too little and the effect won’t look strong enough, but if you go too hard you’ll find that the detail moves into the skin as you approach the edges with your work, darkening the skin texture. If you work further away to avoid this issue, skin problems will become visible between the smoothing area and edge detail. The only solution is to go back in the History states and try again with a lower Radius setting.

Simulate colour spill

17 

Some of the pink background would most likely contaminate the skin tone. To simulate this, add a Levels adjustment layer to the top of the stack and select Reds. Move the top white slider in to a value of 245 to add red to the highlights.

Brighter whites

18 

Now we’re ready for some beauty work. Lighten the eyes a fraction by adding a Levels adjustment layer on top and pushing it up a fraction. Invert the mask with Ctrl/Cmd+I and paint into the eyes only with a white brush.

Remove skin blemishes

19 

Darken the corners

16

To burn the corners a little, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the Color Fill layer and increase the saturation. Click the layer mask and with a large black brush, brush into the corners.

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Create a new layer on top and select the Spot Healing Brush tool (J). Set it to Sample All Layers in the Options bar and zoom in close. Adjust the brush size so it is slightly bigger than each blemish and click over them to remove.

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Gaussian smooth

20

Now for a bit of skin smoothing action. With the top layer active, use Ctrl/ Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+E to create a merged duplicate layer. Go to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur and use an appropriate Radius value to blur the skin.

Brush in the blur

21

Add a layer mask and invert it with Ctrl/Cmd+I. Press B for the Brush tool and, with white selected, brush carefully into the skin tone, avoiding all edge detail around the nose, lips, eyes, hair and face edges.

Realistic background

24 

We can finish by adding some noise to the background too, which looks very artificial at the moment. Select the Color Fill layer, hold down Alt/Opt and click the Create a New Layer button. Select Overlay mode, check the box below and this time add 20% Noise and blur by 5px.

Expert tip Improve lighting This image is lit with a three-quarter lighting setup, which normally results in a heart-shaped area of light on the far cheek surrounded in shadow. To soften things, create a new layer on top of the stack and take the Brush tool. Set it to Airbrush mode with 50% Opacity. Alt/ Opt-click to source a midtone colour from the lower-right cheek and paint over the shadow area. Build up as required and apply noise to the layer.

Add skin texture

Tweak the noise

22 

23 

To simulate skin texture and prevent it looking too smooth, hold down Alt/Opt and click the Create a New Layer button. Change Mode to Overlay and check the box below. Click OK then go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Select Gaussian, Monochromatic and around 15% Amount.

The noise is a bit too sharp for skin texture, so go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and run just 0.5px of blur. Now hold down Alt/Opt then click and drag the mask from the skin smoothing layer to the texture layer to copy it, so the texture is likewise only applied where needed.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 109

Photo editingWorldMags.net AFTER

BEFORE

Use the Lighting Effects filter

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

Learn how to add stunning lighting effects worthy of a jungle king

B

ig cats in general – and lions in particular – carry a sense of drama and regality other animals can only envy. One of the benefits of being king of the jungle is never having to pose for portraits. Lions are naturally photogenic, but notoriously uncooperative at photo sessions. Photographers must take what they can get and be happy with it.

110 The Photoshop Elements Book

In the following pages, we’ll show you how to start with a photo of a lion in good lighting and transform it into a dramatic scene worthy of the venerable cat. Along the way you will learn how to utilise image luminosity to make highlight selections and the easiest way of extracting fur from a background. There’s even a few tools used in unconventional ways to open up your creative abilities.

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The starter image is provided on the disc and is already quite impressive in itself. This tutorial will walk you through the process of extracting the subject from the background and adding dramatic flair with the Lighting Effects filter. We’ll present a technique that enables you to paint realistic shadows onto the lion and even brush backlighting directly onto the edges of the mane.

Use the Lighting Effects filter WorldMags.net Majestic effects fit for a king Luminosity, filters and masks, oh my!

Tip Squash the marching ants line

Out of Africa Feline facial care

01

Begin with the file from the cover disc called ‘Lion. jpg’. Open it up, duplicate the layer and use the Healing Brush to remove any unsightly blemishes or distracting spots from the lion’s face.

02

Use the Quick Selection tool to select the lion. When you have all of the body and head covered, press the Refine Edge button to activate the dialog box. Now use the sliders to adjust the selection until it captures the fur but leaves the background. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

This tutorial requires a lot of work with selections. If you find the way Elements displays the selection boundary (known as the marching ants) distracting, try turning it off. Ctrl/Cmd+H will toggle the visibility of the selection edge. Keep in mind the selection is still active and working, you just can’t see the edge. This can cause issues if you are not careful – if you forget you have an active selection and try painting outside of it you are in for some confusing times!

Select and save highlights

03

Add a layer beneath the lion by creating a new one and dragging it down, then fill it with black (Edit>Fill Layer). Go to the top layer, pick the Magic Wand tool and then click on the bright highlights. Go to Select>Save Selection and name it Lumin.

Merged layer

04

Switch back to the Layers palette and press Ctrl/Cmd+D to cancel the selection. Now create a merged layer on top of the stack by first making sure the lion layer is the focus and pressing Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+E.

Lighting Effects

Multiply merged layers

05

06

Go to Filter>Render> Lighting Effects. Begin with the default spotlight and reposition it to suit your animal. Set the colour to a pale yellow, Intensity to 37, Focus 3, Gloss 34, Material 14, Exposure -2 and Ambience 10. Set Texture Channel to Lumin and Height to 1.

Duplicate the merged layer and set the blending mode of the duplicate layer version to Multiply. This enhances the lighting effect and deepens the colours. If the effect looks too strong to suit you, reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 111

Photo editingWorldMags.net Nothing cowardly about this lion

Tip

Add the eye-catching highlights and shadows

Lighting workflow

Painted masks

Deeper shadows

07

Add a Levels adjustment layer and name it Face Shadows. Move the central slider to the far right to darken the midtones throughout the image. Once again, the opacity setting for the layer provides another level of control over the effect.

08

Click on the mask thumbnail for the adjustment layer and fill it with black to essentially hide the effect. Now use a large, soft edged brush with white to carefully paint the darkening effect back onto the image. Focus on the regions of the face that fall naturally into shadows for a realistic effect.

Selective highlights

10

Artificial backlight

09

Add another Levels adjustment layer for the backlighting. This time pull the central handle over to the far left to greatly brighten the midtones until they are almost washed out. Switch to the layer mask and fill it with black to hide the effect.

While we love the power of the Lighting Effects filter, it does have its drawbacks. Chief among them is the tiny preview window. As a result you may find a setting that looks spot on is rubbish once applied at full scale. Instead of having to redo all the settings all over again, get into the habit of using the Save button to give you an easy way to get back to where you left your sliders.

Golden glow

Go to Select>Load Selection and choose the Lumin selection. Then use a large brush with white paint at a low opacity to softly add the backlit effect onto the edges of the fur. The selection restricts the application of the effect to the brighter areas of the image.

11

Deslect and create a new layer. Go to Edit>Fill Layer, select Color from the Use drop-down menu and pick a light tan. Set the blending mode of this layer to Overlay. Reduce the effect’s opacity as needed for a subtle look. This touch provides a nice golden light at the edge of the lion’s mane.

Other lighting effects Add different light modes to images with this filter The Lighting Effects filter is home to a bewildering array of options, so much so that you can find a lighting solution to whatever image you have. The first port of call in using the filter is the Style dropdown menu. From here you can pick a light type and then use the adjustment points in the Preview window to set where the light actually falls in your image. But that’s not all. Each style has further control options covering aspects such as intensity and focus. The sheer scale of options and possibility can also work against the Lighting Effects simply because it is so difficult to know where to start. But keep with it, and you’ll start to get a feel for how it works. Also, use the techniques in this tutorial to merge the effects in with your image, otherwise the results can be too strong.

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OUTER SHADOW

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FIVE LIGHTS UP

FLOODLIGHT

Use the Lighting Effects filter WorldMags.net Add the background and final touches Manufacture a setting for your subject

Piercing gaze

12

Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to boost the eye colour to a rich, golden hue. We used a setting of Hue +11, Saturation +50 and Lightness +7. Fill the mask with black and gently paint in the coloured effect where you want it.

Eye of the lion

13

Add a new layer for the eye highlights. Use a small round paintbrush to dab specks of white over the pupils then use the smudge brush to gently blend the edges of the strokes. Add these highlights opposite the brightest portion of the iris as shown in our image above.

Background texture

14

Add a new layer for the background texture. Set the colours to orange and black and then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. Follow this with Filter>Render>Fibers and Filter>Artistic>Film Grain. Finally, use the Gaussian Blur filter set to around 8px to complete the background texture effect.

Layer structure Understand the effect Color Overlay

Black out The cat returns

15

Instead of cutting out the lion with all its assorted layers, it’s an easier task to just mask out the Background Texture layer. Add a layer mask and use a large, soft black brushes to release the lion from behind the texture.

16

Add a new layer for the outer shadow. Ctrl/Cmd-click the mask from the original lion layer to load that selection. Go to Select>Modify>Expand and enter a value of 100px, then go to Select>Feather and use a value of 50px. Finally fill the selection with black and cancel the selection.

Outer Shadow

Background Texture

Eye Highlights

Hue/Saturation

Backlight

Face Shadows

Merged Copy

Reverse halo

17

Ctrl/Cmd-click the lion layer mask again and go to Select> Feather, entering a value of 50px. Use this selection to mask out the black layer by going to Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection. Alter the Outer Shadow layer’s opacity as needed to separate the cat from the background texture, but not so much so that he appears to have an outline.

Splash of colour

Merged

18

Lion

Add a new layer at the top and set the blend mode to Overlay. Use the Gradient tool in Radial mode with the Foreground to Transparent preset. Add a deep red gradient to the lower right and a dark blue gradient to the lower left. Reduce the layer opacity to finish.

Background

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Add emphasis to eyes WorldMags.net

Add emphasis to eyes

Use gradients and Hue/Saturation to apply a rainbow effect

W

hether or not you believe the eyes are the windows to the soul, there’s no denying that they can make or break a portrait. Dull and unengaging peepers make for a dull and unengaging image, so you want them to be the best they can be. And if that want happens to be for maximum effect, there is a really

impressive technique that involves calling upon the gradients to wash a rainbow sheet of colour over a selection before using a Hue/Saturation adjustment and blend modes to make the whole effect sit together nicely. You don’t have to stay with the rainbow feel, either. Instead of using the gradient, you can dab on whatever colours you wish

with a brush, and then apply a Gaussian blur and blend modes to bring everything together. This technique will work on any image that you have to hand (even on your pet pictures), however, you get the most impact if applied to a black-and-white shot. Just make sure it isn’t in Grayscale mode otherwise your rainbow will be black and white!

I can see a rainbow Colourful effects made easy

Gradient application Make the selection

01

You need to first select the eye area to apply the effect. Using the Lasso tool (or any selection method you prefer), draw around the inside of the eye. Once the selection is made, click the New Layer icon from the Layers palette.

02

Pick the Gradient tool from the Toolbar and then click on the Gradient Editor area in the top Options bar. Pick the Spectrum gradient preset and then click OK. Drag across the selection to add the colour. Repeat until you get a pattern you like.

Edit the colour

Alter the colours

04

05

Go to Image> Adjustments>Hue/ Saturation and use the Saturation slider to tame things further; simply drag it to the left to reduce the effect. It might be that you want to go further, in which case slide it to the right.

Staying with Hue/Saturation, you can also use the Hue slider to alter the colours in the eye. Simply move the slider left or right to get the effect you want. This is such a simple edit but makes a massive different to the final result.

Blend mode

03

Things are too harsh at the moment, so scoot down to the Layers palette and click on the blend modes drop-down menu. Pick the Color mode to merge the gradient with the photo.

Tidy up

06

Press Ctrl/Cmd+D to deselect the area you had selected. Zoom in and check that the colours haven’t seeped out anywhere. If it has, pick the Eraser tool from the Toolbar and wipe away. Once happy, repeat the process for the other eye.

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Original image

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

Selective colour creations

Bring out the tones of your image for beautiful results

S

elective Color is a simple and widely used approach to adding a stand-out effect to your photos. With this process you can bring out the red in a snow-covered rose or the blue in someone’s eyes, while keeping the rest of the image monotone. The improved Smart Brush tool in Photoshop Elements enables you to manipulate your images in a variety of ways, using just the preset effects. The beauty of this process is that you can have as much or as little control as you want over the tonal selections.

116 The Photoshop Elements Book

Over the next few pages we’ll be working in Expert mode. The change in the interface when working in this mode may seem a little daunting, but all we are doing is gaining access to the entire catalogue of tools and effects available in Photoshop Elements. Using the Smart Brush tool, we will be making selections as well as setting up our own specific brush. From that point on we’ll explore refining the selection using some of the very powerful yet simple tools available in the software.

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Selective colour creations WorldMags.net Brush Settings

SIZE

Get the right brush tip for the job

If you have a tablet that has a styles wheel, or is pressuresensitive, you can use it to adjust the Size and Hardness of your brush selection by using this dropdown menu.

HARDNESS Adjusting the Hardness will define how strong your brushstrokes are when making a selection. Set Hardness to 0 for softer edges and 100 for harder ones.

ROUNDNESS The Roundness of a brush helps decide the kind of selection you are making. At 100% you have a perfect circle to make selections with. By lowering the selection you are able to make your brush much thinner.

SPACING

ANGLE

By changing the Spacing you can tell the brush how generous to be with its selection. Set the Spacing to a low number when refining your selection, but use a high one when selecting large areas.

By clicking and dragging across the word Angle you can adjust the degrees your brushstroke will come from. You can adjust the Roundness of your brush here by moving the anchor points on the brush diagram.

Refine Edge

Edit the edges of the selections you make

EDGE DETECTION

VIEW MODE

This option can be very useful when your selection is not quite covering the correct area. By adjusting the Radius you can edge your selection into the correct place. Checking Smart Radius can automate this process.

Change the view style depending on your preference. For instance, Marching Ants will retain the selection, whereas Overlay will create a red mask over parts of the image that aren’t selected.

ADJUST EDGE

REFINE RADIUS TOOL

Every selection will require different attention. Smooth, Feather, Contrast and Shift Edge can be used to refine a rough selection.

Use the Refine Radius tool to paint over your selection in the image, as well as to make tweaks to the changes made by your Edge Adjustments.

What does it mean?

OUTPUT Adjusting your Output will determine how the selection will function after you hit OK. For example, Output To Selection will retain a Marching Ants selection and Layer Mask will convert your selection into a layer mask.

Feather refers to the transition between selected and deselected areas in an image. Increasing the Feather setting while using the Refine Edge option, for example, will soften the harshness of the outline being made. Go through the menu Select>Modify>Feather after you’ve outlined your selection.

Having contrasting images will make for a stronger double-exposure effect.

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Photo editingWorldMags.net Closer look Key tools

Selective colouring is simple when armed with the right tools There will be two main stages to this tutorial. First we’ll explore the Brush Settings and how to make a brush selection. Second we’ll refine our selection using the Refine Edge tool. Once you’ve mastered these tools you’ll be able to apply their effects in a variety of different ways. The Smart Brush tool alone provides plenty of presets worth exploring, which can help you manipulate your images in a limitless number of ways.

THE SMART BRUSH TOOL This option will be our best friend during this process and will do most of the work for us, but it’s our job to tell it what to do. Whether you want to remove colour, add contrast or overlay a texture, the provided presets will help you along the way.

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ADJUSTMENT LAYER The moment you start making a selection using the Smart Brush tool, a new adjustment layer will appear in the Layers panel. We are not making changes to the actual image, but are instead overlaying an effect with this new layer to make it much easier for us to go back and change things.

REFINE EDGE TOOL

SELECTIONS

A Smart Brush selection will never be perfect, so the Refine Edge tool will help to smarten up those rough edges. The interface may seem overwhelming, but as you adjust the different settings you will very quickly learn how easy-to-use and vital this tool is.

The way that Photoshop Elements presents our selection is very important to how we work with the image. The Marching Ants selection will clearly define our working area when we make our rough selection, but Elements has a number of ways for us to view this.

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Selective colour creations WorldMags.net Brush tool basics Start with the right brush and the rest is child’s play

Make preparations

01 

For this exercise, use a photo with strong colours to see the full benefit of the Smart Brush tool. Try it on the image here by opening ‘Balloons.jpg’ from your resources. Activate Expert mode, then pick the Smart Brush tool in the Tool panel.

02 

In the Tool Options tab at the bottom of Elements, select the Brush Picker tab then go to Presets>Reverse Effects, then turn your image black and white in reverse. Ensure Invert is selected and set your brush Size to 7.

04 

Focus on an area where you want colour, click once and a selection will be made. Everything within the selection will retain its colour, but everything outside will desaturate.

06 

Once you’ve made final selections, click Refine Edge in the Brush Options. Deselected parts disappear. In View mode go toOverlay. Under Adjust Edge increase Smooth and Shift Edge until the red overlay leaks into selected areas.

03 

The division between colours in this image is quite clear, so we don’t need the brush to be too specific about the selection it’s making. Go to Brush Settings, set the Hardness to 100%, Spacing to 100% and Roundness to 100%.

Expand the Selection

Create a selection

Apply Refine Edge

Brush Settings

Select a brush

05 

If the selection goes too far, select Subtract From Selection. Go to Brush Settings and reduce spacing when working with small leaks, then click and drag over areas you want to deselect.

Check your edges

07 

Go back to View mode. Click View> Reveal Layer and the red overlay will disappear and you can review your image. Look at the edges and check if there is any overflow in the selection. If there is, repeat the process from Steps 5 and 6.

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Final touches

08 

Select the Background layer in the Layers panel. Go to Enhance> Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast. Push Brightness to 45 and Contrast to 30. This will bring out the remaining colours in the image. Go to Select>Deselect to lose the selection. The Photoshop Elements Book 119

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PAGE 126

PAGE 144

PAGE 154

Digital art

Create impressive digital effects using brushes, filters and much more a comic-book effect 122 Create Use the Color Halftone filter

splatter effects 166 Create Combine brushes and assets

water effects 174 Make Use filters and blend modes

Elements for 126 Use stunning effects

textures 170 Apply Give your shots some texture

ancient patterns 180 Design Produce ancient designs

Make the most of Elements

your way to 130 Smudge an oil painting

Create an oil portrait with the Smudge tool

a family portrait 134 Create Fake a painted-portrait efect an art-deco style 140 Create Master the Mezzotint filter an abstract 144 Design Control the Custom Shape tool portraits 148 Paint Mix media to transform photos instant pop art 154 Create Re-create Andy Warhol's work your own 156 Make watercolour

Merge traditional art efects

photos to sketches 160 Turn Get creative with your images brushes 162 Customise Create eye-catching art

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BEFORE Source file available

AFTER

Use the image provided to re-create this

Create a comic-book effect Add a fun twist to family portraits by using the Color Halftone filter to apply a comic-book effect

W

e all love to display photos of our nearest and dearest around the house but let’s face it – sometimes a normal photo can be a bit boring. If you find you want to try something different, take inspiration from classic comics and add some POW! to your family portraits. The beauty of this process is that you only need some slider dexterity – there is no drawing and certainly no colouring. All of the information is taken from your start photo and Elements does

122 The Photoshop Elements Book

the rest. Things kick off with some contrast editing, courtesy of Levels. Think about the classic comics (we’re talking early Marvel). Colours are very intense, with clear shadows and highlights. A bit of prep work with Levels will sort this out. In order to boost the halftone effect produced by how the comics were originally printed, a trip to the Film Grain filter is in order. This lays the foundations for the star of the show – the Color Halftone filter. A bit of layer action will ensure that the perfect

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combination between detail and creative effect is struck. You can choose to leave things there but if you want to run with the comic theme, we will show you how to create a suitable frame and boxes for text to tell your story. The right font is crucial to pull off the comic style with any impact, so we’ll point you in the direction of the best free ones that you can download from the net. We will also take a look at the supplied custom shapes, picking out which ones will help you add that final BAM!

Create a comic-book effect WorldMags.net Increase your photo’s contrast

Tip

Boost tones for a dramatic style

Comic fonts and where to find them

Duplicate for safekeeping

Boost contrast

Open the start image for this tutorial (or your own one) and duplicate the layer to preserve the original. Do this by going to Layer>Duplicate. Double-click on the new layer to make the name editable and call it Photo.

01

02

See to the shadows

A touch more highlight

03

04

We need to accentuate the shadows. Go to the first line of sliders in the Levels palette and then click-drag the black slider (on the far right) to the left. You will see the shadows darken. The number underneath the slider should be around the 58 mark.

Embrace the grain

Levels are the next port of call to pump up the contrast. Elements users need to go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels, while Photoshop users need Image>Adjustments>Levels.

You need to make sure you have the right font for the comic effect to work but you don’t have to search far to find some fantastic free ones on the web. A quick web search for ‘free comic book fonts’ will return loads of options.

The shadows are nice and dark but for improved contrast we need something to contrast with! In this case the highlights need attention. This is achieved by moving the white slider (on the far left) to the right. Go for around 229.

Tweak the sliders

Halftone time

06

07

The Film Grain filter works within the Duplicate the photo layer and rename Click OK to exit Levels. The next Filter Gallery, so this will open up. You as before. Call it Halftone then go to port of call is Filter>Artistic>Film haven’t got to go too mad here, so we suggest Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone and enter 6 in Grain. The grain will help give the image a the following settings: Grain 6, Highlight Area 3 the Max Radius area. Leave everything else as grubby edge and achieve the desired effect. and Intensity 10. Click OK to exit and apply. it is. Click OK to apply the halftone effect.

05

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Digital art WorldMags.net Extra touches

Installing fonts – get your comic text to work

Improve results with embellishments

Newer versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements will pick up on the fonts installed in your system and have these ready for you when you pick the Type tool. To access new fonts, you need to install them into your computer, rather than Photoshop. Here’s how it is done with a downloaded font.

Blend mode

08

Hmm, things aren’t looking that great at the moment, are they? No fear, a quick change of blend mode will sort things out. Go to the Layers palette and click where it says Normal. This will open the blend modes. Scroll down to Darken and then click to apply. Much better.

Add a border

09

Comic strips usually have a black border. Go to Image>Resize>Canvas Size and check the Relative box. Enter 1cm in both Width and Height and this will add a comic-style, 1cm box around the entire image.

Get your font When you are using free web fonts, make sure you check out any limitations that apply. Some fonts are free for any purpose, while others can only be used for personal projects. If you are using a font depository site, such as www.myfonts.com, you usually see a sample of the font. Hit the download button to start installation.

Text boxes Border colour

10

Use the Canvas Extension Color drop-down menu to decide what colour your border is. We have chosen Black but if you pick Other, the Color Picker will appear for you to choose whatever colour you wish. Click OK to apply the border.

11

Comics need text and that text needs to sit in a text box. There are two types of boxes – one to introduce a setting and one for the story. Press D on your keyboard to reset the Foreground and Background colours and then create a new layer. Name it Top Text Box. Now pick the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Toolbar.

Install on a Mac In most cases, the font will download as a Zip file. Unzip it once the download is complete and in the case of Mac users, highlight all the fonts and double-click to install.

Install on Windows Things aren’t so simple for Windows users, as methods change according to different versions. Consult your manual or look on the font site for help. In the case of MyFonts, you can get instructions from www.myfonts. com/support/help_install_win.html.

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Draw the box

12

Zoom in to the top-right area of your image and then click and drag with the Rectangular Marquee to make a text box. Go to Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection, enter a Width of 5px, set Location to Outside and keep everything else the same. Click OK.

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Create a comic-book effect WorldMags.net Apply some box colour

Make your elements stand out

Gradient time

13

Select the Magic Wand tool from the Toolbar and click inside your title box. Now pick the Gradient tool, click Edit from the top Options bar (double-click the gradient if you are using Photoshop) and then pick the Foreground to Background option (it is black going into white). Click OK to set the style.

The other box

Set the gradient

14

Double-click the Foreground square in the Toolbar and pick an orange. Click OK. Now double-click the Background square and pick yellow. Click OK. Now click and drag from right to left in the text box to apply the gradient.

15

Press Ctrl/Cmd+D on your keyboard to deselect. Create a new layer called Bottom Text Box and then repeat steps 12-13, drawing a box in the bottom right of the image. Instead of picking the Gradient tool, go to Edit>Fill and choose White from the Use drop-down menu.

Add text

Adjust text

16

17

Click on the Top Text Box layer and pick the Text tool from the Toolbar. Go to the font drop-down menu and pick your chosen font (see side panel for how to install these). Click in the box and type text in the new layer that appears.

If you need to make any changes to what you have typed, highlight the text and then use the top Options bar to play with the type size and colour. If you want to move the text, hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and then click and drag to move. Click the tick icon when finished.

Comic custom shapes

Layer structure

Adorn your image with these presets

Be a comic-book hero

One obvious comic-book element that we’ve missed out is speech bubbles, but even these can be handled by Photoshop, in the guise of its Custom Shape tool. Select it from the Toolbar (possibly behind the Rectangle tool) and click on the top Options bar. Click the right arrow to see the shapes and pick Talk Bubbles. Click an option to choose it and, making sure you have the Shape layers icon pressed, click and drag to apply the shape. Make sure you set the colour you want from the Options bar! To add a border, repeat the process used for the text box border and type as you did before.

Bottom Box Text

Bottom Text Box

Top Box Text

Top Text Box

Halftone

Photo

Background

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Use Elements for stunning effects

Photoshop’s little brother can be just as effective as the main CS suite

You can achieve the same results in Photoshop Elements as you can in Photoshop CS6, you will just need a bit more patience and time as diferent tools are needed. Photoshop Elements works in the same way as CS6 apart from missing the Pen tool, but don’t fear, this is easy to rectify.

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Use Elements for stunning effects WorldMags.net

Duplicate

Locate Posterize

01

02

Go to the Layers palette (older versions of Photoshop Elements may not have this option) and drag and drop the Background layer onto the Create a New Layer icon to duplicate.

To hide the Background layer, press the eye icon next it in the Layers palette. Posterise your duplicated layer via the Options bar – Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Posterize – and hit OK when the dialog appears.

Adjustments palette tweaks

03

A new adjustment layer will appear at the top of your palette, so to alter the strength of the posterised effect, bring up the Adjustments palette (Window>Adjustments). Here you just move the slider until you are completely happy with the effect. We have used a Level of 7.

The difference is apparent

04

Photoshop Elements does not have the Pen tool, so we have to change our tactics now. Zoom in to your image using the Zoom tool (magnifier icon). Click Create a New Layer and make sure it sits at the top of the stack.

Select your colours and tools

05

In the Toolbar select the Eyedropper and click over a midtone colour in the face to sample. This sampled hue will appear in the swatches. Now select the Magnetic Lasso tool, which is hidden underneath the regular Lasso.

Trace the face shape

Fill your selection

06

07

Use the Magnetic Lasso tool to select the face shape as it’s attracted to pixels of a similar tone. Slowly trace the shape. Keep clicking the mouse to lay extra anchor points so the tool follows as closely to the edge as possible.

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Click onto the first pointer created. You’ll be left with an active selection. Click onto the newly added layer in the Layers palette and select the Paint Bucket tool. Click the middle of the active selection to fill with your sampled colour.

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Digital art WorldMags.net Complete the selections

Tip

Use the Marquee and Paint Bucket tools

Paint vs marquee

Colour swap

Tidy edges

08

09

If the wrong colour has filled your selection, double-click on the Foreground and Background swatches to pick new ones. You can sample areas from your source photo by hovering over the image once the colour picker is open and clicking.

Tidy the edges of the shape to make it more solid and vector-like. Use the Zoom tool to get in close and make sure you are clicking onto the filled face layer in the Layers palette. End the active selection by hitting M and clicking within the selection area.

Brush set up

10

Select the Brush tool from the toolbar and choose a hard edged, medium sized brush at 100% Opacity. We now want to fill in the wobbly edges created by the Lasso tool. We will be placing a layer of hair on top so it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Erase any mistakes

11

Move your way around the edge of the face until completed. If you make an error when painting, simply switch to the Eraser tool with a hard edged chosen and a small brush tip to erase any flaws.

Perfect circles

Build up the eyes

12

13

Hide this layer in the palette when finished by pressing the eye icon. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool from the Toolbar and draw around the coloured iris area of the eye. Double-click on the Foreground swatch below all of the tools and pick a suitable eye colour by Ctrl/Cmd-clicking on the source photo.

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You may prefer to use the Brush tool to paint in all of your different coloured layers as you can get a much neater effect. If you take this creative route instead of using the Marquee tools, always use a hard edged brush and make sure you paint on separate layers for each colour. You can edit layers more easily and delete them if needed when everything is labelled correctly. To do this, doubleclick on the layer’s name to edit it. Another useful piece of kit you could use if you wanted to paint by hand is a Wacom pen and tablet. Using one of these will give you greater control and it will feel more natural than a mouse.

Add a new layer to the top of the stack and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in. Repeat this process for the pupil and other eye. Select the Magnetic Lasso tool and trace the rest of the eyes, add a new layer and fill with white. Use the Eraser to get the right shape.

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Use Elements for stunning effects WorldMags.net Add an illustrative touch

Bring your artwork into the template

Build up the face Eyelashes

14

For the eyelashes, use the Brush tool set to a black colour. Keep the brush small with a hard edge and work zoomed in. Alter the brush’s size and opacity when working and don’t be afraid to be bold as you can always erase areas.

15

Click and hold on the Sponge tool icon and select Burn from the submenu. In the Layers palette click onto the eye-filled layer and press Lock. Use the Burn tool to paint around the edges adding depth and use Dodge for any highlights wanted. Repeat on all areas of your image to add more interest and depth.

Add more features

16

Your face should be taking shape nicely now, so continue to add on the lips, teeth and nose areas. Keep zooming out and saving as you work, turning the layer’s visibility on and off to keep track of your progress.

Layer structure Build the effect Hair

Nose

Lips and Mouth

Hair

17

Using the Magnetic Lasso tool, trace around the main area of hair. Once actively selected, add a new layer above the skin and fill with a dark brown colour sampled from your photo. Select the Smudge too (it may be hiding behind Blur in the palette).

Face

Eyes

Smudge for natural hair

18

Use this tool to pull out more naturallooking strands of hair from the main bulk and use it on the eyelashes too for a soft, natural effect. Set it to 80% Strength and vary the brush size as you work quickly using the [ and ] keys.

Posterised Photo

Source Photo

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AFTER

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Smudge your way to an oil panting WorldMags.net BEFORE

Smudge your way to an oil painting A straightforward look at creating an oil portrait

T Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

he Smudge tool is an easy way to try your hand at ‘oil’ painting, so this lesson begins with how to smudge directly over a scenic portrait and paint the entire image using only the Scatter brush. You will work from background to foreground, which is the same process as a traditional artist. Working this way also enables you to paint over any overflow as you move towards the foreground. You will also use the traditional brush strokes called ‘hatching’ and ‘cross hatching’ to create a nice painterly effect. Towards the end of this lesson we will switch to more difficult techniques using the Stipple brush for the hair and the Soft Round

brush to paint ‘free form’ and add more hair, extend the dress and add sunlight to the trees. I know many of you will want to stop after the smudging ends, but I want to urge you to continue! There’s a lot of fun to be had with painting freehand. You can make as many layers as you need to experiment every step of the way. Anytime you are not happy with the way things are going, just use your Eraser tool or delete the layer and start anew. The main objective of this lesson is for you to experiment and practice to develop the skills you need to feel satisfaction in the final results. Once you’ve tried it a few times, we guarantee you will be up all night painting!

Taking a traditional approach Starting with the background and working towards the foreground

Paint in the old hatch style

02

Now, working on the top layer, select the Smudge tool and the # 46 Scatter brush (located in the Default brushes and used with the default settings). At 50% Strength paint with a traditional ‘hatch’ style which is moving the brush back and forth in a consistent direction, (diagonal here). Use this technique in all the background area (except for the leaves) all the way to the river edge.

Get started

01

Open your original picture and make a copy of the original layer by dragging the image to the New Layer icon in your Layer palette. Now make a new layer by clicking on the layer icon and name this one ‘Background Tree’. Make sure Sample all Layers in the top menu bar is selected. (The same brush will be used through the whole lesson.)

Change directions

03

Keeping on the same layer, change your ‘hatch’ stroke direction (using the same brush and settings) while painting the leaves so they are not completely lost in the background. This will help define their shape while still giving a nice oil painting look. This method is called ‘cross hatching’.

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Express yourself with your strokes

Tip

Experiment and make your painting your own

Paint with flare

Paint water

04

05

We are now ‘cross hatching’ the river bank. Feel free to express your self by adding more pressure to your stylus or changing stroke directions several times, but pay attention to the forms and shapes and keep them intact. Notice here that I used an upward stroke to suggest the grass on top of the bank.

Use the Clone tool

Make a ‘water’ layer and zoom in close with a larger brush. We will now use our brush from side to side in a horizontal stroke. We want to smooth all the pixels and give a nice painterly flow while making sure it stays ‘water’. It is important to do the water before the rocks as we work towards the foreground.

Rock painting

06

Make a ‘Rock’ layer and using a medium size brush, zoom and use hatching and cross hatching strokes, making sure to preserve the natural form of the rock and taking care not to fuzz up the edges.

Sometimes the Clone tool is faster than painting over an unwanted area. We used the Clone tool to remove the dress bow. Sample a nearby area as a source and make sure the brush is a soft one so there are no hard edges. You can go back and smudge to remove any repetition of unwanted patterns you find.

On your way to a beautiful painting Apply these techniques to your own photos

Paint the skin

07

Create a new layer called ‘Skin’. Decrease the brush Strength to 35% and use a smaller brush around 15 pixels. Carefully go over all the skin area using small hatching and cross hatching stokes, painting in the direction of the facial planes and taking special care around the features so as not to distort them. Go slow! Repeat for the dress.

Smudge wonder An effective way to achieve an oil look is to use the Smudge brush. It is a quick way to get the look you want while being straightforward.

Realistic effects The Spatter brushes are a good choice for smudging as their effect changes with brush size and pressure and can master either skin , hair or nature. Experiment!

Keep it real ‘Hatching’ and ‘Cross Hatching’ is an effective brush stroke to use as it gives a nice painterly effect and can preserve form as long as care is used in changing directions.

Paint in the round

08

For round objects do not use the hatch stroke method. Here is where you want to stop and preserve their shape and paint using a careful circular motion . The same idea applies to the roundness of the lips, use care and use curves!

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Follow form Changing to a circular stroke is essential in order to preserve the form of round objects.

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Easy water Painting water is quite simple, use a long swift stroke from left to right. Just be sure not to distort any nearby elements as you paint.

Smudge your way to an oil panting WorldMags.net Finishing up and changing brushes Learn to embellish your image with final details

Layer structure Painting with ease Painted leaves

Paint hair

09

Make a new layer called Hair. Zoom in close at 50% Strength and vary your brush size as you work. Paint as you would if you were actually brushing her hair. Paint right over any background edge spillage .

Switch from Smudge to paint

10

To bring some life to the hair, change from the Smudge tool to the regular paint brush and choose a Stipple brush from the Natural Brushes gallery. Set the Strength to 50% and now click on the Brush icon at the top to change the fade to 65%. Make a new layer called Hair Highlights.

Dress paint

Hair highlights

Hair

Dress

Paint the hair

11

Now, using the settings in step 10, bring up the colour box and choose a golden yellow-brown and begin painting in highlights. Take care to vary the colour , keeping the lightest at the top. Swing your brush outward to imitate the motion of hair in the breeze. Decrease brush size for thinner strands of hair.

Paint and extend the dress

12

Go back to the Default brushes and choose a Soft Round at 100%. Paint directly over the dress extending it over the rock behind her. Alt click on her dress to sample the colours of the shadows and paint in the folds , shadows and light to make it more natural.

Skin

Rocks

Water

Background trees

Cast a skirt shadow

13

Go back to the layer called ‘Rock’, choose the Burn tool and using a soft round brush, burn the area around the skirt so it looks as though there is a shadow on the rock. This makes the dress extension much more credible.

Sunlight in the trees

14

Make a new layer called Painted Leaves. Bring up the color box and choose a pretty yellow/ green. Use the Soft Round brush at 50% to paint sunlight over the existing leaves varying direction and size. Adjust the layer for a more subtle effect.

Original layer

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134 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Create a perfect family portrait WorldMags.net BEFORE

Source files available Use the images provided to re-create this

Create a perfect family portrait Learn the techniques to capture a successful family picture and fake a painted-portrait effect in Elements

I AFTER

f you have had a difficult time capturing a great family picture and don’t know where you are going wrong worry no more, as we will solve this problem as well as giving you a creative option to edit the photograph afterwards. The most important aspect is starting with a great picture. The key ingredients include the location, pose, composition and mood. After you’ve captured your wonderful family portrait, we will take the image into Photoshop Elements to explore what we can do to create a fine-art portrait worthy of being printed and hung in a frame. We will address options such as changing the background scene for another shot to improve the image, and will also be using a somewhat

misunderstood filter to begin the base-painting process before finishing off with some default paint brushes to give your piece a traditional, painted look. We will show you how to easily add an extra element to the portrait that helps create a story and much more interest. We chose to place in a kite, which we feel will enhance the mood and add some fun to the final picture. Family portraits are one of those things that people tend to think are simple, but this guide will help you spot common errors that you may have made in the past, as well as make sure your next family outing produces a treasure you will be proud to show for years to come.

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Get the shot and get started Take the picture and choose a new background

Composition

01

Plan your shoot either for the early morning or near sunset to ensure there is no harsh sun to cause squinting or shadows. Ask your subjects to cuddle close and make contact with one another. White T-shirts are best because they are easy to paint over. Use an aperture between f/4 and 6 for good focus.

Shoot the sky

02

If you don’t like the original background of your image, you can change it. All you need is a point and shoot camera set on Automatic and a good eye. Look for a beautiful cloud formation or anything you find pleasing. We chose a summery sky.

Start in Elements

03

Open Elements and bring in the files ‘PerkinsFamily.jpg’ and ‘SkyBackground. jpg’. Drag your family from the bin area onto the sky image in your working space.

Tip Paint in different tones When painting an image, the shadows and highlights are very important to the overall success of the portrait. Keep in mind where the light source is and ensure that the shadows look natural. This applies to every element in the image. The light on the hair, the fold of the T-shirt and the contours of the arms. If you do not have a high enough contrast between these elements, the image will lack depth.

Shoot the background Choose your image carefully Choosing the right background is extremely important to the overall look of the painting. You may want to go for a long drive with your camera and shoot the sky from different times of the day. A cloudy sky adds more interest to the composition. We considered both the skies shown, but decided on the one on the right because the large cloud formation enhanced the image as it followed the lines of the group shape. The blue sky also adds to the mood by suggesting a fun, sunny day.

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Layers

04

To ensure we keep our original images, click on both the sky and the family and make a duplicate layer for each. Drag them so they alternate and name them if you want to by clicking on the text to keep everything organised. It is always good to work from duplicate layers in case of mistakes.

Replace the background

05

Use the Lasso tool to select the tree area around the family, getting as close as you can but not touching them. Connect the Lasso tool in a complete shape around and then hit the Backspace key to remove the original scene.

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Create a perfect family portrait WorldMags.net Bring fun to the portrait Liven up the background and create a fake vacation

Tip Get the hair right

Clean up the background

06

Choose the Eraser tool, a soft round brush at 100% Opacity and erase all the background debris from around our subjects. Zoom in close and take your time to make sure you do not erase any part of the people (if you make a mistake, use Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo). When everything is tidy, flatten your layers.

Change clothes

Underpainting

07

08

To add colour to the T-shirts and separate them from the background, choose the Color Replacement tool and click on your Foreground swatch to select the hue of your choice. Paint over the areas you want to change as shown.

To add a quick underpainting we are going to use an unsuspecting filter called Surface Blur (located in the filter gallery under Blur>Surface Blur). Set both slider options to 9. This will give you a nice jump into the painted look.

When painting hair there are a few things to keep in mind. All hair is darker underneath and gets lighter towards the surface. This is due to sunlight, but is also a matter of light and shadow. Understanding this simple fact will produce better results.

Top painting tips Simple techniques for masterly brushstrokes Take your time A good painting takes time, so slow down and pay attention to how you are applying the paint. It is best to use a low opacity and paint in glazes to build up the effect.

Brush types Explore the brushes in your palette – load another set and see how they respond. We liked the Natural Wet brush, but you may find that another suits you. There are no rules.

Create a colour palette

09

To append your portrait colours to the default palette, hold Alt/Opt on each colour of the image and click the little white box under the palette window to add them one at a time. Now you to have all your colours ready for the painting process.

Smudge painting

10

Duplicate the top layer and name it Smudge. Set the Smudge tool to Spatter and change Opacity to 30%. Paint the entire image, being sure to fuzz up the harsh lines where the background was changed, and follow all contour lines.

Paint natural eyes Zoom in very close and notice that the whites of the eyes are not quite white. To see this, Opt/Alt-click on them to reveal the true colour, and then go a little lighter.

Paint the hair Use loose brushstrokes for the hair and go outside the lines a bit to avoid the cut-out look. Steer clear of crisp lines by painting over or smudging them.

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Blot strokes When going from shadows to highlights it can be hard to get a natural look, so experiment with blotting your brush lightly rather than using strokes.

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The perfect picture

Load a new palette and begin the effect There are some very important aspects that make a family portrait come together and if you miss any of these then your final image could suffer. Pay attention to composition, poses, colours and added elements – it’s all about harmony. Share the love When shooting the initial picture, ask family members to relax and try to be as natural as possible. Forced smiles don’t look great so the more comfortable they are, the better. No soldiers Ask everyone to bend their arms and legs to create a nice, casual mood without any stiffness. These softer angles create a better composition as well for the right effect. Background harmony Be sure to choose a background that is not cluttered and enhances the group shape of the family. Notice the cloud shape mimics their pose.

New brushes

11

Load the Natural Brushes 2, choosing one of the wet tips. Duplicate new top layer called Clothes and begin painting shadows and highlights of their outfits using your colour palette. Vary the opacity of the paint for the best effect.

Hair highlights

13

Make a new hair layer and paint in highlights and shadows. Vary the brush size and opacity and use a loose, sweeping stroke to suggest movement. Paint everyone’s hair this way. Incorporate new colours if you need to as well.

Paint faces

12

Make a transparent new layer called Faces, zoom in and paint shadows and highlights, paying special attention to the eyes. Use the bracket keys to adjust the size of the tip of your brush to add detail.

Enhance the sky

14

Make a new layer called Sky and start adding colour to the clouds using some of the T-shirt tones such as lavender, pink and yellow. Work the brush in semicircles and a blotting motion, following the shape of the clouds. Vary the opacity and use a large tip.

Clothes harmony Have the family dress in simple clothing with no graphics or patterns to ensure it does not distract from the mood of the image. Ours were in shirts which we have enhanced. Prop connection When adding an external prop, make sure it adds to the story and complements the colour scheme of the entire image. The right prop will not distract.

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Paint out jewellery

Define the rocks

15

16

The watch on our dad is a bit distracting, so let’s paint over it. Zoom in close and Alt/Opt-click as you paint, ensuring you match the skin as close as you can. You can either use a high opacity or paint over in stages until the watch is gone.

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Make a new rock layer. Paint over the rocks using the same brush and define them by adding more shadows under the family and more highlights. You want the rocks to have the same painted look as the rest of the image.

Create a perfect family portrait WorldMags.net Add a prop

Layer structure

Incorporate a kite and enhance the story Understand the effect Rocks and kite

Sky 2

Add a kite

17

To add a little more colour and interest to the image, open your ‘kite.jpg’ file from the disc and place it in the sky. When you open it up it will show in the project bin. Now just drag the kite with this panel to the layered image. Be sure that Show bounding box is checked at the top. Click the check mark to settle it in.

Delete white area

18

Pick the Magic Wand tool and click on the white area around the kite. Hold down your Shift key to select the other areas until all of the unwanted part is highlighted. Hit the Backspace key to erase it and only the kite will be left. Be sure to deselect before proceeding.

Hair

Face and skin

Clothes

Position the kite

19

Make sure you have the Move tool selected and drag the kite to a position that you feel is right in the composition. We chose the upperright area with the top just over the clouds. To rotate the kite, swing your cursor out and you will see the curved arrows enabling you to do this.

Tip Clothing shadows The same advice we just gave for the hair also applies to clothing. The little girl’s shirt is deep purple under her arm, but appears light pink where sunlight is hitting the surface.

Smudge

Kite tails

20

Merge the layers down so that the kite is now part of the rock layer. Change your brushes back to the Default gallery and choose the #32 Oil brush. Paint in the kite tails by Alt/ Opt-clicking on the matching colour to create long, loose and curvy tails by stroking with the brush. Keep the Opacity at around 80%.

Flatten and finish

Colour replace

Background 2

21

If you are happy with all of your layers and the overall painting, go to Layers>Flatten. This will compress your image, so make sure you definitely don’t want to make any more changes at this stage. To add that finishing touch, we will incorporate a canvas texture to make it look like an authentic, painted portrait. Simply go to Filters>Texture.

Sky 1

Background 1

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Create an art-deco style WorldMags.net

Create an art-deco style

Source file available

Learn how to create this fun art-deco style that is reminiscent of the golden age of travel

Use the image provided to re-create this

I

Expert tip

n these days of constant commuting and endless traffic, we’ve lost our wonder of travel. There once was a time when travelling was an adventure. Trains and ships were mysterious marvels of engineering that could bring the horizon within reach. These wondrous machines made the far reaches of the globe accessible to anyone. People saw travelling as an occasion, not a chore Ð something worthy of wearing your finest clothes and best hat. The destination didn’t even matter as much as the journey itself. Relive those days of wonder and amazement by creating your own Thirties-style travel poster. A style marked by bright, bold colours and exaggerated perspective that was fun, assertive and adventurous. This can all be achieved in Elements.

Over the next few pages we’ll show you how to use Elements’ native filters and tools to create a fun advertisement that recaptures the spirit of adventure from a bygone era. There are several useful techniques included to show you how to use a combination of filters and blending modes to get the proper texture for the poster. There is an illustration element to the project, and we’ve provided a stock image of an old-style steam locomotive to use as a reference. But since the focus of the tutorial is not the illustration tools, we’ve provided the finished illustration on the disc for you to use if you don’t feel like exercising your skills. It’s up to you if you want to practise and have the time to do it. So get ready to join us on a grand adventure that might make you reconsider the doldrums of your morning commute.

Gradient control Understand the Gradient tool. By default it’ll use the foreground and background colours. To create a single colour gradient that fades out, select Foreground to Transparent in the Options bar presets. Another important element is the shape of the gradient, as defined by the buttons in the Options bar. You will definitely use Linear/Radial gradients most.

All aboard the Elements Express! Turn a stock photo into a fun Thirties travel poster

Put things into perspective

01

Open the source image from the disc and double-click the background layer’s thumbnail to turn it into a regular layer. Now go to Image>Transform>Distort and drag the corner handles out beyond the canvas to create the exaggerated perspective you see here.

Can’t draw? It’s okay, we’ll help you out

02

Start to draw around the major shapes of the train with the Brush or Pencil tools. Put each on a new layer and keep things geometric. Fill with colour. If you don’t feel comfortable enough to draw, we’ve provided the illustration for you on the disc. Look for the file called ‘OldTrain.png’.

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Need more canvas

03

If you haven’t already done so, merge the train shapes into a single layer (Layer>Merge Visible). Now extend the canvas by going to Image>Resize>Canvas Size. Set the Width to 240mm and the Height to 300mm. You’ll get a warning about clipping – just press OK.

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The classic filter-blend mode combo Recreate the old-time effect with an easy technique

Watch those curves Go dotty

04

Duplicate the train layer, then set the blending mode of the duplicate to Overlay and reduce Opacity to 75%. Now go to Filter>Pixelate> Mezzotint. Set the type to Fine Dots. This should give the train illustration an antique, gritty, print effect.

Level out

05

To make the bottom area of the train darker than the top, add a Levels adjustment layer. Pull the left slider handle in to about 28. Then target the adjustment layer’s mask and use a black to white gradient (going from top to bottom) to fade the effect away from the top of the train.

Ctrl/Cmd click the train layer thumbnail to create a selection in that shape. Open Color Curves and push Adjust Highlights to the right and Midtone Contrast to the left. Adjust the curves in a gentle upward slope to increase the contrast to the bright areas of the train.

Tip

Adjustment layers

Non-destructive editing

Lock it

Adjustment layers are the hallmark of nondestructive editing. These Elements wonders work like a lens that the layers below it are seen through. They also allow you to readjust the settings or remove the effect completely at any time. In this tutorial we utilise several different adjustment layers. The quickest method of creating an adjustment layer is to use the icon at the foot of the Layers panel. It’s a circle that’s half filled along a diagonal line. Clicking this will bring up the menu of available adjustment layers. If you have a current selection, that selection will be used as a mask for the adjustment layer. If the adjustment layer thumbnail has a small down-facing arrow to the left of it, that means it is clipped to the layer beneath it and will only affect pixels on that layer. To add or remove the clipping, hold down Alt/ Opt and click the line between the adjustment layer and the layer beneath it.

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06

To alter the fill colour of a layer that has a transparent area can be tricky if you try to do it by selections. The selection never seems to match perfectly. Instead, use the Lock Transparency button in the Layers palette. It’s the small chequerboard icon right at the bottom of the palette. With this enabled, it’s an easy task to fill the layer with a new colour and not have to worry about changing the transparency.

Golden age

07

Create the same selection again and add a Solid Color adjustment layer. Select a golden hue (we used b58003) and set the blending mode to Overlay. This will give the train an orange tint that fits with the effect we’re attempting to achieve.

Keep things grounded

08

Create a new layer beneath the train layers called ‘GroundGradient’. Create a rectangular selection of the bottom area of the canvas and fill with a Linear gradient going from a burnt red (8e291c) to a dark grey (140d08).

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Create an art-deco style WorldMags.net Finishing touches

Layer structure

Add the final flair to your poster Station to station Text Layer 1

Transparency lock

Make some noise

09

10

Lock the transparency of the GroundGradient layer and create the train-shaped selection again. Go to Select> Modify>Expand and enter a value of 100px. Expand by 100px again, go to Select>Feather and enter a value of 100px. Fill with black.

Create a duplicate of the GroundGradient layer and go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set the Amount to 75%, Distribution to Gaussian and check Monochromatic. Change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay to give the ground a textured effect.

Text Layer 2

Border Shape

Colour Fill

Curves Adjustment

Vanilla skies

11

Create a new layer under the GroundGradient layer called ‘BGshape1’. Create a vertical selection along the left side of the image and fill with a Linear gradient from d29f00 to black. Add noise with the Amount at 50%.

Transform

12

Hit Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+T to transform a copy of the gradient shape. Rotate it, move and scale it to just cover the right edge of the original shape. Repeat to finish the sky.

Levels Adjustment

Train copy

Train

Gradient in the sky

Easy border

13

14

Add a ‘SkyShading’ layer above the gradient shapes. Set foreground to yellow. Choose the Gradient tool set to Foreground to Transparent and the Radial shape. Make a gradient from the vanishing point to the front.

Create a white rounded rectangle almost to the edges of the canvas but leave plenty of space at the bottom. Switch to the Shape Selection tool and pick the Rectangular path. Change the mode to Subtract From Shape Area.

Add some text

GroundGradient copy

GroundGradient

SkyShading

15

Finish off the piece by adding appropriate text in an Art Deco style font. Be sure to arrange the text so that it lines up with both left and right sides of the border. Now sit back and enjoy your new Thirties style travel advert!

BGShapes

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Design an abstract WorldMags.net Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

Design an abstract

Use Photoshop Elements to create a colourful and engaging abstract artwork with a little help from the Custom Shape tool

T

he aim is to create an abstract image filled with colour and fun. Brushes, duplicate layers and custom shapes really come into their own with this effect, so have a go at thinking like an artist and be creative. Start with basic shapes and build up the layers, adding whatever

you like. Creating an abstract can be easy if you start with the right material and, with Elements, those mesmeric shapes and impressionistic swirls are only a bit of time and dedication away. You can replicate this tutorial in Photoshop too, as the tools and techniques are very similar.

Create form Place in shapes

01

On a new document, use a large solid brush to place circles of different colours and sizes randomly. Now on a new layer (Layer>New Layer) use a brush from the Pen Pressure set (such as Paper Mache) and add organic shapes. Overlap parts of the shapes, leaving some background space.

02

Select the Custom Shape tool, choose any form that you like and draw it on your canvas. Go to Layer> Simplify Layer to convert the shape to pixels. Duplicate this shapes layer and scale it using Free Transform. Make another duplicate and use the Hue/Saturation adjustment in order to alter the colours. Place the two scaled layers creatively to bring out the contrast.

Expert tip Realistic results With a selection active, you can use the Select menu to invert the area by going to Select>Inverse. This can be handy for large areas by selecting only the part you don’t need, and is doubly helpful when you want to edit an area of the image around the main focal point (the background in this case). With practice you can achieve a number of different things with the Inverse command.

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Digital art WorldMags.net Stroke of genius Stroke outlines can be used easily with selections. They can create patterns and you can set line width and colour for your strokes with a couple of clicks.

Compose the elements

04

Now it’s time to compose the different elements. Choose Layer>Merge Visible to flatten all the shapes and their adjustments into one layer. This new composite can then be duplicated. Go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal, set the duplicate layer to Vivid Light and scale and rotate it using Free Transform (T).

Stroke the outline To use the Stroke Outline function with any of the Selection tools, Go to Edit>Stroke Outline and set the parameters for the functions it will carry out when activated.

Gradient and merging

05

Duplicate this newly scaled layer. Go to the Filter menu and navigate to Adjustments>Gradient Map. Choose the Transparent Rainbow gradient or experiment with the number of different colour schemes available. Now use Layer>Merge Visible in order to merge all the layers and duplicate this composite. Choose Image>Rotate> Flip Layer Vertical to stand it upside down and set the blend mode to Difference.

Set the line width In the Stroke Outline dialog box, you can set the desired line width and whether the line is on the inside, outside or centre of the selection. Now choose the line colour and how transparent or opaque the stroke will be.

Revealing colour

06 Stroke outline ideas Using Stroke Outline with hand-drawn linework (created with the Pen tool, for example) is possible if you select the original lines, delete them and then stroke the selection. This can lead to interesting effects with different line widths.

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Hide the bottom layer by clicking its eye icon and use the Magic Wand tool to select areas from the top layer. Make sure Use All Layers is unchecked and that you vary the Tolerance settings. As you select areas, reveal colour from the bottom layer by pressing Backspace on the keyboard.

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Design an abstract WorldMags.net Stretch a gradient

10

Make a selection with the Magic Wand within the new stroke outlines and use the Gradient tool to stretch a gradient across these areas. Try a magenta-green-yellow blend, setting the layer blend mode to Lighter Color. You can add another gradient by drawing one across the image on a newly created layer in a colour you feel compliments the design.

Stroke selections

07

On a new layer choose Edit>Stroke (Outline) Selection and select a contrasting colour to stroke the selection indicated by the marching ants. Choose a line width of 20px and change the blend mode to Color Burn. Make all layers visible again.

Adjust the blend mode

11

Paint bucket background

08

Click on the Paint Bucket tool and choose a vibrant red. Create a new layer (Layer>New Layer) and, with Use All Layers unchecked in the dialog box, fill it with colour. Drag this to the bottom of the stack.

Adjust the gradient layer’s blend mode to Hue and smooth off the Stroke outline with a low opacity eraser. Stretch a short gradient with a brighter colour from the bottom-right corner of the image. This will work by brightening selected areas, lightening the overall effect.

Finishing touches

12

Set the new gradient layer’s blend mode to Color or, if you feel adventurous, Vivid Light to bring a little sparkle to the lower parts of the piece. Now flatten your image (Layer>Flatten) and save a copy to show off your new design.

Eraser tool edit

09

Using the Eraser tool, remove areas from the abstract shapes’ layer below the stroke outline. Erase shapes in a loose pattern. On a new layer select the Magic Wand and, holding Shift, select some of the shapes. Go to Edit>Stroke Outline and stroke the selections as before.

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AFTER 148 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Paint portraits WorldMags.net BEFORE

Paint portraits

Transform your photographs by mixing traditional and digital mediums in this creative Elements tutorial

D Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

igital programs like Elements give us a lot of creative freedom but every now and then it is nice to remember the good old traditional mediums and techniques. In this tutorial we will start off by creating some painted textures then transfer these into Elements by scanning, which is where the genius takes place! Element’s Layers palette and blend mode options play a huge role in this project, enabling us

to join our scanned elements together to create a final image that just wouldn’t have been possible without a lot more time being spent on it (waiting around for areas to dry) and a considerable amount of mess being made. So dust off those paints and get a start photo ready or, alternatively, load all of the starting files that are provided on your free disc. We’ve provided a range of paint marks and the portrait.

Unleash your inner artist

Begin the process by creating some paint marks

Set up your canvas Make some mess

01

To begin with we need to make a wide variety of different marks to scan in. We have used a range of brushes, palette knives and sponges to get some good splodges. Keep them varied and ensure you pick complementary colours as we won’t be altering these in Elements.

02

While you are waiting for the paint to dry (or whenever you’re ready!), open the start photo provided on your free disc. Double-click on the Background in the Layers palette so that it is unlocked and editable. Increase the image size so that it will be high resolution using Alt/Opt+Ctrl/Cmd+I, making sure Constrain Proportions is checked.

Perfect size

04

Resize your start photo if needed so that it is positioned within the canvas ready to be transformed. To do this press Ctrl/Cmd+T to activate Transform, holding down Shift to keep perspective. Drag a corner pointer in order to increase or decrease size and press Enter when happy.

Scan the splodges

03

Scan in your paint marks and open up Photoshop, however, if you do not have a scanner then do not fear as all of the paint marks used in this example are provided on your free disc.

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Digital art WorldMags.net Expert tip Elements mark making Go to the Brush tool and use the Brush Picker to select your brush tip. In our case that was the Oil Medium Brush Wet Edges. Set whether you’re working with a mouse or tablet, as the opacity and flow will alter to simulate pressure accordingly. You can tweak the brush mark’s edges depending on whether you want a soft watercolour edge or a solid line.

Paper textures

05

Also provided on the disc is the textured paper that is used in the background. Open this up and simply drag and drop into your new canvas. Position it in the top left of the canvas. Go to the Layers palette, click onto the paper layer to highlight and press Ctrl/Cmd+J to duplicate.

Build up the background

06

With the Move tool selected, position this duplicated layer in the top-right corner. Swap to the Rectangular Marquee tool, draw down the side of the duplicated layer to select the white paper edge and hit Backspace to trim then nudge this layer so it sits alongside the other paper layer.

Canvas complete

07 

Shift-click both paper layers in the Layers palette and press Ctrl/ Cmd+E to merge. Press Ctrl/ Cmd+J to duplicate this layer then go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Vertical. With the Move tool, position this new layer at the bottom of the canvas and use the Rectangular Marquee to trim the unwanted edge.

Layer order

08

Merge the two paper layers and select the Healing Brush Tool from the Toolbar. Alt/Opt-click onto the paper texture and paint over any joins. This tool will blend the two sets of pixels together hiding any unsightly lines. In the Layers palette, move this paper layer so it sits underneath the photo.

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Blend mode choice

09 

Click onto the photo layer in the Layers palette and select Pin Light from the blend mode drop-down. Add a mask to the photo layer by pressing the icon at the base of the palette.

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Paint portraits WorldMags.net

Mask excess detail

10 

Select the Brush tool, set to medium size with a hard edge and make sure the Foreground and Background colours in the Toolbar are black and white respectively. Click onto the mask icon in the Layers palette then paint onto the main canvas area masking all excess details, leaving only the key facial elements and hair behind.

Transfer the paint

11

Select the Lasso tool and, working on your first paint splat scan, draw around an area ending where you started to create an active selection. Swap to the Move tool then drag and drop the selected area onto your new canvas.

Position in place

Creative placement

Layer scanned elements

12

13

14

Set this paint splat layer’s blend mode in the Layers palette to Multiply. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T to activate Transform and then position in place. To rotate the layer, hover over the corner pointers and, if resizing, hold Shift to keep perspective.

Repeat steps 11 and 12, building up the paint layers, positioning and resizing to suit. Try to pick paint splats that suit the area you are placing them into, for example jagged-edged splats match the fringe area while circular blobs can fill the body of hair.

As your image takes shape, lower the photo’s opacity in the Layers palette so that you can see your paint-splat colours more clearly. Select the Eyedropper tool and Alt/Opt-click on the paper texture to sample the colour.

What can go wrong Selection and blend mode choices

INCORRECT Set up the Brush tool

15

Click on the Foreground colour swatch and pick a lighter version of the sample colour currently being displayed. Select the Brush tool and, in the top Options bar, lower the Opacity to 20%, pick a large soft-edged brush and set to Overlay. Click onto the paper texture in the Layers palette.

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We have used the Lasso tool to quickly select around a paint blob then drag and drop it into our canvas. The Multiply blend mode is applied then the Eraser tool used to tidy up any messy edges. A quick and efficient way to work on a multi-layered file. If you opted to use the Magic Wand or Pen tool to cut out each paint blob before dropping into your canvas you would lose all of the lovely brush edges and the layers would not blend as well together. Your colours would be bolder if a Multiply effect wasn’t applied but at the expense of the textured end result.

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Digital art WorldMags.net Finish off your image Add these extra effects to your image at the end to really finish it off and make the project look complete. Getting the layout and facial features spot on is essential, but if you don’t push your image to the next level you will always feel that it is lacking that certain something that transforms it from a nice piece to a magnificent piece of digital art. That certain something in this project is the use of the Dodge and Burn tools plus a little extra detail in the surrounding areas to the face. So read on and incorporate our advice once you have reached the end of the steps.

Brighter, bolder colours

16 

Paint onto the paper layer, adding lighter tones under your paint blobs so that the colours show through more brightly. Continue to build up the hair and body with paint layers set to Multiply, but also try the Color Burn and Linear Burn options as these can work well.

Dodge and Burn Use these tools at a low exposure with a soft-edged brush to add depth into your image. Working on the paper texture layer, add shadows with the Burn tool to the edge of the canvas then around the edge of the face. Highlights are added with the Dodge tool to the cheeks and nose.

Eye development Duplicate layers

17 Scatter effect

To make some areas of paint seem thicker, simply duplicate the layer. Try to achieve a good variety of watercolour wash and thick oil blobs. When the hair is built up mask away any real strands from the photo layer that may still be showing.

18 

The eyes are key so this is why we are leaving some of the original photo showing. Working on the photo layer’s mask, make sure the eyes are visible. We have kept the photo layer at 50% Opacity to retain the soft effect, but keep it visible.

To add to the painted effect we have placed some more elements to the surrounding facial area. We have added a mix of soft watercolour and thick splats that we have duplicated and set the blend modes to Color Burn or Linear Burn.

Highlight the structure We have used some more paint scans that are a bit softer to add facial highlights where the cheekbones would be. Lowering the opacity means that the effect is soft and subtle but helps to add structure to the face.

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Facial features

19 

If you want to add some painted elements to the eyes then do so, but we are leaving ours natural along with the lips for a visual contrast. We are, however, adding some shapes to mould the nose. Pick the shapes to suit, or if you need help you can use Filter>Distort>Liquify>Warp tool.

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Warp

20

Click on the shape layer you wish to warp in the Layers palette then go to Edit>Transform>Warp. A mesh will appear over your shape enabling you to click on the inner lines to pull and bend parts of it.

Less is more

Link for order

21

22

The nose only requires highlight shapes and the key with pieces like this is to not overwork them; less is sometimes more. Keep adding elements and zooming out to check your progress, turning off layers by pressing the eye icon to check on the composition.

With so many paint splats we must tidy up the Layers palette to make working quicker and easier. To do this, Shift-click layers in the Layers palette that come from similar areas on your canvas and check the Layers option to Link Layers. This keeps them together.

Marks that made this image Check your free disc for all of the scanned files we used

Tidy the shapes

23

With everything now in place we need to tidy up the paint splat edges. Due to the shapes being quickly selected then dropped onto the canvas, some of their backgrounds may be visible on the paper texture, but this is easily fixed.

Blend them together

24

Select the Eraser tool and set it to a small, soft-edged brush at 60% Opacity. Zoom in close then just paint away the unwanted edges. While you’re working around the image, erase any solid edges so that all the shapes blend well together.

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BEFORE

Create instant pop art Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

154 The Photoshop Elements Book

Re-create Andy Warhol’s print style using nothing but Photoshop, a portrait and a few minutes of your time

Y

ou’ve no doubt seen a lot of pop-artinspired images and wondered how you could do the same thing. Silk-screen printing takes a level of skill, but the great thing for you is that you don’t have to slave away and get messy with wet paint… you can do everything using Photoshop Elements. We’ll show you a great way to add some fun to your average portrait by replicating one of pop art’s most famous styles in eight simple steps. You can print your favourite design on T-shirts, photo

paper or canvasses to hang on the wall, give to friends as a birthday present or just show the world how you’ve created your very own iconic piece of modern art. In this demonstration we’ll be achieving the same effect using the Lasso tool and layer blend modes. The trick is to use complementary colours that are high in contrast. It’s a good opportunity for you to get experimenting with your colour palette and testing what works best for the image you’re using. Look up Andy Warhol’s prints for more inspiration.

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Create instant pop art WorldMags.net Remove the background

01

Before we do anything else, we’re going to have to cut out the background. Open up your chosen image, duplicate the layer and select the Lasso tool from the Toolbar. Choose any starting point with the mouse and draw around the outside of your subject’s head.

Adjust the image

03

For the effect to work properly we need to remove all the unnecessary detail. Go to Filter>Adjustments>Threshold and select a level that has a good balance of black and white. Ensure there’s still some detail left on the face.

Invert the selection

02

The drawing doesn’t have to be perfect – this is all in keeping with the style. The Lasso tool selects the inside of the face by default, so you need to invert this by picking Select>Inverse and then pressing Backspace on your keyboard. Ensure your original layer below is hidden. Deselect the image.

Select the skin

Blend the skin

04

Once this is done we need to Ctrl/ Cmd-click on the layer inside the Layers palette. Create a new layer, click Edit>Fill Selection and choose the colour you want for your skin tone.

05

For the skin layer to work correctly, you must change the blend mode to Multiply (do this on the Layers palette). The colour of the skin will now perfectly merge with the black.

Expert tip Use the Lasso tool Final touches

Fill in the hair

06

Select the Brush tool and create a new layer as previously, then fill in the hair. Choose a suitable colour and start brushing in. Don’t worry about accuracy as Warhol originally used block colours with hard edges.

Eyes and lips

07

Create another layer, setting the blend mode to Multiply. Select the Brush tool and paint in the eyelids and lips with a high-contrast colour. Warhol always made the eyes black and white so, using the Eraser, select the skin layer and erase the eyes.

08

Create a new layer above the Background one and fill with a dark colour. Repeat three times using different colours for the face, hair and lips. Create a document and paste in the four versions. Now you have your own modern masterpiece!

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The Lasso tool is one of the easiest to use to make selections of certain areas of your image – it’s almost as if you’re drawing on paper using a pen! The Lasso tool and Polygonal Lasso enable you to draw on your image freehand for unusual shapes or with straightedged selections, while the Magnetic Lasso is perfect for edges that have highly contrasted backgrounds. Type L for a shortcut or Shift+L to toggle between the different options.

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Make your own watercolour WorldMags.net BEFORE

Make your own watercolour Merging two traditional art effects like pen and ink with watercolour painting has never been easier

D Source files available Use the images provided to re-create this

o you admire the skills of traditional artists who can use pen and watercolour to create beautiful works of art? Well, you can come very close to the look you admire by the clever use of some simple Elements techniques. Here we will show you how to take two photographs (in our case of a parrot and a leafy background) and combine them to create a pleasing composition that you can be proud of. You will use the Magic Wand to select unwanted areas of the parrot background to instantly delete. Then you will see how to use the Find Edges filter

to start you off in the right direction. Using custom brushes you will create painterly blotches to imitate the look of watercolour and see how varying the opacity and direction of the brush creates a more organic effect. You will learn how to work with multiple layers and add blend modes for more punch. Then get even more definition by using the Poster Edges filter and finish with a rough sandstone texture to re-create the look of fine watercolour paper. You should enjoy learning these valuable skills in an imaginative way, creating a work of art to keep forever!

Image elements Cut out your subject and create a base composite

Add a background

01

We must start with all the right elements in the picture to create the art we envision in our mind. The parrot (courtesy of www.ingimage.com) has a white background, but we want to add something richer. Open the ‘Background leaves. jpg’ and ‘Parrot.jpg’.

Magic Wand tool

02

We need to delete the white area surrounding the parrot. Select the Magic Wand tool and click on the original parrot image. You will notice that it also selected the white area around the eye. Hold down Alt/Opt to subtract this part.

Delete and position

Tweak leaves

03

04

With the white areas selected, hit the Backspace key on your keyboard to remove all the white. Go to the top menu to inverse the selection (Select>Inverse). Now, using your Move tool, adjust the parrot to the most pleasing position.

Duplicate the leaves layer, go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/ Saturation and use the Lightness slider while decreasing the contrast and colour of the background. This will ensure that the parrot is the image’s main focus.

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Digital art WorldMags.net Find the edges

Expert tip

05

Go to Layer> Flatten Image and then duplicate this single layer. Now go to Filter>Stylize> Find Edges and click OK. This will create the distinct inky look that we’re after, and it will also be the basic foundation for your artwork.

Remember to use layers You can’t have too much of a good thing, so create as many layers as you need to feel comfortable in case you want to delete some or want the freedom to change small details. If you have each colour as a layer you can click on each one and adjust the contrast, colour, layer mode and so on. If you are a beginner this will make you feel even more confident.

Start to paint

07 

Brighten and define

06

To really make your pen and ink foundation stand out, go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels to enhance the detail.

Now let’s start adding watercolour. Make a brand new transparent layer and title it Leaves. Select a light greenyellow and use a brush from the Wet Media Brushes (experiment with brushes and see which you like the best). Vary the opacity, leaving a lot of the white paper.

Finish the tree Continue the background

08

Make another transparent layer for the darker leaves and continue defining the background. Be sure to change the brush size and opacity of the brush so your strokes will be varied and more organic.

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09

Add one more transparent layer for the background. Now choose a cooler, darker green and use this colour to define the edges and shapes of the leaves by decreasing the brush size and building up more colour, blotting to increase its strength. Change the leaves layer’s blend mode to Multiply to increase the contrast.

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Painterly effect

10

Make a new transparent layer, choose the Smudge tool at 40% Opacity. Pick the Scattered Dry Brush and using a small brush tip, zoom in and work in circles to create a watery effect.

Make your own watercolour WorldMags.net

Paint the branch

Bring back the lines

Add more colour

11

12

13

Make a new transparent layer titled Branch and use the same technique as step 10. Keep the brush size small and you can be a bit sloppy (like watercolour), but don’t blur the lines or shape.

Flatten all layers and then duplicate the background layer. Let’s punch up the effect that has been smeared by going to Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges and adjusting the sliders for the most appealing look.

Canvas texture

Jungle hues

14

On the same layer start experimenting with some new colours. Try purple and aqua, and add a darker red to some areas. Play around and see what looks best to you.

Expert tip More pen effects If you feel that your final art needs more ink outlines then this is easy enough to add by drawing them in at the end. Select a hard brush at 100% Opacity and set the colour to black. Using a very small brush tip, zoom in and outline the areas that you feel need more details. How much detail you add is up to you. Have fun and don’t forget to sign your work of art!

Add a transparent layer called Colour and, using one of the watercolour brushes, start blotting in colour where needed, such as the parrot’s beak and anywhere you feel needs more punch.

15

Now that you are finished, flatten all the layers. Go to Filter> Texture>Texturizer and use the Sandstone option to create a rough watercolour paper look. Adjust the sliders to get the amount of relief and depth you find most appealing.

Beware of repetition Learn to vary your brush When using custom brushes with a defined shape, it is extremely important to vary the size and opacity. If you do not, the pattern created by the strokes will be overpowering and can destroy your work of art. The best way to master these techniques is to use a blank workspace and simply play around with all of the choices until you feel that you fully understand the nature of the various settings available. If you are feeling ambitious, you can also create your own brushes that are already scattered or have varied opacity. Then you just need to load these and start painting away. Adapt them for different media for the best results.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 159

Digital art WorldMags.net What

does it mean?

EXPERT MODE Photoshop Elements has three modes: Quick, Create and Expert. Don’t be scared of Expert mode if you are not an advanced user; all it means is that you will have full access to all of the tools available in Photoshop Elements, so more options!

CONTRAST By adding contrast to your image, edges are better defined and allow your subject to really stand out.

BLEND MODES By using blend modes you can combine two identical images with different attributes together. In this case, you can add colour using the Overlay mode.

SUBJECT Our subject stands out from the background quite nicely, so we won’t lose any detail once the effect has been applied.

Before

COLORED PENCIL EFFECT Photoshop Elements dramatically increases the sharpness of the image and also adds an artificial brush stroke, creating an authentic line-drawn effect.

Turn photos into sketches Master the art of replicating a line drawing in Photoshop Elements

W

ays of creating breathtaking artwork are no longer limited to the paintbrush and canvas. By combining a series of tips and tools in Photoshop Elements, you can take your photographs and turn them into line art masterpieces. In this tutorial, you will learn how to work with the Colored Pencil filter to transform your image into a work of art, and then give it an authentic coloured finish through the use of layers and blend modes.

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ItÕs important to explore and understand Photoshop ElementsÕ powerful Filter Gallery and the custom controls that come with the Colored Pencil filter. Once you master the process of applying the filter to your photographs, you will gain complete control over the look and style of the line art you would like to create. From strong thick brush strokes to a pencil-drawn style, you will be able to use Photoshop Elements to bring out your inner artist.

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Turn photos into sketches WorldMags.net

Project setup

Duplicate layer

Colour and contrast

Open your image in Photoshop Elements. Pick a photo with lots of rich colours, where your subject stands out from the background – the more contrast in your image, the better the end result will be. At the top of Elements, click the Expert mode button.

Go to Window>Layers. To the right, you will see the Layers panel. Ctrl/ right-click the background layer and hit Duplicate Layer. Name the duplicate ‘Layer 2’. Click on the small eye icon next to Layer 2 to make it invisible – we will come back to this layer later.

02 

In order to remove the colour, first 03  you must select the Background layer. Go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove

Filter effect

Add colour

Final adjustments

Head to Filter>Filter Gallery>Artistic> Colored Pencil. This will open the Filter Gallery window. Adjust Pencil Width to 3, Stroke Pressure to 10 and Paper Brightness to 50. Tweak the adjustment as necessary (don’t lose too much image information). Hit OK.

Click the eye icon next to Layer 2 in order to make it visible again and then select it. Click the drop-down menu at the top of your layer panel that says Normal; this is the blend mode. Make sure Layer 2 is stacked above your Background layer and select Overlay.

Select the Opacity dial (beside the 06  blend mode drop-down). Drag Opacity down from 100% to decrease the

01 

04 

Fake a sketch effect

05 

Color. Next you must add a bit of contrast by going to Enhance>Adjust Lighting> Brightness/Contrast. Push the Contrast to 100.

visibility of Layer 2, thus decreasing the colour in your image. Try changing the filter for different results. Filter>Sketch is a good place to look.

Use the Colored Pencil filter in Photoshop Elements PENCIL WIDTH Increasing your Pencil Width will make your brush strokes much bolder. Lowering the Width will retain more detail in the image.

FILTER GALLERY Select a filter style and use the preview window to see how it effects your image. In this case, we are working with Colored Pencil.

PAPER BRIGHTNESS Adjust Paper Brightness to darken or brighten your image without degrading the effects of the other two options.

STROKE PRESSURE Adjust the Stroke Pressure to adjust the cross hatching in the image. The higher the Stroke Pressure, the thicker the brush strokes appear – intensifying the effect. Lower the pressure to lighten the image and effect.

PREVIEW WINDOW Use the Preview window to scrutinise your image and the filter you’re working with. Zoom in to see how the effect works in different image areas.

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Customise brushes WorldMags.net BEFORE

Customise brushes Brushes aren’t just for painting – use them to create eye-catching photomanipulations such as this tumbling text effect

T Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

o create this effect we will really need to put Elements’ brush-making ability to the test. The first hurdle in forming falling words is making a brush of letters that has plenty of variation. To do this we begin with imitating the actual font of the book, typing the entire alphabet in lowercase and capitals, and mixing them up in order to form the new tip. Using the Brush Dynamics options, the new brush of jumbled letters can be scattered so that it is never repeated, giving

a far more realistic effect and a wealth of creative possibilites. The Clone Stamp tool is one of Elements’ most versatile features. Its uses range from retouching skin in portraits to manipulating parts of photographs in order to deceive the eye. With it, removing the existing letters in the book is as simple as Alt/Opt-clicking and stamping. Access our starting file on your cover disc to begin creating your own fallingtext effect.

Replicate the font Prepare a custom brush for scattered letters

New document

Choose a font

01

02

To begin with we need to make a scattered letter brush. Open up a blank document, setting its Width to 10cm and Height to 7cm. Set Resolution to 300dpi, the mode to RGB Color and hit OK.

We need to replicate the exact size of the font the book uses, so select the Type tool and set the Font to Times New Roman. The book’s letters are roughly 30px, so enter this in the Options bar and pick black as the font colour.

Type the alphabet

03

Click once on the canvas to activate the cursor. Type the entire alphabet in lower case with a space between each letter. Press the tick icon to agree to the text.

Simplify type

04

Repeat this on a new line but use all capitals. Once complete, simplify the type layers by going to the Layer menu and Simplify Layer. We need to start separating letters randomly, so select the Rectangular Marquee.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 163

Digital art WorldMags.net Improve the effect Elements added to photos don’t always blend in as much as you might like. Here’s how to fix it

Add blur Convert the Letters layer for Smart Filters (Filter>Convert for Smart Filters in CS3 and above). Apply a subtle Motion Blur filter and use its layer mask to edit any fuzzy letters out.

Color picker When using the Brush tool press Alt/ Opt and click on the photo to select your Foreground colour swatch. The text in the book isn’t a perfect black, so it’s worth checking with your image.

Reposition and rotate

05

Mark a rectangular selection around one of the letters. Press V to select the Move tool and reposition the letter anywhere on the canvas. Before removing the selection, press Ctrl/Cmd+T to activate the Free Transform tool. Rotate the letter to a new angle and hit Enter to set its position.

Photo Filter Add a Photo Filter adjustment layer and set it to Blue with 10% Density. This changes the image to a cool tone to remove the orange tint. It will create a sense of unity as well.

Darken the background The background area is not a vital part of this image. Darken it using the Burn tool set to Midtones and 40% Exposure so it doesn’t distract the viewer’s eye.

Straight edge To match the position of the letters on the table, use the Line tool to mark the straight edge of the table in the image. Move this line over the text for accuracy of perspective.

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Scatter letters

06

Repeat this process of selecting, moving and Merge and select all rotating for each letter. Use the Once all the letters have been whole canvas and mix up the scattered around the canvas, capital and lower case letters. Use select the top layer and press Ctrl/Cmd+E to the tool shortcuts, such as V and M, merge them onto one layer. To highlight all of to speed up this process. the letters, Ctrl/Cmd-click on the thumbnail.

Make the brush

08

To turn the active selection into a new brush tip go to Edit>Define Brush from Selection. Name the brush and hit OK. Close this document and open up the image of the book from your cover disc.

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07

Customise brushes WorldMags.net Expert tip Cloning made easy

You can paint with the Clone Stamp tool to quickly remove entire lines of text at once. This is extremely useful when it comes to removing large chunks of the words from the original book photograph. The tool looks at the pixels ahead from the point first clicked, so it’s important when painting that there are enough good pixels that flow in the same direction. On something like our evenly toned page this should be relatively easy.

09

In the book image, duplicate the Background layer. Select the Clone Stamp tool and set it to 100% Opacity. Start with the right page and Alt/Opt-click on the top margin. Now simply brush over the letters to remove them.

Brush settings

11

Select the Brush tool and set your Foreground colour to brown (#0b0900). Go to the Brush Picker and choose the brush tip you made earlier. Click the brush icon in the top Options bar for the brush dynamics.

More letters

13

Break up words

As if by magic

To create a heavier concentration of letters on the tabletop, reduce Scatter amount to 25%. Apply letters to the table clumped together. Two or three clicks should be just the right amount.

10

Remove individual words from the page using the Clone Stamp tool. By lowering the size of the brush, letters can be removed one by one from the page. Be careful where you sample and try to match brightness; the middle of the page is darker.

Apply the brush

12

Set Scattering and Spacing to 50%. Create a new layer and paint the letters over the page and onto the tabletop. Don’t worry if some of the letters fall over the hand.

Erase overflow

14

Some letters will fall over the hand and forearm, as well as spilling across the table. Use a solid Eraser with the same Diameter as the letters and remove any that are overflowing. Keep fewer letters at the top of the page than at the bottom.

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Enhance the effect

15

Use the Clone Stamp tool in the left page of the book to remove blocks of text. Pick the Brush tool but this time increase Spacing to 50%. Add letters to this page to finish the composition. The Photoshop Elements Book 165

Digital art WorldMags.net

Before

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

Create splatter effects

Photo: Carolina Hernández at http:// h-d -stock.deviantart.com

Learn how to combine brushes and assets to create a very cool text effect in Photoshop Elements

T

he following steps will outline all the necessary techniques you’ll need to produce an awesome splatter text effect in Elements. While a full CS version of Photoshop isn’t specifically being used here, you can of course use one to get the same outcome. Here we’ll show you how to work with brush sets and combine stock images to create impressive results. You’ll also discover how to use clipping masks and layer masks to quickly apply colours or hide parts of your image.

166 The Photoshop Elements Book

These methods require close attention, as you’ll be working with several layers that need to be placed and merged in order to get the best results. You can freely download the images and brushes, then simply use Levels adjustments and apply Surface Blur to edit each image. When working with brushes, you can open the Brush Settings for more options. Working with text isn’t too complicated, so hopefully by the time you finish this process you’ll take away new skills for your future Photoshop projects.

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Create splatter effects WorldMags.net

Edit the Background

Create a new document

01

To open a new document, go to File>New>Blank File or hit Cmd/Ctrl+N. In the New window, name it ‘Splatter’, set the Width to 235mm, Height to 180mm and Resolution to 300.

Type your text

03

Grab the Horizontal Type tool (T), choose a bold font (we’ve used the Cooper Std font, Style: Black and Size: 150pt) and type each letter in its own layer.

On the Background layer, grab the Gradient tool (G) and open the Gradient Editor. Change the first Color Stop to #05293b, the second to #176d89 and click OK. Select the Linear gradient and drag this outwards.

Simplify the layer

04

Drag a Horizontal ruler (Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+R) to position each letter. Hold Shift, select all the Text layers, then Ctrl/right-click and choose Simplify (CS users should click Rasterize Layer).

Place your images

06

02

Go to File>Place. Choose any milk splash image from the supplied resources and place over the text layer. Rename the layer ‘Splash 1’. Now right-click and choose Simplify (Photoshop CS users should click Rasterize Layer).

Add a Wave filter

05

For the first layer, go to Filter> Distort>Wave. Check Type: Triangle, and Repeat Edge Pixels. Set the Number of Generators: 3, Wavelength: 10 – 60, Scale: 15% - 15% and Amplitude: 5 – 35. Select each layer and hit Cmd/Ctrl+F to apply the filter.

Enhance the image

07

Go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels, change the Input Levels: Shadows 20, Midtones 1.35 and Highlights 180. Now go to Filter> Blur>Surface Blur. Set the Radius to 5px and the Threshold to 15 Levels.

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Refine the edges

Apply Free Transform

08

Grab the Magic Wand (A), set Tolerance: 40, select the backdrop and hit Delete. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click to select the layer. Go to Select>Refine Edge, set Smooth: 100, Shift Edge: -20, check Decontaminate Colors, Amount: 50% and click OK.

Blend the image

10

Drag the layer on top of the first letter set to 60% Opacity and Cmd/ Ctrl-click to select the letter. Grab the Eraser (E), pick a soft brush and erase the edges.

11

Now add more elements to each layer, repeating the previous steps. You can tweak the sliders to get a bright tone and drag each image onto its respective layer.

Download Brushes

12

Here we’ve used a brush set from www.pervoibrushes.deviantart. com. Open Splat 25 Brushes, download and save them in your Splash Images folder.

Merge the layers

Grab the Brush tool (B) and open the Brush Preset Picker from the Tool Options. Click on the top-left menu, choose Load Brushes, locate the folder and click Load. Create a new layer, select any brush and paint around each image.

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Ctrl/right-click again, this time on the splash’s mask and choose Apply Layer Mask (delete the extra layer). Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and in the Tool Options bar select Scale, check the Constrain Proportions box and set W: 40%.

Repeat the steps

Load more brushes

13

09

14

Hit Shift and select the text, splat and brushes layers from each letter. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge the layers, then hit Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+N. In the New Layer window, name it ‘Colour 1’, check the Use Previous Layer box and change the Mode to Multiply.

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Create splatter effects WorldMags.net

Add Colour

15

On a colour layer, grab the Paint Bucket (K), choose a nice Foreground tone and click to fill. Repeat this for different colours, click on Add Layer Mask and add a mask for each colour layer.

Final step

16

Grab the Brush tool, set the default Foreground/Background colour (D), grab Splat brush 96 and paint over the layer mask to hide part of the image. Now select brush 149, hit X to switch the colours and create some splashes.

Closer look The main effects

COLOUR IT UP

A snapshot of the main techniques used to create this effect

The effect looks great in white, but by simply using the Paint Bucket tool you can add a variety of colours.

MADE FROM MILK The spalsh effects are made from photos of milk splashes, a spote of clever masking and nifty eraser tricks.

BRUSHING IN THE EFFECT By using splatter brushes you can soften the hard edges of the font, continuing the splattered effect.

WORKING WITH FONTS By hitting Ctrl/right-click on your text layer and choosing Simplify/Rasterize Layer you can edit and manipulate text as though it were just another image.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 169

Digital art WorldMags.net Before

SMART BRUSH Textures come as part of the Smart Brush tool (F), and are simple to use with just a click and drag of the mouse.

NEW TEXTURES The texture is placed onto a new layer so that you can make changes easily. Replace a texture just by selecting another from the Texture box.

MASKS A layer mask is automatically created as soon as the Smart Brush tool is used. The texture is represented with white on the mask.

SELECTIVE TEXTURE The Smart Brush tool allows you to specify exactly where you want the texture to go – for example, around a person.

CANVAS TEXTURES In Photoshop Elements, there’s a set of filters called Textures. These produce realistic surfaces and texture effects, such as a painter’s canvas or photographic grain.

Apply textures

Discover the secrets behind applying authentic texture to your images

T

extures in Elements can be found in a couple of places. The Smart Brush tool lets you ‘paint’ texture onto your image. These textures come in the form of paper, bricks, canvases, broken glass and satin effects, to name just a few. Texture can also be applied as a Filter, to make authentic surfaces for painting with. Under the Filter menu is a set of texturising options for creating the more traditional surfaces and photographic effects such as grain. These can really enhance images in new, interesting ways; it’s just a case of setting up an image ready for the texture.

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In this guide, you’ll learn all about the different tools and filters that can be used to texture an image. We show you how a wallpaper design can be added to a plain wall, by wrapping it around objects using selections and masks. You’ll also pick up a few good techniques for preparing an image for hand-colouring and using the Texture filters in Photoshop Elements. We kick things off with a quick tutorial on making a traditional photo effect that uses the Grain filter to add a more tangible surface to a photo, and then show you some of the other secrets to textures.

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Apply textures WorldMags.net Spice up images with photographic grain

Create an authentic texture effect using Photoshop Elements’ Grain filter There is a set of filters in Photoshop Elements dedicated to creating textured effects. Be it canvas texture, patchwork patterns or grain, they can be used to achieve authentic surfaces.

Learn to give images a dose of old-fashioned grain from the manual photography days with these three quick steps below. Top it off with a vignette for extra creative emphasis.

DUAL LAYERS

GRAIN FILTER

Having two layers to work with in Photoshop Elements enables you to lower the Opacity of the overall effect.

The Grain filter has a Stippled option for creating monochrome effects. Increase the Intensity slider for a busier, grainier photo effect.

MONOCHROME To create a perfectly black and white image, press Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+U to remove colour from the Background layer.

VIGNETTE To add more drama to the effect, you can add a vignette using the Brush tool (B) set to black. Apply these changes to a new layer.

Traditional photo effects Three steps to texturing your photos with grain

Prepare layers

01 

Duplicate the Background layer in Elements by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J or by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer. The latter enables you to enter a name for the new layer in order to help you identify it, such as ‘Photo Grain’.

Add grain

02 

Head to the Filter menu then Filter> Grain. Change Grain Type to Stippled, set Intensity to 44 and Contrast to 52. Use the preview to assess the grain but the image should now be monochrome. Hit OK to apply these settings to your image.

Control effect

03 

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Head to the Layers palette and lower the Opacity of the duplicate to 50%. The strength of the grain effect should look less imposing. The lower the Opacity slider is, the more the colour will show through. The Photoshop Elements Book 171

Digital art WorldMags.net Digitally decorate Learn to use the Smart Brush tool with layer masks Ever wanted to change the wallpaper in a room? Photoshop Elements can do just that using a few of its preset texture patterns. The Smart Brush tool is a marvellously easy one to use, and has the advantage of having a mask too. This lets you manually adapt the

filled areas, so that it can appear to be behind certain objects rather than overlapping them. The tool has a couple of textures that include a wallpaper effect, but to get there we first need to make a few tweaks to the tool.

New texture

03 

Click and drag over an area of your image in order to apply the texture. We need to adapt the tool settings to When adding texture to a wall, select After the first time this is used, you will start off. Select the Smart Brush tool the Brick Wall option. This can always notice a new layer appearing in the (F) from the Toolbar. Head to the tool’s be changed for a different texture later on. Layers palette, along with a black and options and click on the thumbnail of presets. Set the tool’s Size slider to 100px, but choose white mask. Select Textures from the drop-down list. a smaller size to cover a small area if needed.

Preset textures

01 

Brush size

02 

Paint back detail

Undo errors

04 

Drag the selection over every part of the wall. If some of the texture has spilled onto other subjects or parts of the image, hold Opt/Alt and click over them.

A new design

06 

Double-click on the left box inside its layer to open the Pattern dialog box. Click on the list in this menu and change it to show the Color Paper options. The one used here is called Blue Vellum.

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05 

Look for parts of the texture that have overflowed onto wrong subjects. Select the Brush tool and click the layer mask. Ensure the tool is set to 100% Opacity and black. Zoom in to paint over those areas and bring back the original.

Adapt Scale

07 

Adapt the Scale of the new texture to alter the size of the pattern and hit OK. Lower the layer’s Opacity using its slider in the Layers palette to weaken the colour of the texture and help to blend it in.

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Apply textures WorldMags.net SCALING AND RELIEF Balancing these two sliders will help balance the overall impact of your chosen texture. Increase Relief to raise the texture further off the surface of your image.

CANVAS OPTIONS Sandstone is just one of the realistic textures available – along with Burlap, Brick and Canvas – to prepare your image for painting.

ZOOM IN Use the plus button in the filter’s menu to zoom in and get a better idea of how much texture is being applied.

COLOUR ALTERNATIVES Texture can be applied as either a colour or black and white version of your image. Converting it to monochrome lets you paint colour back in selectively for artistic effects.

What does it mean?

Texturise images ready for painting

Convert a colour image to monochrome to apply a canvas effect This technique plays with the canvas textures in Photoshop Elements 11. Take any colour image and then convert it to monochrome. From there, a texture is applied for creating a surface that’s ideal for painting on. Pick up the Brush tool once all this is done, set a colour to use and begin painting!

Remove colour

01 

Open an image in Elements’ Expert mode. Go to the Layer menu and to Duplicate Layer. Then, go to the Enhance menu and Adjust Color>Remove Color to convert your image to monochrome.

Boost brightness

02 

After converting to black and white, you may need to boost brightness. Go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting> Brightness/Contrast and increase Brightness just enough so that the image lightens up.

Canvas texture

03 

Go to the Filter menu and to Texture> Texturizer. In the Filter, zoom to 50% using the controls. Set the Texture to Sandstone, increase Scaling to 150% and Relief to 7, then hit OK to apply.

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DETAIL SMART Brush – This tool uses the same effects as the Smart Brush tool but, instead of drawing on a selection, you paint the texture for more control. This is ideal for applying effects to small objects or parts of your image.

Paint new colour!

04 

Select the Brush tool. Choose a colour by clicking the foremost swatch at the base of the Toolbar. In the options, set Mode to Color and lower Opacity to 40%. Choose a brush and blend a new colour!

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Digital art WorldMags.net Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

174 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Make water effects WorldMags.net

Make water effects Using filters and blend modes, make water effects from scratch

Y

ou will be surprised at how much you can create in Photoshop Elements. From simple photo fixes to complex image compositions, the program has a range of professional tools to get the job done. Here we’re going to turn reality on its head a little and make water where there should be fire. Creating the actual effect can be a challenge at first, but with the right technique and a little creativity you can create a really nice composition. Just follow the steps and use a spot of initiative and creativity.

You’ll start by making the basic shapes and then work mostly with layers and filters to apply special art effects. You’ll learn how to use layer styles to quickly apply effects which create interesting results, how to change the Brush settings to help you create water droplets and how to use blend modes. As ever, you can achieve this Elements tutorial in Photoshop CS versions, and by starting off small with a flame on a candle, you are able to apply the tools and techniques you learn on bigger projects.

Create a flame from water Use a variety of filters and tools to generate a fiery water effect

Candle shape

01

On a new document, select the Rectangle tool (U) and then, from the drop-down menu, choose Fixed Size. Set Width to 3 and Height to 6, then check the From Center option. Click on the canvas and a rectangle will appear. Click on Simplify.

Define a gradient

02

Click on the Gradient tool (G) and then open the Gradient Editor by double-clicking the drop-down icon in the Options bar. Now create a four-stop gradient, selecting the colours #1f5668, # 4d889b, # c6dce3 and # 87b1bf. Choose the Reflected gradient option, position the cursor, hold down the Shift key and then drag to apply the gradient.

Apply Liquify effect

Expert tip

03

Go to Filter>Distort> Liquify. Use the Forward Warp tool to create melted areas on the top of the shape, and then select the Pucker tool. Hold down the mouse button and drag from top to bottom along the candle to create some volume. Click OK.

Adjustment & Fill layers

Adjustment layers are one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop Elements. You can apply them over any layer to enhance, repair and correct the colour and tonality without modifying any pixel in the original image. You can remove or change the setting on an adjustment layer at any time without affecting the original image. Just double-click on the adjustment layer to change the original options or turn it off with the Layers palette.

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Shadows and highlights

Create the wick

04

05

Light the flame

Applying the Cloud filter

Select the Dodge tool (O) and, keeping Exposure at 100%, change the range to Midtones. Choose a hard brush and paint the top of the shape. Now select the Burn tool (O), changing its Exposure to 10% and setting the range to Midtones, and create some shadows with a soft brush.

06

Select the Lasso tool from the Toolbox bar. Choose the Add Selection option, leaving the Feather value at 0 pixels, thenall you need to do is check the Anti-Aliasing box and draw a freehand flame shape.

Create volume

08

Go to Filter>Distort>Liquify. Click on the Forward Warp tool, change the Brush Size to 200 and the Brush Pressure to 80. Start painting from the centre out to the edges to create some details and volume.

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On a new layer, grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and draw a small rectangle. Change its foreground colour to a light brown and its background colour to black, then go to Filter>Render>Fiber. Set Variance to 1 and Strength to 40. Click OK to apply these effects.

07

Now with the flame layer selected, click on the default foreground and background colours (or simply press D on the keyboard) and then go to Filter>Render>Clouds in order to fill the selection.

Plastic wrap

09

Now we need to accentuate the surface details. Go to Filter>Artistic> Plastic Wrap. Set the filter’s Highlight Strength to 15, the Details to 15 and then set the Smoothness to 10. Click OK.

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Translucent effect

10

Add one more filter to create a distortion on the flame. Go to Filter> Distort>Glass, setting the Distortion to 10, Smoothness to 9, Texture to Frosted and Scaling to 160% For the translucent effect, change the layer’s blend mode to Hard Light.

Make water effects WorldMags.net The right brush

Candle holder

11

Place the supplied image, ‘Base_ Candle.jpg’, over the Shape layer. Check the Constrain Proportions box and scale it up to adjust the size, then hit Return to finish. Ctrl/right-click on the Layers palette and then click on Simplify Layer.

Create the background

12

Select the Background layer. Grab the Gradient tool from the Toolbox. Open the Gradient Editor and define a new three-stop gradient, selecting black for the first stop, #22566d for the second stop and then white for the third stop. Change the Gradient to Radial and hit Apply Gradient.

Droplets effect

01

To create the water droplet effect in Photoshop Elements it is necessary to change the Brush settings, the layer style and the blend mode.

Brush settings

02

One important thing to change on the Brush settings is the Roundness. Adjusting Roundness affects the shape of the brush tip. Set it to 65 to create an elliptical shape.

Create a texture

Apply the texture

14

Now we need to add a texture to the background. In the Toolbox, change the foreground colour to white and the background colour to a light blue. Then go to Filter>Render>Clouds.

Before applying the texture, let’s soften the image by using the Motion Blur filter. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, setting the Angle to 90 and the Distance to 400 pixels. Now change the layer’s blend mode to Multiply.

Make a table

Applying fibers

13

15

Create a new layer. Select the Rectangle tool again, then choose Fixed Size from the drop-down menu and set both Width and Height to 5, checking the From Center box. Click on the canvas and a square will appear. Click on it to simplify.

16

We can use the Fiber filter to create a nice texture on the table. In the toolbox, change the foreground colour to #6d4b36 and the background colour to #3e2b1f. Go to Render>Fiber, changing the Variance to 5 and Strength to 35. Click OK.

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Layer style

03

The Bevel Style size will specify the bevelling along the inside edges of the layer’s content. Depending on the size of the droplet, you will need to try different size settings and also change the Lighting Angle.

Brush tool

04

Vary the size and opacity of the Brush tool to create different strokes and paint over specific parts. Change the blend mode to Multiply.

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Angle the perspective

Set the ambience

17

18

Add shadow

Running water layer style

Now hit Cmd/Ctrl+T to pick up the Free Transform tool. Click on Scale and adjust the size of the table, and then click on Skew and drag the corners until you get a nice perspective.

20

Create a new layer. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw an ellipse, fill it in with black. Apply Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 80 pixels. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and then adjust the shadow under the candle holder. Change the layer’s Opacity to 80%.

Apply Filter>Render>Light Effects. Set the Light Type to Spotlight, changing the Intensity to 50 and Focus to -10. Under Properties, set Gloss to 0, Material to 14, Exposure to -10 and Ambience to 15. Hit OK.

21

Create a new layer over the Shape Layer. Select Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. Click on the Bevel box and then change the size of the bevel to 25, setting the Direction to Up. Then click OK. Change the layer’s blend mode to Multiply and the Opacity to 60%.

Light and dark

19

Press Cmd/Ctrl+L to open the Levels palette. Increase the contrast on the table to give it some shine by pulling the Dark handle (the small black triangle found on the histogram) slightly to the right.

It’s all in the detail

22

To create the running water, select a hard brush, changing its size to 40 pixels and the Opacity to 45%. Click on the Brush settings and change the Spacing to 10%. Select a white colour and carefully draw the water running over the candle shape.

Going further Refine Edges

You can fine-tune your selection by using the Refine Edge option. To do this, select the image and then choose Select>Refine Edges. On the Refine Edge dialog box, you will find several options that will improve the quality of the selection edges, allowing you to extract complex backgrounds, create softer edges or refine a layer mask with ease. Choose Output to New Layer with Layer Mask, as it is easier to work with a mask.

Water on the table

23

Create a new layer. Select the layer style, click on the Bevel box and change the size to 30. Set the Direction to Up and click OK. Now change the blend mode to Multiply. Pick a hard brush, change its Opacity to 70% and draw the water.

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Refine Edge

24

On the Shape layer, select the image. Go to Select>Refine Edge, checking the Smart Radius box and setting the Radius to 50 pixels. Adjust Smooth to 100, Feather to 25 pixels and then select Output to New Layer with Mask. Click OK.

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Make water effects WorldMags.net

Create an adjustment layer

25

On the Layer palette, click the Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon. Select Hue/Saturation from the drop-down menu and then lower the Saturation to -40 and increase the Lightness to +10. Click on Clip Adjustment Layer so that the correction is only applied to the layer below.

Final touches

26

Click on the Background layer and select Filter>Render>Light Effects. Choose Spotlight for the Light Type, changing the Intensity to 10 and the Focus to 56. Under Properties, set Gloss to 45, Material to 0, Exposure to 10 and then Ambience to 10. Click OK.

Droplets

27

Create one final new layer. Apply a new layer style, selecting Bevel with a size of 30. Change the blend mode to Multiply. Now select a hard brush and change the Fade to 10, Scatter to 20%, Spacing to 165% and Roundness to 66%. Now draw some droplets around the flame.

The essential tools

A closer look at the key filters, tools and settings needed for this effect

Liquify filter

Cloud filter

Brush settings

The Liquify Filter makes it easy to manipulate areas of an image as though those areas had been melted, or to create distortions which add a dramatic effect to the composition.

The Clouds filter works with the foreground and background colours to produce a soft cloud pattern. You can use this filter to create clouds, water, droplets and even a dusk effect.

You can control the brush strokes by specifying which options dynamically change over the brush flow. These options include Fading, Scattering, Size and Angle.

Lighting Effects filter

Layer style

Burn and Dodge

The Lighting Effects filter lets you add sophisticated lighting effects in your project. You can add multiple or individual lights and control each setting to create amazing effects.

When you apply style to a layer an ‘fx’ icon will appear. To copy a style from one layer to another, just hold Opt/Alt, place the cursor over the icon and then drag to a different layer.

When you work with Burn and Dodge you need to be careful. Always lower the Exposure and try using different ranges, depending on the areas of the image that you want to affect.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 179

Digital art WorldMags.net

Design ancient patterns

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

Learn how to create a beautiful ancient pattern in few simple steps

I

n this tutorial, we will cover a few techniques to show you how to create interesting patterns to use in any design. Patterns are easy to make, because basically a pattern is an image that can be tiled repeatedly and is an essential element of any type of design. Using the patterns will help speed up your work as well as incorporate new intricate

Download brushes

01 

Grab the Aztec Brushes from the supplied resources. Click on Edit>Preset Manager. In the Preset Manager window, select the Preset Type Brushes. Click on Append, locate the folder where you saved the brushes, click Load and then Done.

180 The Photoshop Elements Book

elements into your composition, creating a very appealing image. We are going to use a beautiful brush set from www.brusheezy.com (included in your supplied resources) to create our design. We’ll then apply a specific filter in order to complete the job. You’ll also learn how to use the Preset Manager to save your custom pattern design to your own library. Finally, we

will show you how to use layer styles and how to change the layer’s blend mode to give the finishing touches to this design. This tutorial will guide you through steps to create your own custom pattern. Open this tutorial’s resources from your free disc to find an image to use in the final steps, but feel free to use any image you like. Try to incorporate other elements to give your personal touch.

Create a new document

02 

For a perfect square. Hit Cmd/ Ctrl+N to open a new document. Set the width to 400px and height to 400px, then click OK. Go to View>Rulers. From the top ruler, drag a guideline to the 200px mark and repeat the process for the left ruler.

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Design ancient patterns WorldMags.net Expert tip Add wall figures

Fill up the canvas

Select the brushes

03 

Set the Foreground colour to black and select the Brush tool (B). Click to open the Brush Preset Picker and choose any Aztec Brush you like. Create a new layer, change the Brush size to 180px and then click the brush inside one of the squares.

04

Create a new layer, choose a new Aztec Brush and fill up the next square. Repeat until you fill them all up. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the images into place. Select the layers and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge into a single layer.

Create a new layer and select the Brush tool (B), choosing a very large Aztec brush. Use white as the Foreground colour and draw on some figures. Go to Layer Style and click on Bevel. Set the Size to 10px and click on Stroke, then set that Size to 3px and lower the Opacity to 50%. Change the blend mode for the layer to Overlay. As a final step, hold Cmd/Ctrl and then click on the layer to select the whole image, and now click on the Pattern Fill layer and press the Delete key.

Save the pattern

Create the pattern

05

Delete the Background layer. From the Filter menu, choose Others and click Offset. In the Offset window, set the Horizontal to 100 pixels right and the Vertical to 100 pixels down. In Undefined Areas, select Wrap Around and then click OK.

Simplify layer

08

Duplicate the Pattern Fill Layer and hide it by clicking on the eye icon in the Layers panel. Ctrl/right-click the Pattern Fill Layer and choose Simplify Layer. Apply some styles and add depth to the layer.

06

To save the new pattern, go to Edit>Define Pattern, name your file Ancient Pattern, then click OK. Go to Edit>Preset Manager. In the Preset manager window, select the Preset Type Patterns and click on the pattern you just created. Select Save Set, type the name again, and then click Save.

Apply the pattern

07

Layer Style

09

Click on Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings. In the Style Setting window, change Lighting Angle to -150º, select Bevel, change Size to 5px and Direction to Up. Change the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light.

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Open the supplied ‘wall.jpg’ image. In the Layers panel, click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon and choose Pattern. Click on the Pattern Picker window to select your Pattern. Scale it to size and then click OK.

Change the colour

10

Click Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and choose Hue/Saturation. On the Hue/Saturation panel, click the bottom left icon to clip the layer, check the Colorize box and play with the settings. The Photoshop Elements Book 181

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PAGE 188

PAGE 194

PAGE 196

Photo project Take the next step and get creative with these advanced project ideas underwater scenes 184 Create Create a complex photomontage with Perspective 188 Play Create a miniature efect your own 192 Design holiday postcard

Send a modern-day postcard

a photo album 194 Build Create your own virtual album a 196 Compose mixed-media piece

Create a musical composition

a 200 Create panoramic planet

Make a 360-degree planet

202 Compose

surreal artwork

Create a bizarre composite

a retro 206 Achieve photo effect

Send your photos back in time

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The Photoshop Elements Book 183

Photo projectWorldMags.net Source images

Image: Gabi Shimizu

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this 184 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Create underwater scenes WorldMags.net

Create underwater scenes Discover how to use different filters and blend modes to create a complex photomontage with Photoshop Elements

C

reating an underwater scene is always a challenge, as there are several factors to consider when creating this kind of composition. Water changes the way that objects appear, altering the colours, the perspective, the light. In a realistic water scene, for example, objects that are far away

are less in focus than the objects closer to the viewer. All these factors have an important influence on the final result. In this tutorial you will learn how to use different blend modes to create transparency and even change colours. We will work with several filters like Plastic Wrap, Chrome and

Blur to create different water effects, and we’ll also make a nice composition using several images. You will be surprised how the Clouds filter can be used in different ways to create a totally new effect. In your free resource pack you will find all the files and images you need, so open it up!

Linear background

Ocean floor

Make some noise

01 

On the Background layer, grab the Gradient tool (G) and click on Edit to open the Gradient Editor. Create a new gradient using the colours #2196b3 and #0eb52, set it to Linear and then click OK. Now drag your gradient from top to bottom.

02 

On a new Layer, grab Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a rectangle. Change foreground colour to #dbc5a9 and background to #464545. Go Filter>Render> Clouds and apply. Open the Filters menu, go to Blur and apply a 10px Gaussian Blur.

03

To create a sand texture we simply need to add a noise effect. So open Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set the noise Amount to 10% with Gaussian Distribution and make sure you check the Monochromatic box.

Water reflection

04

Make a new selection and set default fore/ background colours. Apply a Clouds filter and a 20px Gaussian Blur. Go to Filter>Artistic> Plastic Wrap. Set Highlight Strength: 20, Details: 10 and Smoothness: 15. Set blend mode to Soft Light.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 185

Photo projectWorldMags.net Expert tip Load Brushes

Download a new brush and move the file to a folder you can easily locate. To load the brush in Photoshop Elements 11, select the Brush tool (B) and click to open the Brush Preset Picker. Click on the arrow next to the Brush popup and choose Load Brushes. Navigate to your downloaded file, select the brush(.abr) you want to add, then click Load.

Adjust the perspective

05

Hold the Shift key and select the Reflection and the Sand layers. Right-click over the layers and chose Merge Layers. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T to open the Free Transform tool. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and then use each handle to skew and resize the image.

Apply lighting effects

06

Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool again and select the Sand layer. Open Filters>Render>Lighting Effects and select the Spotlight type. Rotate the light Direction to around 90°, change the Intensity to 30 and Focus to 45. Click OK.

Select the rock

08 

Now open up the Rock.JPEG image. In the Toolbar, click on the Quick Selection tool (A) and select only the rock image. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy and Cmd/ Ctrl+V to paste it into the project. Use the Free Transform tool to scale the image.

Place image

07 

Now head to File>Place. Find Laguna_copy. JPEG and click Place. Resize the image and apply. Ctrl/right-click on the Laguna_copy layer and click Simplify Layer. Grab the Quick Selection tool (A) and, using a 150px brush, select and delete the sky.

Refine selection

09 

Select the Rock layer and click Select>Refine Edge. Check the Smart Radius box, set Radius to 10px and Shift Edge to -70%, then click OK. Now select around a third of the image. Click Cmd/ Ctrl+U, change the Saturation to -65 and Lightness to -40. Apply an 8px Gaussian Blur.

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Coral reef

10

Go to File>Place and add CoralReef2.PNG. Click the Constrain Proportions box and change Horizontal Scale to 40%. Go to Image>Rotate>Flip Layer Horizontal then Ctrl/right-click to Simplify Layer. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+U and set Saturation: -15, Lightness: -45. Add an 8px Gaussian Blur.

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Place divers

11

Now File>Place the Divers.PNG image and scale it down to 70%. Ctrl/rightclick on the layer to Simplify Layer and then hit Cmd/Crtl+U; lower the Saturation to -60. Following the same steps, find and place the Coral Reef.PNG image, scaling it to 60%.

Create underwater scenes WorldMags.net

Create light Rays

12 

On a new layer, grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and draw a selection. Select the default foreground/ background colours (D) and apply Filter> Render>Clouds. Now head to Filter>Blur> Motion Blur, changing the Angle to 90º and Distance to 998px. Change the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light.

Adding Nemo

13 

In your resource pack, you will find all the PNG files you need for this step. Using the same techniques that you’ve just learned, place each image onto a different layer and then scale, invert and reposition all around. When you’re finished, hold Cmd/ Ctrl to select the layers and then merge all.

Transparent layer

15 

Create a new layer. Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), select the underwater part of your image. Select the colour #799bae and use the Paint Bucket tool (G) to fill the selection. Change the layer’s blend mode to Multiply – this will create a nice transparent blue effect.

Bubbles

14

Download Bubble Brushes for Photoshop from (www.brusheezy. com/brushes/1283-bubble-brushes-forphotoshop) Select the Brush tool (B) and open the Brush Preset Picker. Now open bubble #690. In the brush’s settings, pick a small brush Size, then change the Scatter to 50 and Spacing to 175%. Draw the bubbles.

Water reflection

Create the sun

16 

Click on the Background layer. Hit M and then select the part above the water. Grab the Gradient tool (G) and create a Radial gradient using #ffffff to #2692b0, then click OK and drag it outwards.

17 

Add a new layer. Hit M and make a selection, using default foreground/ background colours. Go to Filter>Render> Clouds and then apply Motion Blur, setting the Angle to 90º and Distance to 275px. Open Levels (Cmd/Crtl+L) and increase the contrast by moving the arrows left to right.

Expert tip Create a silhouette

Chrome effect

18 

Now let’s add the chrome effect to the water reflection. Go to Filter>Sketch>Chrome, setting Detail to 0 and Smoothness to 10, and click OK. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to scale and rotate. Go to Filter>Distort> Liquify and use the Turbulence tool to create some distortions. Change the blend mode to Hard Light.

Final step

19 

Open Seagull.JPEG and pelican.JPEG from your resources. With the Quick Selection tool (A), select the images then cut (Cmd/Ctrl+C) and paste (Cmd/Ctrl+V) into the project. Use the Free Transform tool (Cmd/Ctrl+T) to resize the images.

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When you’re on step 16, you can add a nice silhouette over the gradient background. Create a new layer and click Shapes (U), then select the Ellipse shape, setting Color to white and Geometry Options to Circle. Check the From Center box and draw a circle over the centre of the radial gradient, then click on simplify. Finally, change the layer’s Opacity to 30%. Now we have a nice silhouette that shows more of the sun’s details.

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Photo projectWorldMags.net Original images

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this 188 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Play with perspective WorldMags.net

Play with perspective Learn how to use a few simple Photoshop Elements tweaks to create a miniature effect in your photos.

I

n this tutorial, you will use Photoshop Elements to create a great photo composition and learn a fun technique for playing with your images. With very little effort, you can take simple photographs of everyday scenes and then transform them into miniature models. You will use the Transform tool to scale, rotate and skew your photos, and then the Gaussian Blur filter to create the Tilt-Shift Effect. You’ll use the Tilt-Shift effect to focus attention on specifics parts of

your image, while at the same time taking the focus away from other things in your photo, thus causing the illusion of a miniature world. The perspective is very important in accomplishing this effect; photos taken from a top-down view will work best for miniaturisation. In this tutorial, you will learn how easy it is to create a composition and then place the elements that create this effect. Use the supplied files or add your own elements in order to make your mini scene.

Shrink your friends Have fun with your photos by creating tiny models

Load the background

Make the placemat

01 

02 

Add a pattern

Angle the perspective

First, open up the supplied ‘bg.jpg’ image, using Filter>Place to add it into your project. In the options dialog, check the Constrain Proportions box and drag the handle out to scale up the image. Ctrl/right- click on the layer and select Simplify Layer.

03 

In the Pattern Fill window, click on the thumbnail. You now have several patterns to choose from. (For this project, we downloaded a new pattern from myphotoshopbrushes.com/ patterns/id/1010/. Click on the small right-arrow in the Patterns window and choose Load Pattern.)

Create a new layer. With the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), draw a rectangle on the canvas. Go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Pattern. On the New Layer window leave the default settings and click on OK.

04 

Ctrl/right-click on the layer and click Simplify Layer. Use Cmd/Cttl+T to open the Free Transform tool. Hold the Cmd/Ctrl keys and drag the corners until you get a nice perspective, as if it were laid out on a table, then click to commit the operation.

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Photo projectWorldMags.net Place the cupcake

Expert tip

05 

Open the supplied ‘cupcake1.jpg’ image. Using the Quick Selection Tool (A), select the cupcake and then copy and paste in onto a new layer. Rename this layer Cupcake1. Click on Simplify Layer.

Guided Edits Panel

You can make use of certain predefined effects, like the Tilt-Shift effect, using the Guided Edit mode in Photoshop Elements. The Guided Edit mode provides detailed instructions and controls that will guide you through the most common photo editing and effects. After you finish your composition in Expert Mode, just head into the Guided Mode to apply new and exciting effects and touchups to your pictures.

Refine Edges

Add images

06 

07 

Adjust the shadows

Little people

Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on the Cupcake1 layer to select it. Go to Select>Refine Edge. Check the Smart Radius box and set Radius to 8, Smooth to 70, Feather to 5 and Shift Edge to -90. Check the Decontaminate Colors box and click OK.

09 

Place the Shadow1 layer behind the Cupcake1 layer. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T and, in the Transform tool’s options, rotate the Angle to 90º and resize the image. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 10 and lower the layer’s Opacity to 50%.

190 The Photoshop Elements Book

Open the supplied ‘cupcake2.jpg’ and ‘cupcake3.jpg’ images and then repeat steps 5 and 6. Cut and paste each image and place them behind the Cupcake1 layer. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to resize each image and then click on Simplify Layer.

Add shadows

08 

Ctrl/right-click on Cupcake1 and click Duplicate layer. Name it Shadow1. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+U to open the Hue/ Saturation dialog. Change the Lightness to -100 and click then OK. Repeat the process for the Cupcake2 and Cupcake3 layers.

Angle the shadows

11 

Duplicate the images. Hold Cmd/ Open the file ‘people.png’. Select Ctrl+U and change the Lightness to each image using the Lasso tool (L), -100. Use the Free Transform tool (Cmd/ then cut and paste into your project. Name Crtl+T) to skew and resize the shadows. your layers img1, img2 and so forth. Use Place the shadows behind each image, Cmd/Ctrl+T to resize the images. Move the apply a Gaussian Blur filter set to around 6 images around to create a nice composition. pixels and lower the Opacity to 50%.

10 

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Play with perspective WorldMags.net

Caution

Refine the shadows

12 

There are some images that you just can’t duplicate and skew in order to create the shadows. On a new layer, use a soft brush (B) to draw the shadows. Follow the image’s angle, then apply the Gaussian Blur filter and lower the layer’s Opacity to 50%.

13 

Hold Opt/Alt and click on the Create a New Layer icon. In the New layer window, name it Refine_Shadows. Change the blend mode to Overlay, keep the Opacity at 100% and check Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray). Click OK.

Burn tool

Tilt-Shift Effect

Grab the Burn tool (O). Change the Range to Highlights, choose a soft brush, vary the Size and change the Exposure to 40%. Carefully, start painting over the shadows, especially the areas close to the feet and the bottom of the cupcake.

Hold and drag the Background layer onto the Create a New Layer icon to duplicate the layer. Now select the Background layer and go to Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur. Change the blur’s Radius to 30 pixels and then click OK.

14 

15 

Grab a gradient mask

16 

Select the Background Copy and click Add a Layer Mask. Make sure the mask is selected and grab the Gradient tool (G). In the Gradient Editor, create two stops (from white to black). Draw a line, starting at the point that you want to keep in focus.

Go a step further Enhance with a Vignette You can add other images, like a giant hand grabbing the people, or create a miniature world with your coworkers or classmates – the possibility are endless. However, there are a few other things you can do to subtly enhance your photos. Take, for example, the Vignette. This interesting effect can help you emphasise the main theme at the centre of the photograph. Open your miniature people image and, in the Guided Edits panel, click on Photo Effects>Vignette Effect. Choose the Black colour and use the intensity slider to specify how intense you want the vignette to be. You can click Refine Shape to fine-tune the edges and click Done to apply the effect.

Final touch

17 

To create a more ‘plastic’ feel, you can increase the saturation. In the Layer palette, select the first layer. Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon. Select the Hue/Saturation adjustment. Change Saturation to 15 to give it a boost.

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Design your own holiday postcard Enter the digital age of postcards and send a message home

P

ostcards are renowned for not reaching their destinations on time, and it’s because of this that they’re losing credibility. It’s about time we throw this traditional method out the window and make way for Elements. There’s great creative satisfaction in designing your own personal messages and sending them off to your loved ones. Postcards usually show off just how beautiful a holiday location is, but an Elements

192 The Photoshop Elements Book

postcard lets you use any images you like. So why not show the not-so-beautiful bits too! We will take you through how to use Photoshop Elements in order to turn a blank canvas into a well-composed holiday postcard. It’s a simple matter of layout and composition, combined with the right fonts and messages. Learn how to manipulate Elements’ Grid feature to accurately divide your canvas into segments, then how to snap your images to your desired layout.

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Once you’ve chosen your images and subjects, look at their movements and directions. We made sure the man on the bike is looking in from the edge, and that the hot air balloon is placed on the opposite side for balance. Once the front side is complete, write a message on the back and email it to friends and family. You can be sure they’ll receive it before you get home! You can even purchase blank postcard paper that you can print straight onto – take a look online.

Design your own holiday postcard WorldMags.net A digital message

Tip

Use a grid to perfectly compose the layout

From scratch

01

Create a new document of 6 x 4 inches with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. Keep Background Contents set to White. When the blank document opens, head to View>Grid. This makes it far easier to compose your postcard.

Transform to fit

04

Place your images onto the postcard’s canvas, and for each one hit Ctrl/Cmd+T to resize them and make them fit into the frame of the postcard. Using the gridlines, place and resize the images, allowing them to overlap the grid and the edge of the canvas.

Don’t forget the back

Set your preferences

Plan the composition

02

03

Go to Preferences>Guides & Grids to customise the grid. Enter a value of 33.3% for Gridline Every, and set Subdivisions to 2. This splits the grid into nine equal segments and also shows the horizontal and vertical centre lines.

First selection

05

If not already done so, go to View>Snap To>Grid to make the gridlines turn magnetic. Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a selection over one image, starting off the canvas. Snap it to the desired segments in the grid. Now zoom to 12.5% and nudge the selection twice outwards using the Arrow keys.

Upload your images for the postcard and assess their composition and subject directions to decide their best placement. We’re using four images – three on top and one panorama for the base of the postcard.

Create borders

06

Go to Select>Inverse to flip the selection, and with the image’s layer selected hit Edit>Clear to reveal the white canvas. Repeat this with step 5 on every image, remembering to zoom out to 12.5% each time when nudging the Rectangular Marquee.

Outside edge

07

Select the entire postcard using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Zoom to 12.5% and nudge the selection four times out of the frame. Go to Select>Inverse, and for each image go to Edit>Clear to make the border. Repeat this for all sides of the postcard.

Create a new blank document with the same dimensions (6 x 4 inches), and switch on the grid. Activate Snap (View>Snap To) and use the Line tool with a Width of 3px to draw a vertical line down the centre of the postcard. Add the horizontal lines on the right side for the address, and then write your message and send by email!

Place names

08

Hit the Background layer and go to Edit>Layer Fill. Set Contents Use to Black and press OK. Using the Type tool, add place names and postcard phrases. We used the fonts Kino MT and Journal in white, and placed the name in the centre to complete our holiday postcard.

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Tip Make it 3D

If your postcard is looking flat, you can add a subtle edge to each image to make them come out of the design. Go to the Layer menu and to Layer Style. Click on Style Settings and select Bevel. You’ll see a shadow appear around the image. Increase the Size slider for that perfect finishing touch.

The Photoshop Elements Book 193

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Build a photo album Create your own virtual album spread to commemorate a joyous occasion, with the ability to swap photos in and out

Source file available Use the files at www.blog. photoshopcreative. co.uk/tutorial-files to re-create this

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hotoshop Elements can be used to create a commemorative scene in which you can stage your treasured photos. Photoshop users can join in with the celebration too, since the techniques and tools are common between the two. You are free to use the supplied album and photos but, for a personalised image, you can prepare your own assets. You’ll need a picture of an open photo album with blank pages and an assortment of photos.

194 The Photoshop Elements Book

We’ll be using clipping masks as layout guides for our photos. This is a much more flexible method than just placing images directly onto the canvas and resizing. Once masks are laid out and photos are attached to them, you can tweak the photo placement within the masks without disturbing the layout. Plus, masks also facilitate taking photos in and out, so they’re great for templates. To finalise the image and help unify the various elements, we’ll use a scanned envelope texture set to the Overlay blend mode.

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Build a photo album WorldMags.net A closer look The tools needed to build a beautiful album DROP SHADOW AND BEVEL

TEXTURE

The Drop Shadow and Bevel layer styles give a sense of depth. Don’t overdo it, though; subtlety is best.

This envelope texture set to Overlay provides an overall vibe, helping to tie everything together.

CLIPPING MASK

PHOTO CORNERS

Clipping masks let you allot spaces for the photos, making it easy to add and swap photos.

Details like the photo corners help boost the realism of the scene.

Try it yourself 6 steps to creative compositions

Masks

Clipping Mask

Free Transform

01 

02 

03 

Complete other photos

Photo corners

Texture

Place ‘Corner.png’ above a photo’s corner. Add a slight Drop Shadow and Bevel. Press Cmd/Ctrl-J to duplicate. Use the Move tool to put it above another corner. Repeat for the other photo corners.

Let’s add a scanned envelope to use as an overall texture to help tie everything together. Use File>Place and add ‘Envelope.jpg’ to the top of the stack. Change the layer’s blend mode to Overlay.

Open ‘Album.psd’ from the online resources. Create a new layer. Using the Polygonal Lasso tool, create the first rectangular photo selection by clicking four corners, then the first point. Fill with the Paint Bucket, then press Cmd/Ctrl+D.

04 

Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add ‘Baby. jpg’ and ‘Flowers.jpg’ to the other two photo frames. Now that you see how easy it is to add photos, you can follow the same steps to add new photos in the future.

Go Effects>Styles>Drop Shadows and double-click Low. Repeat twice more on new layers. Select the mask on the right. Add ‘Dad.jpg’. In the Layers palette, Opt/Alt-click between the Dad and Mask layers to create the clipping mask.

05 

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Press Cmd/Ctrl-T to Free Transform the Dad layer. Cmd/ Ctrl-click the corner handles inward to situate the image within the frame. Try to maintain the aspect ratio. Once finished, press Return to apply the transformation.

06 

The Photoshop Elements Book 195

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Compose a mixed-media piece Create a musical composition in the brilliant key of mixed-media

T

he word ‘composition’ can be an invitation to create something melodic or visually striking – let’s do both! We’ll start by creating an interesting, gritty background. Ragged streaks of paint on canvas will be the foundation for this piece. A spiralling architectural form will add some lines that roll hypnotically inward, leading viewers to our main star… the electric guitar! We’ll blend it in with layer masks and blend modes, then make it pop with a touch of Levels.

Using the Polygonal Lasso tool to mimic the limited finesse afforded by a pair of scissors, we’ll cut out shards to use as elements, adding a hand-created feel. Some meandering trails made with a custom brush will also support this look. Finally, we’ll use an old paper scan to help banish the digital sheen inherent in computer creations. We used Elements 11, but the techniques are compatible with CS+. If your version doesn’t have layer masks, carefully use the Eraser tool instead.

Make a gritty guitar Learn how to compose mixed media pieces with soul

Opening act

02 

Go to File>Place and add ‘Paint.jpg’ from your resource pack. This canvas closeup is a great foundation for our piece, containing both nice texture and nice colours.

Setting the stage

01

Go to File>New>Blank File, setting Width to 235mm and Height to 300mm. Set Resolution to 300 pixels/inch and Background Contents to Transparent. Click OK. Now that the stage is set, let’s start adding our photo textures.

Add spiral form

03 

Go to File>Place and add ‘Spiral.jpg’. To blend it with the previous layer, set the blend mode to Difference. This mode is not used very often for everyday editing, but it can really add a unique look.

196 The Photoshop Elements Book

The main act

04 

Go to File>Place and add ‘Guitar.jpg’. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T to open the Free Mask guitar Transform tools. Hold Opt/Alt+Shift, then Use the icon in the Layers palette to click and drag a corner handle inwards to add a layer mask. With a soft, round scale down. Now hit Return to apply and brush at 100% Opacity, fade the edges. then set the blend mode to Hard Light. Zoom around to make sure it’s a clean fade.

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05 

Compose a mixed-media piece WorldMags.net

Source images

Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

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The Photoshop Elements Book 197

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Guitar duo

06 

Levels adjustment

The guitar is the star, but it’s fading too much into the background. No worries – press Cmd/Ctrl+J to make a quick duplicate of the guitar and set the copy’s blend mode to Normal. Paint black in the mask to reveal some of the first guitar.

07 

Jagged cutout

Free Transform

09 

Go to File>Place and add ‘Sheet Music.jpg’. Select the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) and create a jagged selection. Convert it to a mask by clicking on the layer mask icon in the Layers palette. Add a soft Drop Shadow via the fx button.

Flaming virtuosity

12

Go to File>Place and add ‘Fire.jpg’. Set the blend mode to Lighten. Use Free Transform to scale, rotate and position the fire at the top-left of the guitar. Add a layer mask and paint out the excess. 198 The Photoshop Elements Book

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels and click OK. Drag the two outer sliders inwards, then fine-tune with the central Midtones slider. Focus on the guitar while making these adjustments.

10

Press Cmd/Ctrl+T for Free Transform. Hold Opt/Alt+Shift, then click and drag a corner handle inwards to scale down. Now hover outside the bounding box, then click and drag to rotate. Position above the guitar, then hit Return to apply.

Load brush

13

From the brush preset menu, load ‘MM.abr’, which can be found in your resource pack. Set your foreground colour to a light yellow and background to white.

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Clipped adjustment

08 

Adjustment layers affect all layers below them, so our Levels layer affects not just the guitar duplicate but everything else too. To limit it, Opt/Alt+click between the Levels and Guitar copy layers.

Thunderous notes

11 

Use the Custom Shape Tool to add shapes like the Lightning and Eighth Note presets in light yellow and white, and adorn these with soft Drop Shadows.

Wandering lines

14 

With the MM brush, creates lines that flow in a meandering fashion, adding subtle yet effective decor. You can use the mouse to create these or, for better control, use a graphics tablet if you have one.

Compose a mixed-media piece WorldMags.net Alternative effects The key is experimentation! Try out different blend modes, filters and start images as you build your composition

Writing music

15 

Create a new layer and fill it with white using the Paint Bucket tool (G). Create another new layer and use the Type tool (T) to write ‘MUSIC’ in a plain font like Arial Bold.

Another jagged cutout

16 

After confirming the type, press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge down. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to create a jagged selection around the type, as with the sheet music, and then click on the layer mask icon.

Free Transform

17

Press Cmd/Ctrl+T for Free Transform. Scale down, rotate and position below the guitar. When finished with the transforms, hit Return to confirm. Apply a soft Drop Shadow, again via the fx button.

Envelope texture

18 

Go to File>Place and add ‘Envelope. jpg’. Set the blend mode to Overlay. Apply a layer mask and then paint in black to tone areas down as needed. Duplicate (Cmd/Ctrl+J), set to Hard Light, drop Opacity to 50% and then tweak until you’re happy.

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Closing act

19 

To finish off, we’ll apply an imagewide tonal adjustment. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels and click OK. Drag the Highlights slider inwards to brighten. Counterbalance with the Shadows slider and fine-tune with Midtones if needed.

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What does it mean? Constrain Proportions If Constrain Proportions is ticked in the Image Size menu, the Width and Height values will change together. For this effect, you’ll need this option unchecked.

Source file available Use the image at www. photoshopcreative. co.uk to re-create this

Create a panoramic planet Use Elements to turn an image into a 360-degree planet

C

reate an eye-catching edit with this impressive but easy effect. It works well with cityscapes, with skyscrapers protruding outwards from the surface. Panoramic photos are most effective, as there’s plenty for Elements to stretch out and use for the surface. First we need to look at distorting the image to a square to prepare for the filter being used. The Distort filters include Polar Coordinates, which we can use to bend an image around in a

200 The Photoshop Elements Book

complete circle. Once the filter is applied it’s a matter of cloning out the joined edge to improve the final planet effect. Try this out on a variety of images, such as landscapes and seascapes, and see what types of planets you can form. You’ll find that the larger the trees or buildings are on the horizon the better this effect will look. Follow the steps to find out how to transform this panorama into something completely different.

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Create a panoramic planet WorldMags.net Give panoramic images a twist Use filters and resizing techniques to create a planet

Straighten up

01 

Open up this image ‘City Skyline.jpg’ from the resources (under the Tutorials section) into Elements. Start off by going to the Straighten tool (P). Click a straight line across the entire image, from where the water meets the land.

Before

Resize image

02 

To make this image square and stretch out the buildings head to Image>Resize>Image Size and tick the Resample Image box. Under Document Size, change Height to match the same dimensions as Width (104.46cm).

Retouch join

05 

Where the two ends meet is a line. Select the Clone Stamp tool. Set Size to 90 pixels, Opacity 100%. Zoom in to 66% and Opt/Alt-click the image next to the join. Paint the join to gradually fade it.

Apply filter Flip upside down

03 

With the image now square, flip it by going back to the Image menu and to Rotate>Flip Vertical. This will turn the image upside down, as the image will be pulled upwards and connected end to end.

Marquee selection

06 

Crop off the distorted edges using the Elliptical Marquee tool. Set Feather to 0%. Holding Opt/Alt+Shift, click and drag from the centre of the planet outwards to form a circular marquee.

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04

Use the Polar Coordinates filter under Filter>Distort. Inside the filter’s menu, set it to Rectangular to Polar. There are no other settings in this filter, as your image is pulled up and around. Zoom in and out using the +/- controls to see what the effect is like and hit OK.

Delete edges

07 

Invert the selection and Backspace to remove distorted parts. Go to Select> Deselect. Click the Foreground swatch and select a blue from the image. Fill in white space by going Edit>Fill Layer. Choose Foreground Color and hit OK.

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Source file available Use the image provided to re-create this

202 The Photoshop Elements Book

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Compose surreal artwork WorldMags.net

Compose surreal artwork Learn how to create a bizarre composite using several techniques and filters in Photoshop Elements

Y

ou can achieve amazingly surreal photomanipulations in Photoshop Elements using the right tools and techniques. Learn how to work with several images and manipulate them into place before editing the image using filters and brushes. We’ll start by working with the Free Transform tool to learn how to resize, skew and rotate your elements. We’ll then work with several layers and filters to produce this composition. Another great tool you will learn is the Magic Extractor, which will help us

make accurate selections. This tool is only available in Photoshop Elements, but you can achieve a similar effect using the Quick Eraser tool (E) or the Quick Selection tool (W) in Photoshop CS versions. We’ll also explore how to use the Lighting Effects filter to apply shadows and inject more dramatic lighting in your scene. You will find all the images and files you need to get you started supplied with this issue, so don’t hesitate to open the PSDs to check how the layers are distributed.

Build an abstract scene Delve into your imagination to produce a bizarre photo composite

Set up your document

Place the background

01

Begin by creating a new blank file. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+N to open the New dialog box, name your project ‘Lightbulb’, then set the Width to 235mm, the Height to 300mm and the Resolution to 300. Confirm this by clicking OK.

Go to File>Place and select ‘Background.jpeg’. Duplicate this (Cmd/Ctrl+J) and rename it ‘Background_copy’. Move (V) this layer down, tweak the perspective (via Cmd/Ctrl+T), hold Cmd/Ctrl and drag the handles to skew the image.

Add a clipping mask

Place the lightbulb image

03

02

Place ‘Lightbulb.png’. Click Constrain Proportions on the Tool Options, set the Width to 60%, change the Angle to (-)10 degrees and click the green check mark. Duplicate the layer, name it ‘Lightbulb_copy’ and turn the Lightbulb layer’s visibility off.

04

Ctrl/right-click on the Lightbulb_copy layer and choose Simplify (for Photoshop CS choose Rasterize). Insert ‘GRAVEL.jpeg’, resize the image (W: 45, H:25), hold Cmd/Ctrl and skew things a little. Now hold Opt/Alt, position the pointer between the Gravel and the Lightbulb_copy layer and click.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 203

Photo projectWorldMags.net Apply the Brush tool

Expert tip

05

Keep the Gravel layer selected, Ctrl/rightclick and hit Simplify (for CS choose Rasterize). Grab a soft brush (B), set the Size to 500px and the Opacity to 10%. Apply around the image to create shadows.

Clipping mask A clipping mask is a group of layers to which a mask is applied. The clipping mask enables you to cover the image below the base layer, which defines the visible borders of the entire group. For example, if you have text and you want to apply an image to create a nice texture, the clipping mask is the easiest way to achieve this effect. To add a clipping mask, hold down Opt/Alt, position the pointer on the line dividing the two layers and click.

Use the Elliptical Marquee tool

06

Open ‘LANDSCAPE.jpeg’, grab the Elliptical Marquee tool (M), set the Feather to 25 pixels, add an Ellipse, then copy/paste (Cmd/Ctrl+C and V) into a layer and rename it ‘Grass’. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+T, hold Alt/Opt and resize the image.

Break out the magic!

09

Open ‘Woman.jpeg’ (courtesy of Marcus Ranum) and go to Image> Magic Extractor (or Magic Eraser). Apply a red Foreground brush on areas to keep and a blue Background on areas to remove.

204 The Photoshop Elements Book

Boost the light

Insert more images

07

08

Refine your selections

Erase some areas

Hold Opt/Alt again, position the pointer between the Grass and the Gravel layer, then click to create a clipping mask. Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and set the Light Type to Spotlight. Set the Intensity to 25, Focus to 40 and Ambience to 20. Now click OK to confirm.

10

Go to Select>Refine Edge, check Smart Radius, change Radius to 4px, Contrast to 35%, Shift Edge to +10% and Decontaminate Colors to 100%. Ctrl/right -click, select Apply Layer Mask and paste.

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Go to File>Place, then select ‘TREE. png’, ‘Rock.png’ and ‘LAMP.png’. Now open the Free Transform tool to resize and move the images around the composition. Hold Shift, select the Tree and Rock layers and then hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge, renaming this new layer ‘Image’.

11

Select Lightbulb_copy, grab the Eraser tool (E), pick a large soft brush at around 200px, then set the Opacity to 30%. Erase inside the lightbulb without going over the borders and just reveal the background.

Compose surreal artwork WorldMags.net Expert Edit Use Foreground and Background brushes to enhance the effect

Bring in some shadows

12

Add a new layer below the Images layer and name it ‘Shadows’. Apply a hard brush at 10px while zoomed in, then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 5px and change the Opacity to 60%.

Enhance the lights

13

Select the Background_copy layer and Ctrl/right- click to Simplify (or click Rasterize). Go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effect, choose Spotlight, then change the Intensity to 25 and Ambience to 10.

Apply the Magic Extractor

01 

The Magic Extractor is a great tool to make accurate selections in Photoshop Elements. Click the Foreground Brush tool and draw multiple lines to mark the area you want to select.

Pick the Background Brush

02 

Select the Background Brush tool in the dialog box, then paint across all the colours and textures you don’t want to select.

Increase the blur

14

Select the Lightbulb layer, hit Cmd/Ctrl+U and set the Lightness to -100. Use Free Transform to scale the image, then apply a 40px Gaussian Blur. Select the Eraser tool with 30% Opacity to erase the back portion of the image, then set the layer’s Opacity to 80%.

Navigate your canvas

03 

To help get a more-accurate selection, use the Zoom or Hand tool to magnify and find your way around the image.

Merge your layers

15

Select the Woman layer, hold Shift, select the Lightbulb_copy layer and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge. Pick the Burn tool (O), set the Exposure to 20% and apply around this to bring in more shadows.

Finish with a lens flare

16

Select and merge all the layers (Cmd/ Ctrl+E), then hold Cmd/Ctrl, click the merged layer and go to Image>Crop. Go to Filter>Render>Lens Flare, set Brightness to 50% and pick Lens Type 105mm Prime.

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Preview the selection

04 

Click Preview to see the current selection or hit X to switch between the preview selection area and the original photo. The Magic Extractor is a handy tool to select complex objects.

The Photoshop Elements Book 205

Photo projectWorldMags.net doesWhat it mean? Gaussian Blur There are many Blur filters in Photoshop Elements, but the Gaussian Blur creates an even and consistent amount of blur across the image. It’s great for softening an image and masking.

BLAST FROM THE PAST Vintage effects give us a glimpse into the past, but any colour can be applied for a different meaning.

Before THE SHOT Start with a good exposure and then turn it into a vintage masterpiece.

FADE TO WHITE The Brush tool set to white is handy for fading edges of an image, while controlling opacity in the Layers panel.

Original image

Achieve a retro photo effect Instantly stylised photo effects made simple using Photoshop Elements

I

nstagram is an example of how to take a normal photograph and turn it into something artistically appealing. The techniques behind this style involve twisting colour and applying distortion using layer masks and adjustment layers. Here we put the Hue/Saturation adjustment to use for distorting tones. There’s no set way to re-create the Instagram effect, so we can get creative and mix it up. After the colours have been distorted, we’ll add blur effects to make sense of poor camera work, as well as a subtle white vignette around the subject. All this helps to portray a vintage photo technique and aging process that degrades the quality of the image. You can apply these effects to any type of image, not just a portrait, so perhaps take a rummage through your home to find a vintage item and apply these steps.

206 The Photoshop Elements Book

SUBTLETY IS KEY

HUE VARIATIONS

It’s easy to go over the top with effects like these, so keep the amount of layers to a minimum.

The Hue/Saturation adjustment is perfect for controlling the colour of an image, with a mask to help brush away certain areas.

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Achieve a retro photo effect WorldMags.net

Instagram styles

The right adjustment

01 

In Elements go to File>Open, select the supplied ‘Outdoor portrait.jpg’, then add a Hue/Saturation adjustment to alter the colour. Find this inside the Layers panel under the circular icon.

Duplicate the Background

03 

Click on the Background layer and go to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Name this layer ‘Blur’, as we’ll be applying effects to it. Hit OK and notice that a new layer has been entered into the Layers panel.

Tick the Colorize box in the Hue/Saturation adjustment, move the Hue slider down to 11 and set the Saturation to 31. Increase the Lightness to +30 and set the blend mode to Screen.

Blur effects

Mask out

04 

Head to the Filter menu and locate the Gaussian Blur filter under the Blur options. Inside the filter set Radius to 27px, or whichever amount suits the image you’re using.

Selective brushwork

06 

02 

05 

Apply a layer mask on the layer being blurred by clicking the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers panel. Select the Brush tool with a Size of 1,600px, Opacity set to 100% and a soft-edged tip.

White distortion

With a black brush, paint over the main subject to reveal the in-focus layer beneath. Be sure changes are made to the layer’s mask and click multiple times to leave blurry edges.

07 

Create a blank layer for a white fade by clicking on the Blur layer and then going to Layer>New>Layer. Select the Brush tool set to white and apply around the corners of the image.

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The Photoshop Elements Book 207

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