Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 in 24 Hours

by Kate Binder

Overview

In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, you will be editing and organizing your photos with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson builds upon a real-world foundation in both the creative process and techniques, allowing you to learn the essentials of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 from the ground up.

 

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Photoshop Elements tasks.

 

Quizzes and Exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge.

 

By the Way notes present interesting information related to the discussion.

 

Did You Know? tips offer advice or show you easier ways to do something.

 

Watch Out! cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them.

 

Color section includes a full-color collection of images found throughout the book.

 

Learn how to...

• Import photos from your digital camera and cell phone • Get the best scans of your old prints • Post your pictures on the Web in galleries and slideshows • Order prints directly within Photoshop Elements • Create printable scrapbook pages on your computer • Improve and repair your old photos • Remove unwanted objects (or people) from photos • Get the perfect group shot using the PhotoMerge features • Fix red eye, lighten dark pictures, smooth wrinkles, and sharpen blurry images • Create stunning artistic effects with the more than 100 filters available in Photoshop Elements

 

In addition to writing books like this one, Kate Binder does freelance magazine and book production and creates e-books for major publishers. Books written or cowritten by Kate include Easy Mac OS X Leopard, Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop CS3 in 24 Hours, Easy Adobe Photoshop Elements 4, Get Creative! The Digital Photo Idea Book, SVG for Designers, Photoshop 6 Cookbook, and PhotoImpact Solutions.

 

Register your book at informit.com/sams/title/9780672330179 for convenient access to updates and corrections as they become available.

 

Category: Graphics

Covers: Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6

User Level: Beginning—Intermediate

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780132715461
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	05/16/2008
Series:	Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	504
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kate Binder has mastered Photoshop and several other graphics programs over the past 20 years, and is starting to feel quite old. She still enjoys tinkering with photos and does so at every opportunity. (It’s much more entertaining than doing actual work.) When she can be found working, Kate is most likely to be doing magazine or book production, creating ebooks for major publishers, or writing books like this one. Books Kate has written or cowritten include Easy Mac OS X Leopard (Que, 2007, ISBN 9780789737717), Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop CS3 in 24 Hours (Sams, 2007, ISBN 9780672329357), Easy Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 (Que, 2005, ISBN 9780789734679), Get Creative!: The Digital Photo Idea Book (McGraw-Hill, 2003, ISBN 9780072227215), SVG for Designers (McGraw-Hill, 2002, ISBN 9780072225297), Microsoft Office v. X for Mac Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2002, ISBN 9780735616288), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mac OS X (Alpha, 2001, ISBN 9780789725288), Photoshop 6 Cookbook (Silver Pixel Press, 2001, ISBN 9781883403836), PhotoImpact Solutions (Muska and Lipman Publishing, 2000, ISBN 9781929685127), and Sams Teach Yourself QuarkXPress 4 in 14 Days (Hayden Books, 1997, ISBN 9780756302771). Kate lives in an old house in New Hampshire with her husband, journalist Don Fluckinger, accompanied by assorted children, greyhounds, cats, and (she’s pretty sure) a mouse under the dryer.

Read an Excerpt

IntroductionIntroduction

I love Photoshop Elements, I really do. Now, I'm a graphics geek, so I'm a Photoshop user from way back—version 2. When I got my first good look at Photoshop Elements 1, I was thrilled that Adobe had managed to roll much of the power of Photoshop into such a simple, clean package. Now that we're up to version 6, I like the program even better.

Photoshop Elements is easy to use, but it still has a lot of great features brought over from Big Mama Photoshop, such as batch processing and my favorite Photoshop command, Shadow/Highlights. To sweeten the pot, there's a built-in photo catalog, called the Organizer, and easy ways to create fun projects using your photos, from hardbound books to slideshows that will really wow the boss or the grandparents.

You can get Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac OS X or for Windows, and it works almost identically on the two platforms. You'll find a few differences—for example, on the Mac, the Organizer is called Bridge—but for the most part, you can use either version with this book (which was written using the Windows version). If you are using a Mac, you'll need to translate keyboard shortcuts a bit; instead of using Ctrl, use the Command key, and instead of using Alt, use the Option key.

You've probably noticed that Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 in 24 Hours is divided into hours rather than chapters. Not surprisingly, there are 24 hours in the book. Don't view this as a challenge, however; I don't expect you to work through the book in 24 consecutive hours. Instead, complete each hour at your own pace. Feel free to skiparound. If you're already familiar with Photoshop or with older versions of Photoshop Elements, don't skip the Workshop sections. I know they look like homework (and they are!), but I've tried to keep them fun, useful, and short—and even experienced users will find them valuable.

I've posted a bunch of the photos used in this book on the Sams website. You can find them by going to http://www.informit.com/title/0672330172. Now, you won't see all the book's photos in this downloadable collection; I've indicated in the text when a photo is included so that you can work along with me on the Try It Yourself sections. But the real point of all this is for you to learn to work with your photos, those special images of your family, the things you're interested in, the places you travel, and whatever else you snap pictures of. So jump on in using your own photos, and—whatever else you do—have fun!

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction                                                                              1

Part I: Working with Elements

Hour 1: Welcome to Photoshop Elements                           5

    Getting Help..... 6

    Don’t Know Much About History?... 9

    Summary..... 10

    Q&A...... 11

    Workshop..... 11

Hour 2: A Tour of the Desktop                                       13

    Using the Organizer and the Editor.. 13

    Finding Your Way Around the Organizer.. 17

    Finding Your Way Around the Editor.. 23

    Setting Preferences.... 36

    Summary..... 36

    Q&A...... 37

    Workshop..... 37

Hour 3: Creating and Saving Image Files                          39

    Creating a New Image File... 39

    Opening an Existing File... 42

    Adjusting Resolution.... 45

    Saving Your Work.... 48

    Undoing and Redoing.... 59

    Summary..... 60

    Q&A...... 60

    Workshop..... 61

Hour 4: Importing Photos from Cameras and Scanners        63

    Importing Images from a Camera or Cell Phone. 63

    Importing Still Frame Captures... 68

    Using a Scanner.... 69

    Changing Image and Canvas Sizes.. 73

    Summary..... 76

    Q&A...... 76

    Workshop..... 76

Hour 5: Organizing Your Photos                                      79

    Creating Stacks.... 79

    Creating Albums.... 82

    Using Keywords.... 88

    Face Tagging..... 90

    Rating Your Pictures.... 91

    Summary..... 92

    Q&A...... 93

    Workshop..... 93

Hour 6: Making Quick Fixes                                            97

    When Is Quick Fix the Right Tool?.. 97

    General Fixes..... 99

    Lighting..... 100

    Color..... 103

    Sharpen..... 106

    Summary..... 107

    Q&A..... 108

    Workshop..... 108

Hour 7: Making Selections and Using Layers                    111

    Using the Selection Tools... 111

    Modifying Selections.... 118

    Working with Layers.... 125

    Summary..... 132

    Q&A..... 132

    Workshop..... 133

Hour 8: Adding Type                                                   135

    Using the Type Tools.... 135

    Applying Special Effects to Type.. 142

    Summary..... 147

    Q&A..... 147

    Workshop..... 148

Hour 9: Printing Your Pictures                                       149

    Understanding Color Systems... 149

    Choosing a Printer.... 151

    Printing the Page.... 154

    Summary..... 163

    Q&A..... 163

    Workshop..... 163

Hour 10: Sharing Your Pictures Online                          165

    Web Image Basics.... 166

    Ways to Share Photos Online... 168

    DIY Web Design 101.... 179

    Summary..... 187

    Q&A..... 187

    Workshop..... 188

Part II: Simple Corrections

Hour 11: Composing and Cropping Your Pictures             193

    Cropping Images.... 193

    Rotating Images.... 198

    Summary..... 202

    Q&A..... 202

    Workshop..... 203

Hour 12: Straightening, Skewing, and Distorting an Image 205

    Transforming Images.... 205

    Fixing Distorted Images... 213

    Summary..... 215

    Q&A..... 216

    Workshop..... 216

Hour 13: Removing Red Eye, Dust, and Scratches          219

    Making Basic Cleanups... 219

    Fixing Red Eye.... 226

    Removing Dust and Scratches... 229

    Smoothing Out JPEG Artifacts and Noise. 233

    Summary..... 235

    Q&A..... 235

    Workshop..... 235

Hour 14: Adjusting Brightness, Contrast, and Color         239

    Using the Automatic Correction Tools.. 240

    Adjusting Color Manually... 243

    Adjusting Lighting Manually... 257

    Summary..... 263

    Q&A..... 264

    Workshop..... 264

Hour 15: Using Guided Edit                                         267

    A Word of Warning.... 267

    Basic Photo Edits.... 268

    Lighting and Exposure... 270

    Color Correction.... 272

    Guided Activities.... 274

    Photomerge..... 275

    Summary..... 275

    Q&A..... 276

    Workshop..... 276

Part III: Photo Rescue

Hour 16: Repairing Black-and-White Pictures                 281

    Easy Fixes..... 282

    Repairing Serious Damage... 290

    Finishing Touches.... 297

    Summary..... 301

    Q&A..... 301

    Workshop..... 301

Hour 17: Making Color Repairs                                     303

    When the Color Is the Problem.. 304

    Image Correction Tools... 309

    Making Repairs When Nothing Is Really Wrong. 313

    Hand-Coloring a Black-and-White Photo. 315

    Summary..... 316

    Q&A..... 317

    Workshop..... 317

Hour 18: Removing and Replacing Objects                     319

    Drag-and-Drop Copying... 319

    Removing a Person.... 324

    Using Photomerge Group Shot... 327

    Using PhotoMerge Faces... 330

    Summary..... 333

    Q&A..... 333

    Workshop..... 333

Hour 19: Using the Improvement Filters                        337

    Working with Filters.... 337

    Adding or Removing Noise... 339

    Using the Blur Filters.... 344

    Using the Render Filters... 350

    Adding Texture.... 360

    Adjusting the Effect of Filters... 365

    Summary..... 366

    Q&A..... 367

    Workshop..... 367

Part IV: Going Creative

Hour 20: Using the Artistic Filters                                371

    Using the Watercolor Filters... 372

    Simulating Oil Painting... 374

    Working with Pastels, Chalk, Charcoal, and Pen. 377

    More Painterly Effects... 381

    Summary..... 384

    Q&A..... 384

    Workshop..... 385

Hour 21: Creating Art from Scratch                             387

    Choosing Colors.... 387

    Using the Shape Tools... 392

    Using the Brush Tool.... 398

    Using the Pencil Tool.... 405

    Using the Eraser Tools... 406

    Summary..... 410

    Q&A..... 410

    Workshop..... 411

Hour 22: Making Composite Images                              413

    Working with Lighting and Scale.. 413

    Using Layer Styles to Create Composites. 415

    Using Adjustment Layers to Fix Image Problems. 418

    Understanding Blending Modes... 425

    Applying Photo Effects and Adding Content. 431

    Summary..... 433

    Q&A..... 434

    Workshop..... 434

Hour 23: Going Wild with Your Images                          437

    Liquifying an Image.... 437

    Twisting Colors.... 440

    Using Weird Effects.... 447

    Summary..... 452

    Q&A..... 452

    Workshop..... 452

Hour 24: Creating Photo Projects                                455

    Books..... 455

    Calendars..... 457

    Photo Collages.... 458

    Prints and Stamps.... 460

    Disc Jackets and Labels... 461

    Cards..... 463

    Summary..... 464

    Q&A..... 464

    Workshop..... 465

TOC, 0672330172, 4/21/08