Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Chapter 11. Elements’ Quick Fix Tools

Photoshop Elements gives you the same tools to edit your digital photographs that the pros use—but you don’t have to be a pro to use them. If you’ve been envying the one-click fixes available to folks who use free programs like EasyShare and Picasa (covered in Chapter 9) here’s some great news: Elements has a Quick Fix window.

With Quick Fix, you can dramatically improve the appearance of a photo with just a click or two. The Quick Fix window gathers together easy-to-use tools that adjust the brightness and color of your photos, make them look sharper, fix red eye, and so on. It’s also the only place in Elements that gives you a before-and-after view as you work, just like EasyShare and Picasa. That may keep you coming back to the Quick Fix window even after you master the advanced editing techniques coming up in Chapter 12.

A Tour of the Quick Fix Window

Getting to the Quick Fix window is easy. If you’re in the Editor, go to the Shortcuts bar and click the Quick Fix button. If you’re in the Organizer, on the Shortcuts bar, click the Edit button’s drop-down triangle, and choose “Go to Quick Fix.” The Quick Fix window looks like a stripped-down version of the Standard Edit window (Figure 11-1).

Tip

If you have several photos open when you come into the Quick Fix window, they appear at the bottom of the screen in an area called the Photo Bin. Just click a thumbnail at the bottom of your screen to choose the one you want to edit. That photo becomes ...