Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements

Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements

by Robin Nichols
Released August 2019
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781789808155

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Book description

Become a professional photo editor and bring your ideas to life with Photoshop Elements 2019

Key Features

  • Improve your pictures with easy-to-follow techniques that help you make simple, fast and effective edits
  • Understand how to animate and add multiple layers to your images
  • Master the Photoshop Elements user interface (UI) with real-life examples

Book Description

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a raster graphics editor for entry-level photographers, image editors, and hobbyists. Though it shares many of Photoshop CC's high-end features, it also boasts a significant number of simple to use, yet highly effective tools not found at the professional level.

This book presents the complexities of image editing in easy-to-follow, bite-sized chunks, allowing you to quickly recognize the editing challenge, and helps you to identify the tools and techniques required to make improvements, and to apply those techniques quickly and efficiently. You will start by learning how to import, organize, manage, edit, and use your pictures in a format that's designed for creative photography projects. Going further, you'll discover how to fix a wide range of photographic problems based on the book's extensive repertoire of commonly applied solutions. You'll be escorted through a wide range of common processes that include applying artistic effects to creative projects, custom image makeovers, processing images for social media, and other file export methods.

Towards the end of the book, you will understand what the most important tools and features actually do in Photoshop Elements, answering the often-asked question; What, when, and where would you use these features in a precise and practical way.

What you will learn

  • Understand the latest Photoshop tools to add life to your photos
  • Add graphic elements to any composition, photograph, or illustration
  • Tackle challenges in editing multi-layered images for your photography projects
  • Develop illustrative skills with Photoshop Elements variety of drawing tools
  • Understand techniques for professional photo retouching
  • Work with online and local templates to create calendars, greeting cards, and other projects

Who this book is for

This book is for photographers, creative professionals, and individuals who want to master image editing for publishing, press, and web formats with Adobe's Photoshop Elements. Professionals who are looking to become accomplished image retouchers will also find the book helpful. Photography skills along with basic photo editing knowledge will be useful, but not necessary.

Table of contents

  1. Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements
      1. Why subscribe?
    3. Contributors
      1. About the author
      2. About the reviewer
      3. Packt is searching for authors like you
    4. Preface
      1. Who this book is for
      2. What this book covers
      3. To get the most out of this book
        1. Conventions used
      4. Get in touch
        1. Reviews
    5. 1. Photoshop Elements Features Overview
      1. The Home screen
      2. The Organizer
        1. The Catalog
      3. The Quick edit mode
      4. The Guided edit mode
      5. The Expert edit mode
      6. The Create and Share menus
      7. Working with video and Premiere Elements
      8. Working with panels and the Panel Bin
        1. What do these panels do?
          1. Other panels
      9. Summary
    6. 2. Setting Up Photoshop Elements from Scratch
      1. Preparing your camera, color space, and file formats
        1. What's the difference between file formats?
      2. Setting up a photo editing computer
      3. Image backup
        1. Importing photos and other media into the Elements Organizer
      4. Reviewing the media
        1. Suggested workflow
        2. Organizing your work – Ratings
        3. Organizing your work – Metadata
        4. Organizing your work – Keyword Tags
        5. Organizing your work – Places
        6. Organizing your work – Events
        7. Organizing your work – People
      5. Backing up your media and Catalog
      6. Managing Catalogs
      7. Working with plugins
      8. Additional resources – keyboard shortcuts and working tips
        1. Color Management options
        2. Screen calibration
        3. Organizer keyboard shortcuts
      9. Summary
    7. 3. The Basics of Image Editing
      1. The editing workflow and best practices
      2. Editing RAW files
        1. Brief overview
        2. The Basic tab – RAW processing tools
        3. The Detail tab – sharpening and noise reduction tools
          1. Sharpening tools
          2. Noise reduction
          3. The Camera RAW toolbar
      3. Understanding picture resolution
      4. Cropping for better composition
        1. How does the Crop tool work?
        2. On the level
        3. Resampling
      5. Instant photo-fixing in the Organizer
        1. Saving Files and Version Sets
      6. Using Auto Correction tools
      7. Mastering contrast, color, sharpness, and clarity
        1. Adjusting the contrast using Levels
      8. Adjusting color using Hue/Saturation
      9. Creating high impact black and white images
      10. Perfecting skin tones
      11. Simple retouching – spot removal
      12. Modifying facial expressions
      13. Eyes wide shut
      14. Additional resources
      15. Summary
    8. 4. Image Makeover
      1. Basic workflow
      2. Creative workflow
      3. Makeover example one
      4. Makeover example two
      5. Makeover example three
      6. Makeover example four
      7. Makeover example five
      8. Summary
    9. 5. Easy Creative Projects
      1. Finding inspiration on the Home Page
      2. Adding artistic effects
      3. Creating widescreen panoramas
      4. Panoramas the easy way
        1. Working tips
      5. Advanced panorama techniques
      6. Making a jigsaw panorama
      7. Using Photomerge Scene Cleaner
      8. Making a simple slideshow
      9. Creating custom calendars
      10. Creating custom greeting cards
      11. Making a custom Facebook page
      12. Keyboard shortcuts
      13. Summary
    10. 6. Advanced Editing Techniques
      1. Adjustment Layers
      2. Adjustment Layer Masking
      3. Beauty retouching
        1. The Clone Stamp Tool
        2. Retouching in practice
      4. The Burn, Dodge, and Sponge Tools
      5. The Selection Tools
        1. The Lasso Tool
        2. The Magic Wand Tool
        3. Saving a Selection
        4. Feathering Selections
        5. Other Selection tools
        6. The Quick Selection tool
        7. The Refine Selection Brush
        8. The Auto Selection tool
        9. The Refine Edge function
      6. Removing large objects
        1. Finishing tips
      7. An introduction to Layers
        1. Other features on the Layer panel
        2. Custom fonts
        3. Blend Modes
        4. Opacity
        5. Merging layers
      8. Pseudo layer masks
      9. Combining pictures – posters and flyers
      10. Correcting vertical perspective
        1. Other Transformation modes
      11. Correcting skewed perspectives
        1. Working tips
      12. Adding text to images
        1. Using the Type options panel
        2. Text Styles and special effects
        3. Brush, Pencil, and Eraser tools
        4. Paint Bucket Tool
        5. Gradient Tool
      13. Working with graphic elements
        1. Text graphics
        2. Regular Shape Tool
        3. Custom Shape Tool
        4. Cookie Cutter Tool
        5. Layer masking
      14. Keyboard shortcuts
      15. Summary
    11. 7. Advanced Drawing and Painting Techniques
      1. Illustration – drawing and painting techniques
      2. View menu
      3. Using a graphics tablet
      4. Using Brushes
        1. Brush behavior
      5. Creating a 3D sphere from scratch
      6. Impressionist Brush
      7. Color Replacement tool
      8. Working with Brushes
        1. Importing and working with Custom Brushes
        2. Custom lightning brushes
      9. Adobe Vectors
        1. Creating Custom Vector illustrations
      10. Effects filters
      11. Keyboard shortcuts
      12. Summary
    12. 8. Exporting the Finished Work
      1. Resolution revisited
      2. Online – web and blogging
        1. Facebook
        2. Instagram
        3. Flickr
      3. Print resolution
        1. Local printing
        2. Page Setup
      4. Save for Web
      5. Sharpening
        1. Unsharp Mask
        2. The Adjust Sharpness tool
        3. The Shake Reduction tool
        4. The High Pass sharpening technique
        5. General sharpen filters
      6. The Haze Removal tool
      7. Export as New Files
        1. Process Multiple Files
      8. Keyboard shortcuts
      9. Summary
    13. 9. Best Practices
      1. Finding lost or disconnected files
      2. Using the Find menu
      3. Adjusting dates for different time zones
      4. Reinstating your catalog
      5. Resolution problems – resampling or adding more pixels
      6. Dealing with gross overexposure or underexposure
        1. Underexposure
        2. Overexposure
      7. Fixing blurred images
      8. People and face swapping
      9. Content Aware Move Tool
      10. Recompose Tool
      11. Using the Help menu
      12. Summary
    14. A. Common Feature
      1. Home Screen
      2. Organizer – Import (button)
        1. Organizer – the five view spaces
        2. Expert edit mode
          1. View tools
          2. Select tools
          3. Enhance tools
          4. Drawing tools
          5. Modify tools
          6. Color
        3. The Quick Menu tool bar
        4. Adjustments
        5. Guided Edit Space
          1. Quick and Expert Edit – drop-down menus (top of the screen)
            1. File menu
            2. Edit menu
            3. Image menu
            4. Enhance menu
            5. Layer menu
            6. Select menu
            7. Filter menu
            8. View menu
            9. Window menu
            10. Help menu
      3. Panels overview
        1. More tabs
      4. Create Menu (Organizer and Editor)
      5. Share Menu (Organizer and Editor)
    15. Other Books You May Enjoy
      1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
    16. Index

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements
  • Author(s): Robin Nichols
  • Release date: August 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789808155