Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

6 Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Introduction

As for the program’s more complex features, the key to learning how to use Ele-

ments—or any other program, for that matter—is to focus only on what you need

to know for the task you’re currently trying to accomplish.

For example, if you’re trying to use Quick Fix to adjust the color of your photo and

crop it, don’t worry that you don’t get the concept of “layers” yet. You won’t learn

to do everything in Elements in a day or even a week. The rest will wait until you

need it. So take your time and don’t worry about what’s not important to you right

now. You’ll find it much easier to master Elements if you go slowly and concen-

trate on one thing at a time.

If you’re totally new to the program, you’ll find only three or four big concepts in

this book that you really have to understand if you want to get the most out of Ele-

ments. It may take a little time for some concepts to sink in—resolution and lay-

ers, for instance, aren’t the most intuitive concepts in the world—but once they

click, they’ll seem so obvious that you’ll wonder why things seemed confusing at

first. That’s perfectly normal, so persevere. You can do this, and there’s nothing in

this book that you won’t be able to understand with a little bit of careful reading.

The very best way to learn Elements is just to dive right in and play with it. Try all

the different filters to