Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

Special Effects

Elements gives you some other useful ways of drastically changing the look of your image. You can apply these effects as Adjustment layers (Layer → New Adjustment Layer) or by going to Filter → Adjustments (there's much more about filters in Chapter 13). Either method gives you the same setting options. You can see them in action in Figure 9-22.

In most cases, you use these adjustments as steps along the way in a more complex treatment of your photo, but they're effective by themselves, too. Here's what each one does (listed in the order you see them in the Filter menu):

• Equalize makes the darkest pixel black and the lightest one white, and redistributes the brightness values for all the colors in that photo to give them all equal weight. When you have an active selection, you see a dialog box that lets you choose between simply equalizing your whole photo and equalizing it based on a selection. It doesn't always work, but sometimes Equalize is great for bringing up the brightness level of a dim photo. (This choice isn't available as an Adjustment layer, only as a filter.)

  

  Figure 9-22. You can get some interesting special effects with the Adjustment commands, whether you apply them as filters or Adjustment layers. (If you want to use them as filters, it's not a bad idea to start with a duplicate layer.) Top row (left to right): The original photo, Invert, Equalize. Bottom ...