The Photoshop Elements 13 Book for Digital Photographers

The Photoshop Elements 13 Book for Digital Photographers

by
Released December 2014
Publisher(s): New Riders
ISBN: 9780133990188

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

ARE YOU READY FOR AN ELEMENTS BOOK THAT BREAKS ALL THE RULES?

This book breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that’s never been done before–it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure things out on your own. Instead, it does something that virtually no other Elements bookhas ever done–it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why.

If you’re looking for one of those “tell-me-everything-about-the-Unsharp-Mask-filter” books, this isn’t it. You can grab any other Elements book on the shelf, because they all do that. Instead, this book gives you the inside tips and tricks of the trade for organizing, correcting, editing, sharpening, retouching, and printing your photos like a pro. You’ll be absolutely amazed at how easy and effective these techniques are–once you know the secrets.

LEARN HOW THE PROS DO IT
Each year we train thousands of digital photographers and, almost without exception, they have the same questions and face the same problems–that’s exactly what we cover in this book. You’ll learn:

    •    The real secrets of how the pros retouch portraits
    •    How to unlock the power of layers (you’ll be amazed at how easy it is!)
    •    How to use Camera Raw for processing not only RAW photos, but JPEGs,
    •    TIFFs, and PSDs, too! (And you’ll learn why so many pros like it best–because it’s faster and easier)
    •    The sharpening techniques the pros really use (there’s an entire chapter just on this!)
    •    How to deal with common digital camera image problems, including brightening people in dark shadows and getting the best color possible
    •    The most requested photographic special effects, and much more!

THE BOOK’S SECRET WEAPON
Although Elements 13 offers some digital photography features that Photoshop CC doesn’t offer, there are plenty of features that Photoshop CC has that Elements 13 still doesn’t have (things like channels, HDR, etc.). But in this book, you’ll learn some slick workarounds, cheats, and some fairly ingenious ways to replicate many of those Photoshop features from right within Elements. Plus, you can follow along with all the images used in the book, available for download on the book’s companion webpage.

Since this book is designed for photographers, it doesn’t waste your time talking about what a pixel is, how to frame a shot, set your exposure, etc., and there’s no talk about which camera or printer to buy. It’s all Elements, step by step, cover to cover, in the only book of its kind, and you’re gonna love it!

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Acknowledgments (Scott)
  5. Acknowledgments (Matt)
  6. Other Books by Scott Kelby
  7. Other Books by Matt Kloskowski
  8. About the Author
  9. Contents
  10. Nine Things You’ll Wish You Had Known Before Reading This Book
  11. Chapter 1. Organized Chaos: Managing Photos Using the Organizer
    1. Importing Your Photos
    2. Backing Up Your Photos to a Disc or Hard Drive
    3. Importing Photos from Your Scanner
    4. Changing the Size of Your Photo Thumbnails
    5. Seeing Full-Screen Previews
    6. Sorting Photos by Date and Viewing Filenames
    7. Change the Time & Date of Your Photos (Great, If You Travel)
    8. Finding Photos Fast by Their Month & Year
    9. Tagging Your Photos (with Keyword Tags)
    10. Tagging Multiple Photos
    11. Assigning Multiple Tags to One Photo
    12. Tagging Images of People
    13. Albums: It’s How You Put Photos in Order One by One
    14. Choosing Your Own Icons for Keyword Tags
    15. Deleting Keyword Tags or Albums
    16. Seeing Your Photo’s Metadata (EXIF Info)
    17. Adding Your Own Info to Photos
    18. Finding Photos
    19. Finding Duplicate Photos
    20. Creating a Slide Show
    21. Reducing Clutter by Stacking Your Photos
    22. Places: Viewing Your Photos on a Map
    23. Sharing Your Photos from the Organizer to Adobe Revel
    24. Quickly Email Your Photos
  12. Chapter 2. Raw Justice: Processing Your Images Using Camera Raw
    1. Opening Your Photos into Camera Raw
    2. Miss the JPEG Look? Try Applying a Camera Profile
    3. The Essential Adjustments: White Balance
    4. The Essential Adjustments: Exposure
    5. Letting Camera Raw Auto Correct Your Photos
    6. Adding Punch to Your Images with Clarity
    7. Making Your Colors More Vibrant
    8. Cropping and Straightening
    9. Editing Multiple Photos at Once
    10. The Advantages of Adobe’s DNG Format for RAW Photos
    11. Sharpening in Camera Raw
    12. Reducing Noise in Noisy Photos
    13. Removing Red Eye in Camera Raw
    14. The Trick for Expanding the Range of Your Photos
    15. Black & White Conversions in Camera Raw
  13. Chapter 3. Scream of the Crop: How to Resize and Crop Photos
    1. Basic Cropping
    2. Auto-Cropping to Standard Sizes
    3. Cropping to an Exact Custom Size
    4. Cropping into a Shape
    5. Using the Crop Tool to Add More Canvas Area
    6. Auto-Cropping Gang-Scanned Photos
    7. Straightening Photos with the Straighten Tool
    8. Resizing Digital Camera Photos
    9. Resizing and How to Reach Those Hidden Free Transform Handles
    10. Making Your Photos Smaller (Downsizing)
    11. Automated Saving and Resizing
    12. Resizing Just Parts of Your Image Using the Recompose Tool
  14. Chapter 4. edIT: Which Mode Do I Use: Quick, Guided, or Expert?
    1. Photo Quick Fix in Quick Mode
    2. Special Effects in Guided Mode (the Only Time to Use It)
    3. A Quick Look at Expert Mode (It’s Not Just for Experts!)
  15. Chapter 5. Layer Cake: Working with Layers
    1. Layer Basics
    2. Using Multiple Layers
    3. Everything Else About Layers
    4. Layer Blend Modes for Photographers
    5. The Power of Layer Masks
  16. Chapter 6. Little Problems: Fixing Common Problems
    1. Adjusting Flesh Tones
    2. Using the Smart Brush Tool to Select and Enhance Skies at the Same Time
    3. Adding Contrast and Drama to Cloudy Skies
    4. Removing Digital Noise
    5. Focusing Light with Digital Dodging and Burning
    6. Opening Up Shadow Areas That Are Too Dark
    7. Fixing Areas That Are Too Bright
    8. When Your Subject Is Too Dark
    9. Automatic Red-Eye Removal
    10. Instant Red-Eye Removal
    11. Fixing Problems Caused by Your Camera’s Lens
    12. The Elements Secret to Fixing Group Shots
  17. Chapter 7. Select Start: Selection Techniques
    1. Selecting Square, Rectangular, or Round Areas
    2. Saving Your Selections
    3. Softening Those Harsh Edges
    4. Easier Selections with the Quick Selection Tool
    5. Making Really Tricky Selections, Like Hair (and Some Cool Compositing Tricks, Too!)
  18. Chapter 8. Retouch Me: Retouching Portraits
    1. Quick Skin Tone Fix
    2. Removing Blemishes and Hot Spots
    3. Lessening Freckles or Facial Acne
    4. Removing Dark Circles Under Eyes
    5. Removing or Lessening Wrinkles (and Why You Still Need the Healing Brush)
    6. Brightening the Whites of the Eyes
    7. Making Eyes That Sparkle
    8. Whitening and Brightening Teeth
    9. Digital Nose Jobs Made Easy
    10. Slimming and Trimming
    11. Advanced Skin Softening
    12. Fixing Reflections in Glasses
  19. Chapter 9. Clone Wars: Removing Unwanted Objects
    1. Removing Spots and Other Artifacts
    2. The Amazing (and Easiest) Way to Remove Distracting Stuff from Your Photos
    3. Moving Things Without Leaving a Hole Using Content-Aware Move
    4. Automatically Cleaning Up Your Scenes (a.k.a. The Tourist Remover)
  20. Chapter 10. Side Effects: Special Effects for Photographers
    1. Effects and Presets Galore in Quick Edit Mode
    2. Creating a Picture Stack Effect
    3. Enhancing Depth of Field (or Faking That 85mm f/1.4 Look)
    4. Trendy Desaturated Skin Look
    5. High-Contrast Portrait Look
    6. Converting to Black and White
    7. Panoramas Made Crazy Easy
    8. Burned-In Edge Effect (Vignetting)
    9. Creating the Selective Color Effect
    10. Neutral Density Gradient Filter
    11. Getting the Instagram Look
    12. Fake Duotone
    13. Simulating Film Grain
    14. Lens Flare Look
  21. Chapter 11. Sharpen Your Teeth: Sharpening Techniques
    1. Basic Sharpening
    2. Creating Extraordinary Sharpening
    3. Edge Sharpening Technique
    4. The Most Advanced Sharpening in Elements
    5. Advanced Sharpening Using Adjust Sharpness
  22. Chapter 12. Fine Print: Printing, Color Management, and My Elements 13 Workflow
    1. Setting Up Your Color Management
    2. You Have to Calibrate Your Monitor Before You Go Any Further
    3. Getting Pro-Quality Prints That Match Your Screen
    4. Sharpening for Printing
    5. Making the Print
    6. What to Do If the Print Still Doesn’t Match Your Screen
    7. My Elements 13 Photography Workflow
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Photoshop Elements 13 Book for Digital Photographers
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: December 2014
  • Publisher(s): New Riders
  • ISBN: 9780133990188