Photoshop Elements 3 For Dummies

by McClelland, Deke; Fott, Galen

• ISBN13: 9780764570629
• ISBN10: 0764570625
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-19
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Do you want to rearm Venus de Milo, shave Uncle Harry' s beard, or turn gray skies to blue? Have at it with Photoshop"Elements 3 For Dummies, your guide to enhancing the effect, fixing the flaws, or adding artistic effects to your photos. You' ll discover how to: Import and organize your photos Create, rearrange, blend and manipulate layers to create a composite image Save photos using the correct file format TIFF (Tagged Image File Format, PDF (Portable Document Format), or BMP (for PC users) Save for the Web with JPEG and GIF Take advantage of the terrific Help Great Help system, including a How To palette with step-by-step tutorials for image editing and features Create a slide show, a picture package, or a Web photo gallery "PhotoshopElements 3 For Dummies was written by Dele McClelland, award-winning author of more than 75 titles, including Photoshop "for Dummies and "Photoshop CS Bible, and Galen Fott, writer and reviewer for "Macworld and "PC Magazine. It includes16 pages of full-color examples that demonstrate capabilities and show you " before" and " after" photos. You' ll

Author Biography

Deke McClelland wrote the Photoshop Bible and Photoshop Bible, Professional Edition (both published by Wiley), bestselling guides on digital imaging. He has written 76 titles in 25 languages with 3 million copies in print, including Photoshop For Dummies (published by Wiley) and the tutorial-based Adobe Photoshop One-on-One (published by O’Reilly/Deke Press). In addition to his books, Deke hosts the video training series Total Training for Adobe Photoshop and Total Training Presents: Adobe Photoshop Elements (published by Total Training). One of the most award-winning writers in the business, Deke has received seven honors from the Computer Press Association. In 2002, he was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame.

Galen Fott contributed to two editions of Deke’s Photoshop Bible and to Adobe InDesign CS One-on-One (O’Reilly/Deke Press). He has also written for Macworld and PC Magazine. Galen created and hosted Total Training for Mac OS X, co-hosted Total Training for Adobe Premiere 6, and presented more than two hours of Photoshop training for the Apple Web site (all published by Total Training). In his theoretical spare time, Galen is involved in a number of other pursuits. As an animator, he has worked for AT&T and Paramount. As a performer, he has played leading roles in musicals across the country. As a puppeteer, he has performed with the Jim Henson Company. Those with piqued interest can visit his Web site at www.grundoon.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(2)
About This Book	3	(1)
Conventions Used in This Book	4	(1)
What You're Not to Read	4	(1)
Foolish Assumptions	4	(1)
How This Book Is Organized	5	(1)
Part I: Element-ary School	5	(1)
Part II: Be Prepared	5	(1)
Part III: Realer Than Life	5	(1)
Part IV: Unreality Programming	5	(1)
Part V: The Part of Tens	6	(1)
Icons Used in This Book	6	(1)
Where to Go from Here	7	(2)
Part I: Element-ary School	9	(82)
Braving the Elements	11	(12)
The Bland but Benevolent Dr. Jekyll	12	(1)
The Dynamic but Dastardly Mr. Hyde	13	(1)
The Two Elements of Photoshop Elements	13	(4)
Painting without the mess	14	(1)
Editing existing image detail	15	(2)
Psychiatric Help: The Doctor Is Built In	17	(6)
The Welcome screen	17	(2)
Adobe Help	19	(1)
The How To palette	20	(3)
Dissecting Your Desktop	23	(14)
Giving Elements the Electronic Breath of Life	23	(3)
Working with Windows	26	(1)
Switching between Elements and Macintosh Finder	27	(1)
Maneuvering through Menus	28	(2)
Talking Back to Dialog Boxes	30	(2)
Playing Around with Palettes	32	(2)
Opening Your Toolbox	34	(2)
The Photo Bin	36	(1)
``Open!'' Says Me	37	(18)
Don't Just Sit There---Open Something!	37	(6)
Opening with the File Browser	38	(3)
Opening the ordinary way	41	(2)
Creating an image	43	(1)
Behold the Image Window	43	(2)
The Screen Is Your Digital Oyster	45	(7)
Using the hand tool	46	(1)
Using keyboard shortcuts	47	(1)
Zooming in and out on your work	47	(3)
Navigating by palette	50	(2)
Tools for the Terribly Precise	52	(3)
Switching on the rulers	52	(1)
Turning on the grid	53	(1)
Information, please	53	(2)
Pixels: It's Hip to Be Square	55	(20)
Welcome to Pixeltown	55	(1)
Screen Pixels versus Image Pixels	56	(2)
Image Size, Resolution, and Other Tricky Pixel Stuff	58	(8)
Resolving resolution	59	(2)
Changing pixel dimensions	61	(2)
Changing the physical dimensions of the image	63	(1)
Keeping things proportionate	64	(1)
Using the Image Size dialog box safely	64	(2)
What Does This Canvas Size Command Do?	66	(2)
Trimming Excess Gunk Off the Edges	68	(5)
The sharp edges of the crop tool	68	(3)
More good news about cropping	71	(1)
The Divide Scanned Photos command	72	(1)
Image Gymnastics	73	(2)
Over (and Under) the Rainbow	75	(16)
Looking at Color in a Whole New Light	76	(2)
Managing Photoshop Elements Color	78	(4)
Gimme good gamma	79	(2)
Choosing your color settings	81	(1)
Choosing Color the Mix-and-Match Way	82	(6)
Juggling foreground and background colors	82	(1)
Defining colors	83	(5)
Going Grayscale	88	(3)
The road to grayscale	89	(1)
A few more tips in black and white	90	(1)
Part II: Be Prepared	91	(102)
Get Organized (Before It Gets You)	93	(28)
Getting Photos into Organizer	95	(5)
Importing existing photos	96	(3)
Scanning photos	99	(1)
Organizing your cell phone photos	99	(1)
Getting photos from an online sharing service	100	(1)
Organizing Photos	100	(7)
Correcting the date	100	(2)
Tags---you're it	102	(3)
Collections	105	(1)
Stacks and version sets	105	(1)
Captions and notes	106	(1)
Viewing and Finding Photos	107	(8)
Reviewing and comparing photos	108	(3)
Searching by date	111	(2)
Searching by tags and collections	113	(1)
Searching by caption or note	114	(1)
Searching by filename	114	(1)
Searching by history	114	(1)
Searching by media type	115	(1)
Searching by the rest	115	(1)
Editing Your Photos	115	(2)
Backing It All Up	117	(2)
Backing up your catalog	118	(1)
Making copies or moving files	118	(1)
Printing Your Photos	119	(2)
Saving with Grace	121	(18)
Save an Image, Save a Life	121	(4)
Saving for the very first time	122	(2)
Joining the frequent-saver program	124	(1)
The Elemental Guide to File Formats	125	(4)
What is a file format, anyway?	125	(1)
TIFF: The great communicator	125	(2)
Photoshop PDF: The can-do kid	127	(1)
BMP: The wallpaper glue for PC users	127	(1)
What about Elements' native Photoshop format?	128	(1)
What format to use when	128	(1)
Saving for the Web	129	(8)
Hey---what about PNG?	129	(1)
The Save for Web command	130	(1)
JPEG: The best choice for photos	131	(2)
GIF: The choice of choosy Web designers	133	(3)
The Preview menu	136	(1)
File Association Manager	137	(1)
Good Night, Image --- and Don't Let the Programming Bugs Bite	138	(1)
It's Perfect. No, Wait! Okay, Print	139	(14)
Time Traveling	140	(4)
Exploring the Undo History palette in nine easy steps	140	(2)
Travel restrictions	142	(1)
The Undo History palette	142	(2)
Abandoning Edits en Masse	144	(1)
The Command Formerly (and Currently) Known as Print	144	(1)
This May Be All You Need to Know about Printing	145	(1)
Choosing a Printer in Windows	146	(1)
Choosing a Printer on a Mac	147	(1)
Getting Image and Paper in Sync	147	(3)
Sending the Image to the Printer	150	(3)
Making Selections on the Pixel Prairie	153	(26)
Learning the Ropes of Selecting	154	(14)
Throwing lassos	156	(5)
Using the marquee tools	161	(2)
Wielding the wand	163	(3)
Greatness with a brush	166	(1)
Selecting everything	167	(1)
Deselecting everything	168	(1)
Saving and Loading Selections	168	(1)
Hiding the Ants	169	(1)
Editing Selections	170	(9)
Adding to and subtracting from a selection	170	(1)
Intersecting a selection with a selection	171	(2)
Avoiding keyboard collisions	173	(1)
Automatic selection shifters	174	(5)
Fifty Ways to Love Your Layer	179	(14)
Pasting Images Together	180	(3)
Filling a selection with a selection	181	(1)
Resizing an image to match its new home	181	(2)
Excuse Me, but What's a Layer?	183	(5)
Finding your way around the Layers palette	184	(2)
Moving and manipulating layers	186	(1)
Flattening and merging layers	187	(1)
Locking Layers	188	(1)
Moving and Cloning Selections	188	(2)
Transforming Layers and Selections	190	(3)
Using the Image menu's commands	190	(1)
Using the transform tool	191	(1)
Ending your transformation	192	(1)
Part III: Realer Than Life	193	(64)
The Midas Retouch	195	(18)
Introducing Filters	196	(7)
Applying filters	197	(1)
A few fast filter facts	198	(1)
Dialog box filters	198	(1)
Previewing the filter effects	199	(2)
The Filter Gallery	201	(2)
Experimenting with the Highly Ethical Clone Stamp Tool	203	(5)
Stamping out splatters	203	(2)
Performing more magic with the clone stamp tool	205	(3)
Performing Miracles with the Healing Brushes	208	(2)
The healing brush	208	(2)
The spot healing brush	210	(1)
Getting the Red Out	210	(3)
Darkroom Deja Vu	213	(18)
Getting a Quick Fix for Your Image	214	(1)
Touching Base with Retouching Tools	215	(2)
Smudging Away Imperfections	217	(2)
Light on the smudge, please	217	(1)
Smudge-specific controls	218	(1)
Dodge? Burn? Those Are Opposites?	219	(2)
Playing with the Color Knob	221	(1)
Focusing from the Hip	222	(1)
Sharpening Those Wishy-Washy Details	223	(6)
The single-shot sharpeners	224	(1)
Unsharp Mask: The filter with the weird name	225	(2)
Some sharpening scenarios	227	(2)
Blurring Adds Depth	229	(2)
The Rainbow Correction	231	(26)
Color-Correcting Quickly	232	(5)
Auto Levels	232	(2)
Further image enhancements	234	(3)
Replacing Colors	237	(3)
The Replace Color command	237	(2)
The color replacement tool	239	(1)
Fiddling with Adjustment Layers	240	(4)
Using adjustment and fill layers	240	(4)
The Photo Filters	244	(1)
Color-Correcting Correctly	244	(1)
Leveling the Contrast Field	245	(6)
Making friends with the Levels dialog box	245	(2)
The Histogram palette	247	(1)
Brightness and contrast as they should be	247	(4)
Variations on a Color Scheme	251	(3)
Turning plain old color into Technicolor	251	(2)
Casting away bad colors	253	(1)
Color Correcting in the Raw	254	(3)
Part IV: Unreality Programming	257	(102)
Startling Style	259	(18)
Using Layer Styles to Shine and Shadow	260	(4)
Tending Your Many Splendid Blends	264	(3)
Fooling with layer opacity	265	(1)
Playing around with blending modes	266	(1)
Those Funky Filters	267	(6)
Creating motion and puzzle pieces	268	(1)
Giving your images that gritty, streetwise look	269	(1)
Stamping your image in metal	270	(1)
Merging colors in flaky images	271	(2)
Making Taffy with the Liquify Filter	273	(4)
If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words... Then Shut Up and Paint	277	(26)
Doodling with the Pencil and Brush	278	(3)
Performing Special Painting-Tool Tricks	281	(1)
Choosing Your Brush	282	(6)
Switching the brush size	282	(1)
Exploring the other brush sets	283	(1)
Making your own brush	284	(3)
Saving brushes	287	(1)
Going nuts with the brushes palette	287	(1)
Exploring More Painting Options	288	(4)
Experimenting with painting modes	289	(2)
``Painting'' with the impressionist brush	291	(1)
The Powers of the Eraser	292	(5)
Working with the regular of eraser tool	292	(1)
Traying out the somewhat magic eraser	293	(2)
Using the more magical background eraser	295	(2)
Isn't Elements Just a Paint Program?	297	(6)
The shape tools	297	(3)
The shape selection tool	300	(1)
The cookie cutter tool	300	(3)
Painting with the Digital Stencil	303	(16)
Painting within the Lines	303	(2)
Dribbling Paint from a Bucket	305	(1)
Applying Color to Selection Innards	306	(1)
Doctoring the Fill	307	(2)
Selecting your stuffing	307	(1)
Mixing colors the wrong way	308	(1)
Gradients: The Ever-Changing Color Sea	309	(7)
Checking out the gradient tool	309	(1)
Changing the way of the gradient	310	(3)
Becoming a gradient wizard	313	(3)
Taking on Borders with the Stroke Dialog Box	316	(3)
How the border rides the track	317	(1)
Mix your stroke after you press Enter (or Return)	318	(1)
Type Righter	319	(12)
Working with the Type Tools	319	(2)
Putting Your Words On-Screen	321	(4)
Typing what must be typed	321	(1)
Changing how the type looks	322	(2)
Warping type into strange and unusual shapes	324	(1)
Editing the Text Layer	325	(1)
Simplifying a Text Layer	326	(1)
Declaring Open Season on Type Selection Outlines	327	(4)
Can Photoshop Elements Do That?	331	(28)
Taking on the Effects	332	(2)
Processing Multiple Files	334	(2)
Converting a Multipage PDF File	336	(1)
Creating an Animated GIF	337	(2)
Creating Panoramic Pictures with Photomerge	339	(4)
Attaching a File to E-Mail	343	(2)
Projecting a Slide Show	345	(4)
Creating a PDF slide show	345	(2)
Creating a custom slide show in Windows	347	(2)
Creating and Printing a Contact Sheet	349	(3)
Creating and Printing a Picture Package	352	(3)
Creating a Web Photo Gallery	355	(4)
Part V: The Part of Tens	359	(18)
Ten Shortcuts to Commit to Long-Term Memory	361	(6)
Hiding Selection Outlines	362	(1)
Displaying and Hiding the Palette Bin	362	(1)
Changing an Option Box Value	362	(1)
Scrolling and Zooming	362	(1)
Changing the Brush Size	363	(1)
Creating Straight Lines	363	(1)
Adding to, Subtracting from, and Reselecting Selection Outlines	364	(1)
Moving, Nudging, and Cloning	365	(1)
Filling a Selection	366	(1)
Stepping through the Undo History Palette	366	(1)
Ten Reasons Why You Might Want to Upgrade to Photoshop Someday	367	(10)
The Layer Comps Palette	368	(1)
The Channels Palette	368	(1)
CMYK Color Mode	369	(1)
The Brushes Palette	370	(1)
Following the Paths	370	(1)
Eyeing Those Curves	371	(1)
Lights ... Camera ... Actions	372	(1)
Being an Art Historian	373	(1)
Photoshop Speaks!	374	(1)
A Little Help to Get Your ImageReady	375	(2)
Index	377