Hello there, welcome to this video! Let's see in a short time all you need
to know to start with the newest Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018!
Leave us comments in the video description to give us suggestions for our
future guides on this software!
Photoshop Elements is one of the best solutions to edit and adjust your
photos, applying corrections and effects. It is also a great alternative
to Photoshop CC, since it does not require any subscription plan.
When you open Photoshop Elements, a start-up dialog box opens, showing
three different options at the bottom,
Photo Editor opens Photoshop Elements; Organizer opens
Adobe Elements Organizer, used to add metadata and categorize your photos
with ratings, events and people; Video Editor opens Premiere Elements,
which is used to make videos.
Check out our full guide link in the video description to know more about
Adobe Organizer and Adobe Premiere Elements 2018!
Photoshop Elements is divided into four different workspaces, all listed at
the very top. eLive shows several articles, updates and news from Adobe;
Quick is used to apply simple and guided adjustments and corrections on
your photos, very useful when you start as a beginner. Guided is used to
pick and apply advanced effects on your photos step-by-step; the Expert
workspace collects all the tools and features inside Photoshop Elements, in
order to apply very precise and professional editing, similar to Adobe
Photoshop CC.
In this video, we will see how to use the Quick and the Guided workspaces.
If you want to learn how to use the Expert one, check out our dedicated
video in this guide!
To start editing, you have to import your own photos first. You can either
use the Open button in the top left corner and browse for your media, or
you can click and drag your photos directly from any folder to the software
interface.
All your imported photos are collected inside the Photo Bin panel at the
bottom, that you can hide and open by using the Photo Bin button.
The main Preview shows the photo that is selected from the Photo Bin. You
can also zoom in and out by using your mouse wheel while holding ALT down,
and pan by holding the Space bar down and clicking and dragging.
The Quick workspace has several features to correct your photos, such as
the quick tools at the bottom, the toolbox on the extreme left, and the
adjustments and effects panel on the right.
At the bottom, you can use the Rotate button to rotate by 90 degrees the
picture, clockwise or counterclockwise. Use the Organizer button to open
Adobe Organizer and adjust categories and metadata for such picture.
The toolbox on the left shows several tools to use on the picture, directly
on its Preview. You can also use the Tool Options at the bottom to fix
properties and settings for the current tool enabled. You can open and
close the Tool Options panel by using its button below.
Now, let's see how to use the tools of the toolbox.
The Straighten Tool is used to align the picture by clicking and drawing
a segment on it. The tool will rotate the photo according to such segment,
and also crop it in order to maintain its original aspect ratio.
If you do not like the result of your modifications, remember to use CTRL+Z
to undo, or use the Undo and the Redo buttons at the bottom to go through
your actions made in the past.
The Crop Tool crops the picture to remove any part you do not like on it.
When you enable the tool, a rectangular grid appears, showing the part of
the photo to save. Click and drag the grid to move it, and use the nodes on
its corners to size it properly. Hold Shift down to size it maintaining
the aspect ratio. You can rotate the grid by clicking and dragging from
outside. Apply the grid to crop the photo definitely.
Use the Eye Tool to remove red eyes, including those within a selection
area. Remember to adjust any of the tool properties by using the Tool
Options below.
Use Whiten Teeth to brighten up teeth by clicking on these.
Moreover, you also have the Healing Brush tools, used to apply advanced
adjustments on the photo. We won't see these in this beginner video.
With Photoshop Elements you can also add text and titles inside your photo
by using the Type Tools. Inside the Tool Options panel, you have several
kinds of Type Tools: the standard Type Tools, the Text following paths and
shapes, and the Type Mask Tools.
Use the Horizontal and the Vertical Type Tool to drop basic text spreading
horizontally or vertically.
To add text, just click and drag on the photo to create a text area, used
to delimit the contours of the text distribution. Make sure it is big
enough according to the text content and size, otherwise part of it will
be hidden.
When the text area is made, just type in and adjust the text properties,
font, distribution and color from the Tool Options below. These will affect
just the text you have selected.
Use Text on Shape Tool and Text on Custom Path Tool to type text along a
shape perimeter or path. With Text on Shape Tool, choose the shape you
like from the Tool Options, and draw the shape. Then click on the point of
the shape you want to start typing. Make sure to size the text properly,
since text will be hidden once the shape perimeter is fully covered.
With Text on Custom Path Tool, draw your path freehand on the picture,
apply it, and then click on a point on the path to start typing from there.
You can use the Horizontal and the Vertical Type Mask Tools to create a
selection area with the same shape of the text you type, in order to apply
adjustments and corrections with such a cool shape. When you enable these
tools, the whole photo will be highlighted in red color, showing the
original photo colors where the selection is applied.
The text area is very useful to manage text as well. You can move text by
clicking and dragging its area while holding CTRL down; you can size the
area and the text content inside by using the nodes while holding CTRL down;
and rotate text by dragging from the external sides of its area.
The Adjustments panel on the right collects several corrections easy to
apply to the whole picture in a short time.
Use Smart Fix to apply general enhancement on the photo. You can either use
the bar on top, or pick a ready template at the bottom. Hover over one to
get a live Preview on your photo, and click on it to apply it definitely.
To undo, remember to use CTRL+Z or the Undo button.
Use the Auto button below to choose the best template automatically.
Exposure corrects the exposure level of your picture; and Lighting adjusts
the brightness and contrast level on the three main parts of the photo:
Shadows for the dark sides, Highlights for the light sides, and Midtones
for the intermediate ones.
Use Color to adjust the photo appearance and color: Saturation fixes the
color intensity; Hue changes the colors of the picture; and Vibrance sets
the color contrast as you like.
Use Balance to apply a color filter on your picture with Temperature and
Tint.
If your photo looks blurry, you can use Sharpen to recover and define the
details lost.
While editing your picture, it can be useful to compare the appearance of
the corrected photo versus the original one. In the top left corner, under
View, you can choose Before & After to check the original photo (Before)
and the result of your modifications (After) next to it.
You can also apply adjustments on specific parts of your photo by using the
selection tools.
If you enable the Quick Selection Tool, and click and hold on your pointer,
you will create a selection area delimited by dashed contours. You can
remove selected parts by brushing on the area while holding ALT down. Use
the Escape key to remove any selection.
Once you have a selection area, any adjustment or correction will affect
just this region, and not the whole picture as before.
Besides Adjustments, the right panel collects several amazing effect
templates, depending on what you choose at the bottom: Effects to apply
cool effects on your photo; Textures to apply some texture background; and
Frames to add cool contours. For each section, you can choose your favorite
template, and apply it on your photo by clicking on it. Remember to use
CTRL+Z to undo if you do not like the result.
If the features inside the Quick workspace are not sufficient, you can also
switch to the Guided workspace to choose between lots of professional
effects, from the simplest ones under the Basics tab, to special ones
under Special Edits. Indeed all these advanced effects can be easily
applied from beginners, since all of these are fully guided and made
step-by-step through the right panel of the Quick workspace. At the very
bottom of it, use Next to go to the next step, or Cancel to undo.
Once your photo is edited, you can save it by going to File and then to
Save As.... Then choose the file name and its format, choosing either a
.psd Photoshop project, or rendered formats such as .jpg and .png.
Moreover, you can also use the Create and the Share buttons to export and
render your photos. With Create you can make Slideshows, Photo Books,
Calendars and even more. With the Share button, you can upload your photos
to your social websites, such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out our next one to learn how to use
the Expert workspace inside Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018!