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Hi everyone! I teach an elements class locally and thought I would post the stuff we do here for anyone new to Elements. The first few classes I just go over the Organizer and the Quick Fix Mode. I dont make hand outs for those so I'm gonna give you some links. For the Full Edit I'll post my handouts and regular homework assignments that I use in class.

The Organizer
http://www.ehow.com/how_4513361_use-adobe-elements-photo-organizer.html
http://scrapbookdestination.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/photoshop-elements-tips/

Quick Fix Mode
Here is a basic online tutorial that covers Quick Fix mode. You'll find that as you get more familiar with the Full Edit mode that you will rarely, if ever use Quick Fix. But for those new to the program, Quick Fix allows you to get started editing some photos right away. :P

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1178578

Homework: Open up a few pictures in Quick Fix and experiment. Quick Fix Workflow should for the most part start at the top of your selections on the right and move down.

These should have you up to speed with my class for the most part and I'll post the next part after dinner..
Michelle K.
My Gallery

PSE 5-6, CS3
Sony DSC H1, Canon Powershot A590 IS
Cool....

I'll come to class. But I don't like quick fix mode. I like to be my own boss.
it will be interesting to see what you teach. :thanks:
~kimi~
Gone Crazy... Back Soon...


Gallery ~ a la kimi

My Blog

kimboustany.com
Great - thanks Michelle.

I'd love to do the class. Looking forward to it.
Michelle E

Michelle's Gallery
Scrapbook Pages
PSE5/PSE8/Windows XP
Panasonic Lumix FZ18
Thanks, I'd like to join in........after the quick edit and organizer stuff is over. Tried the organizer in PSE 5 and never could find anything. I'm more organized on my own, besides I move stuff around and organizer hated me.
thanks I'll join in. I need some basics. I'll skip organizer for the exact reasons Tennie stated, and as for quick fix well Kimi has taught too much to use that function...but I can't wait to see the next lessons after that. thanks for thinking of posting it here.
Ok.. We will just jump right in then...

Contrast, Color & Tonal Adjustments with the Levels Dialogue

Today’s lesson will complete our focus on the levels dialogue. Levels is your most powerful tool for correcting exposure and removing color casts. It should be done first, right after cropping your photo. Levels works by adjusting all the pixels in your image file around the data you input. You tell Elements what is supposed to be black, grey, and white and Elements can determine all other colors more accurately. Levels does have an auto feature but I do not recommend it.

If you would like to compare results, open an image file, duplicate your layer and apply auto levels. Now duplicate your original background layer again and adjust levels yourself using the steps outlined in Part I of today's lesson. See the difference?

A Levels adjustment gives you accurate color. In landscape photos, this is often all that is needed although you may want to warm up (increase yellow) or cool down (increase blue) the overall color tone of a photo.

In Part II we will look at skintones. You do not want ‘accurate’ color for skintones. You want flattering color. This will require few minor adjustments once accurate color is achieved. Typically you will warm up skintones by boosting yellow a touch and you may find that desaturating red is needed.

There will also be times when you only want to correct color in a specific are. That can be done with the masking layer provided with adjustment layers or with any of the selection tools which we will work with next week.

We will use the method outlined in the Color Correction Chapter of your book (The Photoshop Elements # Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby) entitled ‘Color Correcting Digital Camera Images’ and the trick for finding a Neutral Grey.

If you do not have the book refer to http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/elements/tone-color/
Including setting your grey values http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/neutral-gray.php

After you adjust your black, grey, and white droppers it's time to turn our attention to those sliders. The General rule is to move the shadow slider on your left til it touches the edge of your histogram and then do the same to your highlight slider on the right. In our last 2 photos we will look at times when you do not want to follow that rule.

The middle slider will adjust your midtones. A move to the right will darken midtones and increase contrast and of course moving to the left will do the opposite.

Do this first!!
Set Up The Levels Defaults: With our image open in Photoshop Elements, let's first take a moment to set up our Levels command properly. Click on the half white half black circle to add an adjustment layer. Choose levels. In the bottom right corner of your levels dialogue, you'll see three eyedropper icons. Double-click on the one on the left, which is the white point eyedropper: This brings up the Color Picker. If you look on the right side of the Color Picker, down near the bottom, you'll see the letters R, G and B, which stand for "Red", "Green", and "Blue", along with an input box to the right of each one. Type the value 245 into each of the three input boxes. Continue the same process for your grey and black eyedropper. Input 10 into each box for black; 128 for your midtone preference.

Now click OK to exit out of the Levels dialog box. Photoshop Elements will ask you if you want to save the changes you just made as the new defaults. Click Yes, and you won't have to make these changes the next time you edit an image because they've been saved as the default values.


This week we will also introduce High Pass Sharpening:

The reason the High Pass filter technique works so well at sharpening images is because any areas in the image which are not an edge are left untouched. The only areas that have sharpening applied to them are the edges, which is exactly what you want, and also what all of those confusing options in the "Unsharp Mask" and "Smart Sharpen" filters are trying to help you achieve.

With the High Pass filter, you can often get better results than either of the sharpening filters can give you without fumbling around with confusing options.

What I particularly like about this method of sharpening is that it can be undone even after the file has been saved. This is because the sharpening is done on a separate layer not on the original background layer. You can also click the eye beside this layer on and off to see the effect at any time. It’s also easy to adjust the amount of sharpening by adjusting the opacity of the level.


Part I :

—Open image 5767

Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Use the 3 eyedroppers to correct color casts.
Adjust levels sliders for correct exposure and midtone contrast as needed.

Flatten image. Duplicate image. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Choose radius of 1.2 pixels. Hit OK. Change blend mode to Overlay for sharpening. Adjust opacity of layer as needed.

Turn the visibility on and off of each layer one at a time and evaluate each layer separately. Do you need to make any further adjustments?

Flatten image. Save as a .tiff file.
_________________________________________________________________
—Open image 5777

Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Use the 3 eyedroppers to correct color casts.
Adjust levels sliders for correct exposure and midtone contrast as needed..

Flatten image. Duplicate image. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Choose radius of 1.2 pixels. Hit OK. Change blend mode to Overlay for sharpening. Adjust opacity of layer as needed.

Turn the visibility on and off of each layer one at a time and evaluate each layer separately. Do you need to make any further adjustments?

Flatten image. Save as a .tiff file.
_________________________________________________________________


Color Correction Part II : Skintones

— image 0466 & image 2982


Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Adjust levels as described in Part 1. (see note on Level sliders at end)

Duplicate your background level. Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Color for Skintone. Click on an area of skintone. (you may need to try a few areas) Hit OK when happy.

Flatten image. Duplicate image. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Choose radius of 1.2 pixels. Hit OK. Change blend mode to Overlay for sharpening. Adjust opacity of sharpening layer as needed.

Turn the visibility on and off of each layer one at a time and evaluate each layer separately. Do you need to make any further adjustments?

Demonstration: Duplicate your original background layer. Apply Auto levels. Apply Adjust color for skintone. See the difference? :shock:

image 0466

leveld2.jpg
leveld2.jpg (55.79 KiB) Viewed 2428 times


This is a screenshot of the histogram settings I used on this image. This image was dangerously close to blown hightlights. Moving the highlight slider toward the histogram would increase these highlights. I slid the shadow slider past the edge of the histogram. This increased the amount of pixels considered 'black' and therefore increased the shadow areas and contrast of the image. Generally it is reccomended to do this with the midtones. The face in this image fell within the midtone area though and it was more flattering to only slightly adjust the midtone contrast. Opting for increased shadows allowed for an increase in contrast of the overall image while keeping the skintone soft and flattering.

image 2982

leveldialogue.jpg
leveldialogue.jpg (55.77 KiB) Viewed 2425 times


This level adjustment was quite different. The shadows slider was pulled right to edge of the histogram. The highlights slider was pull closer to the histogram in order to correct some underexposure. Pulling it to the histogram would create a very harsh exposure but now the image is still too dark. Adjusting the midtones toward the left brightened the image while reducing contrast in the midtone area. This is often more flattering.

Faces often fall into the midtone area. It is very important to consider your midtone adjustments carefully.
Michelle K.
My Gallery

PSE 5-6, CS3
Sony DSC H1, Canon Powershot A590 IS
images needed- Please post your results and any questions you have!

Image
image 2982

Image
image 0466

Image
image 5767

Image
image 5777
Michelle K.
My Gallery

PSE 5-6, CS3
Sony DSC H1, Canon Powershot A590 IS
:crying: Oh why did I do it? I actually use the Elements organiser and thought I'd check out the links above to see if there was anything interesting there - curse you Michelle (only joking). The first one was fine, nothing new there. Then I went into the 2nd link and she was talking about how she sorts and tags all her scrap book files into colours, collections, papers, etc. using the organiser tags.

After spending hours yesterday hunting through scrap book files looking for appropriate things for the scraplift page I just know I'm going to go home (I'm at work at the moment) and start tagging everything and it will take weeks! Curse you I say!!
Michelle E

Michelle's Gallery
Scrapbook Pages
PSE5/PSE8/Windows XP
Panasonic Lumix FZ18
Yeah.. I'm still tagging things too from where I had to reinstall and the tags didnt come in right. :shock:

I love the organizer though. I have a section set up for projects with things tagged for color, texture, backgrounds, overlays, cut outs, etc. I also have all my pics tagged by people, location and event so thing are easy to find.

It will be worth it when it's done but it is time consuming..
Michelle K.
My Gallery

PSE 5-6, CS3
Sony DSC H1, Canon Powershot A590 IS
Super. :toast: I always do levels 1st, but have just been using the auto and minor slider adjustments when needed. Resetting the values means being 1 step closer. I feel I've learned a lot.

I did find that the apply levels on high pass were a bit too low for my taste so I did increase the sharpening. In the photo of your daughter, I see the largest difference in the clarity of the eyes. I cropped that photo to easier show the difference on the small photo allowed here.

original
cropped.jpg
cropped.jpg (226.31 KiB) Viewed 2345 times


enhanced
croppedcopy.jpg
croppedcopy.jpg (228 KiB) Viewed 2341 times

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