On nice thing in the full Photoshop is there are shortcuts to select shadows, midtones or highlight.
In Elements, those shortcuts are missing, and you need to use third party add-ons (Graffi, Hiddenelements...)

In many cases, you have obviously to select highlights or shadows. Selecting (or masking) midtones is less obvious, but in my experience, it is very important to avoid clipping or unwanted changes in shadows or highlights. When I want to add saturation with the hue/saturation adjustment, targetting midtones lets me go farther without clipping problems.

The first thing is to know which standard tools in Elements enable you to work selectively.
- If you work in raw, the recovery and fill light sliders provide a very good start
- In Elements, the following adjustments can target shadows, midtones or highlights: Shadows/highlights is obvious, but don't forget playing with midtones contrast mimics a useful S-curve. Adjust color curves is often overlooked, but it can select the tones range. If you are not satisfied with the hue/sat adjustment, why not use the adjust color/color variations selecting range and saturation... really worth practicing!

If you want to go further with the available tools in Elements, you can have a tremendous amount of control by using masks and gradients maps. I am thinking about a tutorial on this subject.

The main advice would be to take the time to analyse your image first and look at what could be improved in the different tone ranges. I'm sure Don Diego is with me on this matter. The tools to achieve your goal are present in Elements!

tutorials on all of those would be truly wonderful, Michel.

On nice thing in the full Photoshop is there are shortcuts to select shadows, midtones or highlight.

Michel, could you elaborate as well on the shortcuts in full Photoshop that you mentioned?

Thanks!

I am not a Photoshop user, but here is an interesting thread about selecting ranges in Photoshop:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=27095348
Scroll down to my post to have an idea of my way in Elements.
I'll find those shortcuts, but anyway all shortcuts using the tilde don't work with my French keyboard!

Michel, thanks for the link. It looks like you can do a lot with a Threshold Adjustment Layer to create a selection - looking into that....

Amen to that Mitchel

Now I second Susan, I feel a good tut is a must for the benefit of all may be included it on the next News letter if it will take you to much time. But I think like always you will be doing a fantastic job.

I now go to check your links.

Thanks for your encouragement, Don.
What I find stimulating in Elements is that you can do a lot with much less tools and tools options than Photoshop. That means combining two or several basic tools instead of using an option in a tool. Example: to replace the powerful 'blend if' option of blend modes, in many cases you can use a mask for the condition. Sometimes, you have to master more than two tools or techniques. The present topic of selecting ranges of tones is a good example. You should know how to:
- use an adjustment layer mask or add a mask (Grant, Graffi, Hiddenelements...) to a layer
- edit a standard gradient or load the appropriate gradient
- select the content of a layer and paste it into a mask
- (optionnally) save gradients for ulterior use
A tutorial should cover all those topics. Even if you already know how to do each step, you'll have to think of how to combine them. With Photoshop you have to know a ton of tools and options, in Elements, you need to learn less basic 'bricks' and a lot of ways to combine them. For professional use Photoshop is a must, for creativity, Elements may be better... because YOU have to be smarter and understand better the tools and the image.
I am working now on a tut on channels. The basics need two parts for the next newsletters, and there is enough stuff for 3 more at least... which means I should cover the present topic in the tutorial section of the forum.

Mitchel, what surprices me is that you have not created your own blog or website.
The amount of knowledge you have and that you are willing to share should go at least on an e-book. Never the less until that day comes we continue to look foward to your tuts and contributions here. Muchas gracias amigo.

Michel ... You explain things so well ... I really hope you will consider doing more instruction and tutorials!!!

Michel ... You explain things so well ... I really hope you will consider doing more instruction and tutorials!!!

Thank you for your kind words! It is such a pleasure to see you can help others. On the other hand, one way to help others is not to be shy and ASK questions... I hope beginners do feel at ease in this forum, seeing that creative and experienced people are ready not only to give answers, but also to ask questions. We do learn something every day!

Don Diego,
Really, I don't care for a website, and if I have to share some experience, I prefer to do it here with my friends. The newsletter is certainly the best place to do so.
Now your idea of starting a blog (on PrestoPhoto)... I'm now thinking about it. The ability to share photos is very interesting.