How to Use Adobe Photoshop Elements

This is the first in my series of articles on Photoshop Elements 6.0. The other articles will address how to use specific tools and produce photo projects. In this article I will focus on the basic parts of the software and general descriptions of how to utilize the software. Adobe needs to be complimented on creating affordable nonprofessional versions of their award-winning software applications. In this version of the software Adobe provides numerous wizards that will please the novice user but may aggravate more experienced semi-professional and professional users. It is, however, very easy to get the program to start in editor mode, and once you get used to the look and feel of the application, I think you will agree that it is an extremely powerful version with a great selection of new tools and effects. You can download a full featured 30-day demo version at the Adobe website in Resources below. As of this writing, there is a special bundle from online retailers bundling Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 with Adobe Premier Elements 4.0 for around $100.

Step1
Startup Options Startup Options The first thing you will notice when using the new version of Photoshop Elements is the convenient Wizard screen. This screen allows the novice user to organize, edit and create projects or share projects from convenient automatic step-by-step wizards. You can also choose your start options from the convenient drop down options box. Experienced users may choose to set the startup option to start with the editor which will display a more familiar applications screen.

Step2
Photo Management Photo Management Click on ORGANIZE to bring up the photo management main screen which will allow you to create photo albums. To create albums, just click on the PLUS button which will bring up a dialogue box allowing you to name your albums. Once you have imported images you will be able to create keyword search tags for each image. You can also add custom tags to apply to your images. In future sessions this will allow you to search by keywords to find all of the pictures with people or pets or any other keyword you specify.

Step3
Acquire Photos Acquire Photos Once you have created your albums, simply choose GET PHOTOS from the file menu and choose your source. You can acquire images form a scanner, camera, the Internet, mobile phone or from images on your computer. Notice you can apply certain batch operations like red eye reduction when importing photos.

Step4
Fix Photos Fix Photos Click on the FIX tab to bring up image editing operations. Notice there are a lot of quick fixes you can apply automatically. In addition you may select FULL EDIT to bring up the full featured image editor or guided edit which will help novices learn the software application. QUICK FIX brings up adjustment sliders for the most common types of image editing like color and contrast adjustments.

Step5
Create Projects Create Projects The CREATE tab allows you to make photo projects. You may choose from calendars, montages, online galleries and many other project options. Each choice will provide templates and step-by-step guidance on how to create these photo projects.

Step6
Share Images Share Images The SHARE wizard provides a number of quick ways to share your photos. In this area you can send your images to a website or to an email client. You can also create a photo DVD or send your images to your Kodak Easyhare or Flickr site. The easy-to-use wizards will step you through the various options.

Step7
Full-Featured Editor Full-Featured Editor Experienced users may choose to open the program in the full editing mode. This setup will be more familiar and look more like Adobe Photoshop. The full editing mode has the convenient SHARE and CREATE tabs that give the experienced user the new project and share functions combined with a full-featured editor. The effects preview area gives both experienced and novice users the advantage of a visual effects choice to help clarify the impact on the image. Adobe Photoshop Elements provides all the tools that a photographer needs to edit their images, although it does not provide all the features and tools of the professional Adobe Photoshop. For most photograpers this package offers all of the features they will ever need to edit their images.