Chapter 1

Getting Started with Image Editing

IN THIS CHAPTER

Starting the Photo Editor

Opening, editing, sharing, and saving a photo

Creating a new document

Using Undo History

Finding help

Saving your files

Image editing is incredibly fun, especially with a tool like Photoshop Elements, which enables you to modify, combine, and even draw your own images to your imagination's content. To get the most out of Elements, you need to understand some basic technical concepts, but like most people, you probably want to jump in, play around, and basically just get started right away.

You're in luck: In Quick mode, Elements helps you make basic edits to your photos, like revealing your child's face darkened by a baseball cap's shadow or cropping out the gigantic trash can on the left edge of your otherwise perfect landscape shot. In this chapter, we help you jump-start your image-editing skills by guiding you through Quick mode and how to share photos online, retrace your steps, save your edits, and more.

Launching the Photo Editor

Photoshop Elements has two separate components:

• The Organizer is where you manage photos. It's full of tools for tagging, rating, sorting, and finding your images. Part 2 helps you start using the Organizer.
• The Photo Editor is where you correct photos for brightness and color, add effects, repair images, and so on.

In this chapter, you work in the Photo Editor to make basic edits to a photo.

Here's how to start Elements and open the Photo Editor:

1. Double-click the Photoshop Elements shortcut on your desktop or in your Applications folder (Mac) to launch the Elements Welcome screen.

2. Click the Photo Editor button shown in the Welcome screen in Figure 1-1.

   The Photo Editor workspace loads and appears, as shown in Figure 1-2. By default, you see the Quick tab selected at the top of the Photo Editor workspace, which means you're in Quick mode (or right where you want to be for the purposes of this chapter). Quick mode offers a limited number of tools for adjusting brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness.

FIGURE 1-1: The Photoshop Elements Welcome screen.

FIGURE 1-2: The default Photo Editor workspace with the Quick tab selected.

When you first launch Photoshop Elements, you may see the eLive tab open. Click the Quick tab to see the editing options for Quick mode. See the section "Getting a Helping Hand," later in this chapter, for more about eLive.

On the right side of the workspace, you see the Adjustments panel docked in an area dubbed the Panel Bin. When in any one of the three editing modes (Quick, Guided, Expert), you find different panels. On the left side of the workspace, you see a Tools panel. Interacting with the items in the Panel Bin and using tools in the Tools panel provides you an enormous number of options for editing, improving, and stylizing your pictures.

Making Basic Edits in Quick Mode

For beginning users, the Quick mode in the Photo Editor is both powerful and easy to use. Follow these steps to make some simple changes to an image:

1. Open the Photo Editor and make sure the Quick tab is selected at the top.

2. Choose File???Open.

   If Elements is your default editing application, you can also double-click your photo file in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder, and the file opens in Elements.

3. In the Open dialog box that appears, navigate your hard drive to locate the file you want to open, select the file, and click Open.
4. From the View drop-down list (in the upper left of the image window), choose Before & After - Horizontal, as shown in Figure 1-3.

5. Make edits to your photo.

   Here's an introduction to two simple edits you can make in Quick mode:

   • Apply a Smart Fix: Click Smart Fix in the Panel Bin to see the options. To begin with, click Auto at the bottom of the Smart Fix panel and select the After view to see whether you like the changes.

     As shown in Figure 1-3, several items are listed in the Panel Bin below the Smart Fix option. Click an item to expand it and move the sliders, or click the thumbnail images to tweak the overall brightness, contrast, and color. In many cases there isn't a right or wrong adjustment. Play with the options to bring it close to your overall vision for the picture. For a more in-depth look at correcting photos in Quick mode, flip to Chapter 10.

   • Crop the photo: In the Tools panel on the left side of the window, click the Crop tool. You immediately see a rectangle on top of the photo. Move the sides to crop the image to your liking. When finished, click the green check mark, as shown in Figure 1-4, to accept your edit.

   When making any one of a huge number of edits to your pictures, you often see icons on top of the image similar to what's shown in Figure 1-4. The green check mark accepts the edit you're making at the time the icons appear. The circle with a diagonal line is the Cancel button. Click this button when you don't want to apply the recent edit.

6. Choose File???Save As and, in the Save As dialog box that opens, provide a new name for the photo. Click Save.

   Note: When you use Save As and give your image a new name, you don't destroy your original image. You save a copy of the original with the new edits applied. For more on saving files, see the section "Saving Files with Purpose" later in this chapter.

FIGURE 1-3: The before and after views in Quick mode.

FIGURE 1-4: The Crop tool sized on a photo.

Sharing a Photo

After you edit your photo, you can print the photo to share with family and friends or post the photo on a social network.

Because sharing photos on social networks is extremely popular, we introduce you to the Elements sharing features with the following steps, which explain how you can use Elements to share your photo on Facebook:

1. Prepare the photo you want to upload to Facebook.

   Typically, digital cameras take photos sized very large - too large for an image that your friends and family will want to download quickly and view via Facebook on a computer screen or a mobile device. To adjust your image so it's the right size and resolution for viewing online, follow these steps:

   1. Choose Image???Resize???Image Size.

   2. In the Image Size dialog box that appears, enter your desired width (or height).

      Either Width or Height is fine because the image will maintain correct proportions by choosing either. A width between 720 pixels and 2,048 pixels works well.

      Facebook recommends that supported sizes for regular photos are widths of 720 pixels, 960 pixels, and 2,048 pixels with file sizes no more than 100KB. When you save as JPEG, the files are compressed and you'll find the larger size to be within Facebook recommendations.

   3. Type 144 in the Resolution box.

      For screen viewing only 72 ppi is fine. However, if you want your friends to print the image, 144 is a better choice. You can use either resolution. Be sure the file size is no larger than 100 ppi.

   4. Select the Resample Image check box and then click OK (see Figure 1-5).

      The image is sized to a workable size for Facebook. In Chapter 2, you take a closer look at what these image-sizing options mean and how to choose the right settings for your prints or online images.

2. Choose File???Save As???JPEG to save the file as a JPEG.

   Note the location where you save the file on your hard drive. Chapter 2 also explains how to choose the right file format for your images. (JPEG is one of many file formats that Elements supports.)

3. Click Share in the top-right corner of the workspace to open the Share panel and then choose Facebook from the drop-down list.

   Elements enables you to upload to other services, like Twitter and Flickr, too. For details about the Share panel, flip to Chapter 15.

4. Authenticate your account.

   A dialog box opens when you choose Facebook in the Share panel, prompting you to authenticate your account. To authenticate your account:

   1. Click Authenticate in the dialog box.
   2. Fill in the text boxes for your Facebook login and password.

   Your authentication is complete.

5. Click the Upload button to upload the file.

   When the file upload is complete, a dialog box opens and prompts you to view the uploaded file.

6. Click Visit Facebook.

   Your photo is added to your Facebook account, as shown in Figure 1-6.

FIGURE 1-5: Resize an image in the Image Size dialog box.

FIGURE 1-6: An...