Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction
16:10 2Intro to Elements Workspace
15:32 3Guided Edit Mode
39:35 4Quick Edit Mode
19:26 5Full Edit Mode: Layers and Masks
1:03:29 6Smart Brushes pt 1
17:30 7Smart Brushes pt 2
31:27Portrait Makeover with Detail Smart Brush
37:39 9Retouching Techniques
39:53 10Recompose Tool
12:27 11Gorgeous Grayscales
36:32Day 2
12Gorgeous Grayscales Continued
55:54 13Quick Color Tints
09:15 14Adding a Vignette
07:05 15Correcting Color and Lighting
49:07 16Fixing a Stubborn Color Cast
15:36 17Lightening Wrinkles and Shadows
18:47 18Selective Softening & Sharpening
25:47 19Placing Text Behind an Image
30:48 20Pushing a Photo Through Text and Other Shapes
41:18 21Blending Images Together
38:31 22Deleting Backgrounds with the Magic Extractor
27:51Lesson Info
Quick Color Tints
Now let's talk about adding some color tents to our image. We did a little bit of that. When we change the colors of the Grady, a map adjustment layer to the blue and the why and do experiment with that, you could do a brown toe. Why it, Grady? In all kinds of things like that, Yeah, Get get creative and experiment with those colors. But let's take a look at another image, and I'm gonna show you some of elements built in color effects that you can apply with a quick double click. So I'm gonna open my image by pressing command over control O on a PC over open. And if you're following along And remember, if you do decide to purchase this course Sheikhoun download all of these files. There's, like, 280 megabytes of files, and I've given you the full layered file as well, which means you can kind of dissect the technique. You can see how I created it. So we're gonna cruise on down here and I'm gonna open up image and you can see that I have applied on interesting color effect to this. I'v...
e kind of given in a bluish, bluish gray cast. So here's our original in Here's what we're gonna create Go ahead and throw this layer away. So this time we're gonna use elements effects panel and the effects panel lives in full edit mode. So here we are in the edit workspace, and you want to make sure that you're in full edit mode cause you won't see your layers panel or your tools panel on the left hand side if you're in any other mode. So I'm gonna go ahead and expand my effects panel by double clicking on that gray part of the bar to its right. Now, if you don't see an effects panel and you're certain that you're in full anima, you can trot up to the window menu and choose effects, and that will turn the panel on that way. So if it has disappeared, buggered off, gone out for coffee, you can go find it and these little check marks right here to the left of these different items, let me know that that item is currently turned on, so I'm seeing an on screen somewhere. Okay, so if you can't find the effects panel, you can always turn it on in the window menu. Now, elements tries to be as user friendly as it possibly can, and it really is. If you compare it to the big version of photo shop on My Goodness, it's way user friendly. But it tries to hide options from you to keep you from being overwhelmed. And it is really famous for dividing tools and commands up into endless categories. Inside of each category, there will be rules and gobs of options. But if you don't realize that all of these options are being hidden from you, you will think some of the built in effects are extremely lame. So let me show you what you first see. Let's see, Here we are in effect, so the effects themselves are divided up into four different categories, and within those four different categories are more categories. So if you have her your cursor over each one of these icons. So here we are in the effects panel, and I've got four icons over here, So if I have over the 1st 1 I see that these are filters and I get a little preview of what those filters might due to my image. Okay, but if you look to the right of the panel, there's a poppet menu. You're only seeing one category of filters. If you give that poppet menu click, you will see Holy cow, those air, all categories. If I turn on show all, let me back out So you can appreciate how many more options were about to get. If I turn on show all. Look at all of the different filters we have. There's a slew of them. So I'm showing you this to remind you that if you ever get into a panel or a listing of presets and there's only like 345 options, know that there are bazillions of categories in a pop up menu somewhere nearby, so be sure to click on them. So this next category of effects over here is for layer styles. This is how you add drop shadows, and we're gonna do some of that a little bit. Later on. When we push a photo through text, we're gonna give it a nice drop. Shattered adds depth. I learned a long time ago. Any time you had a drop shadow to anything, you can add an extra $75 to the client bill. Did you know that? Yeah. $75 per drop shadow. Try to fit those in. I'm just kidding, sort of. So if I click the layer styles button again, I'm only seen a handful of options. But if I click that pop up menu to the right, look at all that stuff. First of all, if you click layer styles, you're not going to see drop shadows at all. You're going to see devils. Why it's not set to drop shows. I have no idea, but we can turn them on individually. See, there's your drop shadows, your inner shadows, Inter glows, all that kind of good fund stuff. All this stuff is a lot of fun to do with edge effects and text to. But just point being, be sure to click around within all those different categories to find what you want. Or, if you're feeling really brave, turn on show all, and then you can scroll through all the different things that are available for that particular category. So for photographers, if we go over here to the third button, that's where all your photo effects are. This is where your color tents are. So we're gonna give that one a click. But again, I'm only seeing three extremely lame icons. You know, at first, so you could just bail out of this and think, Well, that's absolutely useless. But if you click this pop up menu, turn on show all now we get some really useful items here, so let's take a peek at what some of these are. If you have over each one, you get a tiny little a description about what they are. This one will fade. Color vertically kind of does the same thing we did with the grating map adjustment layer. This one is going to give your photo the look as if it were carved into wood. This is a useful one right here. This makes your photo drainage the color from your image as a slight brown tent and gives it some texture so that it appears that it was printed on vintage paper as a little bit of an anti click. This one has more of a distressed photo look, so have fun with these guys, but the most useful ones, I think in this particular category are these color tents down here. Now, this apple right here looks like just a grayscale apple. And indeed, we will get a tent of black and white image. If we do that, it will be the lay missed black and white you've ever seen in your entire life. Suffers absolutely zero reason to use that. Use one of the other black and white methods We talked about either the black and white conversion filter or the great map adjustment layer instead of that because that one's really ugly. But the winds next to it or not ugly, they're kind of nice. This will give your image of blue tint. This one right here will tent your image green, purple, burgundy, brown or, as the graphic designers like to say sepia. So let's just try off that seat beer right here When we scroll down this a little bit. The way this panel works is that you can either single click the effect and then click the apply button to make it happen. Or you can simply double click the effect preview, which is what I usually do. Okay, so I'm gonna zoom back out so you can see what happens when I do this, you'll notice down here in the layers panel. Right now, we only have one layer souls pretend that's fresh off of our digital camera. Maybe we couldn't get the color looking just right in the images. Hazy, cloudy day. So let's add a color tint to it. So I'm gonna double click the CPI a thumbnail right here in elements. Um, let me collapses panels. He can see the layers. Panel elements duplicated our image layer for us to keep us from messing up original image. We didn't even have to take that extra step. Go into the layers panel and choosing duplicate layer. So it did all of that forest, so it duplicated the layer. It drained the color and added a slight brown tint to it. Now the only thing you can't do with these color effects is change the color of them because they are built in presets. So if you want to do more experimentation of that kind of thing than I'd use the radiant map adjustment layer set two different colors, you know so but this is a need effect and and the other one's work exactly the same. If you wanted to add the green tent, blue tent, purple tint, all that kind of stuff. It's a lot of fun to do.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Amazing class, Lisa is fun to listen to and she knows her stuff. She made the confusion over so many parts of PSE march in straight lines so I could understand.
John Carter
Because Lesa did such a good job showing off the new features in Elements 9, I just had to buy it. And here I thought I would be happy with Elements 8 forever. Thanks, Lesa.
a Creativelive Student
How refreshing. I have taken Photoshop classes at photographic centers, community colleges, and online but they all left something to be desired. Lesa has designed a class that makes it all work. As a "hands on" learner, I am now be able to use the tools in Elements with confidence. Awesome! Just what I needed.