AdobePhotoshop Elements

Powerful and versatile image-editing and more,at a COnSUmer-1 eVe I riCe Text and photos by Jack and SueDrafahl

- • . « « « 1 .•

F or years, professional photographers have enjoyed theendless editing capabilities of Adobe Photoshop. Due to

the programs sophistication, it can be a bit overwhelming tonew and even advanced photographers just trying to edit theirdigital camera images. Adobes first solution was a lite versionof Adobe Photoshop with some disabled functions, but it stillhad the look and feel of a professionalprogram. So, Adobe decided to take anew approach with Adobe Elements. Theprogram has the same power of AdobePhotoshop, but with a friendlierinterface.

The biggest difference in the twoprograms is the tab pulldown menu atthe top of the Elements screen.Normally, the various palettes inPhotoshop are found floating on themain edit screen and you can hide ormove them as you edit your image. InElements, these palettes are grouped atthe top of the editing screen in foldertabs. This keeps your editing screencleaner, but still allows fast access to thevarious editing functions. Let's take alook at the various palettes features.

Starting from left to right we find theFile Browser, which is a great little toolfor finding pictures. When you select the

I 8 PHOTOGRAPHIC | JANUARY 2002

directory for your pictures, the images will all appear inthumbnail form on your screen. Simply select the one youwant to edit and drag it onto your editing screen. When youare finished, save it out and the changes are reflected as a newthumbnail in the File Browser.

The Recipes tab is a digital cookbook that gives you step-

/

6 A

by-step instructions on making basic photo corrections. If youhave a complicated procedure and want to repeat it later, youcan add your own recipes to the list.

When the Elements program first starts, it will collect allthe filters and effects and then categorize them under theFilters or Effects tabs. It shows the various locations for eachfunction and creates a large thumbnail sample display. It isthen simple to select the filter or effect you desire, and drag itonto the image you are editing.

The Layer Styles tab groups the different types of stylesinto bevels, shadows, glows, complex, and basic effects. Selectthe style you want and drag it onto your image.

The Swatches tab gives you color choices for fillapplications. To be sure you select the right color, you candouble-click on a color and it will show you the color's name.Once you select a color from the tool box, a second colorpalette appears to help you fine-tune your color selection,providing you the option of millions of color variations.

The History tab keeps track of all the editing you do to a

specific photo. If you want to see what you have done, oreliminate part of your editing, you can use the History menu.It's a little like the step backward or forward functions exceptthat you don't have to do things in sequence.

The Navigator is a quick and easy way to zoom in on aspecific part of an image. You first use the zoom slider to getthe proper magnification on a thumbnail image. Then usethe hand to move the zoom box to the desired part of thephoto and the final zoomed effect will be displayed on themain image.

The Info tab gives you direct color readout informationwhen you move the cursor or eyedropper around the image.The information is displayed in RGB and CMYK andprovides your cursors exact x,y coordinates.

The Layers tab provides a thumbnail display of eachlayer in your image. You then have full editing access to aspecific layer so you can apply a desired style. It is then asimple task to drag the same style to all other layers ratherthan one at a time.

Simply put, the Hint tab is a tutorial on the fly. It givesyou answers to problems you may encounter as you edit animage. For example, if you select the Dodge tool from thetoolbox and then the Hint key, it will tell you what the tooldoes and how it works.

The Elements toolbox itself is a slightly differentconfiguration, but features most of Photoshop's basic tools.Some of the more-advanced editing tools have been removedto make room for new tools like the Red Eye tool. When youselect a specific color, this tool swaps the color to replace thered eye. It allows various levels of tolerance and brushdynamics, so you can control the intensity of the change.

We mentioned earlier that the friendly interface with itshidden power is the crux of the Adobe Elements program.They make it easy to correct common photo problems. Flash

Fill will lighten the mid-tones and Adjust Backlighting willdarken the images to correct for overexposure caused by thecamera flash. Auto Straighten Crop helps you fix an image thathas been scanned crooked. Variations provides a simple side-by-side comparison of color-correction possibilities so you cansee the changes you make immediately.

If you want to add text to your photo, you can go to thetoolbox and select the Text tool. Click your cursor at theposition where you want the text and up pops a text menuat the top of the screen. You can adjust the font style, size,

justification and color. Type the text,and then add special effects from thestyles menu. Adobe Elements makes itreally easy.

You can also merge several photosinto one image using the new functioncalled Photomerge. When you open thisfunction, it will ask you to specify yourpanorama sections so they can be mergedto form a panorama. In order for thefunction to work smoothly, you need toprovide images that contain data overlapof about 30-40%. The program canautomatically align all the pieces into onepanorama, or you can manually dropeach segment close to the alignment spotand Elements will then fine-tune thealignment to produce a panoramic image.

Adobe Elements also makes it easy toprepare your images for the Web, E-mailand print output. The Save for Webcommand allows you to optimizegraphics and even produce your ownWeb pages with the Web Photo Gallery.With their Picture Package you can printmultiple copies of a photo on a singlesheet of paper or even create a contactsheet and vary the size of the images.

Adobe Elements works with Windows98/Windows98 Second Edition/Win-dows ME/Windows 2000/Windows NT4.0 or Macintosh OS 8.6, 9.0, 9.0.4 and9.1. For further information regarding

: The Lens Flare feature instantly adds a-ffect to any image.

Below: Photomerge allows you to combinea series of shots of a scene into a long, thinpanoramic image, automatically aligning allthe pieces for you.

20 PHOTOGRAPHIC | JANUARY 2002

ontinued on page 112)

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Elements, check out Adobe's Web site atwww.adobe.com.

We have been using Photoshop foryears, and were quite surprised at thequality of Adobe Elements. We found itfaster than Photoshop and easy to use.The friendly menus and powerfulpotential of Adobe editing makeElements a perfect companion for thenew digital photographer. Best of youcan get all this for under a hundredbucks! •