How we take pictures and share them with family and friends has changed drastically over the last number of years. There are a couple of reasons for this, one being improvements in the actual devices available for taking pictures with and the other of course is advancements in computer technology.
Introduction: Basic Photo Editing in Adobe Photoshop Elements
Part 1. Import/Export Images in Adobe Photoshop Elements
Part 2. How to Crop Images in Photoshop Elements
Part 3. Scaling Images In Adobe Photoshop Elements 15
Part 4. Adjusting Contrast and Brightness
Part 5. Adding Image Filters and Effects
Taking pictures and storing them on your computer meant that you no longer had to pay to process ones that were ‘not quite right’. The problem was in trying to learn the complicated world of editing those photos so you could share them with family and friends. In the beginning, one had to be computer savvy to use photo editing software. Now you can simply plug your camera or cell phone into your computer or send it to yourself via email and immediately begin using a simple, user-friendly photo editor to make those pictures look like they were taken by a professional. It is easier than ever, even for beginners, to turn photos into personalized cards for birthdays, special holidays, thank-you cards, or send them off to have them printed by a local photo developer or department store.
We will show you just how easy it can be to grasp the fundamentals of editing all your precious photos and learn important skills like, importing, exporting, and cropping images. You will also learn how to adjust the brightness, black levels, and how to adjust the contrast or scale of a picture.
So, if you are like most of us that are new to editing your photos, you can finally bring up those great pictures you already have where the contrast is a little ‘off’ or the composition just isn’t quite right and make those adjustments like a professional.
There are several key factors to look for before you begin your journey into photo editing, some of which are:
- A user-friendly program that avoids the use of complicated ‘buzz words’
- The ability to organize and easily access your library of photos
- The freedom to be creative
- And most of all – fun to use!
It is finally time to look at all those great photos that you are storing on your phone or computer and make the adjustments that will transform into ones that you are excited and proud to share.
Photoshop Elements is intended for shoppers who are simply beginning with image editing and need a simple approach to alter, compose, create, and share their photographs. Photoshop is the expert standard for making appealing images, advanced designs, 3D works of art, and videos but for this article we are going to focus on Adobe Photo Elements for making simple changes to your photos.
Below are some of the basic features of this photo editing software:
- Adjust brightness/contrast
- Resize a photo
- Adjust facial features
- Apply image filters
- Create slideshows
- Add graphics to an image
- Remove red-eye
- Remove objects or artifacts
Although Adobe Photo Elements has some very basic features that are easy to use it really is geared towards more experienced photo editors, the interface and extensive feature set can be a bit daunting for some. So, we recommend you try InPixio Photo Editor, an easy to use yet powerful enough photo editing software to start working on your images. It is available for Windows users with not only the basic photo editing features but also some advanced tools and amazing photo effects. Download and try it now.
Lets’s Apply Some Basic Edits in Adobe Photoshop Elements
Lets begin to learn some skills in Adobe Photoshop Elements that can apply to the vast majority of Photo Editors on the market. Below we have gone into detail on some of the most common tools that people tend to use on their images to really make them polished. Feel free to jump to any of the following topics so you can get started right away:
Importing/Exporting Images – Find out the difference between Raster and Vector images, different file formats and how to import/export images into Adobe Photoshop Elements 15.
Adjusting Contrast – This section explains what contrast is all about including Brightness, Sharpness, Saturation/Hue and how they effect your images.
Cropping Images – Learn how to crop photos while maintaining aspect ratios, how to switch from portrait to landscape mode, crop to specific pixel dimensions.
Scaling Photos – Learn about scaling images in Adobe Photoshop Elements and the differences between cropping, resizing and scaling your photos.
Image Filters and Effects – We show you steps to applying filters and image effects in Adobe Photoshop Elements to spice up your photos!