February 2009

Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow

February 27, 2009

Thank you to Deirdre, a Digital Photography for Moms reader, who suggested that I make a permanent link to the Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow tutorials in my sidebar.  Great idea!    And adding the Workflow link to the sidebar also gives me the opportunity for one last post in the series.  This one is about putting the workflow all together. [...]

1 comment Read more

Use Texture to Hide Image Blurriness

February 22, 2009

So your focus isn’t tack sharp, but you have a beautiful picture other than that?  It happens to me way too often!  Adding a texture is a creative way to improve your picture and follow one of the latest photo processing styles at the same time. Textures are usually JPEGs that you bring into your blurry [...]

0 comments Read more

Salvage an Out-of-Focus Picture in Photoshop Elements Using the Orton Effect

February 22, 2009

When life gives you lemons, call your blurry photo glowing & dreamy! Sometimes, a picture is just plain out-of-focus, and no amount of sharpening can make it look good.  The Orton Effect is beautiful on many shots – I especially love it in landscapes.  Plus, it works great when you need to disguise an out-of-focus [...]

Read more

The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Final Step, Sharpening

February 22, 2009

At last, we’ve made it to the final step of the Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Sharpening.  To recap, here are the workflow steps so far: Reading a Histogram Lighting Defog and Noise Reduction Blemish Removal Levels The Most Important Workflow Step Actions in Photoshop Elements Vignettes There are countless ways to Sharpen in Photoshop [...]

0 comments Read more

The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Part 8, Vignettes

February 20, 2009

We have made it almost to the end of my Perfect Photoshop Elements Tutorial and this next-to-the-last installment is about Vignettes.  Before you add a vignette to your photograph, make sure you have applied these basic corrections in Photoshop or PSE first: Reading a Histogram Lighting Defog and Noise Reduction Blemish Removal Levels The Most [...]

0 comments Read more

8 Ways to Vignette in Photoshop Elements

February 20, 2009

Subtle Vignette- Use the Rectangular  or Elliptical Marquee Tool to select the central portion of your photo and invert the selection (Shift+Control+I).  Apply a high amount of feathering (75 – 150 pixels maybe).  Copy this selection to a new layer and change the Blend Mode to Multiply. Basic Vignette- Press D to set your colors to Default black and [...]

11 comments Read more

The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Step 6, Running Actions

February 16, 2009

For the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow.  These are the steps we’ve covered so far: Reading a Histogram Lighting Defog and Noise Reduction Blemish Removal Levels The Most Important Workflow Step And now, for step 7, it’s time to discuss running actions in Photoshop Elements. Actions are a [...]

0 comments Read more

The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Step 5, Levels and Color Tone

February 14, 2009

The current installment of The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow is about using Levels to improve color tone in Photoshop Elements.  Step 1, Reading a Histogram, is closely associated with the Levels adjustment, as is Step 2, Lighting.  You might want to read over those sections, if not all the others, before diving into Levels. Reading [...]

0 comments Read more

Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Part 4, Blemish Removal

February 8, 2009

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements both have straightforward and easy-to-use tools for removing imperfections from a photograph – dust specks, wrinkles in a scanned picture, hot spots from a flash, juice stains on a shirt, wrinkles on a face.  The list could go on and on! So this tutorial will consist of a brief overview about using each [...]

2 comments Read more

Photoshop Tutorial – CoffeeShop Perfect Portrait Free Action

February 5, 2009

 Ok, just a bit of a warning to start off with. This tutorial is lonnnnnnng. Did I say long? It’s almost endless. But it’s good info if you’ve never used an action in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, or if you’ve never used layer masks. If you just need a refresher, you might start with the [...]

2 comments Read more

The Perfect Photoshop Elements Workflow – Part 3, Defog and Noise Reduction

February 2, 2009

Have you ever noticed that some people’s pictures appear almost shiny?  The colors, focus and sharpening work together to make a simple, smooth and clean finish.  Of course, this is mostly due to great photography, but Photoshop Elements can help also! Defogging and Noise Reduction are two methods that scrub a photo and give it [...]

0 comments Read more