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Curious about whether my ebook, Ready, Set, Actions! will really tell you everything you need to know about getting the most from your actions in Elements?

Read the first chapter (plus some) for free.  Download it on Texas Chicks Facebook page – just look for the words “Free Book Download” on the left.

Even if you don’t have actions in Elements yet or even if you own full Photoshop, you just might learn something from this chapter.  I wrote Ready, Set, Actions! so that you wouldn’t have to spend months learning everything PSE has to offer.

This book makes it easy for you to learn just the basics that will give you a great foundation for running actions and modifying their results to suit your photo.  Because we all know that no action works on every photo without a little tweaking, right?

And if you like what you read, check out the last page of the free download for a little incentive to purchase the whole thing!

MCP has just released a new set of free actions for Photoshop Elements!

If you are tired of the photos that you upload to Facebook looking blurry and fuzzy, this is the set for you.

MCP’s Facebook Fix contains  13 actions that will do all this for your images:

• Size single images just right for Facebook
• Create diptychs, with or without the words “Before” and “After” written on them
• Change the color of the diptych frames
• Sharpen your images, including just the Afters if that’s want you want
• Add your logo
• Add copyright symbols and warnings

Download Facebook Fix here from MCP Actions.  Don’t forget to check out the instructions for installation that come with your download, if you need help with that.

This set will be perfect for all those family Thanksgiving photos that you want to share!  Enjoy.

Ready, Set, Color! is one of my hot-off-the-presses products that will change your Elements editing life FOREVER.  You can learn how to edit photos like this:

Adobe released Photoshop Elements 10 just recently.

 To paraphrase an old friend of mine, “To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question.”

Elements 10 has 2 big new features, in my opinion.

• Text on a path – this feature was added just for scrapbookers.  See all the new features under the text tool?  Now, you can outline that picture of a pumpkin with the words “Happy Halloween”
• Also, the PSE 10 crop tool shows a rule of thirds overlay.  Those of us who use Lightroom already love this feature (and shouldn’t be cropping in Elements, right?).  

So, should you upgrade?

If you have Elements 9 and want to save some money, neither of these features is big enough to warrant an upgrade.

However, if you’re still on 8 or earlier, you’ll get the two big features added in 9, plus the two mentioned above for 10:

• layer mask button
• content aware spot healing brush tool

Upgrading from 8 (or prior) to 10 is worth it, if you can.

Upgrade Information

Here’s the good news:

• Actions install the same way in Elements 10 as they do in PSE 7 and up.  No changes there.
• I haven’t encountered any actions that worked in PSE 9 that don’t work in 10.

And here’s the bad news:

• Actions install the same way in Elements 10 as they do in PSE 7 and up.  Adobe hasn’t made it any easier on us yet.  I tried, friends, really I did!

The price?

If you’re upgrading, the cost on Amazon right now is $76.  If you’re purchasing the non-upgrade version, the price is $90.

In Photoshop Elements, it seems that the most commonly used types of sharpening are High Pass and Adjust Sharpness/Unsharp Mask.  These are two of the top Methods from my Top 12 list of sharpening methods.

I used to use the High Pass method almost exclusively, but lately I’ve found myself going for Adjust Sharpening more.  Why?  Because the Photoshop Guys told me to.  And I think the Photoshop Guys rock.

It occurred to me that I should decide for myself which was the best.  So today, we’re going to have a Sharpening Showdown!  Woohoo, right?!

This photo has been typical focus for me.  Eyes look ok, right?

The eyes look good until you zoom in.  Here’s my zoomed in pic with two sharpening options below it:

You can zoom into any of the images in this post for a full size view.

Before we get into how to apply each type of sharpening and which is better, let’s talk a bit of theory.  That straight out of camera shot was good, right?  If I were just going to do a quick Facebook post or email to grandma, I really wouldn’t need to do anything.

So before you decide whether, how and how much to apply sharpening, you need to know how your photo is going to be used.  Before sharpening, your photo needs to be at its final size.  So if you are going to resize for internet purposes, do that before you apply sharpening.  If you’re going to print the photo, you’ll have no need to resize.  Sharpening should come last in your workflow regardless.

Here’s something else I was thrilled to learn from the Photoshop Guys.  No one, no matter how good their photographic skill, gets crystal clear eyes SOOC.  If you want that shiny sharp look, ya gotta use Photoshop.

What is Sharpening?

When Photoshop sharpens, it looks for lines and emphasizes them to create a sharper appearance.  This emphasis comes from making one side of the line darker and one side lighter.  Have you ever seen over-sharpened hair that looks crispy?  That’s the lighter side of the lines you’re seeing.

The standard sharpening tools in Elements – Adjust Sharpness and Unsharp Mask – ask for your input about the amount of sharpening to apply (how strong the effect is) and the radius, or size of the line to sharpen.  The higher the radius, the more likely you are to get crispies.

Adjust Sharpness

Adjust Sharpness is available in later versions of Elements – you find it in the Enhance menu.  If you can’t find Adjust Sharpness, use Unsharp Mask.  It’s almost the same.  To apply it, flatten your image and duplicate the background layer.  Apply Sharpening to the new layer so that you can adjust opacity if needed.

Adjust Sharpness gives you the option to select the type of blur to remove, either Lens, Gaussian or Motion.  The Photoshop Guys recommend Lens blur removal, but I got better results with Guassian on this photo.  And Removing Motion blur does actually work pretty well if you have a small amount of motion blur to fix.  I like Adjust Sharpness over Unsharp Mask because of this option.

Want a cool tip about sharpening in the Adjust dialog?  You can click on the preview window for a before and after.  As long as you hold the mouse click, you see before.  When you release it, you see after.  I love that!

High Pass Sharpening

To try the High Pass method, flatten your image and duplicate the background layer.  On the new layer, go to the Filter Menu and select Other, then High Pass.

Adjust the radius slider until you see no color in the preview window, and you can only see lines that you want to sharpen.  Click OK, and change the blend mode of the layer to Overlay.

The Sharpening Showdown

So which method wins?

Looking at the comparison images above, you can see arrows next to the points I used to compare sharpening results.  Looking at the catchlights, where the window bank reflects into his eyes, the Adjust Sharpness version is definitely sharper.  I tried a stronger High Pass layer, but it made his skin too grainy.

Also, I think the eyes lose just a bit of blueness using High Pass, as do his cheeks.

But, speaking of skin, I think the skin next to the left facing arrow on the Adjust version is showing more texture than the High Pass method – too much texture, in my opinion.

If I had to choose, I would probably use the Adjust method, and mask out some or all of the sharpening over his skin.  But if you want the colors to be washed out just a bit, High Pass wouldn’t be a bad choice.

And here’s the thing – unless you’re going to print this image at something like 30×20, I really don’t think you’ll be able to see the difference between the sharpening amounts.  Here are the finals – what do you think?

Adjust Sharpness:

High Pass:

 Can you see a difference?  To me, the color wash-out from the High Pass method is the biggest difference between the two, and it’s slight.

So for me, unless I want a slight desaturation (and I might, if I wanted a quick and easy way to brighten skin), I will go with Adjust Sharpness.  What about you?

Ok, my Mac friends.  This is for you.

If you have access to the Mac App Store on your computer, don’t use it to buy Photoshop Elements 9.  This limited version of the software will not let you install actions through the Effects Palette.

If you want the software quickly, you can download the full version by purchasing directly from Adobe or from Amazon.

Last weekend, I encountered the first action ever in my life that I couldn’t get installed.    I have to say I was a bit relieved to find that it wasn’t my fault.

But I am disappointed in this software.

I can’t access the App Store myself, because I’m a PC person.  From what I hear, the store discloses that the Organizer isn’t included with this version of the software.  I’m not sure whether it discloses that you can’t install into the Effects Palette either.

I’m also not sure if it would be possible to get a refund if you have purchased Elements from the App Store.  Has anyone tried?

I’d love to hear that you can!

The tool options bar in Photoshop Elements was the subject of last week’s tutorial.  This week, I’m going to share my most commonly used tools and their settings.  Ready?

First off, keep in mind that Elements requires you to have a tool selected at all times.  This can get you into trouble if you have, say, a purple brush selected and you accidentally click and drag over a bride’s dress.  To avoid accidental tool havoc, I keep the Move tool on unless I specifically need another tool.

Also, remember that tools hide under each other.  If you read a tutorial referring to a tool that you don’t see in your toolbar, start right-clicking on the tools that have tiny black triangles in the bottom right corner.  This triangle indicates that there are other tools hiding underneath.  For an example, look at the Pencil tool in the image to the left.  Right clicking on it will reveal various brush tools below.

• Move – I use this as my “safe” tool to be on, and love the Arrange/Align/Distribute settings for lining up text boxes
• Zoom – Never use it.  I use Control (command) and the + or – sign to zoom in and out instead.
• Hand – Never use it.  Hold down the space bar to turn any other tool into the hand tool and move your photo.
• Eyedropper – I use this to match colors.  I usually keep the sample size set on Point, but if the color isn’t solid (e.g. skin), I might change the sample size to 3×3 or 5×5.    These settings will take the average color over 9 or 25 pixels to use as your foreground color.
• Marquee – I use the marquee when I vignette, and set the feathering to around 250 pixels for a high resolution photo.  The mode field will let you set the size of the marquee you draw in advance.  I usually use the rectangular marquee, but the elliptical (oval) marquee is hiding underneath if you need it.
• Lasso – I use the regular lasso with a high feather when removing texture from a subject.  I don’t use the other lasso tools.
• Magic Wand – never use it for photo editing
• Quick Selection – ditto
• Text – This one is pretty straightforward.  Choose your font, font size and color and text orientation.  Use the Leading field to change the distance between lines of text.
• Crop – Use to recompose photos or make them fit a certain size of paper or frame.  Use the Aspect Ratio to crop to a certain size.  If I don’t have a reason do otherwise, I keep this setting at Use Photo Ratio.  The double arrows will switch the width and height to change the orientation of your crop.  
• Cookie Cutter – never use it
• Straightener – very handy for crooked horizons.  I like the Crop to Original Size setting and keep Rotate All Layers on.  
• Red Eye Remover – never use it.
• Spot Healing – love this tool, especially in Elements 9.  I use a Soft Round Brush and keep Content Aware and Sample All Layers turned on.  Content Aware isn’t available in prior versions of Elements, but the Spot Healing brush tool is.  For more info on change brush types, read this tutorial.  The same brush tips that work on the Brush are available on other tools as well.
• Clone – a great alternative to the Spot Healing brush.  I use the same brush settings as for Spot Healing.  My blend mode stays on Normal unless I’m trying to remove under eye circles.  In that case, I change the blend mode to Lighten.
• Eraser – Are you kidding me?  This sucker is destructive.  I use layer masks instead!  They are much more forgiving.
• Brush/Pencil – I use only the Brush tool from this group.  Everything you want to know about the brush is available here.  Oh, and everything else is available here.
• Smart Brush – never use it.
• Paint Can – never use it.
• Gradient tool –  hardly ever use it.
• Custom shape – I only use this when I want to include arrows in screen shots for tutorials.
• Blur/Sharpen/Smudge – Nope.
• Sponge/dodge/burn – Double nope.  It’s destructive too.
• Color Swatches – Thank the lord that the Color Swatches aren’t technically a tool, because there’s no way I could give you the highlights in two sentences or less.  These guys are a tutorial unto themselves.

It occurred to me while writing this tutorial that Adobe must have done a great job of predicting which tools should top the stacks of hidden tools, because I rarely need to select the ones underneath.  That’s a time saver.

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention changing the size of any of the above tools using the size sliders.  That’s because I use these keys to increase and decrease the size of brushes and other tools:

• [ decrease brush size
• ] increase brush size

When I’m using a tool whose size might need to change, I keep one hand on my mouse (or graphic tablet) and another on the [and ] keys.  You’ll get the most natural results with any tool by varying the size throughout your work area.

Ok.  You have your assignments for the weekend.  Go play with the tools in Photoshop Elements and have a blast!

Photoshop Elements gives us this robust set of tools in its toolbox.

Each does something different and has its own unique settings to adjust.  It’s these settings, or options, that I want to talk about today.

I had used Elements for quite a while before I really understood that each tool has a very important set of options that you should look at before you use the tool.

Hmmm.  I don’t know if I should admit that.  I mean, I knew that there were some numbers and fields up at the top of my workspace that changed when I switched tools, but I didn’t pay attention to them in any organized or intentional way.

One day it all clicked for me.  Each time you select a new tool in Elements, the Tool Options bar at the top of the workspace gives you a new set of refinements specific to that tool.  

This Tool Options bar is just under the menu bar.  These are the choices for the Brush tool:

I talked a lot about how to use those brush options in my tutorials on using brushes and creating, loading and saving brushes.

The options for the Crop tool looks like this:

Even the simple Move tool has some very useful settings:

After discovering that this Brush Options bar would refine the way I used the tools in my toolbox, I made a point of examining it in detail each time I selected a new tool.

It didn’t take long for me to learn the ones that I needed the most, so I don’t have to pay much attention to it anymore.   I know that when I need a specific effect, I’ll use a specific tool at a specific setting, and that’s it.  So, I guess you could say I’m back to my old ways of only paying attention to the options when I need them.

There are way too many for me to cover in this blog post.  But I’ll do a post in the next week or so about my favorite tools, and the settings I use for each.

In the mean time, look at these options the next time you’re in Elements.  Have you given them all the attention they need?

Would you like an easy (& free) tool from MCP Actions to speed up your Photoshop Elements workflow?

Yes?  Well then, download these free shortcut cheat sheets that Jodi & I made for you.

There’s one set for Elements, and another for full Photoshop.

The thing about shortcuts in Elements is that there are approximately 14,789,285 of them.  I certainly don’t have them all memorized, nor do I want to sort through a list that long to figure out which one I need.

That’s what makes these cheat sheets so useful.  You’ll have two 8.5×11 sheets specific to Photoshop Elements and your computer type (Mac or PC).  You can print it out, leave it next to your computer and grab it when you need it.

Before long, you’ll have your favorites memorized and will be flying through you workflow like a speed demon!

Here’s that download link again.  While you’re there, take a look at MCP’s free actions, if you don’t have them already.  Most of them work in Elements!

Last week’s Photoshop Elements tutorial covered brushes in Photoshop Elements.  You’d think it was plenty long enough to cover everything, but this is Elements after all.  You can learn and learn and learn and still not get to the end of the info!

So we’re going to wrap up today.  After this, you’re on your own, because there is not one iota of brush-related info left in my head….

What are Other Uses for Brushes in PSE?

Brushes in Elements do much more than painting on layer masks.  I’ve already mentioned, for example, how to create a watermark brush.

You can find eyelash brushes to enhance portraits.  Brushes can create picture frames.  They can add talk bubbles, like in cartoons.

You’ll also find that many people use them as stamps for scrapbooking.  For instance, you could create a stamp of your child’s name in a specific font and use it throughout a scrapbook, rather than having to recreate it with the text tool each time you needed it.  Or, you could create, purchase or download for free decorative elements like buttons, swirls, birds, or anything else to use as stamps in Elements.

How To Create a Custom Brush in Photoshop Elements

Step 1.  Create a new file whose area in pixels is as large as the largest size you will ever need the brush to be.  The brush can be no more than 2500 pixels on the longest side.

If you just wanted to create a name stamp, you would pull up the text tool, write and format the name large enough to fill up this file, and then go to step two.  However, if you want to create a brush from a shape or object, you either have to create it yourself in Elements, or find one from somewhere.  The Elements Shape Tool and the Content Palette are great places to begin your search.  The key, when creating a brush, is to make it large.  It’s easy to decrease brush size once you’ve made it, but hard to increase it much and retain good quality.

A photo can easily become a brush as well.

I didn’t get any fabulous photos of the Cathedral in Sheffield, England, even though our apartment looked out at the steeple.  Rather than putting a lackluster photo like this in my scrapbook, I could make a scrapbook page with photos of my family and use a brush that looks like the steeple for embellishment.

This method works best on high-contrast photos like the one above where you have an easy-to-select background.

First, I used the marquee tool to select a rectangular area around the steeple.

Next, I copied the selection and pasted it into a new file, using File/New/Image from Clipboard.  This command creates a new document of exactly the right size.

I clicked once with the Magic Wand tool in the sky to select it.  I typed control+shift+i to invert the selection so that only the steeple was selected.

At this point, I have a few options.  I can make a brush that looks like a silhouette – just a solid color shape of the steeple.  Or, I can have one that retains a little texture and shading.  The choices look like this, in black and orange (because you can use any color you want on a brush, right?).

For a solid brush like the first two above, after making your selection, go to the Edit Menu and select Fill Selection With.  Choose Black as the color.

For a brush with some texture, adjust the amount of texture that shows by making a contrast adjustment with either the Levels or the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers, if necessary.

I could even create a new layer and stroke my selection (Edit menu), to leave me just an outline.  Kind of like a steeple cookie cutter.

Step 2.  Either way, after you’ve made and perfected your selection, go to the Edit Menu and select Define  Brush from Selection.  Name the brush, and that’s it.  You’ve created a brush now!

Where to Find Custom Brushes in Elements?

If you need some special brushes but don’t want to make them on your own, finding tons of them is a short google search away.  Start with searching “free Photoshop brushes” or narrow it down by subject:  ”photoshop steeple brushes.”

Compatibility isn’t an issue with brushes – if they work in full Photoshop, they’ll work in Elements too.

Here are some of my favorite sources of brushes:

Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals

Deviant Art - lots of freebies here

Adobe Photoshop Marketplace

How to Load Brushes in Photoshop Elements?

Once you’ve located new brushes, you need to download them and save them somewhere on your hard drive.  Next, load them into Photoshop Elements by selecting the brush tool and clicking on the drop down arrow in the brush type picker.  See the graphic below.

Click on the double arrow circled in orange in this picture:

Select Load Brushes, and navigate to the location where you just saved the new brush.   Click on Load, and now you can use the brush or brushes in Elements.

If this is a brush that you want to keep in Elements permanently, you will need to complete one more step to save it.

How to Save Brushes in Photoshop Elements?

For one new brush that you’ve created, make sure it’s selected.  It will default to the category that was active when you created it.  So, if you have a category where you know you want the brush to go, activate it before creating the brush.  Then, click on the Brush Type drop down menu and click on the double arrows to select Save Brush.  Choose a name, and you have a new brush.

If you want to create a new category for your brush or brushes, first create the brushes with your Default category active.  Click on the Double Arrows and select Preset Manager.  Within the Preset Manager, select all the brushes that you want to put in a new category and select Save Set.   You want to save your brushes in this location:

• in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, look on your C drive/Program Files/Adobe/Your Version of Photoshop Elements/Presets/Brushes
• on Mac, look on your main (not user specific) Mac HD/Applications/Your Version of Elements/Presets/Brushes

For brushes that you loaded into Elements, while they’re active, click on the double arrow and select Save Brushes.  Navigate to the location above and name the collection of brushes something memorable.  Click Save and they will appear in their own category set the next time you open Elements.

Ok, I really think that’s enough on brushes, don’t you?  But if there’s something I left out, post a comment below!