Photoshop Elements Tutorial – Running Actions Part 2

by Erin on December 16, 2008 · 0 comments

This page contains part two of the CoffeeShop PowderRoom 2 Tutorial and covers the White Teeth layer of the action.

White Teeth

Click on the White Teeth Layer in your Layers Palette to activate it. The active layer will be darker than the others. There will be two icons on this layer. The black box is the layer mask and it will not work unless there is a white outline around it.

Activate White Teeth Layer in Photoshop Elements
Zoom in to enlarge the teeth. (I zoom in until the teeth are as large as they can be without losing detail due to pixelization.
Activate the Brush Tool by typing B or by clicking on the Brush Tool Icon in the Toolbox. If your Brush Icon has a swirl or colored box on it, or it looks like a pencil, right click on the icon and select Brush tool rather than one of the other options.
Use the Brush Options bar near the top of your workspace to adjust brush type, size, blending mode and opacity.

Photoshop Elements Brush Options
To select the Brush, pull down the drop-down menu on the left. Rita suggests using a soft brush. The one I use is the Soft Round Brush in the Default Brushes category. When you hover your mouse over the brushes, you will see their names.

Photoshop Elements Brush Selection
The number under the picture of the brush is its size in pixels. I selected the 5 pixel Soft Round Brush, then reduced the size of the brush to 4 pixels using the Options Bar. (You will know whether you have a good size by moving the brush over the teeth that you want to whiten. The brush should be smaller than each tooth and small enough that you can follow the curves of the tooth without touching gums or lips. Adjust the size using the size slider in the Options Bar.)
Make sure that the Blending Mode is set to Normal. If your Blending Mode is not Normal, click on the arrow to pull down this menu. (See Brush Options image above.) Normal is the first option at the top of the list; however, sometimes you can’t see it and the scroll bars to move up and down tend to disappear. If you can’t see Normal, use the up arrow on your keyboard to navigate to the top of the list.
Set the Brush Opacity to approximately 10% (I used 13%). A higher number means that more of your changes will be apparent. A little goes a long way here.
Change the colors to Default black and white by typing D, then change the foreground color to white by typing X. See the Toolbox image above for a visual on this.
Using your mouse as a paint brush, sweep over each tooth individually to whiten. Use small brush strokes and Undo (control Z or Edit Menu) if you go outside the lines. You could also change your brush to black and paint over any changes that you want to delete. If you want to ditch all your changes and start over, go to the Edit Menu, select Fill Layer, and select Black from the drop-down menu in the Contents box. Set the Blending Mode to Normal and opacity to 100%, then click OK.
You might get better results by applying two or more “coats” of paint. (I used two.)
After you are satisfied with the painting, you can adjust the entire layer’s opacity to make the adjustments more or less visible by using the Opacity Slider at the top right hand corner of the Layers Palette, if needed.

Photoshop Elements Adjust Layer Opacity