Photoshop Video Series - A Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements

Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements Image

Welcome to our first tutorials on the subject of Photoshop Elements!

Photoshop Elements is a consumer level image editing programme.

Modelled around its bigger brother, Adobe Photoshop, Elements provides everything the home enthusiast could ever want! As well as being affordable, it’s pleasingly powerful and user friendly, which is reflected in its quick fix workspace built specifically for people either in a hurry, or new to the software, and it’s full blown editing environment for anybody wanting to take full advantage of some of the most powerful features in the image editing world.

In this free 10 part video series, we’ll look at the things you need to know to get off the ground. Starting with the organiser, I’ll show you how to create and maintain an efficiently structured image catalogue. A place you can visit and know the photograph you’re looking for is seconds away from being found.

Once you have a collection of carefully organised images, it’s time to make them look good using some of Elements most basic features. Step forward the Quick Fix and Guided Edit modes. Within a couple of minutes, and the same number of adjustments, these modes allow you to quickly fix some of the most common colour, tonal and contrast problems associated with modern day digital photographs. To say it all happens in a flash would be accurate, as well as a cheap pun of course!

With Element’s quick-fire solutions firmly stuffed into our image editing repitoire, we’ll move out of the shadows and into the full glare of Adobe’s spotlight. The full edit mode is a versatile, attractive and powerful workspace that sets the benchmark for consumer level image editing. I’ll start by introducing you to a few key concepts, before starting a project that sees us creating a poster for London Zoo.

As we progress, you’ll see how to adjust shadows and highlights, correct colours, and apply modifications to specific regions of an image whilst leaving the rest untouched. We’ll look at some basic selection techniques, as well as extracting a gorilla from his background and placing him into another photograph. From there we’ll adjust his size and blend him into his new background before removing blemishes and cropping unwanted background elements from the image.

To create the final poster we’ll add some text and effects to the composition and apply a pass of sharpening to bring out the hidden details locked away inside the image. The series closes with a look at how we can get the final version of the poster to a wider audience by preparing it for email and print.

All in all, this series comprises of over two hours of high-quality, in-depth videos that serve as a starting point to mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements.

To view a list of what’s covered in this series please click here.

Good luck

Also Available Now!!

A Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements 11

  • Completely revised for Photoshop Elements 11
  • Over 12 hours of training organised into 14 easy-to-navigate chapters
  • High quality 1024x768 videos
  • Project files accompany the course
  • Available via digital download and DVD

Click here to view the course

A Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements 11

 

Also Available Now!!

A Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements 9

  • Completely revised for Photoshop Elements 9
  • Over 11 hours of training organised into 18 easy-to-navigate chapters
  • High quality 1024x768 videos
  • Project files accompany the course
  • Available via digital download and DVD

Click here to view the course

A Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements 9 - Coming Soon!

 

Also Available Now!!

A Beginner's Guide to Fixing Photos in Photoshop Elements 10

This course explores the workflow of a photographer and examines many of the features and tools used to adjust digital images, from tinkering with brightness, contrast and colours through to correcting lens distortion and evaluating images using a histogram. If you work with photographs; this course is for you.

  • Over 5 hours of training organised into 6 easy-to-navigate chapters
  • Available via digital download or on DVD
  • Complete with project files, meaning you can follow along in your own time.
  • High quality 1024x768 videos

Available via digital download or DVD and on PC/Mac platforms.

Click here to view the course

A Beginner's Guide to Fixing Photos

 


Introducing Photoshop Elements Video Tutorial

The first time you open Photoshop Elements you’ll be greeted by the welcome screen. This serves as a portal into various workspaces such as the organizer and the editing modes. This video sets the tone for the following nine videos.


Importing and Organising Photos Video Tutorial

Many people think that the Organizer is a place to store and organize digital files, and it is, but it’s capable of so much more. From importing photos from your digital camera, to rotating them, adding keywords for easy reference, and the ability to store them neatly into stacks and albums, Photoshop Elements is the real-deal when it comes to organisation. There’s no reason on earth not to use it!


Touring the Quick Fix & Guided Modes Video Tutorial

If you’re new to Photoshop Elements then the Quick Fix and Guided Modes are for you! Designed as a gentle introduction to image editing, these modes offer a workspace that walks you through the process of improving digital photos with no more than a few simple movements of the appropriate sliders. Whether you’re correcting for color, dark shadows, bright highlights or a soft focus, these modes are the fastest way to see better looking images.


Quick Fix Mode in Action Video Tutorial

Having covered the theory of the Quick Fix mode in the previous video, it’s time to correct colour, brightness and focus of a real-world digital photograph. Almost all photographs taken on a digital camera require some degree of adjustment to make them look good, and quite simply put, the Quick Fix mode is going to be the fastest and easiest way to get the job done.


Touring the Full Edit Mode Video Tutorial

The Full Edit mode unleashes the full power of Photoshop Elements in the form of layers, a full set of tools, full ability to select and move pixels, color adjusting and retouching tools beyond the realms of your wildest dreams and much, much more. This is where things start to get interesting. Follow me on a virtual tour of the workspace and rest assured that by time we’re done, you’ll choose power over ease-of-use any day of the week.


Making Photos Look Their Best Video Tutorial

At first glance, it may seem that we’re revisiting the same things we looked at way back when we explored the Quick Fix mode, but on second glance, we’re correcting the same problems only this time with way more accuracy, detail and control. Instead of the one-slider solutions offered in Quick Fix mode, we’ll look at more robust options such as the levels command to fix brightness, contrast and colour issues, as well as confining our changes to certain areas using masks, keeping our edits non-destructive with adjustment layers and adding saturation to make the colours of a photograph appear more vivid. This is where the real power of photo correction makes its long overdue debut.


Selecting, Extracting, Moving, Transforming and Blending Video Tutorial

Anyone can make selections inside Photoshop, but it takes a good knowledge of the selection tools, and a little practice, to get on the road to mastering it. As we strive to achieve our ultimate goal – selecting and moving a gorilla into another photograph – we’ll visit the lasso tools, the marquee tools, quick selection, the magic wand and the magic extractor.  We’ll also employ the move tool to move selected elements around, the transform controls to resize the gorilla, and layer blending options to make the composition as realistic as possible. This is just the beginning to the art of image manipulation.


Retouching, Cropping and Adding Text Video Tutorial

Ever downloaded a photograph to find blemishes and minor imperfections bugging an otherwise perfect shot? Ever wanted a photograph of the real world….to look better than the real world? If you have, then be aware that Photoshop Elements comes equipped with cloning and healing brushes that can banish even the worse defects to the history palette, never to be seen again…..unless you want to of course! The crop tool can also be used to crop away details, or to focus in on what you want the viewer to see, and if that’s not enough of a hint, then you can hide or highlight a subject with text using your favourite fonts and colours.


Adding Effects and Sharpening Video Tutorial

Effects and filters can be used to correct or complement an image or individual layer by changing pixels in a predefined manner, subject to the controls inside the selected effect or filter.  Photoshop Elements has a wealth of these, allowing you maximum control to warp, twist, blur and distort until your heart’s content. This also brings us to the subject of sharpening – itself a filter – that brings the image into tighter focus by making details within the image stand out. It’s something that every image needs, and every image benefits from.


Saving, Sending, Printing and Backing Up Video Tutorial

Once you have the perfect image, chances are you’re going to want to show other people your work.  Photoshop Elements allows you to do this in a number of ways, whether by printing the image using a local inkjet printer, sending via email or placing on a web site or image hosting service. How you decide to ‘output’ the image will determine how you save it, what format, what quality settings, what size! You’ll need to know how to balance out the quality of the final image and achieve manageable file sizes for your output criteria all at the same time. And if you care about your photos, you’ll also want to know how to back them up and keep them safe. Luckily for you, Photoshop Elements can do all of that and much more!

Comments

Hi Sir,

I want to learn the complete Photoshop. will dis exercise helps me?

Matt's picture

Photoshop Elements Videos

Hello,

Yes, this course is a good start-to-finish look at the whole of Elements and will help you understand how the software works. 

If you like it, we have more detailed premium course based on a Photoshop Elements 9. For more information click the link above. 

Regards

Matt

 

Photoshop elements 8

Hi there, I just discovered you tutorials off youtube and It seems to be the one i am viewing is for elements 6, do you have a tutorial for elements 8 or can the two be used together?

Thank you,
Kimberly
gibbs3246@aol.com

Matt's picture

Elements 8

 Hello there,

Photoshop Elements 6 and 8 are very similar so you should be able to learn from videos recorded in either. There will some slight differences in look and feel, but nothing too taxing. You're welcome to post back here or ask questions in our forum if you get stuck. 

We do have a good selection of videos for Elements 8 also, they can be found in our 'All Tutorials' section from the top menu bar. 

Hope that helps

Matt

 

safe additions to your photo (safe in jpeg)

If you add fun stuff to your photo, example party hats frames, how do you safe it to be part of your photo as one in jpeg. the reason for the question is to be able to take the edit photo (album) to a photo shop for printing as they can only print if it is safed as jpeg.

Matt's picture

JPEG's are flat

Hi there,

I'd recommend saving three versions in this circumstance. Firstly, save the untouched JPEG so that you always have a backup of the image. Secondly, once you've completed your edits save the image as a PSD, so you can go back to the layers and amend them anytime you want. Finally, flatten the image, and save out as a JPEG. The important part there is to flatten before trying to save, because the JPEG format doesn't support layers.

Hope that helps

Matt

photoshopelements 8- windows-photoblending

Hi Mr. Matt,
I've been trying to photo blend for the last four weeks. I follow the steps like :
1. put two pics one on top of the other
2. add an adjustment layer
3. let this adjustment layer slide between layer one and background.
4 Click the clipping mask or do the Control G
5. select a brush tool
6. click on white area of level adjustment layer mask and with black foreground, color paint away the excess
Sir, I don't know why nothing is happening to my pics. HELP, please.... eugenia

Matt's picture

Layer Blending

Hi Eugenia,

It could be because the top layer is blocking the adjustments you're making to layers further down the stack.

If you have clipped the adjustment layer to the bottom layer, then no matter what you do, you will always see the top layer because it's 100% opaque. Have you got the top layer set to a particular blend mode? What effect are you trying to achieve?

Regards

Matt

blending 2 photos with gradient tool

HI Mr. Matt,
I can't do the blending with the gradient tool. I dragged one photo about an inch overlapping the other photo. Then I added the layer mask. Then the control D. I chose the right gradient square and the linear one and then dragged the gradient line an inch across the overlapped photos and nothing happened.The two photos would not merge. Please help. Eugenia

Matt's picture

Active Mask

Hi Eugenia,

You need to make sure the mask is active in the layers panel as opposed to the layer itself. Just click on it until you see a border around it.

Hope that helps

Matt

photo blending using layer masks

I'm sorry it took me this long to make a reply. I'm so glad you gave me some help and yet nothing is happening. In what blend mode should I be? the effect I want is to blend to photos seamlessly but although in the layer's panel the black and while effect would show but the blending does not show on my photo. I'm 78 yrs old but Photoshop keeps me going mentally and I just love it. I truly need your patience and help me with this. I have Photoshop Elements 8. Thanking you in advance.... Eugenia

Matt's picture

Panorama

Hi Eugenia,

No problems with the reply.

I see what you mean now, I think I was misunderstanding what you were doing.

78 years young huh? Glad to hear your enjoying Elements, a lesson to us all.

I have added the links to a couple of my video tutorials below, have a look at them as I am fairly certain they will help you. Let me know if I'm on track this time.

http://www.3photoshop.com/content/photoshop-video-tutorial-photomerge-pa...

http://www.3photoshop.com/panorama-video-tutorial-photoshop

Regards

Matt

resizing an image

hi matt just joined your site it is most helpful but my problem is (an i havent found an awnser yet )is i have a picture an i want to enlarge just a part of it i was shown once but forgot how not in to changing my photos so much yet mabie latter if you could help me in this one spot i would be most greatfull haven't got your dvd yet had to take care of some other business first but looking foward to getting it thanks for all the help

Matt's picture

Layers & Transform are the Key

Hi Michael,

Welcome to 3photoshop.com!

There are a few ways to enlarge a certain part of a photo - the easiest way would probably be to use layers and the transform commands.

Use a selection tool (marquee tools work a treat for this) to select the area you want to enlarge. Once you have it selected press CTRL J (CMD J on the Mac) to add the selected area to a new layer. Now with the new layer selected press CTRL T (CMD T on the Mac) and use the corner-handles to increase the size of the layer. Now go ahead and add a stroke around the new layer by using a layer style.

Is this what you meant, or did I get the wrong end of the stick?

Regards

Matt

enlarging a photo

i'm sorry to keep bothering you with this mabie this will help i have a pic that i shot with my camera of some birds taking a bird bath (ha ha )when i shot the pix with my 55 to 250 mm zoom lens i can see it but i want to enlarge that section of them. the way someone showed me was an this might not be quite right was they croped that section (an heres where it get fuzzy )made the canvis size larger then posted the crop section on the larger canvis does this sound close to right i really am greatfull for all the help on this

Matt's picture

The Crop Tool

Hi Michael,

Usually when cropping there's no need to copy to another document, you can do all the work inside the image you're working with. If you have to copy to another document, make sure the image size (size in pixles) is the same or similar to what you want. If the image is gettng fuzzy when you crop make sure you're cropping to the size you actually want.

Let me know if that helps or if you need anymore info. It may be easier if you send some screenshots to my email address.

Matt

Beginners guide - Photoshop Elements

Hi Matt
I have just bought Photoshop Elememts 8, and find your beginners tutorials very useful. I am still a bit confused about which format I should use for editing. Do you recommend to use photos in Jpeg or raw format?
Further more I'm just wondering if there is a beginners guide especially for Elements 8?

Many thanks for your help :)

Best wishes from Denmark

Ditte

Matt's picture

RAW vs JPEG

Hi Ditte,

Welcome to the site!

RAW or JPEG will depend upon your workflow.

JPEG is best if you want to shoot an image and do as little manual work as possible. The camera will add its own brightness/contrast adjustments, saturations boosts and sharpening. The image will also be smaller due to lossy JPEG compression.

RAW is best (usual for serious photographers) if you'd prefer to take a good shot, and then add the aforementioned adjustments manually inside of Photoshop Elements using the Camera Raw plugin. All images will need some sort of post processing by the photographer which means it's more laborious but ultimately more rewarding.

Most point-and-shoot cameras only shoot to JPEG, while the RAW format is reserved for DSLR and the like.

As far as Elements 8 go, I have the following free tutorials on the site-

http://www.3photoshop.com/category/photoshop-elements-8

I also have a full 11 hour series coming out shortly for Photoshop Elements 9, most of which will be completely relevant for Elements 8, you can find out more details here-

http://www.3photoshop.com/content/beginner-s-guide-photoshop-elements-9-...

Hope that helps?

Matt

Beginner Video Tutorial for PSE 7

Hi Matt,

I bought the above but cannot find the basic guidelines to learn the package, do you have the same (as advised to Ditte) for PSE 7 please?

Regards

De Wet

Matt's picture

Photoshop Elements 7

Hello there,

I'm afraid there are no videos available for Photoshop Elements 7, although the Elements 6 course above should be highly relevant.

If you need any specific help regarding a purchase please contact me using the following contact form-

http://www.3photoshop.com/contact

Many regards

Matt

Thank you

Thank you so much for your prompt reply :)
The tutorials are so easy to understand even for a Dane like me.
Just wondering if you have any tutorials about working with RAW format?
Think I will be using these, since I have the option - just have to find out how exactly to do this. It seems very easy when using JPEG format, but a bit more complicated using RAW.

Again thank you so much for your help - I really appreciate this.

Ditte

Matt's picture

Thumbs up to RAW

Hi Ditte,

No problem, glad I could help.

Unfortunately I do not have any specific tutorials relating to RAW at this time. I'll let you know if I create any in the future. RAW is a great option though, I'm sure you've made the right choice if your serious about capturing images.

Many regards

Matt

Elements 9

Hi

Does elements 9 enable instant upload to a website without manual resizing please.

Thanks

Steve K

Matt's picture

Uploading Photos with Elements 9

Hi Steve,

Yes but only to certain sites such as Facebook and Flickr.

Hope that helps

Matt

Im a complete Novice at Photoshop

Hi
I have just had a EOS1000D Cannon bought for me as my first digital camera.

I would love to now start editing and printing my own pictures but alas I dont know how.

So plse can u help me on this matter as I have not got a clue. Plus I also would appreciste some help and info on using my camera to the full.

I do hope that you can help me on this

Stevie G

Matt's picture

Photoshop Elements

Hi Stevie,

Have you watched my 'Beginner's Guide to Photoshop Elements' yet? It's a really good place to start. As far as your camera goes, I'm not planning to make any tutorials on hardware in the near future, sorry. Give the course a go and let me know what you think?

Regards

Matt

pse6 -- pse 8

Hi Matt

I refer to the series of videos available for purchase " A beginners guide to Photoshop Elements"

Does this series of videos apply to PSE6 only or will they also work for PSE8

Thanks and Regards
Vic

ps Love the series - great work and easy to understand

Matt's picture

Elements 6, 8, 9?

Hi Vic,

Thanks, I'm glad you like it and I'm pleased to hear you've found it helpful too.

The series for purchase is exactly the same as the free one above, the only difference is that the videos are larger and higher in quality. It was recorded in Elements 6 but are still applicable (in the most part) to Elements 8. I'm actually planning to rerecord this series for the next version of Elements (number 9 I believe) and add about an hour of content to the mix. I haven't heard when Elements 9 will be available but I'll probably start as soon as it's released.

Hope that helps

Matt

 

I see an incredible progress

I see an incredible progress in your posting, I'd love to get in touch. Keep up the perfect work! Your text is rather motivational for a person who is new to this kind of stuff.

cool fantastic website yea

cool fantastic website yea nice work our website will soon be adding reviews on blogs and add them to our blogs as the top best 1000 websites to visit we also do reviews on product recalls all types of reviews

beginners guide Photoshop Elements

Hi Matt, at last I am able to use PSE6 for Mac to it's full.Thanks for a great experience.Have you had a chance to use PSE8 yet? and could you advise me whether it is any use me upgrading for my Imac intel on snow leopard.I have Lightroom 2+ and full suite of Nik software for Lightroom/Aperture.Keep up the good work.Thanks.

Matt's picture

Upgrading Elements 6?

Hi there,

Thanks, I'm glad you found the course helpful.

Personally I would hold off upgrading from Photoshop Elements 6 to 8, there's bound to be another version flying out later in the year and the differences between the two aren't ground breaking. I also have Lightroom 2 (came free with my Sony Vaio) and love it, I use it to store and catelogue my entire photo collection.

Regards

Matt

Thank u

One thing i wanna say is thank u so much for finding time to make this videos..u have helped me so much...no other better place to learn photoshop than here..

Great Tutorial

Awesome videos! You explain PSE in a manner that makes it easy to understand and follow along.

Thanks!

Dennis

Texas

Thank YOU, Matt!!

Dear Matt,

I have wanted to learn Photoshop for years. I have purchased the software several times over the years, but would eventually DUMP IT, because as much as I tried to figure it out.............. I NEVER WAS ABLE TO.

It brought me so much frustration, but yet, the desire to do this, stayed.

I had thought about taking a class at our Community College, but really didn't have the time. I have seen many times the commercial to order V!d30 Professor, but, he is sooooo creepy that I kept putting him off. To make a very long story short.... I FOUND YOU!!!!

I am so happy that you have provided this for us (for me)!! I am just beginning, but I promise you I will be back many, many times.

YOU HAVE REALIZED MY DREAM TO CONQUER PHOTOSHOP. (I am not anywhere near that, but I now have HOPE where there was none.)

Thank you so very, very, very much!

Gaylyn
USA

PS......... I love your accent!!!! again, thank you!
I tried to find you on FACEBOOK, but couldn't. Are you there... I definately want to be your FRIEND! I really am appreciative about finding YOU.

Matt's picture

3photoshop on Facebook

Hi Gaylyn,

Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate you saying and I'm glad the videos were able to help you in your quest to learn Photoshop Elements. I really enjoyed making these videos and hope to update them one day to a more recent version of Elements (currently at 8 if I'm not mistaken).

In the meantime we have a Facebook page here and I'd be more than happy if you became a fan. I'm also a fan (and admin) of it so you should be able to find my personal account from there - I'm always happy to accept friend requests from fellow Photoshopers.

All the best

Matt

photoshop elements 6

I have been using photoshop elements 6 for over a year now, and i can safely say that i've learnt more in the last 2 hours than i did any time before :0). do you have any plans for more elements videos maybe an advanced course?

Mark

Matt's picture

Advanced Elements?

Hi Mark,

Thanks, glad to hear you're finding the videos helpful.

The Elements series has definitely proved to be popular, so there's definitely some potential there to make more, either a beginner's guide for another version, or maybe a 'taking control' or 'advanced' type course. It's certainly something that interests me, and there's plently of material to make it work. I may revisit later in the year.

Matt

Add comment

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p>
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You can use BBCode tags in the text. URLs will automatically be converted to links.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.