Photoshop Elements – Advanced Concepts

Tasks

Painting Tools
  1. Use the Brush tool to paint a picture in a new document – experiment with colour, size, hardness, angle and opacity settings.
  2. Open clone01.jpg – Use this image to experiment with the other Painting Tools: Eraser, Blur / Sharpen, Sponge, Smudge, Dodge and Burn. Don’t save the image.
  3. File | Revert to go back to the original image– Now use the Clone Stamp Tool to fix the sky.

Advanced Selections
  1. Open selection01.jpg
  2. Try using the various Lasso tools to select the sky.
  1. Use Select | Deselect to remove previous selection.
  2. Now try selecting the sky with the ‘Magic Wand’.
  3. Use Select | Inverse to select the foreground.
  4. Cut and paste the selected foreground – this will place it on a new layer.
  5. Save the file as Selected.psd (Photoshop format)

Transformations
  1. Open transform01.jpg
  2. Using the Magic wand Tool with tolerance set to 65 to select the purple-rinsed sheep. This will require a few clicks to get the whole sheep selected.
  3. Use the Image | Transform | Free Transform (Ctrl + T) tool to rotate, move and resize the sheep.

Layers
  1. Open layers01.psd
  2. Move the Sheep in front of the tree layer
  3. Duplicate the Sheep layer
  4. Use Free Transform to rotate, move and resize the new sheep.
  5. Select the original Sheep layer and create a new layer - use a brush to draw something on this layer.
  6. Hide your new layer.
  7. Link the two sheep layers and merge them into one (Layers | Merge Linked).

Colour Correction
  1. Open cast01.jpg
  2. Open the info palette for reference and use Enhance | Color | Color Cast to fix the blue cast.
  1. Open saturated.jpg
  2. Use Enhance | Color | Hue/Saturation to reduce the reds to a more realistic level.
  1. Open selected.psd
  2. Select the foreground layer and use Enhance | Brightness/Contrast | Levels to correct the exposure.
  3. Close the image without saving.

Filters
  1. Open blur01.jpg
  2. Use Filter | Smart Blur to remove the speckled effect in the sky.
  1. Open noise01.jpg
  2. Use Filter | Noise | Add Noise to make the image look old and grainy.
  1. Open sharpen01.jpg
  2. Use Filter | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask to reduce the blurring on the image.

Adjustment Layers
  1. Open selected.psd and select the foreground layer.
  2. Add an adjustment layer (Levels) – adjust the levels as before.
  3. Now use the brush tool to remove the effect from the over-exposed area at the top of the hill.