Like me, some of you photo and movie editing fans may have added Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 6.0 or Premiere Elements package to your recent PC purchase. Heck, maybe you got both – I did with my new XPS M1330. With so many photo editing programs available, some of which seem to require a PhD to operate, I held reservations of my own about what I was getting in to. Look, I’m just like any other average Joe … I’m so lazy that instruction manuals meet the trash at introduction. In my book everything needs to be as simple as the George Forman grill, but turn out as one of Emeril Lagasse’s own wonderful creations.
Don’t get me wrong…there’s a slight learning curve to these programs, but be patient. For the most part once you grasp the basics you’ll find yourself creating a portfolio of friends and family your peers will adore. Adobe’s helpful Learning Reference page is a must have bookmark if you own either of these programs. They’ve created very brief easy-to-follow tips, tricks, videos, etc…All perfect for a guy like me that has the attention span of a first grader.
I haven’t dug in to Premiere Elements yet, so no home movie tips to share right now…If that’s more your speed check out their instructional podcast page. I’ll get there eventually, but I’ve been busy enough just having fun editing photos of friends, family and objects.
I’m not a big camera buff, but for those who are you should keep tabs on a cool blog by David Pogue at the New York Times called Pogue’s Post. He reviews the latest and greatest camera hardware on a regular basis.
Below check out a few things:
- Adobe Learning Resource site
- Adobe’s SEE HOW movies
- Quick steps to:
a. Converting images to Black and White
b. Changing the color of particular objects within a photo
I’ve attempted to outline a few basic steps I used to tweak a few fun photos. And yes, the little girl shown further below is my niece so I’m biased in saying she’s possibly the cutest kid ever!
So, get started and come back and tell us if this was helpful. Again, best place to begin is to check out the Adobe Learning Resource page.
Scroll roughly half way down until you come to “SEE HOW” movies
(Snippet shown below). From here select an instructional video that most interests you.
Here are two fairly quick steps I’ll list for you just to get started…One’s to alter a color image to black and white, and the second is changing colors of particular objects in a picture.
Converting color photos to black and white is incredibly simple!
Check out an image I altered of my beautiful niece in just a few short steps:
First, check out the color to black and white conversion instructional video.
From here it’s just a few quick steps:
- Open your Adobe Elements Photoshop 6.0 application
- Click file, then choose a photo from where your images are housed
- Once open, click the Enhance tab
- Select Convert to Black and White
- Here you have a couple options. If you like the black and white contrast Adobe has defaulted to then, voila, you’re done. If Picasso is in your veins feel free to experiment with the Intensity adjustment tabs, or even select different picture profiles on the left.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Altering Image Object Colors
Next, check out how I altered the color of the flower’s petals. Again, first check out the instructional video.
Quick steps:
- Open your Adobe Elements Photoshop 6.0 application
- Click file, then choose a photo from where your images are housed
- Once open, click the Edit (highlighted in Orange) on the Right hand side of the page, then select Quick. Snippet shown here:
- Click on the Selection Tool on the left side of your screen, shown here:
- Drag the selection tool around the desired area in the photo you want altered. You’ll see dashed lines in motion. From here, you’re ready to tweak the colors any way you like using these easy adjustment tools
BEFORE:
AFTER:
May 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Very nice writeup Matt……
Peace
May 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
You’ve been spying on my computer haven’t you.
I just installed these programs a week or so ago. Great tips, you can also use the quick select tool to remove the backgounds on pictures. If I could only get an overlay to work properly It would be great.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:46 am
[…] Photography PhD Not Required (Dell Blogs) — Matt Parretta (May.15.2008) looks at a couple of easy-to-use phoo and video editing applications from Adobe, including Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Premiere Elements, and links to Adobe’s helpful Learning Reference page. […]