I purchased this program last year after downloading a Free Trial Version online. It worked great for editing and printing my notecards and that's really all I needed at the time. After the trial period ran out, I was sent an email offering a discount on the full program so I bought it. It cost about $75.00 plus tax and shipping at the time. Now, I don't pretend to begin to know what all the features are or how to use them but I have another cat fantasy piece in mind so I thought I'd see what I could do with the Elements editing features. There's a lot of online tutorials available but they tend to make my eyes glaze over reading them so I just started playing around.
Here's a brief and rather sketchy tutorial of my experiences. From the bottom to the top.....
(1. This is the main editing window. It functions much like any other editing program. You retrieve your selected image from 'File'.
(2. This is my first image which I've rotated for editing purposes.
(3. Select 'Auto Select Layer'. Why? I don't know other than you DON'T want to create a locked layer. That will greatly limit your editing options.
(4. I wanted to create a watery, wavey reflection of a cat's face so I chose 'Liquify' from the 'Effects' menu. Be sure to click on 'Apply' at the lower right hand corner to initate. This will take you to another window. You'll see a circle which will take the place of your cursor arrow. That's your brush which you can adjust under the 'Tools Option' at the right of the screen.
(5. I ran my 'brush' back and forth across the image, giving it the look I was after. When the right look was achieved I clicked 'OK' which took me back to the original window. I then saved this altered image in My Pictures.
(6. I used another editing program to put this new altered image and another I had drawn together to see how well I did.
Voila! Well, it's kind of crude but I'm still learning. I hope this helps someone who's as PS challenged as I am.
(2. This is my first image which I've rotated for editing purposes.
(3. Select 'Auto Select Layer'. Why? I don't know other than you DON'T want to create a locked layer. That will greatly limit your editing options.
(4. I wanted to create a watery, wavey reflection of a cat's face so I chose 'Liquify' from the 'Effects' menu. Be sure to click on 'Apply' at the lower right hand corner to initate. This will take you to another window. You'll see a circle which will take the place of your cursor arrow. That's your brush which you can adjust under the 'Tools Option' at the right of the screen.
(5. I ran my 'brush' back and forth across the image, giving it the look I was after. When the right look was achieved I clicked 'OK' which took me back to the original window. I then saved this altered image in My Pictures.
(6. I used another editing program to put this new altered image and another I had drawn together to see how well I did.
Voila! Well, it's kind of crude but I'm still learning. I hope this helps someone who's as PS challenged as I am.
10 comments:
I so wish I had the time and patience to become proficient in Elements or Photoshop. I have them both and use only the most basic features.
i've got the time but lack the patience, Jeanette. i learn much faster by seeing and doing and those online tutorials are hard to decipher. just last night i was able to distort the same image to give it better perspective but you think i could do it again tonite? no! no way, no how.
Billie, I am learning Elements the same way you are...trial and error. Someday the trial part works and other days I feel like I just end up with lots of error! And I've also figured out how to do certain things only to forget again later. Have fun playing with your new idea!
Wouldn't it be fun to be in a room with each other learning it at once.
I have PS and don't know the half of it.
Good practice what you shared with us.
Great tutorial, Billie! There is so much hidden in PhotoShop and Elements that I swear it would take a year to learn them completely. I bought a PhotoShop magazine once with a tutorial disk - great buy!
Stacy, it sure IS trial and error! i'm not sure if it's me or the program sometimes. i swear...i write down exactly what i did the time before and the next time it doesn't work! i'm pretty sure it's probably me but, oh well..........
Yes it would be fun to tackle this together, Robin.:D Four heads are better than one. LOL
Anita, care to make a copy of that disc and send it my way?
Billie, how cool! I have this program but only use it to crop and enhance but I will have to read this carefully to try a little challenging effects. Thank you for sharing!
Mary, check out Katherine T.'s blog. she's also posted an Elements tutorial.
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