On the web there are literally hundreds of videos, web sites and resources that are willing to tell you all the secrets you need to know about Elements.

The book on the right is most probably one of the best I came across giving easy to understand to the point descriptions of how to use Elements like the PRO’s do.

Click on the book and you will get to one of the best web sites with hundreds of lessons that will help you become a master with Elements. They a little expensive on a annual basis and therefor its possible to subscribe on a monthly basis.

If you new to Photoshop Elements and you looking for a quick start that will help you to get going then my advice is to subscribe to Elements User for 1 year. It is less expensive than the first option and its also very good The difference is, its not as complete as the first option.

For as little as 50 USD you get a 1 year subscription that will set you up for life. Keep in mind I get no benefit from telling you these things, its not my uncle’s shop....

The Organizer

I do not want to spend to much time on the organizer other than saying its a great way of organizing, tagging and storing your valuable collection of pictures. For example you can have watched folders and what the organizer will do is, it will keep an eye on that folder and anything that’s added to that folder will be added automatically to the organizer.

From the organizer window you can start any action you like to do, whether that is editing, a video project, building a web site, preparing pictures for print, print yourself, making a calendar, the list is endless.

On the left is the layers pallet. This is most probably the most powerful area of the editor. Do whatever is necessary to understand the layers pallet and how its used to edit pictures.

By only working with and by only understanding the layers pallet or how to work with layers and you will be able to do amazing things with the Elements Editor.

Lets take a very basic example. Open one of your under exposed pictures in Photoshop Elements. On the layers pallet click on the layer that is now open and drag that layer into the top left button above the layers pallet. That will duplicate the bottom layer and you will now have two layers that looks the same. (Background and Background Copy)

Click on the drop down menu that says “Normal” and from the drop down menu select “Screen” You will see that the picture is now over exposed. Click on the 100% window next to Opacity and type a value of say 70% in there. Keep on changing this opacity value until the exposure is OK for you.

In a similar way one can duplicate an over exposed picture and by selecting “Multiply” instead of “Screen” it is possible to correct the picture’s exposure. So much more is possible when layers are well understood.

The next area one can spend time to better understand is all the different selecting methods in Photoshop. On the left of the editing area is the Tools Pallet and from there one can select the different selection tools.

I have included a number of free videos on the site that will help the new Photoshop Elements owner to get going. In addition to that I regularly add new techniques and concepts I believe will help the photographer new to Photoshop to better understand what to do.

I am hoping that in the months that come that we will be able to exchange interesting brushes and overlays like Herman does and that we will have a lot of fun with new ideas and new techniques.

To open the JPEG file in he RAW converter, select Open As from the File menu. In the Open As window select the JPEG file you like to edit and in the bottom drop down menu (Open As) select the Camera RAW option like in the picture to the right.

Click on open and the file will be opened in the RAW converter.

Brushes

This is another of Elements many tools that will help you to make something from your pictures. While back I wrote a small article on how to watermark your pictures.

The final watermark you use can be saved as a brush and every time you need to put a watermark on a picture you will select the brush and you will “brush” it onto the picture.

You can for example sign your normal signature on a tablet and that you can save as a brush. Every time you want to place your signature on a picture all you need to do is to select the brush.

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