Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Image Enhancement: Quick Edit & Guided Edit Mode

Hi, everybody--Mike Brown back again; welcome back to Educator.com's Adobe Photoshop Elements Beginning and Intermediate course!0000

We have dealt with bridges to get the images ready to work on; we have looked at the entire workspace (in detail) of the Expert mode; we have talked about sharpening; now, it's time to get working on images!0006

In this lesson, we're going to do easy image enhancement with the Quick Edit mode and the Guided Edit mode.0018

Three modes are up here: we're in the Expert mode right now; let's take a look at Quick Edit.0026

Open up the Photo Bin; we'll pick this picture to work on; and we have options for view: Before, After, Before and After, Horizontal, or Vertical.0031

I like it this way--horizontally.0041

A limited Toolbox: Zoom tool, Hand tool, a selection tool (which we will use in a moment), Redeye to fix red eye in flash shots, Teeth whitener (just brush it over and it takes the yellow away, just like your toothpaste); Text if you want to add text; Spot Healing, and Cropping: basics.0045

On this side, we have sharpening, color, two color controls, two exposure controls, and smart overall fix that does everything.0063

Remember, sharpening first; exposure second, because exposure affects color: you will notice, with a stop sign at noon, it's very bright red; as the day goes on, and it gets darker, the color changes; that is because the exposure is going down.0074

So, you want to make exposure changes first, because, if you do the color first, then change the exposure, the color will change, and you'll have to do it again.0088

Exposure first, color second (of course, sharpening first, exposure second, color third).0097

Let's take a look at sharpening; and this is the way everything is in Quick mode--you have a slider; you also have...the curved arrow is the starting point; the blue bounding box is the level of whatever you're selecting when you click on it.0102

The white is just hovering, and you notice that the slider moves--so, if I move the slider back to here, that is just putting a little bit in.0118

I know that this image doesn't need sharpening, so we're just going to go ahead and leave it at 0, and we will start with exposure.0126

What I'm going to do is take the levels--we'll start with the shadows, and we'll just hover; and you notice, it's opening up the shadows a little bit or a little bit more...I kind of like that--I'll take the mid-tones.0134

Let's go back to those shadows and make sure it was there; that is where I wanted it; mid-tones--you want to bring the mid-tones down a little bit--there we go.0150

The highlights--we're just fine on the highlights; so you can see, before and after, it's more vibrant; so we'll just go ahead and take that.0162

I'm going to go hit the exposure right now and just darken it, just...maybe pop it...there we go; a little more exposure...right there.0170

Take that; click; we have it; and you can always revert by doing this back to the very beginning, as they are adding up, step by step.0181

Now, we're going to go to the color balance, and instead of saturation, which is just going to overkill everything (we'll just do that at 0), we're going to go to Vibrance, and just up the vibrance a little bit--that looks pretty good.0190

We did--no sharpening necessary--we did exposure, color--and there it is; we have gone from there to there that quickly!0206

Let me show you one more image--a very quick job on it; we're going to take this flower image, and I want to select everything in the image except the flower.0214

We're going to take our Quick Selection tool, get the brush size up a little bit, and select around; don't touch the flower; we're going around the background.0224

Notice how easily and quickly that tool is selecting; it got the entire flower, just about; we'll come up and add a little bit, take the brush size down, and add this little piece in.0236

There we have that; we'll go to the Refine Edge dialogue box; it should (let me see why it's not)...that's all right; we'll leave that alone.0250

We have our selection of the outside; now, we're going to go to the levels, and we're going to take the shadows and open up the shadows a little bit; take the mid-tones and bring them down just a little bit...0259

Look at that--it adjusted that really nicely; we'll accept that.0278

Go to the exposure; do just a little bit of work on it, like that; that's fine.0285

Now we'll go to the color, hit that Vibrance again, and run up the Vibrance on the green, and take that, and that is all there was to it!0292

Deselect; we have gone before and after; and that selection protected the rose, and we did the entire outside, just like that!0303

Quick Edit--all you have to do is move the slider or the boxes or the auto, and that is all there is to it.0312

All right, let's go to the Guided Edit; I want to back out of everything that has been in there; and let's open up another image.0319

Guided Edit is exactly what it says (of course, Quick Edit is what it said--quick--the idea here is, you do some quick fixes and get the photos out and gone); Guided Edit walks you through everything.0327

This image is a little dark, so we would like to do some exposure and maybe a little sharpening; we'll take a look at the sharpening, if we need any--let's do Before and After.0340

Move the image over; just a little sharpening...and here, it walks you through how to do it; you either Auto Fix...we'll just take the slider up just a little bit, and that looks good--we're done with the sharpening!0352

It's going to tell you everything you need to know.0367

Now, we're going to go with exposure, and we're going to take the levels, and it tells you--I'm just going to go ahead and do it, but it walks you through the instruction in how to work it--even roll over a box to see before and after, how to adjust the sliders...0370

I'm going to create the adjustment: I know how to work it.0387

It said to put those sliders right up to the histogram, so we'll take the bright and move it over to there; notice how it brightened it up.0391

We'll take the shadow area and open it up a little bit, get the detail on her, and click OK.0398

We are done with the color, and now all I want to do is maybe enhance the color slightly by changing the hue down a little bit.0407

Let's see what Auto Fix does; it didn't do anything, so we're going to undo that.0419

We'll take the hue to the left, and it makes it just a little warmer--maybe -4; a little bit better; before and after; we're done!--just that simple.0425

Let me show you--it walks you through everything in here; it gives you instructions on how to do it; very, very simple.0436

I want to do one more thing, which is called Recompose; here we have the Recompose, and what it allows you to do is take areas in an image and paint over them to protect.0446

In this case, what I would like to do is squish the image and not affect her; so all I have to do is paint around her, taking a little extra area, and we're going to fill that in.0459

Everything that is colored will be protected when we change the dimensions of the image; we're not making it larger or smaller--we're going to squish the image.0480

OK, she is now (we have to get that hand) protected, and it tells you, "Drag the image handles on the sides to recompose the photo," so all I have to do is grab it and move it, and look what it did.0492

See how it squished it?0507

I'm not going to click OK because it takes a while--this is a very large image--but you see exactly what it did: she didn't change, and yet the image has become squished.0509

If I clicked OK, it would calculate that; and it is gone from here to here; we're just going to cancel out of that one.0518

Now, you have seen a whole bunch of other stuff that you can do right in there.0526

But now, we'll go down...also, photo effects can be added, just by clicking a button; we'll click the orton effect, and we roll over, and there is where it was, and there is where it is--kind of a blurry thing.0531

We'll add the orton effect, and we'll blur it down just a little bit...add some noise to it...and adjust the brightness, and you have changed the image.0543

We'll cancel that and make an old-fashioned photo; you have all of the options, and again, it walks you through all of the items in here.0554

Let's do one more--a lomo camera effect--just by clicking the button and applying a vignette.0563

With two clicks, you have a very in-vogue, high-style image; we'll cancel out of that.0571

You have all of these options; and then, we'll take one more here: let's open up the flower again, and you have these walk-through items that you can create.0578

Let's do a pop art.0589

You have choice A, choice B...we'll take choice A, and it says "Convert your image to a bitmap?"...OK, I'll do that...add a color fill adjustment layer...duplicate the image...and it's done--just like that!0591

Isn't that cool?--So, Guided Edit gives you all sorts of options for making cool things and doing cool photo effects, and also adjusting all sorts of stuff on your image, by walking you through every single item that you want to do--very, very easy stuff.0609

Now, let's go back to the Expert mode and back here; that was a run-through of the Quick Edit mode and the Guided Edit mode--easy ways to make an image overall...0633

Again, it's an overall adjustment for most of it; the Quick Edit does allow you to do a minimal amount of selection.0649

This is good for: if you don't know how to do something--go to the Guided Edit; if you want to do a really quick fix that is not highly detailed in precision, use the Quick Edit.0655

That is the Quick Edit mode and the Guided Edit mode in Photoshop Elements 11.0665

In the next lesson, we'll get started on all the features of doing precise and wonderful things, with great precision and great detail, to your images, in the Expert Edit mode in Photoshop Elements 11.0673