The Photoshop Elements 15 Book for Digital Photographers

The Photoshop Elements 15 Book for Digital Photographers

by Scott Kelby
Released January 2017
Publisher(s): New Riders
ISBN: 9780134609553

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Book description

ARE YOU READY FOR AN ELEMENTS BOOK THAT BREAKS ALL THE RULES?

This book breaks new ground by doing something for digital photographers that’s never been done before–it cuts through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your own settings or figure things out on your own. Instead, it does something that virtually no other Elements book has ever done–it tells you flat-out which settings to use, when to use them, and why.

If you’re looking for one of those “tell-me-everything-about-the-Unsharp-Mask-filter” books, this isn’t it. You can grab any other Elements book on the shelf, because they all do that. Instead, this book gives you the inside tips and tricks of the trade for organizing, correcting, editing, sharp¿ening, retouching, and printing your photos like a pro. You’ll be absolutely amazed at how easy and effective these techniques are–once you know the secrets.


LEARN HOW THE PROS DO IT
Each year Scott trains thousands of digital photographers and, almost without exception, they have the same questions and face the same problems–that’s exactly what he covers in this book. You’ll learn:

· How to unlock the power of layers (you’ll be amazed at how easy it is!)

· How to use Camera Raw for processing not only RAW photos, but JPEGs, TIFFs, and PSDs too! (And you’ll learn why so many pros like it best–because it’s faster and easier)

· The sharpening techniques the pros really use (there’s an entire chapter just on this!)

· How to deal with common digital camera image problems, including brightening people in dark shadows and getting the best color possible

· The most requested photographic special effects, and much more!


THE BOOK’S SECRET WEAPON
Although Elements 15 offers some digital photography features that Photoshop CC doesn’t offer, there are plenty of features that Photoshop CC has that Elements 15 doesn’t (like channels, HDR, etc.). But in this book, you’ll learn some slick work¿arounds, cheats, and fairly ingenious ways to replicate many of those Photo¿shop features right within Elements. Plus, you can download a bonus chapter on portrait retouching and all the images used in the book, from the book’s companion webpage.

Since this book is designed for photographers, it doesn’t waste your time talking about what a pixel is, how to frame a shot or set your exposure, etc., and there’s no talk about which camera or printer to buy. It’s all Elements, step by step, cover to cover, in the only book of its kind, and you’re gonna love it!

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Other Books by Scott Kelby
  6. About the Author
  7. Contents
  8. Nine Things You’ll Wish You Had Known Before Reading This Book
  9. The Organizer: managing photos using the organizer
    1. Importing Your Photos
    2. Backing Up Your Photos to a Disc or Hard Drive
    3. Importing Photos from Your Scanner
    4. Changing the Size of Your Photo Thumbnails
    5. Seeing Full-Screen Previews
    6. Sorting Photos by Date and Viewing Filenames
    7. Change the Time & Date of Your Photos (Great, If You Travel)
    8. Finding Photos Fast by Their Month & Year
    9. Smart Tags and Enhanced Searching
    10. Tagging Your Photos (with Keyword Tags)
    11. Tagging Multiple Photos
    12. Assigning Multiple Tags to One Photo
    13. Tagging Images of People
    14. Albums: It’s How You Put Photos in Order One by One
    15. Choosing Your Own Icons for Keyword Tags
    16. Deleting Keyword Tags or Albums
    17. Seeing Your Photo’s Metadata (EXIF Info)
    18. Adding Your Own Info to Photos
    19. Finding Photos
    20. Finding Duplicate Photos
    21. Creating a Slide Show
    22. Reducing Clutter by Stacking Your Photos
    23. Places: Viewing Your Photos on a Map
    24. Sharing Your Photos
  10. Raw and Un-Kutt: the essentials of camera
    1. Opening Your Photos into Camera Raw
    2. Miss the JPEG Look? Try Applying a Camera Profile
    3. The Essential Adjustments: White Balance
    4. Seeing a Before/After in Camera Raw
    5. Letting Camera Raw Auto-Correct Your Photos
    6. My Editing Your Images Cheat Sheet
    7. Setting Your White Pointand Black Point
    8. Adjusting the Overall Brightness
    9. Adding Contrast
    10. Dealing with Highlight Problems (Clipping)
    11. Opening Up the Shadows (Like “Fill Light” on a Slider)
    12. Putting It All Together (A Quick Start-to-Finish Tweak)
  11. Beyond the Reach: camera raw—beyond the basics
    1. Editing Multiple Photos at Once
    2. Bring Out Detail and Texture Using Clarity
    3. Making Your Colors More Vibrant
    4. Sharpening in Camera Raw
    5. Reducing Noise in Noisy Photos
    6. Removing Red Eye in Camera Raw
    7. The Trick for Expanding the Range of Your Photos
    8. Black & White Conversions in Camera Raw
    9. Cropping and Straightening
    10. The Advantages of Adobe’s DNG Format for RAW Photos
  12. Scream of the Crop: how to resize and crop photos
    1. Basic Cropping
    2. Auto-Cropping to Standard Sizes
    3. Cropping to an Exact Custom Size
    4. Cropping into a Shape
    5. Fixing Problems with Perspective Crop
    6. Using the Crop Tool to Add More Canvas Area
    7. Auto-Cropping Gang-Scanned Photos
    8. Straightening Photos with the Straighten Tool
    9. Resizing Photos
    10. Resizing and How to Reach Those Hidden Free Transform Handles
    11. Making Your Photos Smaller (Downsizing)
    12. Automated Saving and Resizing
    13. Resizing Just Parts of Your Image Using the Recompose Tool
  13. Radio Edit: which mode do I use: quick, guided, or expert?
    1. Using Instant Fix to Quickly Edit Your Photos
    2. Photo Quick Fix in Quick Mode
    3. Special Effects in Guided Mode (the Only Time to Use It)
    4. A Quick Look at Expert Mode (It’s Not Just for Experts!)
  14. Layers of Light: working with layers
    1. Layer Basics
    2. Using Multiple Layers
    3. Everything Else About Layers
    4. Layer Blend Modes for Photographers
    5. The Power of Layer Masks
  15. Problem Child: fixing common problems
    1. Adjusting Flesh Tones
    2. Using the Smart Brush Tool to Select and Enhance Skies at the Same Time
    3. Adding Contrast and Drama to Cloudy Skies
    4. Removing Digital Noise
    5. Focusing Light with Dodging and Burning
    6. Removing Haze from Your Photos
    7. Opening Up Shadow Areas That Are Too Dark
    8. Fixing Areas That Are Too Bright
    9. When Your Subject Is Too Dark
    10. Automatic Red-Eye Removal
    11. Instant Red-Eye Removal
    12. Fixing Problems Caused by Your Camera’s Lens
    13. Saving Blurry Photos Using the Shake Reduction Filter
    14. The Elements Secret to Fixing Group Shots
  16. Natural Selection: selection techniques
    1. Selecting Square, Rectangular, or Round Areas
    2. Saving Your Selections
    3. Softening Those Harsh Edges
    4. Easier Selections with the Quick Selection Tool
    5. Making Really Tricky Selections, Like Hair (and Some Cool Compositing Tricks, Too!)
  17. Remove: removing unwanted objects
    1. Removing Spots and Other Artifacts
    2. The Amazing (and Easiest) Way to Remove Distracting Stuff from Your Photos
    3. Moving Things Without Leaving a Hole Using Content-Aware Move
    4. Automatically Cleaning Up Your Scenes (a.k.a. The Tourist Remover)
  18. Special Edition: special effects for photographers
    1. Effects and Presets Galore in Quick Edit Mode
    2. Creating a Picture Stack Effect
    3. Putting a Photo Inside Text
    4. Creating an Effects Collage
    5. Enhancing Depth of Field (or Faking That 85mm f/1.4 Look)
    6. Trendy Desaturated Skin Look
    7. High-Contrast Portrait Look
    8. Converting to Black and White
    9. Panoramas Made Crazy Easy
    10. Burned-In Edge Effect (Vignetting)
    11. Creating the Selective Color Effect
    12. Neutral Density Gradient Filter
    13. Getting the Instagram Look
    14. Fake Duotone
  19. Sharp Tale: sharpening techniques
    1. Basic Sharpening
    2. Creating Extraordinary Sharpening
    3. Edge Sharpening Technique
    4. The Most Advanced Sharpening in Elements
    5. Advanced Sharpening Using Adjust Sharpness
  20. Print: printing, color management, and my Elements 15 workflow
    1. Setting Up Your Color Management
    2. You Have to Calibrate Your Monitor Before You Go Any Further
    3. Getting Pro-Quality Prints That Match Your Screen
    4. Sharpening for Printing
    5. Making the Print
    6. What to Do If the Print Still Doesn’t Match Your Screen
    7. My Elements 15 Photography Workflow
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Photoshop Elements 15 Book for Digital Photographers
  • Author(s): Scott Kelby
  • Release date: January 2017
  • Publisher(s): New Riders
  • ISBN: 9780134609553