Tips and tricks for restoring old photos and removing blemishes digitally
Meeting notes from 02-26-08
Tools needed:
A good scanner
For prints, almost any scanner will do pretty well, but if you are doing small photos, slides or negatives, you will probably want to go with a nicer Epson scanner such as the Epson Perfection 4490. These scanners offer transparancy scanning for slides and negatives as well as very high 4800 dpi resolution for well under $200.
Adobe Photoshop Elements is the standard photo editing software for consumers and many professionals. The latest edition offers many new features, but are those features worth upgrading from previous versions of the program?
First, there is no upgrade version but since the program can easily be found online for under $70, it won't hurt too bad if you do want to upgrade.
Photoshop Elements has been a solid program since its introduction. Previous consumer photo editing programs only allowed you to make alterations in steps, any fine tuning was out of the question. Elements changed all of that by offering so many professional level tools that many professionals made the switch.
Everyone always seems mystified by Photoshop's layers features.
While layers are very complex, I believe that they are often viewed as being more complicated than they actually are.
A layer is simply a picture or transparent layer placed on top of another picture. Think of it as placing clear plastic wrap on top of a photo. By creating a layer, you prevent any damage or change to the base photo.
Here is a quick list of terms that will help you figure it all out:
Layer Pallette: You can see all of your stacked layers in the Layers Pallette.
The Amazing Photoshop Elements Toolbox
There are so many wonderful things you can do with Photoshop Elements.
You will find many of our tips in our notes from previous meetings.
This time we will spend most of our time discussing the Magical Photoshop Elements Toolbox.
There are three kinds of tools in the Toolbox:
Hover your mouse over any area in the toolbox to see its name. Hold your left mouse button down over any tool with a little diagonal triangle at the bottom to see hidden tools with similar functions.
Selecting: These tools create "Marching Ants" that indicate that an area has been selected. Selection tools include the Marquee Tool, Lasso Tool, Magic Wand and Brush Selection Tool These are all found in the top 5th of the Toolbox.
Once and area is selected, any changes you make will only apply to the selected area.
Painting: These tools "paint" effects by holding down the left mouse button while moving the mouse in the area you want to change. Painting tools include the Paintbrush, Pencil, Erase, Red Eye, Blur, Sharpen, Sponge, Smear, and Clone Stamp tools.
All painting tools allow you to change the area that you are working on by adjusting the brush size and you can apply affects by making changes in the Options bar (tool bar under the file menu that changes when you select a tool).
Custom Tools: These are tools that don't fit into
The Magic of Digital Filters
In the world of film photography, filters are transparent coverings that are placed over a lens to enhance or alter the image.
Digital filters serve the same purpose, but in a much more dynamic and dramatic way.
DIGITAL FILTER: Almost all image editing programs contain filters although they may be called by a different name such as Effects or Adjustments.
We discussed Picasa 2 late last year, but since then I have discovered many more wonderful things that can be done with the program. In fact, I now use it more often than any other program for my day-to-day digital photography.
HOW TO GET PICASA:
1. 
Either click on this button, or go to www.picasa.com and click on the Free Download button.
What can you do with Picasa 2?
Picasa 2 is a free program made by Google that allows you to organize your photos without any effort on your part.
Besides organizing photos it also has some great creativity tools including gift CDs, slide shows, and blogging tools.
HOW TO GET PICASA:
1. Either click on this button, or go to www.picasa.com and click on the Free Download button.
Fun With Photoshop Elements
Photoshop Elements is great for making pictures look better, but there are a number of tools within Photoshop Elements that you may not know about. Some are practical, others are just fun.
Give layers beveled or glowing edges:
This is especially fun with text, but it can also be a handy skill for scrapbook pages or photo collages.
This technique works especially well with text – but you can do it to any layer (besides the background layer).
What’s New In Elements 3
Quirky Features:
Not all of the new features in Elements 3 are extremely useful. Although many of the new features are designed to help the beginner, they are too complicated to be of any use. Some of theses new quirky features include:
1. Create – The most useful of the quirky new features, this feature allows you to make slideshows, greeting cards, photo album pages and more. Don’t expect the versatility of a program like Print Shop though.
Basics of Layers
Here are some of the basics we discussed
at the Meeting
Layers are a feature of Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other more complex image editing programs which allow you to compile more than one image within an image.