Photoshop Elements is usually treated as a dumbed-down Photoshop aimed solely at beginners, but while it is true that many of its features are designed for novices, it still has an Expert mode where you get many of the editing tools and features that make Photoshop itself so effective.
Sometimes you have to use a workaround – Elements does not have a proper Curves dialog, for example – but often you can do the same things with Elements that you might have thought you needed Photoshop for.
I haven’t used it for a while because I currently use Adobe’s Photography Plan, which comes with Lightroom and Photoshop, but for those who don’t want or don’t like Adobe’s subscription plan – and I know there are plenty of you who don’t – then Elements might just be a better subscription-free alternative than perhaps you realise.
So here are a few Elements tutorials from the back-catalog and maybe one day I will add some more.
Photoshop Elements Gradient Maps can create a wide range of effects from black and white conversions to sepia toning and colour tints, so how do they work? Gradient maps take the brightness values in the picture and ‘map’ them on … Continue reading Three things you can do with a Photoshop Elements Gradient Map
Have you ever used a ‘mist’ filter with your camera? These are pretty weak – they usually produce an overall hazy glow to your pictures that doesn’t look that realistic. But there is a way to create ‘mist’ effects in … Continue reading Create a mist effect in Elements with blend modes and masks
What I like about Photoshop Elements is firstly that it’s a fraction of the price of Photoshop (and available as a ‘perpetual licence’) and secondly that it’s quite capable of carrying out almost all the image adjustments I want to … Continue reading Get greener landscapes with an Elements adjustment layer
Elements does have some limitations compared to Photoshop. One of these is the difference in the Shadows/Highlights tools. So is there a workaround? Yes there is… The Shadow/Highlights tool in Photoshop is designed to even up the tones in high-contrast … Continue reading Better Shadow/Highlight adjustments in Elements
