Chapter 19. Beyond the Basics

So far, everything in this book has been about what you can do with Elements right out of the box. But as with many things digital, there’s a thriving cottage industry devoted to souping up Elements. You can add new brushes, shapes, layer styles, actions, and fancy filters. Many of these add-ons are designed to make Elements behave more like Photoshop. Best of all, a lot of what’s out there is free.

This chapter looks at some of these extras, teaches you how to manage the stuff you collect, and explains how to know when you really need the full version of Photoshop instead. You’ll also learn about the many resources available for expanding your knowledge of Elements beyond this book.

Graphics Tablets

Probably the most popular Elements accessory is a graphics tablet, which lets you draw and paint with a pen-like stylus instead of a mouse. This kind of tablet isn’t a computer like an iPad or Galaxy; it’s more like a souped-up substitute for a mouse: You control the onscreen cursor by drawing directly on the tablet’s surface—an action that many artists find offers them greater control. If trying to use the Lasso tool with a mouse makes you feel like you’re trying to write on a mirror with a bar of soap, then a graphics tablet is for you.

Most tablets work like the one shown in Figure 19-1, where you use the stylus on the tablet just as you would a mouse on a mousepad. Any changes you make appear right on your monitor.

A Wacom Bamboo tablet in action.The working area is inside the rectangle on the tablet’s surface. The buttons and ring at the top of the tablet let you do things like zoom and scroll.For basic photo retouching, a small tablet is usually fine. If you want to do more drawing and like to make sweeping strokes when you draw, then you may want a larger model.You can also buy tablets that let you use your fingers on them, like a laptop trackpad. But for photo editing, you’ll be happier with one that comes with a pen-like stylus, since the stylus lets you be more precise when doing things like making selections.
Figure 19-1. A Wacom Bamboo tablet in action. The working area is inside the rectangle on the tablet’s surface. The buttons and ring at the top of the tablet let you do things like zoom and scroll. For basic photo retouching, a small tablet is usually fine. If you want to do more drawing and like to make sweeping strokes when you draw, then you may want a larger model. You can also buy tablets that let you use your fingers on them, like a laptop trackpad. But for photo editing, you’ll be happier with one that comes with a pen-like stylus, since the stylus lets you be more precise when doing things like making selections.

Note

Some deluxe-model graphics tablets act as monitors and let you work directly on your image—but you need to budget close to $1,000 for that kind of convenience.

For most people, it’s much easier to control fine motions with a tablet’s stylus than with a mouse. And when you use a tablet, many of Elements’ brushes and tools become pressure sensitive—the harder you press, the darker and wider the line becomes. So a stylus lets you create much more realistic brushstrokes, as shown in Figure 19-2.

Two almost identical brushstrokes, starting with fairly hard pressure and then easing up. Both were made using the same brush and color settings. The only difference is that the stroke on the left was drawn with a mouse, and the one on the right came from a tablet stylus.You can see what a difference the pressure sensitivity makes.
Figure 19-2. Two almost identical brushstrokes, starting with fairly hard pressure and then easing up. Both were made using the same brush and color settings. The only difference is that the stroke on the left was drawn with a mouse, and the one on the right came from a tablet stylus. You can see what a difference the pressure sensitivity makes.

When using the Brush tool, you’ll see a Tablet Settings button in the Tool Options area that lets you access the tool’s tablet-related options. These settings let you choose whether to let the pressure control the size, opacity, roundness, hue jitter, and scatter for the brushes. (See Picking and Using a Basic Brush for more about brush settings.) Many of Elements’ brushes and tools are automatically pressure sensitive when you hook up a tablet.

With a tablet, you can also create hand-drawn line art—even if you don’t have an artistic bone in your body—by placing a picture of what you want to draw on the surface of the tablet, and then tracing over it. And, if you find constant mousing troublesome, you may have fewer hand problems when using a tablet’s stylus. Most tablets also come with a wireless mouse that works only on the surface of the tablet. Or you can use your regular mouse on a mousepad or on your desk the way you always do, and just switch back and forth between the stylus and the mouse.

Tablets now start at less than $100, a big drop from what they used to cost. There are lots of different models, and their features vary widely. If you’re choosing one of these entry-level tablets, be sure to select a model that is meant to be used with graphics programs—some tablets are intended more for use with programs like word processors and spreadsheets. Sophisticated tablets, which are more expensive, offer more levels of sensitivity and can even respond when you change the angle at which you’re holding the stylus.

Wacom, one of the big tablet manufacturers, has some pretty nifty tablet demos on its website (www.wacom.com). You can’t actually simulate what it’s like to use a tablet, but the animations give you a good idea of what life would be like if you were to go the tablet route.

Stuff from the Internet

You have to spend some money if you want a graphics tablet, but there’s a ton of free (and not free) Elements-related stuff available online: tutorials, brushes, textures, layer styles, and so on. (Most of these add-ons say they work with Photoshop, but since Elements is based on Photoshop, you can use most of them in Elements, too.) Here are some popular places to go treasure hunting:

If you’re willing to pay, you’ve got even more choices. You can find everything from more elaborate ways to sharpen photos to really cool collections of special edges and visual effects. Prices range from “donationware” (pay if you like it) to hundreds of dollars for sophisticated plug-ins.

Note

Elements 13 is based on Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud), so CC add-ons are compatible with it. Plug-ins and other goodies designed for older versions of Photoshop or Elements usually work with newer versions, but not the other way around. For example, a brush made for Photoshop CC works in Elements 13 but not in Elements 3. Also, remember that Mac plug-ins don’t work in Windows, and vice versa, but many plug-ins offer two versions, one for each operating system.

When downloading a plug-in, check with the developer to make sure it will work with Elements 13, especially if it costs money. If you’re using Windows 7 or 8, check the plug-in’s compatibility with them, as well. Mac folks, keep in mind that there’s no way to run Rosetta (the old system that let you run software written for PowerPC Macs) anymore, so any plug-ins you buy need to be Intel-native. (This shift away from Rosetta doesn’t have any effect on actions, layer styles, shapes, brushes, and gradients—only plug-ins.) So most plug-ins that are more than a few years old won’t work with Elements 13.

With so many goodies available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to keep track of everything you’ve added to Elements. Your best bet is to make backup copies of anything you download so you’ll have it if you ever need to reinstall Elements. Elements also includes a Preset Manager (Figure 19-3) that can help you keep track of certain kinds of downloads. To launch it, in the Editor, go to Edit→Preset Manager.

Note

If you download actions, check to be sure that they’re compatible with Elements 13. It’s safest to use actions written specifically for Elements, but actions for Photoshop will work as long as they don’t include steps Elements doesn’t understand. (Incidentally, many of the add-on tools you can download are based on actions.)

Elements’ Preset Manager is a nifty feature that lets you see all your brushes, swatches, gradients, layer styles, patterns, and effects in one place.You can use it to change which groups are loaded, add or remove items, and so on—the same way you would when using the Brush tool.
Figure 19-3. Elements’ Preset Manager is a nifty feature that lets you see all your brushes, swatches, gradients, layer styles, patterns, and effects in one place. You can use it to change which groups are loaded, add or remove items, and so on—the same way you would when using the Brush tool.

Tip

In Windows, you have to turn on hidden files to see some of Elements’ folders. Just go to Control Panel→Appearance and Personalization→Show Hidden Files and Folders.

You can do a ton with Elements, but some people need the full version of Photoshop instead. For example, if you want to write your own actions, or if you have to work extensively in CMYK mode, then you need Photoshop.

When you send a file to a print shop, the printer usually tells you it needs to be a CMYK file. CMYK is the color mode used for commercial printing—it stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK, which are the colors professional printers use. You can’t convert files to CMYK in Elements, so if you need CMYK files on a regular basis, it’s worth the extra price of Photoshop to avoid the aggravation. (If you only occasionally need CMYK files, you might just ask the print shop whether they can convert the file for you.)

Photoshop gives you more of everything: more choices, more tools, more settings, more types of Adjustment layers, and so on. But, for most people, Elements has plenty of features.

Beyond This Book

You can do thousands of interesting things with Elements that are beyond the scope of this book. The Help menu gives you access to dozens of tutorials right within Elements. Also, bookstores have loads of titles on Elements and Photoshop, and a lot of tasks are the same in both programs. You can find specialized books on everything from color management to making selections to scrapbooking.

In addition, you’ll find hundreds of tutorial websites. Besides those mentioned earlier in this chapter, here are some other popular sites:

  • Adobe (www.adobe.com). You’ll find plenty of free online training for Elements here, and you can get to a lot of it from Elements Live (eLive) and the Help menus in the program itself. On Adobe TV (http://tv.adobe.com), you can see the same video tutorials linked to in the program’s Help menus.

  • Photoshop Roadmap (www.photoshoproadmap.com). This site has tutorials and plug-ins for Photoshop, but there’s a big section of Elements tutorials, too.

  • Photoshop Support (www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/tutorials.html). Despite the name, this site isn’t run by Adobe. It has a whole section of Elements tutorials.

  • YouTube (www.youtube.com). Yep, that’s right: You can find videos about almost anything on YouTube, including lots of Elements tutorials, including some from Adobe.

  • Photoshop Elements User (www.photoshopelementsuser.com). This is the website for a subscriber-only print newsletter (the only publication specifically for Elements), but it includes some free video tutorials, a forum, and a good collection of links. Its forums, the most active ones out there for questions about creative projects in Elements, are hosted at www.elementsvillage.com.

  • PhotoLesa (www.photolesa.com/tutorials). The website of Photoshop maven and Missing Manual author Lesa Snider includes many well-written Elements tutorials.

If you search around online, you’re sure to find a tutorial for any project you have in mind. Although many of them are written for Photoshop, in most cases, you can adapt them for Elements. If you get stuck or need help with any other aspect of Elements, there’s an active online community that will have an answer for you. Besides the sites already mentioned, try these:

  • Adobe Support forum (http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop_elements). This is the official Adobe Photoshop Elements user-to-user forum. It’s your best bet for getting answers without calling Adobe support.

  • Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com). This site has a bunch of camera-specific forums. You can also get some Elements answers in the Retouching forum if you specify in your question that you’ve got Elements rather than Photoshop (although, sadly, the quality of the posts there has fallen off dramatically in the past couple of years).

  • RetouchPRO (www.retouchpro.com). The forums here cover all kinds of retouching techniques and artistic uses for Elements and Photoshop. They also host frequent webcasts about digital imaging.

  • Photoshop Creative (http://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/). Another forum for Elements enthusiasts.

Many sites are devoted specifically to scrapbooking with Elements. A good place to start is Scrapper’s Guide (www.scrappersguide.com), a commercial site run by Linda Sattgast.

No matter what you’re looking for—add-ons, tutorials, communities—try a Google search, and you’ll no doubt find a site that has what you want.

There’s no question about it: Once you get familiar with Elements, it’s addictive. Lots of other folks have found out how much fun this program is, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding the answer to any question you have.

The only limit to what you can do with Elements is your imagination. Enjoy!