P3.7. About This Book

Elements is such a cool program and so much fun to use, but figuring out how to make it do what you want is another matter. Elements only comes with a brief quickstart guide, not a full manual, although the Help files are available as a PDF file. The PDF is very good, but of course you need to know what you're looking for to use them to your best advantage.

Which is where the Missing Manual comes in. This book is intended to make learning Elements easier by avoiding technical jargon as much as possible, and explaining why and when you'll want to use (or avoid) certain features in the program. That approach is as useful to people who are advanced photographers as it is to those who are just getting started with their first digital camera.

What's more, this is a whole book just for you Mac folks. You won't have to waste time skipping over huge chunks of text about features you don't have or mentally substituting keystrokes in every list of instructions. Everything in this book is specific to the Mac version of Elements 6—it's all Mac, all the time.

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Note:

This book periodically recommends other books, covering topics that are too specialized or tangential for a manual about Elements. Careful readers may notice that not every one of these titles is published by Missing Manual parent O'Reilly Media. While we're happy to mention other Missing Manuals and books in the O'Reilly family, if there's a great book out there that doesn't happen to be published by O'Reilly, we'll still let you know about it.

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You'll also find tutorials throughout the book that refer to files you can download from the Missing Manual Web site (www.missingmanuals.com) so you can practice the techniques you're reading about. And throughout the book, you'll find several different kinds of sidebar articles. The ones labeled "Up to Speed" help newcomers to Elements do things or explain concepts that veterans are probably already familiar with. Those labeled "Power Users' Clinic" cover more advanced topics that won't be of much interest to casual photographers.

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Note:

The new darker look of Elements 6 is very cool but you may find the program's solid background very un-Maclike. Not to worry: You can turn it off and have the sort of floating Mac interface you're used to (see Section 1.3.1). If you have trouble seeing highlighted text because there's not enough contrast, you can do what was done for this book and just go to System Preferences → Appearance and choose a different color. Keep in mind that his change affects all your programs, so you may need to experiment to find a color you like in Elements and your other programs.

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P3.7.1. About the Outline

This book is divided into six parts, each focusing on a certain kind of task you may want to do in Elements:

P3.7.1.1. Introduction to Elements

The first part of this book helps you get started with Elements. Chapter 1 shows you how to navigate Elements' slightly confusing layout and mishmash of programs within programs. You learn how to decide which window to start from, as well as how to set up Elements so it best suits your own personal working style. You also learn about some important basic keyboard shortcuts and where to look for help when you get stuck. Chapter 2 covers how to get photos into Elements, the basics of using Bridge, and how to open files and create new images from scratch, as well as how to save and back up your images. Chapter 3 explains how to rotate and crop your photos, and includes a primer on that most important digital imaging concept—resolution.

P3.7.1.2. Elemental Elements

Chapter 4 tells you how to use the Quick Fix window to dramatically improve your photos. Chapters Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 cover two key concepts—making selections and layers—that you'll use throughout the book.

P3.7.1.3. Retouching

Having Elements is like having a darkroom on your computer. In Chapter 7, you'll learn how to make basic corrections, such as fixing exposure, adjusting color, sharpening an image, and removing dust and scratches. Chapter 8 covers topics unique to people who use digital cameras, like RAW conversion and batch processing your photos. In Chapter 9, you'll move on to some more sophisticated fixes, like changing the light, using the clone stamp for repairs, making a photo livelier by adjusting the color intensity and light and shadows in an image. Chapter 10 shows you how to convert your photos to black and white, and how to tint and colorize black-and-white photos. Chapter 11 helps you to use Elements' Photomerge feature to create a panorama from several photos and to make perspective corrections to your images.

P3.7.1.4. Artistic Elements

This part covers the fun stuff—painting on your photos and drawing shapes (Chapter 12), using filters and effects to create a more artistic look (Chapter 13), and adding type to your images (Chapter 14).

P3.7.1.5. Sharing your images

Once you've created a great image in Elements, you'll want to share it, so this part is about how to get the most out of your printer (Chapter 16), how to create images for the Web and email (Chapter 17), how to make slideshows (Chapter 15) and Web Galleries with your photos (Chapter 17), and all the fun projects you can create with Elements 6 (Chapter 15).

P3.7.1.6. Additional Elements

There are literally hundreds of plug-ins and additional styles, brushes, and other fun stuff you can get to customize your copy of Elements and increase its abilities; the Internet and your local bookstore are chock-full of additional information. Chapter 18 offers a look at some of these, as well as information about using a graphics tablet in Elements and some resources for after you've finished this book.

P3.7.2. For Newcomers to Elements

There's a lot of information in this book, and if you're new to Elements you don't need to try to digest it all at once, especially if you've never used any kind of photo-editing software before. So what do you need to read first? Here's a simple five-step way to use the book if you're brand-new to photo editing:

That's all you need to get started. You can come back and pick up the rest of the information in the book as you get more comfortable with Elements and want to explore more of the wonderful things it can do for your photos.

P3.7.3. The Very Basics

This book assumes that you know how to perform basic activities on your computer like clicking and double-clicking and dragging objects onscreen. Here's a quick refresher:

Since you have a Mac, you have a choice between using a one-button mouse or a two-button mouse. (If you have the Apple Mighty Mouse that comes with recent Macs, you can use it either way: Go to → System Preferences → Keyboard & Mouse → Mouse to set your mouse's behavior.) You can do all the same things with a one-button mouse that you can do with a two-button mouse. Here's the lowdown:

To click means to move the point of your mouse or trackpad cursor over an object on your screen and press the left (or only) mouse or trackpad button once. To double-click means to press the left (or only) mouse or trackpad button twice, quickly, without moving the cursor between clicks. To drag means to click an object and use the mouse or trackpad to move it while holding down the mouse or trackpad button (let go of the button when you're done moving the object).

For two-button mousers, to right-click means to press the right mouse button once. For one-button folks, holding down the Control key while you click does the same thing as right-clicking, so you'll see "right-click (Control+click)" in the instructions in this book. Right-clicking typically calls up a menu of options you can choose from.

Most selection buttons onscreen are pretty obvious, but you may not be familiar with radio buttons: To choose an option, you click one of these little empty circles that are arranged like a list. If you're comfortable with basic concepts like these, you're ready to get started with this book.

In Elements, you'll often want to use keyboard shortcuts to save time, and this book gives keyboard shortcuts when they exist (and there are a lot of them in Elements). So if you see "Press ⌘ +S to save your file," that means to hold down the ⌘ key while pressing the S key.

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Note:

In this book, you'll see Leopard (OS X 10.5) screenshots, but nearly everything in Elements is exactly the same whether you use Leopard or Tiger (OS X 10.4). In the one or two places where things are different, you'll find directions for both operating systems, or a note that a particular feature is only available in Leopard.

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P3.7.4. About → These → Arrows

Throughout Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual (and in any Missing Manual, for that matter) you'll see arrows that look like this: "Go to Filter → Artistic → Paint Daubs."

This is a shorthand way of helping you find files, folders, and menu choices without having to read through excruciatingly long, bureaucratic-style instructions. So, for example, the sentence in the previous paragraph is a short way of saying: "Click the Filter choice in the menu bar. In that menu, choose the Artistic section, and then go to Paint Daubs in the pop-out menu." Figure P3-1 shows you an example in action.

Figure P3-1. In a Missing Manual, when you see "Image → Rotate → Free Rotate Layer," that's a quicker way of saying "Go to the menu bar and click Image, and then slide down to Rotate and choose Free Rotate Layer from the pop-up menu."

P3.7.5. About MissingManuals.com

If you head on over to the Missing Manual Web site (www.missingmanuals.com), you can find links to downloadable images for the tutorials mentioned in this book, if you want to practice without using your own photos. (Or maybe you never take pictures that need correcting?)

A word about the image files for the tutorials: To make life easier for folks with dial-up Internet connections, the file sizes have been kept pretty small. This means you probably won't want to print the results of what you create (since you'll end up with a print about the size of a match book). But that doesn't really matter because the files are really meant for onscreen use. You'll see notes throughout the book about which images are available to practice on for any given chapter.

At the Web site, you can also find articles, tips, and updates to the book. If you click the Errata link, you'll see any corrections to the book's content, too. If you find something you think is wrong, feel free to report it by using this link. Each time the book is printed, we'll update it with any confirmed corrections. If you want to be certain that your own copy is up to the minute, this is where to check for any changes. And thanks for reporting any errors or suggesting corrections.

P3.7.6. Safari®Books Online

When you see a Safari®Books Online icon on the cover of your favorite technology book, that means the book is available online through the O'Reilly Network Safari Bookshelf.

Safari offers a solution that's better than e-books. It's a virtual library that lets you easily search thousands of top tech books, cut and paste code samples, download chapters, and find quick answers when you need the most accurate, current information. Try it for free at http://safari.oreilly.com.