- Getting started
- Editing photos in the Organizer
- Recognizing what your photo needs
- Making easy color and lighting adjustments
- Correcting photos in Quick Edit mode
- Adjusting images in Guided Edit mode
- Selective editing with the Smart Brush
- Working with camera raw images
- Review questions
- Review answers
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Correcting photos in Quick Edit mode
In the Quick Edit mode, Photoshop Elements conveniently groups easy-to-use controls for many of the most common basic image correction operations and presents them in the Quick Fix panel.
At the beginning of this lesson, you tried some one-click fixes in the Organizer’s Instant Fix panel. In the batch-processing exercise, you applied a combination of the same automatic fixes using the Process Multiple Files command. The Quick Fix panel presents similar adjustment options—and more—but also gives you the opportunity to preview and fine-tune the settings before applying them.
You should still be in the Organizer from the last exercise. If you don’t see the right panel group, click the Tags/Info button at the far right of the Task bar. If you don’t see the list of keywords, click the Tags tab at the top of the right panel. Expand the Imported Keyword Tags category; then, move the pointer over the Lesson 04 tag and click the arrow at the right.
- Select the original photo of the colored perfume bottles, DSC_2474.jpg, making sure not to confuse the un-edited file with the AutoFix copy; then, click the Editor button (
)—not the arrow beside it—in the Task bar. - Click Quick in the mode picker to switch the Editor to Quick edit mode.
Each Edit mode offers a different set of tools, controls and views. In Quick Edit mode, the Panel Bin at the right is occupied by the Quick Fix panel, with separate panes for the Smart Fix, Exposure, Levels, Color, Balance, and Sharpen controls.
Using Smart Fix
Smart Fix is actually a combination of several adjustments applied at once; it corrects overall color balance and improves shadow and highlight detail. As with the other tools in Quick Edit mode, you can click the Auto button to apply the correction automatically, drag the slider control to fine-tune the adjustment manually, or use the interactive preview grid to preview adjustment levels before you apply them.
- Choose Before & After - Horizontal from the View menu above the Edit pane. In the Quick Fix panel, expand the Smart Fix pane and click the Auto button. Notice the immediate effect on the image in the After view.
Now, drag the Smart Fix slider to tweak the strength of the combined color balance and highlight and shadow adjustments. Set the slider to a value of 70.
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Applying more automatic fixes
Four more automatic Quick Fixes are available in the Levels, Color, and Sharpen panes. There are no Auto buttons for the Exposure or Balance adjustments.
- Expand the Levels pane, and then click both Auto Levels and Auto Contrast.
- Click the Auto Color and Auto Sharpen buttons, noting the effects of each of these adjustments in the After view.
In the Quick Fix Color pane, click the Saturation tab above the slider to open the Saturation controls.
A grid of nine preview thumbnails shows the full range of variation possible with the Saturation slider. A blue frame highlights the central preview thumbnail, which represents the image in its un-edited state.
Move the pointer slowly over each preview thumbnail in the grid to see that level of saturation applied temporarily to your image in the After view.
- Experiment with the slider controls and preview grids for Hue and Vibrance, and then explore the controls in each of the other panes in the Quick Fix panel.
If you wish to undo your modifications in any one of the control panes, click the central preview; if you’d like to discard all your Quick Fix adjustments and start again with the un-edited image, click the Reset Panel button in the header of the Quick Fix panel.
- When you’ve achieved the results you want, choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, activate the option Include In The Organizer and disable Save In Version Set With Original. Save the file to your My CIB Work folder, in JPEG format. Type DSC_2474_QuickFix as the file name; then, click Save. In the JPEG Options dialog box, choose High from the Quality menu, and then click OK.
- Choose File > Close.
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