All About Layers

The most powerful feature of Elements is Layers. Layers give you the ability to segment out your individual images within a single Elements document

1. Windows menu: You can always go to your Window menu and select Layers to have your Layer Palette appear.

2. An individual layer. You will notice in this example the blob is on its own individual layer and it is also selected. Because of this I can use the move tool (3) to move this item independently of the other items.

3. Move tool (mentioned already)

4. Layer visibility (the eyeball) This allows me to temporarily hide a layer. It will not be deleted, it will simply hide itself. This is a nice feature if I want to see something without some text, an effect, etc. I can always make a layer appear again by clicking on the blank area where the eye was and that would make the layer appear again.

5. Moving Layers: Layers appear on the document in the order they appear in the layers, meaning, the blue blob shows up in front of everything else. Maybe I want the text to be in front of the blob. I can do this by clicking on the layer (note my cursor is on the layer) and simply drag that layer above the other one. A black line will show up between the layers as you move them letting you know that you can let go of the mouse and have the layer move.

6. New layer: If you want to paint or add additional paint items you can make a new layer so it is left separate of the others which will make it easier to move alter, etc. A nice feature with Elements is that text will automatically create its own layer when you click in an area of your document where no text exists.

7. Layer Trash Can: If you want to delete a layer, simply drag it into the layer trash can

8. Linking Layers: Most of us know this command better as group. This will allow us to link as many layers as we would like. In the example above I have the blue blob selected. Once I click on the empty box next to the eyeball I will link these two layers and a little icon of a chain will appear. Now when I move one layer, both will move together. No longer want these layers linked? No problem simply click on one of the chain icons and they will no longer be linked. You can link as many layers as you want.

Now, some cool features in Elements

Warp Text

This features is found in the options toolbar when you click on the Text tool. 1. Will display a variety of warp options 2. Will allow you to change the direction, distortion and bend amount.

Fixing Red Eye

This is a fantastic took for fixing red eye. I think it does a better job than Adobe Photoshop

1. Click on the Red Eye tool (note that if you have the hints palette showing, the red eye hints will be displayed)

2. In your options toolbar you will notice it notes what color you currently have your cursor over and the color it will replace it with. It bases the replacement on 100% red, so, if it the "current color" showing is 30% red it will replace it with 30% of the replacement color. You can always change your replacement color by clicking on it and changing the color.

3. All you really need to do is move the mouse over to colors that are red and click. It will go ahead and change the color for you!

Magic Eraser

The Magic Eraser is hidden within the regular eraser. Simply click and hold on the Eraser tool and a pop-up menu will appear with one of your eraser options being the Magic Eraser. It is very easy to use the magic eraser. Simply click on a solid color you would like to get rid of. The magic eraser will remove that color from your document. Note in the example above it would remove the white background but will not remove the white in the ducks eye. It's that good!

Layer Styles

Layer Styles are great to make your text or graphics look even better with a single click. Simply click the layer you want to apply the style to and follow the steps below.

Cleaning up Photos

There are two great features in Elements to help you clean up your photos

Quick Fix

The Quick fix icon can be found in your toolbar as well as in the Enhance menu. You will notice you have the options to correct color, focus rotate and change the brightness.

Levels

A lot of people take care of a photo being too dark or light by changing the brightness. That is not the way to take care of the problem. Levels is the way to go. While levels is also available in Quick Fix, it does not do a great job there. The best way to change the levels of your photos is to go to your Enhance Menu - Adjust Brightness/Contrast Levels.

A dialog box will show up with a graph. The graph will either have information missing on the left hand side or the right hand side. Take the triangles below and move the triangle to remove the area that is not represented in the graph. In the example below, I will move the triangle to the left to clear up the missing information on the right hand side. The difference between the image before and after layers will be very noticeable.