The Instant Fix feature found in Elements' Organizer is a very good way to produce quick and highly visual effects without the need to transfer the file from the Organizer to the Quick, Guided, or Expert modes.
Here's how:
- Find an image in Organizer that you'd like to edit.
- Select it (click once).
- Click the Instant Fix button, at the bottom of the page.
- Use one or more of the tool or process icons that appear on the right-hand side of the screen.
In reality, you will find that not all of them are instant. The Crop tool, for example, requires you to choose a crop ratio first, then position it over the appropriate part of the image, then resize it, if needed, before clicking the green check mark to execute the process. But I'm being pedantic.
Other effects, such as the impressive Smart Fix tool, just require a single click to fix the shot. You might not like the Smart Fix result, so try the Effects tab first – this has 30 preset effects recipes to choose from. It functions just like an iPhone App or an Instagram filter in that you choose a style—let's say, Coral—and click it. The color, contrast, and vignetting in this particular recipe is applied in one go to give you that instant visual gratification. It's simple, effective, and looks great:
Because this process is so fast and varied, it's a great place to experiment with creating your own specific style – all without the need for opening the image in the more complex Quick/Guided/Expert modes.
Instant Fix also has a Red Eye fix, plus Lightness, Color, and Clarity adjustment menus to choose from. Once you are happy with the result, click the Save button at the base of the page to apply your awesome edit to the file. I tend to save my files with a different name (that is, cherryblossomFinal.jpg) so that, months later, when I am looking for that very file, I can recognize it easily from its name.
It's important to note that, when saving JPEG, TIF, PSD, or PNG files, if you choose the Save option (File | Save), some software applications simply write the new file on top of the old one, effectively deleting the original and saving the (hopefully) improved new version on top. This isn't the case with Elements, as it always asks if it's OK to overwrite the previous version of this file.
But if you are in a hurry, or just go OK, click, OK, click, without really looking, you might accidentally overwrite the original. If you choose either the Save or the Save As command (File | Save As, or Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + S), the window that opens offers a swathe of different file saving options:
Note that when you choose File | Save As (Shift+ Ctrl/Cmd + S), not only can you choose a different file type (that is, .jpg, .tif, .psd, or .png) but, by checking Include in the Elements Organizer (highlighted in red), the new file automatically appears in the Organizer—no need to import it.
Another thing to note in this dialog window is the Save in Version Set with Original and Save as a Copy check boxes. What this does is pack the new version of your cherry blossom shot with the original for safe-keeping. In Organizer, you only see the original image, but if you right-click it, you can choose to view the different versions of the same file, saved as a Version Set, as single files:
A Version Set therefore is a bit like a layered Photoshop file that contains several versions of the same image packed into the one file.
The following screenshot shows the saving options:
Different file formats offer different saving options, some of which can have a radical impact on the quality of the resulting saved file. Save a JPEG and you'll see the JPEG Options panel (on the left in the preceding screenshot). JPEGs compress their data – too much compression damages the file making it look softer, blocky, and less colorful. Always choose the largest number (12) where possible, as this is the least compression. The figure under the Preview check box indicates how much it has been compressed – it updates each time you change the settings. I generally recommend a compression amount of between 10 and 12 (that is, Maximum), but if you really need to make the file smaller for email or storage reasons, you can go as low as 7. Anything smaller than this and you'll see serious compression damage in the saved file. (See also Chapter 2, Setting Up Photoshop Elements from Scratch, section What's the difference between file formats?).
JPEG format options:
Baseline is the most often used compression option. Baseline Optimized produces a slightly smaller saved file using a different compression algorithm. Progressive is used specifically on larger web images. Rather than waiting a long time for the image to load, Progressive slowly displays the image, building it up with a number of scans (set through the menu). This was designed a long time ago when the fastest modems available were 28.8 kb/s.
TIFF format options:
Similar to the Progressive option in the JPEG panel, many of the options in this panel are redundant because the internet is lightning-fast and storage drives are incredibly affordable. I generally use the None option for compression, but if you really need to save on space, use the LZW compression option. This is a lossless compression that reduces file size by about 25%, with no loss of quality. ZIP and JPEG compression is no longer supported in some applications. Pixel Order needs to be Interleaved as Per Channel is not supported in Organizer.
Byte Order is also not relevant anymore, as Macs and Windows can work seamlessly with each other's files.
PNG file options:
- Compression: PNG files are lossless; therefore, None is a fast way to save a file, but it is larger than a JPEG. You can add compression and you lose no quality, but it takes longer to create.
- Interlaced: Keep it set to None. Because the internet is so fast, Interlaced, just like Progressive for JPEGs, is redundant.