Cutting away with the Crop tool

The most common way to crop a photo is by using the Crop tool. Simple, quick, and easy, this tool gets the job done. Here’s how to use it:

1. In either Expert or Quick mode, select the Crop tool from the Tools panel.

   You can also press the C key. The Crop tool looks like two intersecting “L” shapes. For details on the different editing modes, see Chapter 3. For full details on Quick mode, see the section “Editing in Quick Mode,” later in this chapter.

2. (Optional) Choose one of the four cropping suggestions Elements provides for you.

   Simply hover your mouse over each of the crop suggestion thumbnails to get an idea of how it will frame your image. If you don’t like any of the suggestions, proceed to Step 3.

3. Specify your aspect ratio and resolution options in the Tool Options under the image window.

   Here are your choices:

   • No Restriction: Allows you to freely crop the image at any size.
   • Use Photo Ratio: Retains the original aspect ratio of the image when you crop.

   • Preset Sizes: Offers a variety of common photographic sizes. When you crop, your image then becomes that specific dimension.

     When you crop an image, Elements retains the original resolution of the file (unless you specify otherwise in the resolution option). Therefore, to keep your image at the same image size while simultaneously eliminating portions of your image, Elements must resample the file. Consequently, your image must have sufficient resolution so that the effects of the resampling aren’t too noticeable. This is especially true if you’re choosing a larger preset size. If all this talk about resolution and resampling is fuzzy, be sure to check out Chapter 3.

   • Width (W) and Height (H): Enables you to specify a desired width and height to crop your image.
   • Resolution: Specify a desired resolution for your cropped image. Again, try to avoid upsampling your image.
   • Pixels/in or Pixels/cm: Specify your desired unit of measurement.
   • Grid Overlay: Elements gives you an added tool to help you frame your image prior to cropping. Choose from the three options: None, Rule of Thirds, or Grid.
   • Rule of Thirds: This rule is a longtime photographic principle that encourages placing the most interesting elements, or your intended focal point, at one of four intersecting points in your grid of two vertical and two horizontal lines, as shown in Figure 10-1.
   • Grid: Displays just that — a grid of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines over the image.

   

4. Drag around the portion of the image you want to retain and release the mouse button.

   When you drag, a crop marquee bounding box appears. Don’t worry if your cropping marquee isn’t exactly correct. You can adjust it in Step 5.

   The area outside the cropping marquee (called a shield) appears darker than the inside in order to better frame your image, as shown in Figure 10-1. If you want to change the color and opacity of the shield, or if you don’t want it at all, change your Crop preferences by choosing Edit ⇒ Preferences ⇒ Display & Cursors. (On the Mac, choose Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 Editor ⇒ Preferences ⇒ Display & Cursors.)

5. Adjust the cropping marquee by dragging the handles of the crop marquee bounding box.

   To move the entire marquee, position your mouse inside the marquee until you see a black arrowhead cursor, and then drag.

   If you move your mouse outside the marquee, your cursor changes to a curved arrow. Drag with this cursor to rotate the marquee. This action allows you to both rotate and crop your image simultaneously — handy for straightening a crooked image. Just be aware that rotation, unless it’s in 90-degree increments, also resamples your image.

6. Double-click inside the cropping marquee.

   You can also just press Enter or click the green Commit button next to the marquee. Elements then discards the area outside the marquee. To cancel your crop, click the red Cancel button.

If you’re in the Organizer and not the Photo Editor, click the Instant Fix button at the bottom. You can find the Crop tool at the top of the tool panel on the right.

Fixing distortion with the Perspective Crop tool

The Perspective Crop tool allows you to crop an image while also correcting keystone distortion. For example, if you shoot a tall building from below looking up or a long hallway from an angle, your object may appear trapezoidal rather than square or rectangular. Here’s how to crop and correct this at the same time:

1. In Expert mode, select the Perspective Crop tool from the Tools panel.

   You can also press the C key until you get the tool, which shares a space with the Crop and Cookie Cutter tools.

2. Draw a marquee around the distorted image by clicking at each corner, as shown in Figure 10-2.

3. Adjust the edges and corners of your marquee as needed.

   You have some options to choose if desired.

   • Width (W) and Height (H): Specify a desired width and height to crop your image.
   • Resolution: Specify a desired resolution for your cropped image. As with the Crop tool, try to avoid upsampling your image.
   • Pixels/in or Pixels/cm: Specify your desired unit of measurement.
   • Grid: Toggle the view on or off of a grid of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines over the image.

   

4. Double-click inside the cropping marquee.

   You can also just press Enter or click the green Commit button next to the marquee. To cancel your crop, click the red Cancel button. Elements should improve the keystone distortion and crop your image.

   If you’re not happy with the result, choose Edit ⇒ Undo and tweak the angle of your marquee in Step 3. Admittedly, it took us a couple tries to get the result we wanted, which is shown in Figure 10-2.

If the Perspective Crop doesn’t fix the distortion, you may want to try the Correct Camera Distortion filter (see Chapter 12).

Cropping with a selection border

You can alternatively crop an image by choosing Image ⇒ Crop in either Expert or Quick mode. First, make a selection with any of the selection tools and then choose the command. You can use this technique with any selection border shape. That is, your selection doesn’t have to be rectangular; it can be round or even freeform. Your cropped image doesn’t take on that shape, but Elements crops as close to the boundaries of the selection border as it can. For details about making selections, see Chapter 8.

Straightening images

There may be times when you just didn’t quite get that horizon straight when you took a photo of the beach. Or maybe you scanned a photo and it wasn’t quite centered in the middle of the scanning bed. It’s not a big deal. Elements gives you several ways to straighten an image.

Auto Smart Fix

The Auto Smart Fix tool is an all-in-one command touted to adjust it all. It’s designed to improve the details in shadow and highlight areas as well as correct the color balance, as shown in Figure 10-5. The overexposed, overly green image on the left was improved quite nicely with the Auto Smart Fix command.

The Auto Smart Fix command, as well as the Auto Color, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, Auto Sharpen, and Auto Red Eye Fix commands, are also available in the Organizer (in the Photo Fix Options pane), where you can apply the commands to several selected images simultaneously.

If the Auto Smart Fix was just too “auto” for you, you can crank it up a notch and try Adjust Smart Fix. This command is similar to Auto Smart Fix but gives you a slider that allows you, not Elements, to control the amount of correction applied to the image.

Auto Smart Tone

The Auto Smart Tone auto fix is designed to adjust the tonal values in your image.

Here are the steps to use this adjustment:

1. In either Expert or Quick mode, with your image open, choose Enhance ⇒ Auto Smart Tone.

   Elements automatically applies a default correction.

2. Moving the controller “joystick” (double circle icon in the center of the image), fine-tune your correction.

   The thumbnail previews in each corner, as shown in Figure 10-6, give you an idea of how the image will look when you move the joystick in that particular direction.

   Move the Before and After toggle to see the before-and-after adjustment previews.

3. Select the Learn from This Correction option (arrow with lines icon) in the lower-left corner of the dialog box to have Elements “learn” from this editing session.

   If you select this option, Elements remembers the corrections you made on this image and positions the joystick on the basis of that correction on the next image you open and correct. The more images that are corrected, the smarter the Auto Smart Tone corrections become. This intelligent algorithm can distinguish between various image types (based on the tonal characteristics) and remembers the adjustment for that particular type of image.

   If your adjustments are starting to get out of whack and you need to reset the learning archive, choose Edit ⇒ Preferences ⇒ General ⇒ Reset AutoSmart Tone Learning (on the Mac, Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor ⇒ Preferences ⇒ General ⇒ Reset Auto Smart Tone Learning).

4. After you’re satisfied with the adjustment, click OK.

   If you want to start over, click the Reset button.

Auto Levels

The Auto Levels command adjusts the overall contrast of an image. This command works best on images that have pretty good contrast (an even range of tones and detail in the shadow, highlight, and midtone areas) to begin with and need just a minor amount of adjustment. Auto Levels works by mapping, or converting, the lightest and darkest pixels in your image to black and white, thereby making highlights appear lighter and shadows appear darker, as shown in Figure 10-7.

Although the Auto Levels command can improve contrast, it may also produce an unwanted color cast (a slight trace of color). If this happens, undo the command and try the Auto Contrast command instead. If that still doesn’t improve the contrast, it’s time to bring out the big guns. Try the Levels command that we describe in Chapter 11.

Auto Contrast

The Auto Contrast command is designed to adjust the overall contrast in an image without adjusting its color. This command may not do as good a job of improving contrast as the Auto Levels command, but it does a better job of retaining the color balance of an image. Auto Contrast usually doesn’t cause the funky color casts that can occur when you’re using Auto Levels. This command works well on images with a haze, as shown in Figure 10-8.

Auto Haze Removal

Although the Auto Contrast command does a good job of removing haze in images, the Auto Haze Removal command does a great job with this task, as shown in Figure 10-9. But also be sure to check out the Haze Removal command under the Enhance menu in both Expert and Quick modes. Under that command, you have a couple more options to really home in on to add clarity to your image. Find out more about this command in Chapter 11.

Auto Color Correction

The Auto Color Correction command adjusts both the color and contrast of an image, based on the shadows, midtones, and highlights it finds in the image and a default set of values. These values adjust the amount of black and white pixels that Elements removes from the darkest and lightest areas of the image. You usually use this command to remove a color cast or to balance the color in your image, as shown in Figure 10-10. Occasionally, this command can also be useful in correcting oversaturated or undersaturated colors.

Auto Shake Reduction

The Auto Shake Reduction is designed to reduce the blur caused by camera movement; as shown in Figure 10-11, this auto adjustment is pretty effective. You can also find a more robust manual adjustment by using the Enhance ⇒ Shake Reduction command. Get details in Chapter 11.

Auto Sharpen

Photos taken with a digital camera or scanned on a flatbed scanner often suffer from a case of overly soft focus. Sharpening gives the illusion of increased focus by increasing the contrast between pixels. Auto Sharpen attempts to improve the focus, as shown in Figure 10-12, without overdoing it. What happens when you oversharpen? Your images go from soft to grainy and noisy. For more precise sharpening, check out the Unsharp Mask and Adjust Sharpness features that we cover in Chapter 11.

Always make sharpening your last fix after you make all your other fixes and enhancements.

Auto Red Eye Fix

The Auto Red Eye Fix command is self-explanatory. It automatically detects and fixes red eye in an image. Red eye happens when a person or an animal (where red eye can also be yellow, green, or even blue eye) looks directly into the flash.

If for some reason the Auto Red Eye Fix doesn’t quite do the trick, you can always reach for the Red Eye tool on the Tools panel. Here’s how to remove red eye manually:

1. Select the Red Eye Removal tool from the Tools panel.

   You can also press Y.

2. Using the default settings, click the red portion of the eye in your image.

   This one-click tool darkens the pupil while retaining the tonality and texture of the rest of the eye, as shown in Figure 10-13.

3. If you’re unhappy with the fix, adjust one or both of these settings in the Tool Options:
   • Pupil Radius: Use the slider to increase or decrease the size of the pupil.
   • Darken: Use the slider to darken or lighten the color of the pupil.

Pets can get white, green, blue, or yellow eyes from the flash. Elements provides a Pet Eye option in Tool Options. If this option still doesn’t do it, your best bet is to use the Color Replacement tool. See the section “Replacing one color with another,” at the end of this chapter.

Cloning with the Clone Stamp tool

Elements enables you to clone elements without the hassle of genetically engineering DNA. In fact, the Clone Stamp tool works by just taking sampled pixels from one area and copying, or cloning, them onto another area. The advantage of cloning, rather than making a selection and then copying and pasting, is that it’s easier to realistically retain soft-edged elements, such as shadows, as shown in Figure 10-15.

The Clone Stamp doesn’t stop there. You can also use this tool for fixing flaws, such as scratches, bruises, date/time stamp imprints from cameras, and other minor imperfections. Although the birth of the healing tools (discussed in the following sections) has somewhat pushed the Clone Stamp tool out of the retouching arena, it can still do a good repair job in many instances.

Here’s how to use the Clone Stamp tool:

1. In Expert mode, choose the Clone Stamp tool from the Tools panel.

   It looks like an analog rubber stamp.

2. In the Tool Options, choose a brush from the Brush Preset Picker panel and then use the brush as is or adjust its size with the Size slider.

   Keep in mind that the size of the brush you specify should be appropriate for what you’re trying to clone or retouch. If you’re cloning a large object, use a large brush. For repairing small flaws, use a small brush. Cloning with a soft-edged brush usually produces more natural results. For details on brushes, see Chapter 13.

3. Choose your desired Opacity and Blend Mode percentage.

   For more on blend modes, see Chapter 12. To make your cloned image appear ghosted, use an Opacity percentage of less than 100 percent.

4. Select or deselect the Aligned option.

   With Aligned selected, the clone source moves when you move your cursor to a different location. If you want to clone multiple times from the same location, leave the Aligned option deselected.

5. Select or deselect the Sample All Layers check box.

   This option enables you to sample pixels from all visible layers for the clone. If this option is deselected, the Clone Stamp tool clones from only the active layer. Check out Chapter 9 for details about working with layers.

6. Click the Clone Overlay button if you want to display an overlay.

   Displaying an overlay can be helpful when what you’re cloning needs to be in alignment with the underlying image. In the Clone Overlay dialog box, select the Show Overlay check box. Adjust the opacity for your overlay. If you select Auto Hide, when you release your mouse, you see a ghosted preview of how your cloned pixels will appear on the image. While you’re cloning, however, the overlay is hidden. Select Clipped to have the overlay contained only within the boundaries of your brush. We think that this makes it easier to more precisely clone what you want. Finally, select Invert Overlay to reverse the colors and tones in your overlay.

7. Alt-click (Option-click on the Mac) the area of your image that you want to clone to define the source of the clone.

8. Click or drag along the area where you want the clone to appear.

   While you drag, Elements displays a crosshair cursor along with your Clone Stamp cursor. The crosshair is the source you’re cloning from, and the Clone Stamp cursor is where the clone is being applied. While you move the mouse, the crosshair also moves, so you have a continuous reference to the area of your image that you’re cloning. Watch the crosshair, or else you may clone something you don’t want.

9. Repeat Steps 7 and 8 until you’ve finished cloning your desired element.

If you’ve selected the Aligned option when cloning an element, try to clone it without lifting your mouse. Also, when you’re retouching a flaw, try not to overdo it. One or two clicks on each flaw is usually plenty. If you’re heavy-handed with the Clone Stamp, you get a blotchy effect that’s a telltale sign something has been retouched.

Retouching with the Healing Brush

The Healing Brush tool is similar to the Clone Stamp tool in that you clone pixels from one area onto another area. But the Healing Brush is superior in that it takes into account the tonality (highlights, midtones, and shadows) of the flawed area. The Healing Brush clones by using the texture from the sampled area (the source) and then using the colors around the brush stroke while you paint over the flawed area (the destination). The highlights, midtones, and shadow areas remain intact, giving you a realistic and natural repair that isn’t as blotchy or miscolored as the repair you get with the Clone Stamp tool.

Here are the steps to heal a photo:

1. In Expert mode, open an image in need of a makeover and select the Healing Brush tool from the Tools panel.

   The tool looks like a bandage. You can also press J to cycle between the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush tools. You can also select either of these tools and then choose the other tool from the Tool Options.

   You can also heal between two images, but be sure that they have the same color mode — for example, both RGB (red, green, blue). We chose a couple who are super photogenic but might appreciate a little tune-up, as shown in Figure 10-16.

2. Specify a size for the Healing brush tool in the Tool Options.

   You can also adjust the hardness, spacing, angle, and roundness in the Brush Settings. For details on these options, see Chapter 13. Don’t be shy. Be sure to adjust the size of your brush as needed. Using the appropriate brush size for the flaw you’re retouching is critical to creating a realistic effect.

3. Choose your desired blend mode.

   For most retouching jobs, you probably should leave the mode as Normal. Replace mode preserves textures, such as noise or film grain, around the edges of your strokes.

4. Choose one of these Source options:
   • Sampled uses the pixels from the image. You use this option for the majority of your repairs.
   • Pattern uses pixels from a pattern chosen from the Pattern Picker drop-down panel.

5. Select or deselect the Aligned option.

   For most retouching tasks, you probably should leave Aligned selected. Here are the details on each option:

   • With Aligned selected: When you click or drag with the Healing Brush, Elements displays a crosshair along with the Healing Brush cursor. The crosshair represents the sampling point, also known as the source. When you move the Healing Brush tool, the crosshair also moves, providing a constant reference to the area you’re sampling.
   • With Aligned deselected: Elements applies the source pixels from your initial sampling point, no matter how many times you stop and start dragging.

6. Select the Sample All Layers check box to heal an image by using all visible layers.

   If this option is deselected, you heal from only the active layer.

   To ensure maximum editing flexibility later, select the Sample All Layers check box and add a new, blank layer above the image you want to heal. When you heal the image, the pixels appear on the new layer and not on the actual image, which means you can adjust opacity and blend modes and make other adjustments to the healed layer.

7. (Optional) Click the Clone Overlay button.

   See the earlier section, “Cloning with the Clone Stamp tool,” for details on using an overlay.

8. Establish the sampling point by Alt-clicking (Option-clicking on the Mac).

   Make sure to click the area of your image that you want to clone from. In our example, we clicked a smooth area of the forehead when working on each person.

9. Release the Alt (Option on the Mac) key and click or drag over a flawed area of your image.

   Keep an eye on the crosshair because that’s the area you’re healing from. We brushed over the wrinkles under and around the eyes, mouth, and forehead. (Refer to Figure 10-16.) This couple never looked so good, and they endured absolutely no recovery time.

Zeroing in with the Spot Healing Brush

Whereas the Healing Brush is designed to fix larger flawed areas, the Spot Healing Brush is designed for smaller imperfections, with one exception — the Content-Aware option, which we explain in Step 3 in the following steps. The Spot Healing Brush doesn’t require you to specify a sampling source. It automatically takes a sample from around the area to be retouched. It’s quick, easy, and often effective. But it doesn’t give you control over the sampling source, so keep an eye out for less-than-desirable fixes.

Here’s how to quickly fix flaws with the Spot Healing Brush tool:

1. In Expert mode, open your image and grab the Spot Healing Brush tool.

   The tool looks like a bandage with a dotted oval behind it. You can also press J to cycle between the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush tools. You can also select either of these tools and then choose the other tool from the Tool Options.

2. In the Tool Options, click the Brush Preset Picker and select a brush tip. You can further adjust the diameter by dragging the Size slider. You can also press the left and right brackets to decrease and increase the brush size, respectively.

   Select a brush that’s a little larger than the flawed area you’re fixing.

3. Choose a type in the Tool Options:

   • Proximity Match: This type samples the pixels around the edge of the selection to fix the flawed area.
   • Create Texture: This type uses all the pixels in the selection to create a texture to fix the flaw.
   • Content-Aware: If you want to eliminate something larger than a mole or freckle, this is the option of choice where actual content from the image is used as a kind of patch for the flawed area. Large objects can be zapped away; Figure 10-17 shows how we eliminated the girl on the swing. Note: You may have to paint over the offending object a couple of times to get your desired result. Also, a touch-up with the Clone Stamp or other healing tools may be needed.

   Try Proximity Match first, and if it doesn’t work, undo it and try Create Texture or Content-Aware.

4. Select the Sample All Layers check box to heal an image by using all visible layers.

   If you leave this check box deselected, you heal from only the active layer.

5. Click, drag, or “paint” over the area you want to fix.

   We painted over the girl on the swing with the Spot Healing Brush and achieved realistic results, as shown in the after image in Figure 10-17.

If you find that the Healing or Spot Healing Brushes aren’t doing the job for you, check out the Object Removal Guided Edit in the Special Edits category in Guided mode. Make your selection using one of the four tools and click Remove Object Touch up any remaining flaws with the Spot Healing Brush or Clone Stamp. Just a note of caution: This edit works best when the object you want to eliminate isn’t touching anything you want to remain untouched.

Repositioning with the Content-Aware Move tool

The Content-Aware Move tool enables you to select and move a portion of an image. The best thing, however, is that when you move that portion, the hole left behind is miraculously filled using content-aware technology. In other words, Elements analyzes the area surrounding the selected portion you’re moving and then fills the hole with matched content.

Here’s how to use this beneficial editing tool:

1. In Expert mode, open your image and select the Content-Aware Move tool.

   The tool looks like two arrows. You can also press the Q key.

2. Choose either Move or Extend mode.

   • Move: Elements moves your selection to a new location and then fills the remaining hole with content-aware pixels. The Move mode works great when you need to move an object, or objects, in your image for a more desirable composition. Keep in mind that this technique works best when the background of the new location of the object is similar to the background from which it was plucked.
   • Extend: Elements extends your selected area while maintaining any lines and structural elements and blending them into the existing object. This option works great for expanding or contracting objects such as hair, fur, trees, buildings, and so on.

   For Figure 10-18, we chose the Move mode to move the girl to the right so that we could add some type.

3. Choose your desired Healing setting.

   Healing controls the amount of flexibility Elements uses in determining how to shift pixels around and how strictly regions are preserved when determining the content-aware fill. The default setting is smack-dab in the middle, which is what we stuck with.

   You can also select the Sample All Layers check box to use content from all your layers. If you leave this check box deselected, you use only content from the active layer.

4. Drag around the area of your image that you want to move or extend.

   If you need to fine-tune your selection, you can use the Path Operations options on the Options bar. Or you can press the Shift key to add to your selected area or press Alt (Option on the Mac) to delete from your selection.

   You can also transform — scale or rotate — your selected area by selecting the Transform On Drop option. When you move your selection, the transform box will appear and the Transform options will appear in the Options bar. You can select your options there or manually drag or rotate the handles of your transform box. Click the Commit button (the green check-mark icon) to complete the transformation.

5. If you did not select the Transform On Drop option in Step 4, move your selection to your desired location. Deselect the selection.

6. Touch up any areas that require it.

   You can break out the Healing tools or the Clone Stamp tool to fix any mismatches or remaining flaws. We fixed a few spots along the girl that weren’t quite matched up, as shown in Figure 10-18. We also spot-healed the ugly light fixture at the top of the image.

You also have the option of filling any selected area with a Content-Aware option. Make a selection and choose Edit ⇒ Fill. Under Contents, choose Content-Aware from the Use pop-up menu.

Lightening and darkening with Dodge and Burn tools

The techniques of dodging and burning originated in the darkroom, where photographers fixed negatives that had overly dark or light areas by adding or subtracting exposure, using holes and paddles as an enlarger made prints. The Dodge and Burn tools are even better than their analog ancestors because they’re more flexible and much more precise. You can specify the size and softness of your tool by simply selecting from one of the many brush tips. You can also limit the correction to various tonal ranges in your image — shadows, midtones, or highlights. Finally, you can adjust the amount of correction that’s applied by specifying an exposure percentage.

Use these tools only on small areas (such as the girl’s face shown in Figure 10-19) and in moderation. You can even make a selection prior to dodging and burning to ensure that the adjustment is applied only to your specific area. Also, keep in mind that you can’t add detail that isn’t there to begin with. If you try to lighten extremely dark shadows that contain little detail, you get gray areas. If you try to darken overly light highlights, you just end up with white blobs.

Follow these steps to dodge or burn an image:

1. In Expert mode, choose either the Dodge (to lighten) or Burn (to darken) tool from the Tools panel.

   These tools look like a darkroom paddle and a hand making an O, respectively. Press O to cycle through the Dodge and Burn tools. You can also select any of these tools and then choose your desired tool from the Tool Options.

2. Select a brush from the Brush Preset Picker panel and also adjust the brush size if necessary.

   Larger, softer brushes spread the dodging or burning effect over a larger area, making blending with the surrounding area easier.

3. From the Range drop-down list, choose Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights.

   Choose Shadows to darken or lighten the darker areas of your image. Choose Midtones to adjust the tones of average darkness. Choose Highlights to make the light areas lighter or darker.

   In Figure 10-19, the original image had mostly dark areas, so we dodged the shadows.

4. Choose the amount of correction you want to apply with each stroke by adjusting the Exposure setting in the Tool Options.

   Start with a lower percentage to better control the amount of darkening or lightening. Exposure is similar to the opacity setting that you use with the regular Brush tool. We used a setting of 10 percent.

5. Paint over the areas you want to lighten or darken.

   If you don’t like the results, press Ctrl+Z (⌘  +Z on the Mac) to undo.

Smudging away rough spots

The Smudge tool (see Figure 10-20), one of the focus tools, pushes your pixels around using the color that’s under the cursor when you start to drag. Think of it as dragging a brush through wet paint. You can use this tool to create a variety of effects. When it’s used to the extreme, you can create a warped effect. When it’s used more subtly, you can soften the edges of objects in a more natural fashion than you can with the Blur tool. Or you can create images that take on a painterly effect, as shown in Figure 10-20. Keep an eye on your image while you paint, however, because you can start to eliminate detail and wreak havoc if you’re not careful with the Smudge tool.

To use the Smudge tool, follow these steps:

1. In Expert mode, select the Smudge tool from the Tools panel.

   The tool looks like a finger. Press R to cycle through the Smudge, Blur, and Sharpen tools. You can also select any of these tools and then choose your desired tool from the Tool Options.

2. Select a brush from the Brush Preset Picker panel. Use the Size slider to fine-tune your brush diameter.

   Use a small brush for smudging tiny areas, such as edges. Larger brushes produce more extreme effects.

3. Choose a blending mode from the Mode drop-down list.

4. Choose the strength of the smudging effect with the Strength slider or text box.

   The lower the value, the lighter the effect.

5. If your image doesn’t have layers, skip to Step 6. If your image has multiple layers, select the Sample All Layers check box to make Elements use pixels from all the visible layers when it produces the effect.

   The smudge still appears on only the active layer, but the look is a bit different, depending on the colors of the underlying layers.

6. Use the Finger Painting option to begin the smudge by using the foreground color.

   Rather than use the color under your cursor, this option smears your foreground color at the start of each stroke. If you want the best of both worlds, you can quickly switch into Finger Painting mode by pressing the Alt key while you drag. Release Alt to go back to Normal mode.

7. Paint over the areas you want to smudge.

   Pay attention to your strokes because this tool can radically change your image. If you don’t like the results, press Ctrl+Z (⌘  +Z on the Mac) to undo the changes and then lower the Strength percentage (discussed in Step 4) even more.

Softening with the Blur tool

The Blur tool (looks like a teardrop) can be used to repair images, as well as for more artistic endeavors. You can use the Blur tool to soften a small flaw or part of a rough edge. You can add a little blur to an element to make it appear as though it was moving when photographed. You can also blur portions of your image to emphasize the focal point, as shown in Figure 10-21, where we blurred everything except the girl’s face. The Blur tool works by decreasing the contrast among adjacent pixels in the blurred area.

The mechanics of using the Blur tool and its options are similar to those of the Smudge tool, as we describe in the preceding section. When you use the Blur tool, be sure to use a small brush for smaller areas of blur.

Focusing with the Sharpen tool

If the Blur tool is yin, the Sharpen tool is yang. The Sharpen tool (looks like a triangle) increases the contrast among adjacent pixels to give the illusion that things are sharper. You should use this tool with restraint, however. Sharpen can quickly give way to overly grainy and noisy (random bright and dark pixels) images if you’re not cautious.

Use a light hand and keep the areas you sharpen small. Sometimes, the eyes in a soft portrait can benefit from a little sharpening, as shown in Figure 10-22. You can also slightly sharpen an area to emphasize it against a less-than-sharp background.

To use the Sharpen tool, grab the tool from the Tools panel and follow the steps provided for the Smudge tool in the section “Smudging away rough spots,” earlier in this chapter. Here are some additional tips for using the Sharpen tool:

• Use a low value, around 25 percent or less.
• Remember that you want to gradually sharpen your element to avoid the nasty, noisy grain that can occur from oversharpening.
• Because sharpening increases contrast, if you use other contrast adjustments, such as Levels, you boost the contrast of the sharpened area even more.
• Select the Protect Detail option to enhance the details in the image and minimize artifacts. If you leave this option deselected, your sharpening is more pronounced.

If you need to sharpen your overall image, try choosing either Enhance ⇒ Unsharp Mask or Enhance ⇒ Adjust Sharpness instead. These features offer more options and better control.

Sponging color on and off

The Sponge tool soaks up color or squeezes it out. In more technical terms, this tool reduces or increases the intensity, or saturation, of color in both color and grayscale images. Yes, the Sponge tool also works in Grayscale mode by darkening or lightening the brightness value of those pixels.

As with the Blur and Sharpen tools, you can use the Sponge tool to reduce or increase the saturation in selected areas in order to draw attention to or away from those areas.

Follow these steps to sponge color on or off your image:

1. In Expert mode, choose the Sponge tool from the Tools panel.

   The tool looks like a sponge. Press O to cycle through the Sponge, Dodge, and Burn tools. You can also select any of these tools and then choose your desired tool from the Tool Options.

2. Select a brush from the Brush Preset Picker panel. Further adjust the size of the brush tip if needed.

   Use large, soft brushes to saturate or desaturate a larger area.

3. Choose either Desaturate or Saturate from the Mode drop-down list to decrease or increase color intensity, respectively.

4. Choose a flow rate with the Flow slider or text box.

   The flow rate is the speed with which the saturation or desaturation effect builds while you paint. Start with a lower rate and then adjust as desired.

5. Paint carefully over the areas you want to saturate or desaturate with color.

   In the example shown in Figure 10-23, we used saturation to make the pup the focal point and desaturated the humans.

Replacing one color with another

The Color Replacement tool allows you to replace the original color of an image with the foreground color. You can use this tool in a multitude of ways:

• Colorize a grayscale image to create the look of a hand-painted photo.
• Completely change the color of an element, or elements, in your image, as shown in Figure 10-24, where we painted part of the girl with the balloons with the Color Replacement tool using the color black.
• Eliminate red eye (or yellow, green, or otherwise in animals) if other, more automated methods don’t work to your satisfaction.

What we particularly like about the Color Replacement tool is that it preserves all the tones in the image. The color that’s applied isn’t like the opaque paint that’s applied when you paint with the Brush tool. When you’re replacing color, the midtones, shadows, and highlights are retained. The Color Replacement tool works by first sampling the original colors in the image and then replacing those colors with the foreground color. By specifying different sampling methods, limits, and Tolerance settings, you can control the range of colors that Elements replaces.

Follow these steps to replace existing color with your foreground color:

1. In Expert mode, select the Color Replacement tool from the Tools panel.

   The tool looks like a paintbrush with a small blue square next to it. Press B to cycle through the Brush, Impressionist Brush, and Color Replacement tools. You can also select any of these tools and then choose your desired tool from the Tool Options.

2. In the Tool Options, choose your desired brush tip from the Brush Preset Picker panel. Further adjust your brush size as needed. Then adjust the hardness, spacing, roundness, and angle under Brush Settings.

3. Choose your desired blend mode.

   Here’s a brief rundown of each one:

   • Color: The default, this mode works well for most jobs. It will change the color without changing the brightness levels, thereby retaining your tonal range. This mode works great for eliminating red eye.
   • Hue: Similar to color, this mode is less intense and provides a subtler effect.
   • Saturation: This mode is the one to use to convert the color in your image to grayscale. Set your foreground color to Black on the Tools panel.
   • Luminosity: This mode, the opposite of Color, doesn’t provide much of an effect. It changes the brightness levels, with no regard to color.

4. Select your Limits mode.

   You have these options:

   • Contiguous replaces the color of adjacent pixels containing the sampled color.
   • Discontiguous replaces the color of the pixels containing the sampled color, whether or not they’re adjacent.

5. Set your Tolerance percentage.

   Tolerance refers to a range of color. The higher the value, the broader the range of color that’s sampled, and vice versa.

6. Set your Sampling method.

   You have these options:

   • Continuous allows you to sample and replace color continuously while you drag your mouse.
   • Once replaces color only in areas containing the color that you first sample.
   • Background Swatch replaces colors only in areas containing your current Background color.

7. Select the Anti-aliasing option.

   Anti-aliasing slightly softens the edges of the sampled areas.

8. Click or drag your image.

   The foreground color replaces the original colors of the sampled areas. Back in Figure 10-24, we used a black foreground color to replace the photo’s original background colors.

If you want to be very precise, make a selection before you replace your color. We did this with the girl in Figure 10-24 so that we could avoid coloring outside the lines.