The Creative Art Of Tweaking Your Pictures With Photoshop Elements

By David Peters

Thanks to the latest technology, capturing unforgettable moments have now become very easy. Apart from digital cameras, cellular phones now come along with built-in cameras that make it much easier to take images and keep these valuable moments. But what about those photos that you have taken way before digital cameras became a commodity?

Some people may get truly discouraged and disappointed with plenty of images taken with still cameras because of the low quality of the picture. Even if you've managed to find the disadvantages and have them reprinted, if the photos were poorly taken to start with, having it reproduced will be worthless. But that doesn't mean to say that these could not be restored. Using simple elements of Photoshop, you'd be able to enhance the quality of the images and keep the memories alive.

Below are a few great ways to fine-tune your pictures with easy elements from Adobe Photoshop:

Cropping

You look wonderful in your high school prom image, but you would rather forget that guy standing right next to you. By using the crop tool, you can be able to keep a copy of your school prom image sans your ex-sweetheart. After scanning the photo and opening the file in your Photoshop, drag the cursor while holding down the left button on your mouse to pick the area that you desire to keep. Then simply click Image and select Crop. You'll be left with the selected area of the photo that you have highlighted.

Fixing the Angles

If your little one tried to take a photo and it came out slightly tilted, you may realign it in order that it comes out straight. Simply choose the measuring tool located in your menu toolbar on the left side of your screen. Click on one horizon of the image which you'd like to re-align and then dragging it the cursor to the other end. This would fix up any minor misalignments. If it still looks a little off, click on the canvas option and rotate it on the canvas until you're pleased with it. The software will automatically expand the canvas to fill-in the empty spots.

Colour Touch-Ups

If the lighting caused the image you took to come up a littl bit too orange, you can also fix this by adjusting the colours on the image. Go to Image then select Adjustments and then Color Balance. It would open up a menu that would allow you to fix up the colors of the image. Just drag each cursor right or to the left. As Photoshop has a preview feature, it'd allow you to see the modifications as you drag the cursors to help you make the image come as close as how you remember it.

Sharpen

The most common of all photos taken by film cameras is that often they tend to look a bit blurred. To bring out the details of the photo, choose the sharpen feature in the Filter option on menu bar. The software will automatically sharpen the details of the image a little at a time. Continue the whole process until you are satisfied with the details of the entire image.

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