I am introducing some basic lessons for fixing common problems in photoshop elements. The steps are basically the same in most photo editing software, but I personally find that Photoshop Elements 4.0 is my favorite, and it seems to be the most popular, so that is what I will use for these lessons. Photoshop Elements 4.0 is a relatively inexpensive program, and is pretty comprehensive. This program will cover just about any editing needs for personal use. I can’t speak highly enough about this program.
The program, as of today, can be purchased for about $80 here on Amazon.com. This may seem expensive, but compared to full blown Adobe Photoshop, at over $500, it’s a steal. This may well be the only photo editing program you will ever need. This program offers all of the editing power any average home user would need without all of the complications and extensive advanced features of Photoshop CS2 that home users would not need. Even without the features available in CS2, there are ways around it, so that you can still accomplish anything you need to. You can download a trial at Adobe.com so that you can try out this program before you buy it. Trust me, it’s well worth every penny. Keep an eye out on Amazon.com because they often offer rebates for this program, in fact, with the mail in rebate, I got this program for just about $40 several months ago.
There is a book available, also on Amazon.com called The Photoshop Elements 4 Book for Digital Photographers, by Scott Kelby. I highly recommend this book. It offers easy, step by step tutorials for fixing many common problems in pictures, and he even throws in a little bit of humor along the way. The back cover of the book states that this book is for the Intermediate to Advanced user level, but I found it really simple, even as a beginner.
Go download the trial version, and grab yourself some photos that need to be fixed, and let’s get started!