BASIC PHOTOEDITING IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
This is a tutorial on how to do very basic photo-editing in PhotoShop and PhotoShop Elements programs. It
is intended to guide beginners on how to correct and improve their images for PSA juried exhibit
submissions.
This tutorial was prepared using PhotoShop 7 so some of the functions may be in different areas and of a
different name, especially in the Elements versions programs. Some of the differences that I remember
include: 1. For Image Resizing you have to click on Image, then Resize, and finally Image Size. 2. To Rotate
your image the controls are under Enhance, Canvas Custom (there is also a Straighten and Crop [I do not
recommend this function] and Straighten which will allow you to make the cropping decision manually).
So if are using a PhotoShop product and the function I describe is not where I say it is noodle around. It will
be somewhere and maybe named a bit differently.
I will not confuse you with keyboard shortcuts or right-clicking “power” commands nor go into details what
is being done behind the scenes but I will only tell you what to do and how use the basic navigation tools
from the toolbar and from the available palettes in PhotoShop.
The order of processing your images should be:
1. Color correction, if needed.
2. Straightening (Rotating) your image, if needed.
3. Cropping your image, if needed.
4. Resizing your image.
I confess that I did not think of a logical order to teach beginners so some of the images will look a bit
out-of-place in the illustrations after re-thinking the process.
For illustration purposes I will be using one of my images that is, off-color and slightly crooked from a scan
as well as being way too large for submitting.
It is good practice to first make a copy of your original image and work on that in case of a program or
power crash. It is also good to save your progress as you go along between each major step.
1. BASIC COLOR CORRECTION:
PhotoShop generally has at least three ways to do things. The first and easiest one is like using a chainsaw to
perform surgery. The second method is akin to using a butcher’s knife. While the third is like using a super
fine laser beam but is very difficult to use and learn.
The easiest method(s) is to use the automatic color correction tools. These are: Auto-Contrast, Auto-Color,
and Auto-Levels, or Variations in Elements. The tools are located by clicking ‘Image’ then ‘Adjustments’ in
PhotoShop or under ‘Enhance’ in most versions of Elements. This is all of the explanation I will give using
the automatic functions.
I generally use the second method which is fairly easy to do. This is what I will describe briefly now.
The method is called Levels adjustment. With it you can combine color correction, brightness, contrast, and
saturation into one action but is more delicate than the Automatic functions.
