Lighten Up Your Life (Photoshop Elements)

Regardless of how nice your camera is, a little fix in Photoshop Elements is like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer day.

In fact, I rarely let a photo of mine go to print without first being edited in Photoshop Elements.

In this tutorial, I will be showing you how a few simple steps can take your photo from so-so to sensational.

Step 1) Open a photo

• Open a photo that you think turned out too dark.
• At first glance this photo looks good to me. It’s got nice clarity and would make an excellent addition to a scrapbook page. But it’s just a little dark. I would like to see more details in her face, because she’s so sweet!!

Step 2) Create a Duplicate Layer

• In the Menu bar choose Layer > Duplicate Layer.
• Name the layer “Screen”.
• Click OK.

Step 3) Set the Blending Mode

• Make sure the “Screen” layer is the active layer.
• Click the drop-down menu at the top of the Layers panel and change the blending mode to Screen.

Step 4) Adjustments (if necessary)

• Is your photo too light? Then reduce the opacity of the Screen layer. To do this…
  • Make sure the “Screen” layer is the active layer.
  • In the Layers panel, move the Opacity slider to the left until you are satisfied with the results.

• Is your photo still too dark? Then duplicate the Screen layer to lighten it even more. To do this…
  • Make sure the “Screen” layer is the active layer.
  • Duplicate the screen layer again by choosing Layer > Duplicate Layer.
  • The new layer should already be in the Screen mode.
  • Adjust the Opacity slider or repeat as necessary.

Every photo will be different, you just have to go with what looks good to you. When you are satisfied with your photo, proceed to Step 5.

Step 5) Flatten Your Photo

• Click on the fly-out menu in the Layers panel.
• Click Flatten Image.

• If you’d like to permanently save these changes to your photo, save it as a .jpeg image with an altered name, so you don’t save over the original image.

Now you can drag your sensational photo to your scrapbook page!

The Tip of the Week Gallery is a great place to show us your Lighten Up Your Life creation. Post your projects today!

Credits: Tutorial and page by Jen White. Background papers and elements are from Anja Schernau’s kit, Bloomin Sunflowers.

Download a PDF version of this “Lighten Up Your Life” tutorial.

Windows: Right click on the link and choose “Save Target As” or a similar command.
Mac: Click on the link to download the file.

Leap Frog To The Next Level!

Rather than learning a bit here and a bit there, why not leap frog to the next level? Our CD, Learn Digital Scrapbooking, takes you step-by-step from rank beginner to confident digital scrapbooker in a fraction of the time!

Find out more and get a free sample video lesson