Learning to Love Levels
June 11, 2009

Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the most amazing magazine ever, called Elements Techniques. It's packed full of tutorials just for Elements users, along with all kinds of photography tips. You can subscribe to it by clicking this link.
When you think of all variables that come into play when you're capturing images, it's a wonder any of ‘em turn out halfway decent at all. Just think about it: Unless you're hauling around your own light kit, you're dependent on ambient light sourceswhich are less than perfect on a good dayand then it’s up to you to set the camera properly so you don’t over- or underexpose the image. Even if the stars are aligned and you get all that right, the camera itself may introduce a color cast. Arg!
Thankfully, Elements has several tools that can help fix most any lighting or color problem you might have. For example, you can... more
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Quick Color Change
May 29, 2009

When it comes to changing the color of an object, there’s an easy way and a hard way to get it done. The hard way involves creating a selection, as discussed in in the Repainting Cabinets tutorial. An easier way is to use a blend mode instead. Read on!
Meet the Hue mode
Blend modes let you control how color on one layer interacts with color on another. The Hue mode, in particular, keeps the lightness and saturation (color intensity) values of the base color (your object’s original color) and adds the hue (another word for color) of the blend color (your new paint layer). If you want to change the color of an object without changing how light or dark it is, you can use the Hue mode. However, this mode can’t introduce color that isn’t already there, so... more
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