Getting started: Guided Edit mode

You can use this tutorial with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements versions 7 and 8.

Learn how to use the Guided Edit mode in Adobe® Photoshop® Elements. Guided Edit walks you through some basic editing tasks as well as some of the neat features in Elements.

• More full-sized videos like this one
• Photoshop Elements 7 videos
• Photoshop Elements 8 videos

Requirements

To complete this tutorial, install the following software:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or later

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Viewing Guided Edit

To see the options available in Guided Edit, you can select a photo in the Organizer workspace, and then open it in Guided Edit.

1. Start Photoshop Elements 7 and open the Organizer workspace.
2. In the Photo Browser, click a photo to select it.
3. Click the Editor button (upper right), and click Guided Edit.

   The Editor workspace opens with Guided Edit selected, as shown in Figure 1. On the upper left, there is an abbreviated toolbox that has Zoom and Hand tools. Use the Zoom tool for zooming in and out of the photo and a Hand tool for moving around in the photo. There is also a Project Bin at the bottom of the screen. In the lower left corner of the workspace, there is a button for showing or hiding the Project bin.

   

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   Figure 1: Editor workspace with Guided Edit selected

4. If the Project bin is hidden, click Show Project Bin. The Project Bin opens and you see a thumbnail of the open photo.
5. Click Hide Project Bin to give yourself more room to work.

   On the right of the Editor workspace, is a list of the various techniques and features that can be performed from Guided Edit. Guided Edit includes basic photo edits like rotating and sharpening, lighting and exposure adjustments, and color correction. Group Shot and Scene Cleaner are covered in more detail in other tutorials. The Automated Action Player allows you to play prerecorded actions on your photos.

6. Scroll in the Guided Edit panel, all the way down to the bottom to see the additional options.

   Photographic Effects, like Old Fashioned Photo make your photo look old. You can also apply the Saturated Slide Film effect to make your photo look like it was shot on slide film.

Changing brightness and contrast

To practice a typical Guided Edit, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the selected photo.

If your photograph is a little dark, you can brighten it up.

1. In the Guided Edit panel, click Brightness and Contrast.

   The panel changes to show brightness and contract options, as shown in Figure 2. The Auto button tries to automatically fix the brightness of this image. This Guided Edit is useful for fixing underexposed or overexposed images.

   

   Figure 2: Brightness and Contrast Guided Edit options

   If you don't want to use the Auto button, you can use the Brightness and Contrast sliders adjustment the photo manually. The Brightness slider makes the image lighter or darker. The Contrast slider affects the difference between the light tones and the dark tones in the image.

2. Drag the Brightness slider to the right to brighten the image.
3. Drag the Contrast slider to the right to see how this changes the image.

Viewing before and after copies of the edited photo

Guided Edit also offers the opportunity to see a before and after view of the adjusted photo. You can make any fine adjustments before accepting your changes. By default, the Editor only shows you the edited photo (the After version). You can toggle between views using the Before & After arrow at the bottom of the Guided Edit panel.

1. Click the green Before & After arrow.

   The view changes to Before & After – Horizontal. The original dark photo and the lightened photo are shown side-by-side, as shown in Figure 3.

   

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   Figure 3: Before & After view

   If you do not like the changes, you can click the Reset button. If you do like them, you can click the Done button. To ignore the changes and return to the main Guided Edit options, you can click Cancel.

2. Click Done to accept the changes and return to the main Guided Edit options.

Saving and closing the adjusted photo

The last step to editing photos is to save and close the adjusted image. If you don’t close the image, you can't work with the photo back in the Organizer workspace.

1. Click the Organizer button to switch from the Editor to the Organizer.

   The image you have opened in the Editor has a red belt around it and it tells you that an edit is in progress. See Figure 4.

   

   Figure 4: Edit in progress

   Whenever you see this red belt in the Organizer, it means that you have to go back to the Editor and close the image.

2. Click the Editor button, and click Guided Edit.
3. Choose File > Close. You are prompted to save the changes you made to this photo.

   Note: Saving is covered in a separate tutorial.

4. Click Cancel to close the message without saving.

Where to go from here

If you enjoyed this tutorial, check out these other resources to help get you started using Photoshop Elements.

• Photoshop Elements Essentials for Windows tutorials on lynda.com
• Photoshop Elements shows on Adobe TV
• Photoshop Elements Help and Support
• Touring the Full Edit interface
• Using tools
• Saving files

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