# PhotoshopElements

# Correcting color in Full Edit

If you’ve worked with images before, you’ll find that the full workspace provides the most flexible and powerful image-correction environment. It has lighting and color-correction commands, along with tools for fixing image defects, making selections, adding text, and painting on your images. When working with some of the adjustment commands, you can make adjustments directly on the image pixels. Or you can use adjustment layers to make nondestructive adjustments that you can easily tweak until your image is right.

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Editing in Full Edit

A.
  There are many tools for correcting problems and selecting portions of a photo.
B.
  The Project Bin lets you see which photos are open.
C.
  The Palette Bin holds palettes that you use to transform and enhance photos and contains the tabs to access all the workspace modes: Full Edit, Quick Fix, and Guided Edit.

As you work on your photos, perform the following tasks that apply to your image. Not all tasks are required for every image, but the following list is a recommended workflow:

#### 1. Specify a color management option.

Specify color management options. (See Set up color management.)

#### 2. View the image at 100% and crop, if necessary.

Before making any color corrections, view the image at a zoom percentage of 100%. At 100%, Photoshop Elements displays the image most accurately. You can also check for image defects, such as dust spots and scratches. If you plan to crop the file, do it now to reduce memory requirements and to ensure that the histogram uses only relevant information. Using the Zoom tool to zoom out may optimize the view before cropping an image, so that you crop a well-centered selection.

#### 3. Check the scan quality and tonal range.

Look at the image’s histogram to evaluate whether the image has sufficient detail to produce high-quality output.

#### 4. Resize your image, if necessary.

Resize your image to the size that you need if you are going to use it in another application or project. If you are going to print it or use it in a Photoshop Elements project, you generally don’t need to resize it. (See About image size and resolution.)

#### 5. Adjust the highlights and shadows.

Begin corrections by adjusting the values of the extreme highlight and shadow pixels in the image (also known as the tonal range). Setting an overall tonal range allows for the most detail possible throughout the image. This process is known as setting the highlight and shadow or setting the white and black points. (See About Levels adjustments.)

#### 6. Adjust the color balance.

After correcting the tonal range, you can adjust the image’s color balance to remove unwanted color casts or to correct oversaturated or undersaturated colors. With some Photoshop Elements auto commands, both the tonal range and color are corrected in one step. (See Adjust saturation and hue.)

#### 7. Make other special color adjustments.

Once you have corrected the overall color balance of your image, you can make optional adjustments to enhance colors. For example, you can increase the vividness of color in your image by increasing its saturation.

#### 8. Retouch the image.

Use the retouching tools, like the Spot Healing Brush, to remove any dust spots or defects in the image. (See Remove spots and small imperfections.)

#### 9. Sharpen the clarity of the image.

As a final step, sharpen the clarity of edges in the image. This process helps restore detail and sharpness that tonal adjustments may reduce. (See Sharpening overview.)

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- About camera raw image files

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- This page on the Web