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.
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:
Specify color management options. (See Set up color management.)
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.
Look at the image’s histogram to evaluate whether the image has sufficient detail to produce high-quality output.
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.
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.)
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.)