Table of Contents

Enhancing Photos with Levels ........................................................................ 2 Whitening Teeth............................................................................................. 4 Creating Custom Brushes ............................................................................... 6 Changing Paper Colors ................................................................................... 9 Custom Color Swatches ................................................................................ 12 Making Scrapbooking Easier with the Shift and Control Keys (Shortcuts) .... 13 Rounding Corners ......................................................................................... 14 Filling Images (Clipping Masks)..................................................................... 15 Cutting Individual Layers - Tips For Using the Selection Tools ...................... 18

Enhancing Photos with Levels

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

Pictures from digital cameras or scanners often (if not always) have a grayish look to them. If you havent noticed this before you will after you start adjusting your photos with levels. Youll be amazed how much better your pictures can look. Before you scrapbook or print any picture adjust the levels of the picture by selecting Image>Adjustments>Levels or if you have Elements choose Enhance>Adjust Brightness/Contrast>Levels. When you get the Levels pop-up box adjust the sliders until your picture looks the best you can make it. I usually slide the sliders in the direction shown in red below:

I usually slide the far left and right sliders just past the base of the last peak closest to it. I usually slide the middle slider just a bit to the left and sometimes adjust the output level slider at the bottom. Play around with this and your pictures will look great! Look what a major difference levels can make on your picture:

Whitening Teeth
Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip applies to all versions of Photoshop including Elements. This tip will work in several other imageediting programs as well.

Its easy to whiten teeth in a picture. Choose your magic wand tool and make sure add to a selection is chosen in the options bar. Click on the teeth until most of the teeth are selected as shown below. It doesnt have to be perfect.

If you have the full version of Photoshop choose Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. If you have Elements choose Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation.

In the drop-down menu choose Yellows then slide the Saturation slider to the left and possibly move the lightness slider to the right. Dont make the teeth too white or it will look fake.

Creating Custom Brushes

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip applies to all versions of Photoshop including Elements. This tip will work in several other imageediting programs as well.

If you ever liked stamping with paper and ink you will love this trick. You can create custom brushes with any image.

1) Decide on the picture or graphic you want to create into a brush. 2) Your background should be white or transparent or it will show up as part of your brush. 3) Select the rectangle marquee tool in your toolbox. Select around the area you want to make into a brush. If you want the entire image to be turned into a brush (as shown below) you can skip this step.

4) Select Edit then Define Brush (or Define Brush Preset).

5) You will get a box that looks like the one below. Enter in a name that will remind you where the original image was created so you can give proper credit when using your new brush on published pages (read terms of use for more information). Click OK and you are done!

To use your new brush, click on the brush tool in the toolbox. In the options bar click on the drop down menu that allows you to choose different brushes. Find your new brush at the bottom of the list and have fun! You can click and drag the brush to create a brush effect or click once on your page for more of a fun stamp effect.

Tip: You can use this new brush as an eraser too. Once it is saved as a brush it will also be saved as an eraser

Changing Paper Colors

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

One of the greatest things about digital scrapbooking is you can easily change the colors of any digital papers or elements you have to match your pictures.

If you have Photoshop Elements: Use the color picker (eyedropper tool) to pick the color you want your paper to change to. Make sure the top square in your toolbox (the foreground color) is the right color you want then choose Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue Saturation You will get a pop-up box like the one below. Click and preview (or simply make sure those boxes are checked) and like magic it's done. Instead of checking colorize you could also ove the sliders around until you get the color you like. Colorize helps you get a more exact color.

If you have the full version of Adobe Photoshop: you can customize your colors even more by choosing Image>Adjustments>Match Color. This will help you change an embellishment or paper to the same color as other files you have open. When you get the pop-up box shown in the next image choose the drop down menu we have circled. This will show you all of the other files you have open on your screen. Choose one of those files and the current file you have selected should change to the same or similar color.

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Let me explain this again in a different way. Open up two files. One of the files should be the paper or embellishment you want to change and the other file should be of a color you want to match. It doesnt have to be a solid color. Make sure the file you want to change the color of is selected then as mentioned before choose Image>Adjustments>Match Color. Select the drop down menu for the source (under Image Statistics) and find the file you want to match to. These instructions probably wont make sense until you try it on your own. If it doesnt work the first time try something else. Try it several times until you can see how it works. Youll love it

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Custom Color Swatches

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

If you have colors you really love and want to save simply use the eyedropper tool to select the color. Then in your color palette choose the box shown circled below which will add that new color to your palette. If you have colors in your palette you dont like you can drag them into the trash can at the bottom of the palette.

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Making Scrapbooking Easier with the Shift and Control Keys (Shortcuts)
Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip applies to all versions of Photoshop including Elements

There are many ways to make scrapbooking easier by using the shift and control (command for Mac) keys. Here are a few.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Hold the shift key down while you are making your pictures bigger or smaller to keep the picture in proportion. Hold the shift key down when using the marquee tool to create a perfect circle or square. Hold the shift key down while using brushes or erasers to draw a perfect line. Hold the shift key down while using the crop tool to crop in a perfect square. Hold the shift key down while using the shape tool to keep your shape in proportion. Hold the control (command) key while you click on a layer in the layer box to select everything in that layer. Hold the control (command) key while dragging the corners of your layer to distort it.

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Rounding Corners
Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

There are a lot of ways to make rounded corners. Here is one way Use the rectangular marquee tool to select a square or rectangle around your picture or paper. In the top drop-down menus chose Select>Modify>Smooth. You will then need to enter an amount of pixels. The smaller the number the less the curve. The larger the number the larger the curve. Try 50 pixels first and see if you like it. Next right-click in the middle of your picture and select inverse. Now press Delete and you are done. More to come!

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Filling Images (Clipping Masks)

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

Its extremely easy to fill images in Photoshop. By an image I mean any shape or letter(s) on a single layer. In this example I will show you how to fill text. This tutorial looks long but really it shouldnt be. I could sum this tutorial up in two sentences: Put a picture or patterned paper directly above your text layer. When the top layer is selected choose Layer>Create Clipping Path or if you are working in Elements Layer>Group with Previous. Thats it. If you want much more detailed instructions keep reading. Let me start from the beginning. First you need to write a word. Big, thick fonts work best. Next drag the paper or picture you want to fill the text with on the layer directly above your text. It cant be two layers above. It has to be directly above the text layer. Make sure your patterned paper layer is selected and choose layer (up top in the drop down menus) and create clipping mask or group with previous if you are working in Elements.

If you want to add a second paper or picture on top drag it to the layer directly above the patterned paper. If you do this wrong and drag it to the wrong spot you may mess everything up but its no big deal go back a step in your undo history and try again. This time make sure the layer with the patterned paper is selected before dragging the picture on top. If you have a layer selected the next layer dragged to your project will be put directly on top of that layer. After this is done make sure your picture layer is selected and choose Layer>Create Clipping Path or if you are working in Elements Layer>Group with Previous just like you did before.

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I dont like the size or the placement of the picture above so I shrunk it down and moved it over. To do this you make sure you have your move tool selected and make sure the layer you want to change is selected. If you cant see the transform box (as shown above) click on show transform tools or show bounding box depending on which version of Photoshop you have. Put your mouse near the corner until you see a diagonal arrow. Press shift as you left click and drag your picture to the size you want. I want to delete part of the picture. Using the marquee tool I select the part I want to keep then right click in the center, choose select inverse, then delete. This will only work if you are on the right layer.

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You can add a drop shadow for extra effect. The layer style needs to be done to the bottom layer that has the shape or text you are working with.

Another fun idea for using clipping masks is to create templates for your layouts. Basically you draw out your layout first with different shapes on their own layers. You can download some free templates here on our message board. After you register for the message board you will be able to see the pictures and download the files.

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Cutting Individual Layers - Tips For Using the Selection Tools

Digital Scrapbook Memories, 2006 - 2011 This tip works on any version of Photoshop including Elements. Similar programs will do similar things.

Here is my original picture.

Let me show you how to cut the picture out like I've done in this layout:

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Using the lasso tool trace around the entire outline of the baby.

You can use any of the lasso tools. Youll find them in the toolbox by right clicking on the lasso tool. Anytime there is a little triangle in the toolbox you can right click to find more tools. Use the lasso tool to freehand draw the area you want to select. Use the polygonal lasso tool to draw straight lines around your image. I used the magnetic lasso to go around the entire image (my baby). The magnetic lasso tool feels as if it magnetically connects to similar colors. In places where the colors are very similar the magnetic lasso has a harder time so you will need to be more careful. My first time around usually is not perfect. Ill show you how to make it perfect below. Tip: When you get to the end you double click to connect the dots. If you accidentally triple click you will lose everything you just did with the lasso. Typically you can go back one step in your history to

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get where you wanted to be. Tip: While you are going around your image click every once in a while to secure the anchor points. I click quite a bit but you dont have to. Tip: If your lasso goes somewhere you didnt want it to you can press delete as many times as you want to take back previous anchor points. Since I go around fairly quickly on the first time around I need to zoom into areas and clean things up. Keep using any of the lasso tools for this. In the options bar you will find options for a new selection, add to selection and subtract from selection. Make sure you have a lasso tool selected so you can see these options. Below you can see where I have circled in red I need to subtract from selection. To do this I will carefully go along the line of her tights then loosely circle around the carpet until I have subtracted all I need. Remember to double click when you want to connect the ends of your lasso. I want to use the add to selection option for where I have circled in blue below. If you use the new selection you will start with a new selection each time and you will not be able to save past selections.

Once Im done I can cut it out. Below I cut my baby out two ways. The first was without a feather. You can see the line around her head is pretty choppy. When I feathered before cutting I got a much

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smoother line. To feather you right click in the middle of your selection and choose feather then enter the number of pixels you want to feather. Try several pixel numbers to learn how it works and to see what you like the best.

After you feather your image (assuming you want to) you right click in the middle of your selection again and choose layer via cut or layer via copy. For this example it doesnt really matter which one you choose. Below you can see in my layers palette I chose layer via cut because the image is cut out of the background. I copied the background layer but that wasnt really necessary. Next I took my elliptical marquee tool and created a circle in the middle of the photo. I made sure I was on the background layer then right clicked in the middle of my selection and chose select inverse. I then pressed delete to delete the unwanted background.

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Since my baby and the background are on different layers I could desaturate the background to black and white while keeping my baby in color. It wouldnt look that cool with this picture but I bet you can think of a picture that would.

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