Adding more ELEMENTS skills to your photography

Meeting Report

We welcomed back Leslie who has become an annual attraction in our calender of events. This evening was devoted to layers. Some people (including me) have some difficulty in understanding the concept of layers. If I had had Leslie explaining them to me before I would have picked it up much faster. Leslie teaches Photoshop Elements at Lodge Hill Computer Centre, Coldwaltham, Pulborough if anyone is interested in improving their skills.

Leslie started using 'blobs of colours' to illustrate the principles of layers, before moving on using photographs to illustrate how to combine different elements of two frames of a simple landscape image, one with a good sky and one with a good foreground. (If you shoot in RAW you can do the same thing from just one frame by 'bringing out' different elements of the same shot and combining them in the same way as Leslie showed us).

Leslie then showed us how to introduce other parts of completely different pictures i.e., birds.

We were shown how one can improve a portrait of, in this instance a lady, by sharpening the eyes and the mouth on a seperate layer and then blending these bits back into the original image.

Then how one can colour old restored photographs using layers to very good effect, followed by our first look at how Elements stiches a series of frames taken of a scene taking each shot slightly overlapping the previous one. This can produce very good panoramic pictures and the technique uses layers to achieve this with photomerge.

After the break we were shown how to compose a picture with different images of a similar subject, for instance flowers, and combining them on the same sheet.

Using layers you can bring out blown detail in an image which appears to be beyond help.

Then we were shown how using adjustment layers you can use say levels and you can return later to the same layer and change your adjustment. You can do the same thing with curves or any other adjustment tool without interfering with the original image.

Then, starting with a static shot of a motor car, we were shown how to blur the background to give the illusion of motion and how to get the wheels moving as well; all very clever stuff!

Finally we were shown more panoramas which rounded off a splendid evening which I am sure will have provoked many of us to try the various techniques shown for ourselves.

Leslie has written her own book illustrating how to do these and many other operations which can be obtained from her, (Paul Hayward is a friend and neighbour of Leslie and will help you contact her if required).

Thank you once again for a very interesting and thought provoking evening Leslie and we look forward to the next episode next year if you would oblige us please.