Editing: Expert Guides and Resources

Aside from poor picture quality, the number-one printing complaint is that colors on the computer monitor don't match the ones that show up in print. When this problem occurs, most people assume that the printer is to blame, but in fact the most likely culprit is the monitor. If the monitor isn’t accurately calibrated, the colors it displays aren’t a true reflection of your image colors.

A color cast is a tint that discolors your digital image. If a color cast appears in an image captured with a digital camera, get rid of that color cast by using your digital editing application.Open the image with the unwanted color cast in your image editor.Typically, photos that are too red or too blue are the most common color cast errors.

While you edit your digital photos in an image-editing program, you’re bound to make a mistake every now and then that you want to undo. Fortunately, you can undo most mistakes by using these undo safety nets:Select the Undo command.You can usually find this command on the Edit menu. It takes you one step back in time.

In Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can create layers onto which you can move different parts of your photo file. By moving parts of your original photo onto new layers, you can use those different layers to make adjustments to only certain portions of the image. To select a part of your picture and move it to a new layer:Select the area of your image that you want to move to a new layer.

You often need to rename image files on your computer while you work with your digital photos. By renaming your picture files, you can avoid getting your digital pictures confused. To rename an image:Select a photo in your photo folder.Click any thumbnail or image from the list. Select the Rename This File task from the File and Folder Tasks pane.

To figure out the biggest size at which you can print your picture at a certain resolution, divide the number of pixels across by the resolution you want. The result gives you the largest print width you can use (in inches). To determine the maximum print height, divide the number of pixels vertically by the desired resolution.

If your image editor supports layers, add text to your digital photo by including a text layer in the image file. You can include this text anywhere in the image and decide the text’s look. This process is similar in all image-editing software that supports layers, but to add text to a photo in Photoshop Elements:Open the image in your image editor and choose Layer→New→Layer.

You can easily combine several digital photos into one, copying part of one photo and pasting it into another by using your image-editing software. To combine images: Open both the source image (the one where the content you want currently resides) and the target image (the one that will receive the copied content) in your image editor.

If your digital image contains little marks (called artifacts) or your subject has an unsightly pimple, you can easily remove them with your image editor’s Brush or Pencil tool. Painting or drawing over artifacts removes them in a snap. To remove artifacts from your digital photoClick the tool that you want to use, like in this figure.