Elements 5 and Text Boxes

I'm very new to editing digital photographs and I am stuck on how to add text,

and change the background to black, so that the white text stands out. I have

shot the local t-ball team, and I need to add thier names to the bottom of the

page. I'k like to give it a minimalist and clean look, perhaps just a simple

black border, with text. I'm trying to get my head around layers, erasers

droppers and opacity, but it's not working for me. Any help is greatly

appreciated.

Cheers

The quickie way to add text is to use the 'T' icon. You can place it anywhere and make it whatever color you like. If the background is white, you can simply use black (or green, red, whatever) and put the text where you want it.

The long answer is working with all the tools, especially layers, takes a bit of time to learn. The software manual is pretty poor but fortunately there are dozens of books out there to help. My favorite PSE source is scottkelby.com but there are many others. Also, there are many websites that have online tutorials. Even at best, the learning curve for PS is pretty high.

Darryn,<br>I do not have PSE5, I do have 2 versions of PSE and PS and the procedure is virtually the same in all versions of Photoshop anything:<p>

1. Open image to modify>right click the title bar>select image size.

Optional method open image>click on Image>resize>image size.<br>

2. In the image size note the doucement size in inches. Decide how large a border you want to add and record the new doucement size on a piece of scratch paper or note pad. click ok to close the image size box.<br>

3. In the top left corner of the too box select the Rectangular Marquee Tool by right clicking the tool and selecting it.<br>

4. Starting in one corner of the image drag the marquee tool to cover the entire image (see photoshop help for how to use the tool). Select Edit> Copy then close the image. If save changes comes up (it shouldn't) say no.<br>

5. In the lower portion of the tool box select the small black and white boxes called Default foreground and background. Switch the colors so that black is in the lower right box of the larger color boxes.<br>

6. Click on File>New>in the drop down menus of the width and heigth boxes select Inches> highlight the current deminsions and type in the deminsions that you recorded in step 2. In the contents section select Background color.Select OK.<br>

7. A new blank black box the desired size will now be in the work area. Select Edit>Paste=your image should be centered with a black border of the desired size.<br>

8. Right click the T in the tool box and select horizional text tool. Note the tool task bar changes to text mode with a text color selector box. Select font type, size, position (centered works well for captions), and color then pick a start point in the black border at the top or bottom of the image and start typing. If all looks good click the check mark to save the typed info then save the new image.<p>

See Photoshop help for use of the tools mentioned in this procedure. There are other ways but I find this the easiest.