Selective darkening in PS Elements 7

[ted_raper1]

<p>How do you - what tools - selectively darken parts on an image in PSE7? Just started using it and can't figure this out. Say you wish to darken the background and leave the foreground object as it is - is this a layer technique or something else?</p>

[silverdae]

<p>Yes, you'll need to learn about layers and masking. A lot of basic tutorials can be found online. Look for "'photoshop elements 7' layers tutorial" and you should come up with loads. I would also recommend getting a beginners book (search these forums for recommendations) on PSE 7.</p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>Jen is right--layers and masking is the right way to do it. If you want quick and dirty, the Burn tool (hand icon with thumb and fingers touching) darkens areas, but you want to use a soft brush, choose Midtones, Highlights, or Shadows as appropriate, and turn down Exposure to a value that makes it controllable. If you want a more precise area darkened, you can pick one of the Select tools, such as the Lasso, draw an outline around the area to be darkened, and bring it down with Image->Adjustments->Brightness/Contrast, or Image->Adjustments->Levels. It's more controllable (and reversible) to do the same thing with an adjustment layer, using Layers->New Adjustment Layer->Levels.</p>

[peter]

<p>Basic selections are fairly easy to learn - do not despair. There are lots of Photoshop tutorials on the internet so spend some time searching, then reading, then practicing the techniques discovered. With darkening you will often find that it pays big dividends to "feather" the edge between the darkened and undarkened sections to make it more natural so read up on this too.<br>

An even easier technique that you may find will work depending on the image is to make a layer duplicate of the image then darken this layer using one of the several lightness / darkness controls in PSE. Then (here is the sweet bit) you can just erase the parts of the duplicate layer in the areas where you want the brighter bottom layer to show thru. This too is basic and easy but you should search on this topic on the internet to find out how to do it properly. I like this technique which can also be used to make parts of the image black and white while the rest is in color. Its easy too.</p>

[www.philwinterphotography.]

<p>Here's a technique I picked up - I certainly didn't invent it. On the tool bar, set the background color to white if you want to lighten a certain area, or to black if you want to darken. Then select a soft brush, and set the size appropriate for the area you want to lighten/darken. Then set the mode to overlay and the opacity to between 10% and 15%. Then simply paint over the area you want to darken/lighten. If 15% is too strong, back off the opacity. If the area is pure black (RGB 000) or pure white (RGB 255,255,255) this technique will have no effect, nor will any other painting technique. Oh yes, it's good to duplicate the layer first.</p>

[peano]

<blockquote>

<p>Here's a technique I picked up - I certainly didn't invent it. On the tool bar, set the background color to white if you want to lighten a certain area, or to black if you want to darken. Then select a soft brush, and set the size appropriate for the area you want to lighten/darken. Then set the mode to overlay and the opacity to between 10% and 15%. Then simply paint over the area you want to darken/lighten. If 15% is too strong, back off the opacity. If the area is pure black (RGB 000) or pure white (RGB 255,255,255) this technique will have no effect, nor will any other painting technique. Oh yes, it's good to duplicate the layer first.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That'll work, but you're better off to open a blank layer and set blend mode to overlay or softlight, then paint with white (normal brush mode) to brighten, black to darken. Two advantages to using a blank layer: 1) If you decide later that you don't like that effect, you can edit the blank layer, change it's blend mode, adjust layer opacity, put a mask on the layer, etc., and 2) you aren't needlessly increasing file size (and using RAM) by duplicating an image layer.</p>

[peano]

<blockquote>

<p>How do you - what tools - selectively darken parts on an image in PSE7? Just started using it and can't figure this out. Say you wish to darken the background and leave the foreground object as it is - is this a layer technique or something else?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>One simple way is to use a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Mask out the subject as illustrated here, then open the hue/sat dialog box and pull the Lightness slider to the left. One nice thing about this approach is that you can readjust the darkness later.<br>

<img src="http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8660/darken1.gif" alt="" /></p>