In the short video tutorial below, we show you how you can use some of Photoshop Elements’ new sharing options to post photos on Flickr and Facebook and start doing more with your photos.

If you’ve tried this, why not let us know how it went in the comments and drop us a link to your image gallery!

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44 essential digital camera tips and tricks
Digital camera effects from A-Z

In the video tutorial below we show you how you can make a photo book in Photoshop Elements that looks just as slick and professional as some of the templates you find on many photo printing websites.

If you’ve tried this and made your own photo book in Photoshop, let us know how it went in the comments. Do you have any tips you can share?

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44 essential digital camera tips and tricks
Digital camera effects from A-Z

While the exposure and dynamic range optimisation systems in modern digital cameras are sophisticated, they aren’t foolproof or psychic. Most images can benefit from some post-capture adjustment to their brightness and contrast, and the Photoshop Curves tool is ideal for making these precision adjustments.

The Curves Panel image brightness is displayed as a histogam and the tones are adjusted by manipulating the shape of the curve above. Most of us know this. But how can you use the Curves tool to get more creative and manipulate colour? Watch our Photoshop video below to learn how to use Curves in a number of creative ways.

Photoshop Tutorial: master the Curves tool

Before image

Getting a perfectly straight landscape photo isn’t always easy to achieve in-camera. Thankfully, by following a few simple steps in Adobe Camera Raw you can correct this lens distortion and get the perfect vista you were hoping to achieve. Here’s how to do it.

Photoshop effects: how to correct lens distortion in 4 steps

Step 1: Open up in ACR

In Adobe Bridge, click on the image ‘lens_before.dng’ and go to File>Open in the Camera Raw option to ensure the image is opened in ACR. Click on the Lens Corrections tab on the right of the window to allow you to correct the distortion.

Step 2 Correct distortion
Cliick on the Profile tab then on the Enable Lens Profile Corrections box. This will automatically choose your lens by using the information in the EXIF Metadata, although you can also manually select the Make, Model and Profile from the drop-down menus.

Step 3 Zoom in
Using the automatic Profile has 
corrected the distortion in the image, but the horizon isn’t quite straight. To do this, zoom in to 100%, and make sure that the horizon is close to 
the top of the window by holding down the spacebar and dragging the image.

Step 4 Level the horizon
Now click on the Manual tab at the top of the screen and use the Rotate slider to move the image until the horizon lines up with the straight edge of the preview window. For our image, we needed a value of +1.2 degrees.

Final image

Original image

Many promising photos are let down by a poor or distracting background. Anything in the distance that competes for attention will naturally draw the eye away from the subject and the impact of the shot will instantly be lost.

A common problem is shooting with your subject too close to the background. This means that anything behind the subject appears in partial focus and the subject itself doesn’t stand out. Other potential hazards include photo background distractions such as burnt-out areas, out-of-focus ‘blobs’, competing colours and unwanted intrusions, such as foliage. The good news is that they are all easily avoided. Here’s how…

Step 1: Diffuse the background
Shoot against a background that is some distance behind the subject so it’s thrown out of focus. Use a mid to long telephoto lens and shoot at a wide aperture, like f/4, to reduce depth of field and produce a diffused background.

Step 2: Check the background
Shoot against a neutral coloured background that’s uniform in tone. It’s best to avoid high-contrast or very bright backgrounds. Check around the viewfinder for obvious distractions while composing the shot and move if necessary.

Step 3: Clone out distractions
In Photoshop, select an area of the background close to the area you want to clone out and use the Clone Stamp tool  to ‘cover over’ the distraction. Use a soft-edged brush, set Opacity to around 60-80%, then build up gradually.

Final version

You may feel like you don’t know how to focus, but the reality is when you’re zoomed in tight on a subject, there might never be enough depth to get everything sharp, even at the lens’s minimum aperture.

The answer is to shoot a series of images with the focus set slightly further away each time, and then use a technique called ‘focus stacking’ to merge the separate photos into a finished picture that’s sharp from front to back.

This can be amazingly effective, and in this example you can’t see the joins! You can quite easily carry out focus stacking in Photoshop.

Step 1
In Photoshop CS4 or CS5, combine all your separate shots as layers in a single image (make sure you get them in the right order before you start).

Step 2
Now you can use the Edit menu to auto-align and then merge the layers. Note that Photoshop will automatically combine the sharpest areas from each image in the final result.

Focus stacking software
The alternative is to use a dedicated focus stacking program such as Helicon Focus 4.2 Lite. You shoot your sequence, load the images you’ve taken, hit the Render button and let the software do the rest. It costs £19 ($30) for a one-year licence.

Our start image for this Photoshop tutorial.

When it comes to taking photos (or trying to top up your tan) the weather inevitably will let you down, even when you’re shooting in an exotic holiday destination. This can be especially annoying if you’re trying to capture white sands, bright blue seas and clear blue skies.

But thanks to one of our favourite Photoshop tricks, we can select our start image’s drab overcast sky and use the Photoshop selection tools to replace it with a more brochure-like graduated blue. On its own, the Photoshop Magic Wand tool can select most of the picture’s original sky, even if it contains a mixture of greyscale clouds and patches of blue.

However, the Magic Wand won’t be up to the challenge of including delicate details, like our straw parasol’s fine, pointy leaves. Fortunately the Magic Wand belongs to a team of selection tools that have the combined ability to tackle just about any selection challenge.

Below we’ll show you how to use the Selection Brush to add or subtract from the Magic Wand’s initial selection to include the parasol, beach and sea, then turn the selection into a Layer Mask, and then coax back missing details, like delicate palm tree fronds.

We’ll also show you how to use the Gradient tool to create a clear blue sky from scratch, and even add a couple of clouds to add points of interest and a sense of depth to the scene.

All you’ll need for this Photoshop tutorial is Photoshop Elements 9 or higher and about 20 minutes to spare!

Step 1: Start selecting
Open your original image. In the Layers palette, double-click on the ‘Background’ thumbnail to unlock it; it will be renamed ‘Layer 0′. Grab the Magic Wand tool from the Tools palette and, in the Options bar, set the Tolerance to 41 and tick Contiguous. Click on the sky. The ‘marching ants’ selection marquee will appear. Hold Shift and keep clicking to add more sky.

Step 2: Modify your selection
To remove bits of the parasol’s top edge, grab the Selection Brush from the Tools palette and tick the Subtract From Selection icon in the Options bar. Choose a round brush in the Brush preset picker with a Size of 45 and Hardness of 85%. Spray on the edge of the parasol to remove it; if you keep Shift pressed as you click, you can spray a straight line between two points and modify the selection more quickly.

Step 3: Make a mask
Go to Select>RefineEdge. Pop Smooth to 22 to remove jagged selection edges. Set Feather to 1.0 and click OK. Choose Select>Inverse from the main drop-down menu. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (see page 43 if using Elements 8 or earlier). The selection turns into a black and white mask that turns the sky 100% transparent while keeping the parasol, sea and beach 100% solid.

Step 4: Sample sky colour
Click the ‘Layer 0′ thumbnail to target it. Grab the Eyedropper tool and click on a remaining patch of blue sky hiding between the lower leaves of the parasol. The foreground colour will turn light blue. Click on the background colour swatch. In the Colour Picker, set R to 35, G to 65 and B to 110. Click OK. You’ll now have a light-blue foreground and a darker-blue background.

Step 5: Draw a sky
Click the Create New Layer icon. Drag ‘Layer 1′ below ‘Layer 0′. Grab the Gradient tool, select the Gradient Editor, then Foreground to Background, then the Linear Gradient icon. On ‘Layer 1′, draw a gradient upwards from the horizon to create a graduated sky. Any patches of original sky clinging to the parasol’s fronds become the same colour as the gradient.

Step 6: Reveal delicate details
Grab the Brush tool. Choose a soft-edged brush with a Size of 200. Set Opacity to 20%. Click on the Layer Mask. Set the foreground colour to white. Spray over the leaves at the bottom of the parasol to reveal more delicate details. Copy-and-paste your new cloud.

Use a Lighten Blending Mode to add it to the scene. Duplicate the layer and use Image>Rotate>FlipLayerHorizontal to create another cloud.

Our finished image.

Top Photoshop tip
When removing bits of the parasol’s top edge from the Magic Wand’s initial selection in Step 2, you may end up removing parts of the sky from the selection too. To add bits of sky to the selection, click on the Add To Selection icon in the Options bar. You can use the Options bar’s Add To and Subtract From modes to fine-tune the selection marquee until only the sky is selected. By pressing the Alt key you can toggle between the Add To and Subtract From modes with ease!

OK, so we’re not really looking inside our subject, but the overall effect works a treat when creating a Photoshop X-Ray.

We used a shot of the underbelly of a plastic toy frog shot with a ring flash on a white background, but other regular objects can be transformed with this technique, too. So let’s see how it’s done. You have two options here: you can watch the short video below showing you how to get the Photoshop X-Ray effect, or below that we have a step-by-step Photoshop tutorial spelling out everything you need to do.

Photoshop Tutorial: How to create a Photoshop X-Ray Effect

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 1
Invert the tones
Download the start image.
and duplicate the background layer using Cmd/Ctrl+J then invert the tones to make a negative effect: Image>Adjustments>Invert or alternatively press Cmd/Ctrl+I.

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 2
Make it mono
Add a Black and White Adjustment Layer using the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Select the modifier slider. Firstly, move the cursor over the frog’s body and then to the right to make it lighter or move the Blue slider to the right.

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 3
Add a cyan hue
To add a coloured tint, add a Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. Select a cyan filter and move the Density slider to about 75%. Make sure that Preserve Luminosity is left unchecked.

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 4
Add a glow
To get a soft X-ray-like glow, press 
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge the visible layers into a new layer at the top of the layer stack. Add a Gaussian blur set to about 50 pixels and change the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 5
Tweak the tones
To boost the contrast of the image a little, you need to create a Curves Adjustment Layer and add a gentle S-curve to darken the shadows and lighten the highlights.

Photoshop X-Ray: Step 6
Dodge and burn
Create a new layer and fill it with 50% grey and change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Now select the Dodge and Burn tools from the Tools panel and darken and lighten specific parts of the image to create a sense of depth.

Red eye has long been the bane of photographers. How many times have we photographed our friends and family in a variety of social scenarios, and the flash photography leaves our pictures of people looking like demons!

Red-eye occurs when your camera uses a burst of flash to capture a decent exposure. In low-light conditions our pupils open wide so that we can see more clearly. This means that a sudden influx of light from the camera will illuminate the eyes’ interior, bouncing off the blood vessels on our retinas – and adding a sinister red glow to our subject’s eyes.

In the days before digital cameras, red-eye related prints that were sent back from the printers were often covered in Quality Control stickers, absolving the film processors of any responsibility for our flash-induced failings. In these digital days, however, red eye doesn’t have to mean wasted pictures. Red eye removal techniques abound.

Of course, for those of you wondering how to remove red eye from pictures, the best way is to use your camera’s Red-eye On/Off command. This reduces the occurrence of red eye by zapping the subject with a pre-flash before the main flash fires to capture the shot. This pre-flash cause the subject’s pupils to shrink, minimising the amount of light that enters the eye when the main flash fires.

Be aware though that the subject may think that the first flash means your photo was taken, causing them to stop posing before being caught by the main burst of flash.

But being realistic, we don’t always remember to use our Red-eye command. In which case it’s best to turn to your computer and remove red eye in Photoshop. Below we’ve shown you how to remove red eye in Photoshop Elements in 4 easy steps.

Red eye removal in Photoshop Elements

Step 1: Auto red eye removal
In theory, the quickest way to remove red-eye is to let Elements do it for you automatically. Go to the Organizer. Choose File>GetPhotosAndVideos and pick From Files and Folders. Browse to redeye_start.jpg. Tick the Automatically Fix Red Eyes box and click Get Media. In theory, Elements should be able to analyse the shot and remove any red-eye while importing it.

Step 2: Try again!
In the case of our image, our subject’s pupils are too small for Elements to identify, so despite trying it fails to remove the red-eye while importing the shot. You can try to automatically fix red-eye from within the Organizer by choosing Edit>AutoRedEyeFix – but here you’ll get a message saying ‘No red eyes were found in the selected photo’. We’ll need to give Elements a hand!

Step 3: Quick fix
Click on the little fly out icon to the right of the Organizer’s Fix tab and choose Quick Photo Edit to go to the Quick Editor suite of common photo fixing tools, including a Red Eye Removal tool. Select this from the mini Tools palette on the left. As our subject’s pupils are small, head to the Options bar and set Pupil Size to 30%. Pop Darken Amount to 60% for solid black pupils.

Step 4: In a click
Move the cursor so the Red Eye Removal tool’s crosshair floats over the first red pupil. Click to sample the red colour and the tool will alter it to black. Do the same thing to the second pupil and you’ll have manually banished the red-eye (and succeeded where Elements’ Auto features have failed!). You’ll also find the Red Eye Removal tool in the full Photoshop Elements editor.