Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
That's all there is to it. Elements usually does a pretty good job (depending on your photos,
of course), as shown in
Figure 8-11
.
But if you aren't satisfied with what Elements proposes
for your image, you can help the program by choosing Smart Blending and then nudging the
Smart Blending sliders. Here's what each slider does:
▪
Highlight
controls the way Elements blends the bright areas of the images.
▪
Shadows
adjusts the blend of the darker areas.
TIP
If you've used Shadows/Highlights (
The Shadows/Highlights Command
)
, you
already know everything you need to about these two sliders.
▪
Saturation
adjusts the blended image's color intensity, which is handy if the blend made
your photo look a little drab or oversaturated. It's similar to the Saturation slider in Quick
Fix (
Auto Color
)
.
Manual Merges
Automatic merges are super easy to do, even for beginners, but sometimes Elements doesn't
get it right. Or maybe you just like telling Elements what to do rather than accepting its judg-
ment about your images. Either way, manual merges are what you want.
You begin a manual merge the same way as an automatic one (follow steps 1 and 2 on
Auto-
matic Merges
). Then, once you have the Photomerge Exposure window open, do the follow-
ing:
