Editor Expert - Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 for Photographers - page 191

images with the aid of tools such as the Paint Bucket, Airbrush and Pencil. However,
it is possible to use drawing or painting tools on digital photographs. In fact, the judi-
cious use of tools like the Brush can enhance detail and provide a sense of drama in
your images.

EXPERT E E EX P P PE R R RT

Also included in this grouping are the Eraser tool, which comes in handy for cleaning
up drawn illustrations and photographs alike, the Gradient tool used for filling areas
with a blend from one color to another, and the Custom Shape tool. Unlike the other
tools in this group, the Custom Shape tool creates vector-based or sharp-edged graph-
ics. This tool is especially good for producing regularly shaped areas of color that can
be used as backgrounds for text.

Combining text with images is an activity that is used a lot in business applications.
Elements provides the option to apply text horizontally across the page, or vertically
down the page. It is also possible to drag the cursor on the image to create Paragraph
text. In addition, there are two special text masking options have been included that
can be used in conjunction with images to produce spectacular effects. In version 10
Adobe added the Text On Selection, Text On Custom Path, and Text On Shape tools.

Cropping and straightening tools
The final group of tools is designed for removing unwanted sections of the image,
altering the format of photos and straightening crooked pictures. Using the standard
and familiar Crop tool we can drag a marquee around the part of the picture that we
wish to keep and then double-click inside the frame to remove the image areas outside
the selection. The Cookie Cutter tool takes the idea further by providing the ability to
crop your picture to a specific shape on the rectangular canvas.

The Recompose tool was introduced in Elements 8. It provides the ability to intel-
ligently change the format of a photo. You get to choose which parts of the picture
remain unchanged and which sections are stretched or squashed to create the new
shape. There will be more details on this later in the chapter.

The Straighten tool is used to correct pictures that are slightly crooked by click-
dragging a line along the edge of objects that are meant to be horizontal. After letting
the mouse go, Elements rotates the photo so that the marked line becomes horizontal.
Using the Ctrl or Cmd keys while drawing also allows you to straighten vertically.

Color options
The color section at the bottom of the toolbar contains two swatches for current fore-
ground and background hues. There is also a button for quickly switching fore- and
background colors and a second one for setting the swatches to the defaults - black on
white.