Have you met Wendyzine? If not, you are in for a treat. Wendy is a long time digital scrapbooker and designer of time-saving actions and scripts at Oscraps. Today Wendy's sharing with her best tips and tricks for Adobe Photoshop Elements! Welcome Wendy!
Photoshop Elements is such a great value, providing most of the features of the full version of Photoshop. But, every once in awhile, Elements users would love to have access to a few features of the full version. The great news is sometimes you actually can! Here are some of my favorite Photoshop Elements “hacks” in the form of actions, scripts and styles that allow you to get the most out of Elements as possible!
I cannot resist a coordinating alpha on my scrapbook pages. I know that lots of people avoid alphas simply because they don’t want to have to copy and paste and position all those letters on their page. But, it doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming any longer! As long as your alpha letters are saved individually and named with the letter, this handy script will let you type in the word you want to spell, point it to your alpha folder, and open and position each letter while you sit back and enjoy a sip of tea! It’s really that simple. The hardest part of this script is installing it. But, Anna includes instructions on exactly where to copy the files.
2) Group Layers
There is nothing more frustrating for PSE users than opening a template with grouped layers, and finding it unusable. This handy tool will allow you to ungroup layers so you can manipulate them again. Or, tidy up your layout by grouping like layers together. This is a must-have utility!
3) Drop Shadow Styles
When it comes to drop shadows, I like to keep things easy peasy. The best way for that is to grab some shadow styles that make applying realistic drop shadows a one-click process. It doesn’t get easier than that. Many designers (including moi) have drop shadow styles available for sale. Check your favorite store for a basic set you can use over and over again.
When I’m ready to take my drop shadows to another level, this shadow magic action is my answer. I recently learned this method of warping the drop shadow for a more realistic look. This action puts the shadow on its own layer so it can be distorted.
Smart Objects…what would I do without them? Smart objects are one of those features that does not exist in Photoshop Elements. But, you can access their power with an action. What do smart objects do? Simply put, they store the entire original pixel data of a layer in the document, rendering the resizing, rotate and transform data only when it’s rasterized or saved out as a flattened file (ie. jpg). This allows you to pull elements, papers or photos onto your layout, immediately make them smart objects while they are still 100%, then resize or rotate multiple times without losing any quality. (NOTE: smart objects will make your layered files larger in file size.)
6) Brush Settings
Most of know how to load and use digital brushes, but many do not know about all the options available in the brushes settings. This handy article from Adobe covers them all really well. Learn how to scatter your brushes, fade them, adjust the spacing and hue. They open up a world of options when you know how to use them. My favorite brushes? Glitter! Here are some of my glitter brushes, already set to scatter glitter across your page.
7) Blending Modes
Linear Light? Color Burn? Overlay? Luminosity? Photoshop Elements can access the same blending modes at full Photoshop. But, understanding exactly what these modes do and how they work is not intuitive. Adobe put together a great explanation of each blending mode. A little deeper understanding of the various modes will help you decide which ones are best to use in a specific situation.
Do you have a favorite PSE hack? Is there something you wish PSE could do? Share it in the comments! I’ll pick a winner at random to win a $10 coupon to Studio Wendy!
And, if you visit my store in the next week, you can use the coupon code wz_digihq25 at the bottom of the VIEW CART screen before you click checkout to receive 25% off your purchase at Studio Wendy.
Studio Wendy aka. Wendyzine Scraps is a digital scrapbooking designer specializing in actions, template, tools and tutorials for Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom.
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I don’t know if it’s a hack, but my absolute favorite time-saver is shadow styles! I don’t think I’d ever finish a LO without them! Thank you so much for sharing these hacks from Wendy!
I love the Title Builder hack but can’t find where to buy it. When I follow the link it takes me to Etsy and says it is not available. Can you hlep?
I’m sorry! It looks like Anna is no longer selling this script. You could try contacting her via the contact owner link on Etsy.