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[Learn: The How To series from Adobe]
[video2brain: World-Class Training]
[Male narrator] The Photoshop Elements editor contains a toolbox
with many tools located inside of it.
This can make the toolbox seem a bit daunting at first.
I'd like to give you a quick overview of the toolbox so you have a better understanding
of what the tools are and what they are used for.
I'm beginning this lesson with the Photoshop Elements editor already open on my screen,
and the toolbox is located on the left side of the interface right here.
Now, the first section of the toolbox at the top, these 4 icons,
are the navigation and measuring tools, and within here,
we have the Move tool, which is used to move objects around on your page;
the zoom tool, which is used to zoom in and zoom out on your image;
the hand tool, which can be used as a substitution for the scroll bars.
This helps when you're zoomed in on an image and you need to move it around
within your document window.
Simply clicking on the hand tool allows you to do that.
The eyedropper tool allows you to pick up colors from your existing image
and sample them to use them later on.
The next section is the selection tools.
Now, the selection tools vary in their uses, but they all have one purpose
and that is to create selections.
The rectangular marquee tool--and if you click and hold on that;
also, the elliptical marquee tool--they both create square, rectangular,
oval, or circular selections.
The next tool is the lasso tool.
This is used to create freeform selections,
although its best use is to refine existing selections.
I'm going to click and hold on the lasso tool
and underneath there, I also have the magnetic lasso tool.
The job of the magnetic lasso tool is to detect areas of high contrast
to help you make your selection, and then the polygonal lasso tool
is used to create straight selections.
So that could be used to create a symmetrical selection,
and basically areas with straight sides.
The magic wand tool is helpful for selecting areas of solid color.
Next, we have the selection brush and quick selection tool.
The quick selection tool is an automatic selection tool
that detects contrast edges as well and helps you to create your selection
based on those contrast edges.
The selection tool is basically like painting a selection with a brush.
The next category is your type tools.
We have the type tool, and if you click and hold under there,
we have 4 options total:
a horizontal-type tool, a vertical-type tool,
and then we have a horizontal and vertical type mask tool which creates selections
of the created type.
Next, we have the crop tools.
We have the standard crop tool, and if you click and hold on that,
we have the recompose tool.
This recompose tool helps you to adjust the space between images within your photo,
and of course, the crop tool is used to make basic cropping of an image.
We next have the cookie-cutter tool.
The job of this is basically to create a mask based on the shape that we draw
with this tool.
Next, we have the straighten tool.
We can use this to click and drag on an area of an image
that is supposed to be straight across horizontally or vertically
and the straighten tool will try to make it perfectly straight.
Next, we have the retouching tools.
The first tool is the red-eye removal tool.
The job of this, of course, is to remove red-eye in your photos.
Next, we have the spot healing brush tool,
and what's new in Photoshop Elements 9 is the ability to add the content aware option
to this spot healing brush tool, which is very very powerful.
The job of this is to remove the elements from an image.
If I click and hold on that, I have the healing brush tool.
This is helpful for larger areas that need to be removed or retouched out.
We have the traditional clone stamp tool
which allows me to clone from one area and then clone to a destination.
So I'm basically picking up from one area and cloning to another.
If I click and hold on the clone stamp tool, I also have the pattern stamp tool,
which allows me to clone using a pattern that I've defined.
Next, we have the eraser tool.
The job of the eraser tool is to do exactly that--erase areas out of an image.
If it's on a layer, it will actually erase to transparency,
helping me to remove a background.
If I click and hold on that, I also have the background eraser tool
which helps me to erase areas of the background
and also the magic eraser tool, which also helps me to remove specific areas of an image
so that I can use them in other places.
Next, we have the brush tool.
The job of the brush tool as one of the painting and drawing tools
is to paint using the current fill color defined at the bottom of the toolbox.
If I click and hold on this,
I also have an Impressionist brush tool allowing me to paint with creative effects;
a color replacement tool, allowing me to adjust the color of my current image
by painting with a brush; and the pencil tool, which basically paints
also with a hard-edged pixel.
To the right of that, I have the smart brush tool.
The smart brush tool also detects contrast edges and helps me to make
color adjustments and changes when I have that tool selected.
I also have the detail smart brush tool which allows me to get into finer areas
and make adjustments.
I'm going to close this panel because that panel pops up
when I choose that smart brush tool.
Finally, I have my paint bucket tool.
This allows me to paint with the current fill color.
Then I have the gradient tool, which allows me to fill an area
with a specific gradient which can be chosen from the gradient picker
up here in the options bar.
Next, I have the shape tool.
This allows me to draw a variety of different shapes
which can be chosen from the picker up here at the top.
Within there, if I click and hold, I can also draw basic shapes
that will create a new layer when I use these to draw a shape.
Next, I have the smudge tool
and this is another retouching tool that basically allows me
to smudge an area of an image.
I also have a blur tool that helps me to blur an area of the image
and a sharpen tool that helps me to sharpen an area of an image.
And finally, at the very bottom, I have this sponge tool
which helps me to saturate or desaturate areas of an image.
If I click and hold on that, I also have the dodge tool and the burn tool,
which helps me to adjust highlight and shadow areas of an image as well.
And finally, down here at the bottom, are my foreground color and background color
that are helpful when I'm using the fill tools, the gradient tool,
and the shape tools as well.
Knowing the purpose of each tool will help you make better decisions
when it comes time to edit your images.
As you've seen in this video, they are grouped into logical categories
to help you find them easily when you need to use them.
