Adding artistic effects

Although this was partially covered in Chapter 3, The Basics of Image Editing, I wanted to demonstrate how to create interesting effects for your photographic vision, with the least amount of effort on your part.

A look is essentially a style that defines how a set of images might appear as a group. For example, they could all be a special sepia tint to give them an old look, or they could be converted into black and white to give them a slightly different arty or even a documentary feel.

In Elements, you'll find an increasingly wide range of what's called image presets. These are automated software recipes where, at the click of a button, images are, for example, converted into black and white, texturized, or color toned.

All the user has to do is find an image and click the (preset) button to add, in some cases at least, a very complex series of actions to the file that produces a suitable WOW! moment. Then, it gets saved and you can move on to the next...