How to Create Special Effects With Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

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By Richard Burke
eHow Contributing Writer

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Original Image

Adobe Photoshop 6 contains numerous special effects that can be applied to your images to create artistic works. Most special effects have multiple adjustments allowing the creator to tailor the effect to each image. There are so many effects and adjustments, you can get lost for days trying each one out. Some pictures are better for certain effects. For example, the solarization effect works best with images that have bright highlights and a sharp contrast between light and shadow. In my other articles I address the more complicated effects. In this article I will illustrate how to use special effects with one example. Don’t hesitate to experiment, yourself, with the wide range of effects available.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Adobe Photoshop 6.0
A copy of an image for experimentation

Step 1

Select Effects

Open your image in Adobe Photoshop Elements. The image is open in the main editing screen and in the BIN below. Notice the EFFECTS window to the right. You can select from a wide variety of categories by clicking on the drop down menu. You can also choose special effects from the FILTERS menu. The image shows the thumbnails for the ARTISTIC section. Scroll through the effects until you find the one you want and then double-click on the preview icon. This will open a new window with the special effects palette.
Step 2

Special Effects Window

The special effects palette is different for each effect. This is the one for “Color Pencil” special effect. You can adjust paper brightness, stroke pressure and the width of the pencil. You can see the changes you make in the preview window which you can scroll through and resize. Other effects will have different adjustments allowing you to control the manipulation to your image. When you click OK, the changes will be made to the open workspace, but will not be saved until you manually save it or exit the program.
Step 3

Adjust Effect

Change the sliders until you get an effect you want. You can save multiple images with different changes to use in animation with a program like Adobe Premier. If you don’t like the effect, click cancel and select another one.
Step 4

Final Edit

When you get what you want, just save the image you created from your workspace. You should give the image a new name so you don’t overwrite the original image. I don’t view this image as a finished project, however, it is different enough that I want to save it for further consideration. It could be part of a photo triptych or a frame in a future animation.