Exercise 1 - Touching Up Images

Before	After

Look closely at the "Before" and "After" pictures above. The first thing that you will undoubtedly notice is that the "After" picture is much sharper and easier to view.

However, there's more. If you look closely at the "Before" picture, you'll notice that there is part of a rigging on the left of the picture. As well, underneath the cowboy's left leg, you'll see a fishing pole. Using Photoshop Element tools, you will touch up the photograph to remove those artifacts. While we're at it, in the foreground, there is too much of the ship's deck. That needs to be cropped.

1) Load Cowboy.jpg	Exercise images are in the 'images' directory
2) Use the cropping tool. Draw an area of the original picture that cuts out much of the deck in the foreground. From the Image Menu, select Crop. The offending part of the picture will be removed.
3) Use the Clone Stamp Tool to eliminate poles. Select an area close and adjacent to the rigging. Press the ALT key to define a cloning point. In the Clone Stamp Tool bar, choose 100% opacity and a medium sized brush. While holding down the mouse button, working carefully from right to left, move your mouse to clone the sky background over the rigging to make the rigging disappear. Once the rigging has been removed, repeat the process to make the fishing pole disappear!
4) Use Brightness/Contrast controls to enhance the picture. If you have a slower computer, you may wish to not ask Elements to show a preview as you adjust the brightness and contrast of your picture.

Next Step - Picture Frames