11. Using Built-In Content

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to enhance your photos by combining them with built-in content such as frames and decorative graphics to produce a result that’s more than the sum of its parts.

Even the most perfect diamond needs a setting before you can wear it and show it off. If you’ve got a great picture and you want to provide a great setting for it, Photoshop Elements has got you covered, with tons of built-in image enhancements. From starbursts and talk balloons to gorgeous frames for your gorgeous picture, the Editor has it all.

You’ll find all this good stuff in the Editor’s Content panel. (Just choose Content from the Window menu.) When sorted by type, the panel has several self-explanatory sections: Backgrounds, Frames, Graphics, Shapes, Text, and Themes. Each of these contains thumbnails showing artwork or effects that you can use in your picture; you just double-click to apply the effect or drag the artwork into the image window.

Beware the gold ribbon across the corner of a Content panel thumbnail (see Figure 11.1). If you see this, it means that you’ll need to purchase a Plus-level Photoshop.com membership to access that graphic or effect. Plus members also have tutorials delivered automatically, as well as exclusive templates for Photoshop Elements projects such as online photo galleries, and they get 20GB of online storage rather than just 2GB. To upgrade a free membership to Plus level, or to learn more about Plus benefits, click the home button at right end of the menu bar to return to the Welcome screen, and then click the Benefits of an Adobe ID link at the bottom of the screen. This takes you to a web page with all kinds of helpful information about Basic and Plus memberships to Photoshop.com.

Figure 11.1. A gold ribbon across the corner of a Content panel thumbnail indicates that its premium content is available only to those who pay for a Photoshop.com Plus membership.

If you’re not sure what type of embellishment you’re looking for, or you just want to see everything that’s related, you can sort the Content panel in several other ways by choosing an option other than By Type from the panel’s first pop-up menu. You have the following choices:

• By Activity—This option sorts the content into categories such as Art and Gardening.

• By Color—Looking for content in a particular color? This is what you need, whether you want beige, deep red, or purple.

• By Event—Content is sorted into categories such as Graduation, Halloween, and Wedding.

• By Mood—These categories include Relaxed, Romantic, and Festive.

• By Object—With this option, the content is divided into categories such as Fruit, Map, and Transportation.

• By Seasons—Inexplicably, the categories under Seasons include only Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring; there’s no sign of Mud Season.

• By Style—Available style categories include Cartoon, Elegant, Kids, and (my favorite) Shiny.

• By Word—Instead of displaying a menu of categories, this option gives you a search field in which you can type a word (such as apple); and then you click Find to see all the content tagged with that word (see Figure 11.2).

Figure 11.2. Entering apple in the search field brings up two graphics and a shape.

After By Word, you have two more choices in the sorting pop-up menu: Plus Members Only and Show All. The latter is obvious—all content is displayed, regardless of type, color, or other attribute. Plus Members Only shows all content that’s exclusively available to Photoshop.com Plus members. These thumbnails are marked with gold ribbons. If you try to apply one of these items without being logged in as a Plus member, you’ll see a polite dialog suggesting that you upgrade (see Figure 11.3).

Figure 11.3. The way to the promised land—or the premium content, that is—is through a Plus membership.

Adding Backgrounds, Frames, and Themes

Each of these three types of content occupies the entire image: Backgrounds replace the current Background layer, while frames and themes add special layers with blank areas into which you can drop your pictures. All three content types are automatically sized to fit into your image window and, in the case of backgrounds and themes, to fill the entire window. The available backgrounds range from exotic animal patterns to a cheerful choo-choo, with all kinds of realistic and abstract images in between.

LET ME TRY IT

Adding Backgrounds

Adding a new background to an image takes only a few steps:

1. First, make sure that there’s nothing you want to keep on the current Background layer. If there is, duplicate the layer by dragging it to the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel (see Figure 11.4). If you don’t have a Background layer, don’t worry about this step.
   

   Figure 11.4. Drag the Background layer to the New Layer button to create a copy of it that won’t be affected when you add a background.

   

2. Choose the Background layer in the Layers panel, or the lowest layer if there’s no Background layer, to make it active.
   

   If you add a background from the Content panel to an image that only has a Background layer, that background replaces the existing image.

3. Open the Content panel and use the pop-up menus to choose the background you want to use (see Figure 11.5).
   

   Figure 11.5. For this picture, I might want to see just backgrounds, or I could choose to sort the panel by color to find a complementary image.

   

4. Double-click the background’s thumbnail, or drag it into the image window (see Figure 11.6).
   

   Figure 11.6. The new background shows through any transparent areas on the layers above it.

   

LET ME TRY IT

Adding Frames and Themes

Frames and themes are just as simple to add to your image, with a few additional steps needed to integrate the picture with the new content. What’s the difference between them? Frames are just that—analogous to real-life picture frames. Themes are more like prefabricated single-image scrapbook layouts, with lots of space where you can add graphics, shapes, or text. Here’s how to add a frame or a theme to an image:

1. With either a blank image file or an existing image open, open the Content panel and use the pop-up menus to choose the frame or theme you want to use.
2. Double-click the frame or theme’s thumbnail, or drag it into the image window.
3. If you started with a blank image file, you’ll see a blank gray area where you can add a picture (see Figure 11.7). Click and drag an image from the Project Bin or from another image window (using the Move tool) to the blank area. If there was already a picture in the file to which you added the frame, that picture is inserted in the frame.
   

   Figure 11.7. If you start with a blank image, rather than an existing photo, the Editor invites you to choose a picture.

   

4. Drag the slider to resize the picture within the frame (see Figure 11.8), and click and drag to move it around within the frame’s open area.
   

   Figure 11.8. When you choose a picture, it’s not automatically sized to fit the frame.

   

5. If you want to choose a different photo from your hard drive, click the Replace Photo button next to the slider.
6. Click the Commit button to finalize the frame or theme, or click the Cancel button if you’ve changed your mind about using it (see Figure 11.9).
   

   Figure 11.9. The boundaries of the original photo are visible any time the Move tool is active.

   

You can add as many frames to an image as you want. Because backgrounds and themes fill the screen, the Editor replaces any existing background or theme with the new one when you try to add another. The way around this for backgrounds is simple: Double-click the Background layer, and then click OK in the dialog to turn it into a regular layer. That way, the Editor no longer recognizes it as a background from the Content panel. For frames and themes, your only option is to choose the frame or theme layer in the Layers panel and then choose Simplify Layer from the Layer menu. After you’ve done this, you won’t be able to resize or reposition the photo that the frame or theme holds, so be absolutely sure you’ve arranged everything to your liking before simplifying the layer.

Adding Graphics and Shapes

Working with shapes and graphics is even simpler than adding frames, themes, and backgrounds to images.

Chapter 8, “Painting, Drawing, and Adding Type,” covered the shape tools, and the Content panel’s shapes are no more or less than what you produce with the Custom Shape tool. In fact, it’s the same collection found in the Shapes drop-down panel that becomes available in the Options bar when you’re using the Custom Shape tool (see Figure 11.10). The only difference between adding a shape via the Content panel and using the Custom Shape tool to create it is that you don’t have to click and drag; you just double-click to drop the shape right in the middle of the image window. Once you’ve done that, you can use the Shape Selection tool and the other techniques discussed in Chapter 8 to recolor or modify the shape any way you want.

Figure 11.10. The shapes are the same in both places, just organized in a different order.

Graphics are only slightly more complicated than shapes. They’re already colored, so you can’t modify their color without simplifying their layers (choose Simplify Layer from the Layer menu). You also can’t combine them the way you can shapes. You can, however, resize, rotate, and reposition them as many times as you like. Like shapes, each new graphic occupies its own layer and doesn’t affect the original image (see Figure 11.11).

Figure 11.11. Each graphic occupies its own layer so you can move it independent of the rest of the image.

LET ME TRY IT

Adding Shapes and Graphics

Here’s how to add a shape or graphic to your picture:

1. Open the Content panel and use the pop-up menus to choose the shape or graphic you want to use.
2. If you’re adding a shape, change the foreground color to the color you want the shape to be.
3. Double-click the shape or graphic’s thumbnail, or drag it into the image window.
4. Switch to the Move tool and position the shape or graphic where you want it. You can also use the Move tool to resize or rotate it (see Figure 11.12).
   

   Figure 11.12. Use the Move tool to relocate graphics within the image window.

   

That’s all there is to it! If, after you’ve added a graphic to your image, you want to edit as you would a photo, all you have to do is choose Simplify Layer from the Layer menu. Now you’ll be able to select parts of the graphic, adjust its color, and erase or paint over it.