If you're the impatient type and you're starting to squirm because you want to be up and doing something to your photos, here's the quickest way to get started in Elements. You can adjust the brightness and color balance all in one step.
While you're in the Editor, open a photo.
Press Ctrl+O (â-O) and navigate to the image you want, then click Open.
Press Alt+Ctrl+M (Option-â-M).
You've just applied Elements Auto Smart Fix tool.
Voila! You should see quite a difference in your photo, unless the exposure, lighting, and contrast were almost perfect before. The Auto Smart Fix tool is one of the many easy-to-use new features in Elements 3. (Of course, you may not like what just happened to your photo, but that's why you bought this book.)
If you're the really impatient type, you can jump right to Chapter 4 to learn about using the Quick Fix commands. But it's worth taking the time to read the next two chapters so you understand which file formats to choose and how to make some basic adjustments to your images, like rotating and cropping them.
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