Smart Fix
The secret weapon in the Quick Fix window is the Smart Fix command, which
automatically adjusts a picture’s lighting, color, and contrast, all with one click.
You don’t have to figure anything out. Elements does it all for you.
You’ll find the Smart Fix in the General Fixes palette, and it’s about as easy to use
as hitting the speed dial button on your phone: click the Auto Smart Fix button,
and if the stars are aligned, your picture will immediately look better. The illustrations below give you a glimpse of its capabilities.
 
The Auto Smart Fix button produced the photo on the right with
just one click. (A click of the Auto Sharpening button, explained later,
was added to really make it look spiffy.)
Tip: You’ll find Auto buttons scattered throughout Elements. Elements uses them to make a
best-guess attempt to implement whatever change the Auto button is next to (Smart Fix, Levels,
Contrast, etc.). It never hurts to at least try clicking these Auto buttons since if you don’t like what
you see, you can always perform the magical undo: Edit > Undo, or Ctrl+Z (Command-Z).
If you’re happy with the Auto Smart Fix button’s changes, you can move onto a
new photo, or try sharpening your photo a little (described below) if the focus appears a
little fuzzy. You don’t need to do anything to accept the Smart Fix changes.
But if you’re not ecstatic with your results, take a good look at your photo. If you
like what Auto Smart Fix has done, but the effect is too strong or too weak, press
Ctrl+Z (Command-Z) to undo it, and try the Smart Fix Amount slider instead. The
Amount slider does the same thing the Auto Smart Fix does, only you control the
degree of change.
Watch the image as you move the slider to the right. If your computer is slow,
there’s a certain amount of lag time, so go slowly to give it a chance to catch up. Usually you get better results with a lot of little nudges to the Smart Fix slider than by moving
it way over to the right and back again. If
you happen to overdo it, sometimes it’s easier to press the Reset button above your
image and start again. The next illustration explains how to use the checkmark and the cancel
button (which appear next to the General Fixes label) to accept or reject your
changes.
Incidentally, these are the same Smart Fix commands you see in two places in the
Editor’s Enhance Menu: Enhance > Auto Smart Fix (Ctrl+M, or Command-Option-M)
and Enhance > Adjust Smart Fix (Ctrl+Shift+M, or Command-Shift-M).
Sometimes Smart Fix just isn’t smart enough to do everything you want it to do,
and sometimes it does things you don’t want it to do to your photos. The Smart
Fix is better with photos that are underexposed than photos that are overexposed,
for one thing. Fortunately, you still have several other editing choices to try, and
they’re covered in the following sections. If you don’t like what Smart Fix has done
to your photo, undo it before going on to make other changes.
Note: You can also get to the Smart Fix command from within the Organizer; the last illustration in this article shows you how.
Adjusting Lighting and Contrast
The Lighting palette lets you make very sophisticated adjustments to the brightness
and contrast of your photo. Sometimes problems that you thought stemmed
from exposure or even focus may right themselves with these commands.
When you move a slider in any of the Quick Fix palettes, the cancel and checkmark buttons appear in the palette you’re using. Clicking the cancel symbol undoes the last change you made, while clicking the checkmark applies the change to your image.
If you make multiple slider adjustments, the cancel symbol undoes everything you’ve done since you clicked the checkmark. So, for example, if you lightened shadows and adjusted the midtone contrast, clicking cancel removes both changes. But if you adjusted the shadows, then clicked the checkmark, and then made the contrast adjustment, canceling the contrast adjustment would cancel just that without affecting the shadows’ change.
Levels
If you want to understand how Levels really works, you’re in for a long technical
ride. On the other hand, if you just want to know what it can do for your photos,
the short answer is that it adjusts the brightness of your photo by redistributing the
color information; Levels changes (hopefully fixes!) both brightness and color at
the same time.
If you’ve never used any photo-editing software before, this may sound rather
mysterious, but photo-editing pros can tell you that Levels is one of the most powerful
commands for fixing and polishing up your pictures. To find out if its magic
works for you, click the Auto Levels button. The next illustration shows what a big difference
it can make to your photo.
Contrast
The main alternative to Auto Levels in Quick Fix is Auto Contrast. Most people
find that their images tend to benefit from one or the other of these. Contrast
adjusts the relative darkness and lightness of your image without changing the
color, so if Levels made your colors go all goofy, try adjusting the contrast instead.
You activate Contrast just as you do the Levels tool: just click the Auto button next
to its name.
 
A quick click of the Auto Levels button can make a very
dramatic difference in how vivid your photo is. The original
photo of the squirrel (left) isn’t bad, and you might not
realize how much better the colors could be. But the photo
on the right shows how much more effective your photo can
be once Auto Levels has balanced the colors.
Shadows and Highlights
The Shadows and Highlight tools do an amazing job of bringing out the details
that are lost in the shadows or bright areas of your photo. The next illustration shows what a
difference these tools can make.
The Shadow and Highlight tools are a collection of three sliders, each of which
controls a different aspect of your image:
- Lighten Shadows. Nudge the slider to the right and you’ll see details emerge
from murky black shadows.
- Darken Highlights. Use this slider to dim the brightness of overexposed areas.
- Midtone Contrast. After you’ve adjusted your photo’s shadows and highlights,
your photo may be very flat looking with not enough contrast between the dark
and light areas. This slider helps you bring a more realistic look back to your
photo.
Tip: You may think you only need to lighten shadows in a photo, but sometimes just a smidgen of Darken Highlights may help, too. Don’t be afraid to experiment by using this slider even if
you’ve got a relatively dark photo. Be discreet. Getting overenthusiastic with these sliders can give your photos a very washed out, flat look.
The top photo shows a classic vacation picture problem: the day
is bright, the scenery’s beautiful, but everyone’s faces are hidden
in the dark shadows cast by their hats.
In the bottom photo, the Shadow and Highlight tools brought back
everyone’s faces, but now they look a bit jaundiced. Use the color
sliders to make them look healthy again.
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This article is adapted from Photoshop Elements 3: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly) by Barbara Brundage and is reproduced here with permission. Copyright 2005, O'Reilly.
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