PhotoKit-EL Recipes

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 comes with a unique way of learning how to use the program. Recipes, which resides as a palette in Elements, allows users to learn more about using Elements and additional tools such as PhotoKit-EL.

To see the PhotoKit-EL Recipes, simply select it from the 'Select a Recipe' pop-down menu.

The PhotoKit-EL Recipes menu shows a variety of example uses for each of the eight included Sets. You can explore each of the Set examples, but of particular interest is a convenient method of launching PhotoKit-EL by using the 'Quick Launch' recipe. Click on the link to the Quick Launch.

From this Quick Launch menu, you can actually launch PhotoKit-EL without having to navigate to the Automate Tools menu. Simply click on the 'Do this step for me' and PhotoKit-EL will launch. This is far easier and quicker than navigating from the File menu. From this menu page you can also click to open the PhotoKit-EL User Guide for reference and even go visit the PhotoKit-EL web site for additional information about using PhotoKit-EL, downloading updates and new Recipes as well as seeing more advanced information about using PhotoKit-EL and tips for using Elements by the members of Pixel Genius.

Note, from any of the PhotoKit-EL menu pages, you can always navigate back to the main PhotoKit-EL Recipe page by clicking on the Home button.

You can also explore some of the other Recipes. From the main menu, click on the PhotoKit-EL Color Correction Examples.

Each of the eight example Recipes has actions for running two different PhotoKit-EL Effects from the Set. So, Step 1 and Step 2 will run recorded PhotoKit-EL actions.

In this example, PhotoKit-EL will execute a 'Warming 3' Effect from the Color Corrections Set. You don't even need to launch PhotoKit-EL since the command has been recorded in the Recipe and run automatically. There are additional steps that the Recipe can do for you automatically.

Step 3 of all of the PhotoKit-EL Recipes will automatically reduce the effect (usually by 50%) while Step 4 will automatically show the Layers palette if it is hidden. This is an easy way to automate the adjustment of the resulting effects and showing the PhotoKit-EL layers.

Steps 5 and 6 allow you to 'Hide' (turn off) or 'Show' (turn back on) the resulting PhotoKit-EL layers. To make using PhotoKit-EL more efficient when working in Elements 2.0, we suggest setting up your default workspace to look like the screen below.

Additional PhotoKit-EL Recipes for a variety of effects are available for free downloading from the PhotoKit-EL Info Page. To visit the PhotoKit-EL Info Page, click HERE. Note, you will need to be connected to the Internet to visit the web site.