Launching PhotoKit-EL

After installing PhotoKit-EL, you must first have an image open in order to run PhotoKit-EL. PhotoKit-EL will ONLY run when a 24 bit RGB color image is open in Elements 2.0. Most digital color images will be in 24 bit color such as JPEGS, TIFFs and Element's native file format, PSD. PhotoKit will not run on greyscale nor Index Color (GIF) formats. To run PhotoKit-EL on these kinds of files, you must first mode change to RGB before running PhotoKit-EL.

After opening an image, your Elements workspace should look something like the above image. To launch PhotoKit-EL, you will need to navigate to:File>Automation Tools>PhotoKit-EL.

When you launch PhotoKit-EL, you will see the PhotoKit-EL main dialog box shown below. If this is the First Time you've ever launched PhotoKit-EL, you will see a different dialog box before seeing PhotoKit-EL. For more information about 'First Launch', click HERE.

There are two drop-down menus you'll need to select from. First is the 'PhotoKit Set' which contains a variety of commonly needed image adjustments grouped by adjustment type.

The Color and Tone Sets contain often needed image corrections you will find useful. The Darken and Lighten Gradations Sets contain tone adjustments that will correct a portion of an image. The Sharpen & Smooth Set contains image enhancement effects to increase image sharpness or smooth grain or noise. The Photo Effects Set contains a variety of effects that replicate traditional analog photographic effects. The Color To B&W Set contains a variety of custom conversions to monochromatic B&W that will enhance the color contrast of B&W conversions. Finally, the B&W Toning Set contains a variety of color toning for B&W images that replicate what photographers have traditionally done in a darkroom by chemically treating B&W prints.

After selecting a Set, you next move to the 'Effects' drop-down menu. As shown below, the Effects menu is where you select the actual effects and their relative strengths to apply to your image.

It's useful to remember that PhotoKit-EL will NEVER modify the original pixels in your image. PhotoKit-EL accomplishes everything by way of creating new layers on top of your base image. Therefore, you are free to explore and play with your images without having to worry about screwing them up. You can always delete the PhotoKit-EL layers and go back to your original un-modified image.

To see more about using PhotoKit-EL, please click HERE.