Photoshop Elements 2020

[MAsbell210]

I was using Photoshop CS6 but got a new computer and went with Photoshop Elements 2020.  One thing I often did when editing my pictures in CS6 was adding black using a selective layer.  I can't find something similar in Photoshop Elements.  I was able to find an adjustment layer in elements, but can only edit cyan, magenta, red, etc.  No black.  

Any other options in Elements to add blacks? 

Thanks!

[Derek Cross]

Best to post in the Photoshop Elements forum, this is the Photoshop forum.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-elements/bd-p/photoshop-elements?page=1&sort=latest_replies...

[davescm]

Hi , I've moved your post from the Photoshop forum to the Photoshop Elements forum where you are more likely to get help with your issue.

Dave

[MAsbell210]

Thanks!  Brand new here.  🙂

[99jon · Accepted solution]

One suggestion might be to use:

File >> Open in Camera Raw

You then have sliders for whites, blacks, highlights & shadows. After pushing the blacks slider to the left, simply click the open image button to send into the regular editor workspace.

[MAsbell210]

Great, thank you!  That will work!

[hatstead]

You state: :

Any other options in Elements to add blacks? 

You can paint black with  the brush tool, employ the paintbucket tool, etc.

It is not clear to me where you encounter a problem in your work-flow.

[MAsbell210]

In photoshop, I would edit in Camera Raw, then bring the image up in Photoshop CS6.  From there I often brought up the mid tones using the curves layer and then would use the selective layer and add +4/+6 in blacks.  Looking for something like that in Elements.  

Hopefully thats a little clearer.

[hatstead · Accepted solution]

Elements plus is a very inexpensice add-on with curves, and more.  Have a look:

https://simplephotoshop.com/elementsplus/index.htm

[MAsbell210]

Great!  Thanks for sending this!  Looking into it now.  

[MAsbell210]

I purchased Elements plus and it solved my problem!  Thanks for the recommendation!

File > Automation tools

> E+ Color & Tone

>Selective Layer

[hatstead]

You're welcome. Glad to help.

[MichelBParis]

hatstead asked:

It is not clear to me where you encounter a problem in your work-flow.

Some historical background.

You do know that Elements does not support natively CMYK color space, so at the same time in 2006, there were discussion among phothoshop users (CS2 ?) about using the ability to use the black K channel for a specific effect and Richard Lynch published its book 'The hidden power of Photoshop Elements 4'; in this book he provided one hundred actions to enhance Elements among which a solution to create CMYK; a CD with the actions was provided with the book.

So, there were discussions in the different forums for Elements about the way to get the same artistic effect with black.

In Photoshop CMYK, the black channels is there to compensate the inability of printing system to achieve full black without any color shift. If used with more intensity, the effect was an interesting  way to give more 'punch' to the shadows.

In Elements, the process described by Richard Lynch to mimic this K channel was to create masks to combine a selection of shadows and high saturation to get strictly similar K layers. As a matter of fact, to achieve the visual effect, it's simpler and faster to create a shadows mask ignoring the saturation mask. The actions provided in the CD produced directly a K layer instead of a K channel.