One of the snazziest new features of Adobe’s recently released Photoshop Elements 7 is its Smart Brush.  You use this brush to select and apply an effect to a given area of your picture in one step.  It has more than 60 effects to choose from, including Blue Skies, Sunset, Whiter Teeth, Lipstick, or even Fake Tan!  Not that any of us would stoop to such levels, right?

I used the Smart Brush to make the sunset colors in this picture pop, and you too can create the same effect even without upgrading to PSE 7!

Enhance Sunsets in Photoshop Elements (without the Smart Brush)

1. Select the area of your image that you want the sunset colors to appear in.
2. Add a Gradient Layer by clicking the half-black half-white circle near the top of the Layers Palette. 
3. Ok, take a deep breath.  This next part is a bit involved.
4. Double click on the Adjustment Layer Thumbnail – this is the first box on your new layer.  A Gradient Fill box should pop up.  Double click on the box next to the word Gradient in the Gradient Fill box.
5. When you double click in this box, the Gradient Editor will open.  Refer to this illustration, if you need to, during the next steps.
6. There will be a bar surrounded by four symbols that look almost like crayons.  The top “Crayons” are Transparency Stops and the bottom “Crayons” are Color Stops.  Click once on the right Transparency Stop and change its opacity to 100% in the section under the color bar.
7. Click once on the left Color Stop.  To change the color of the stop, double click on the Color box in the section under the color bar and type ff4302 in the # box of the resulting Select Stop Color dialogue.  Hit Ok. 
8. Click once below the middle of the color bar so that another Color Stop appears.  Change the color of this stop to ffa200as you did in step 7 and hit Ok.  Make sure that Location, next to the Color box, says 50%.
9. Click once on the right Color Stop, double click on the Color box and change the # field to f3caac.  Hit Ok three times.
10. The worst part is behind you!  Change the blending mode of this layer to Multiply and adjust the layer’s Opacity to taste.
11. If it looks better to you to have the darker oranges and reds at the top of the sky rather than the horizon, double click again on the Adjustment Layer Thumbnail and check the reverse box.

I’ve got way too many Smart Brush cheats for one post.  Others are on my blog and I can publish more here, if you’d like. 

Is there a specific effect you’re looking for?  Post a comment and let me know!

Erin is a bookish SAHM, former Latin teacher and occasional CPA.  She is Episcopalian, a yellow-dog democrat and an addict of British royal history.  She is trying to add photography to her repertoire due to a moral obligation to document for posterity the extreme cuteness of her husband and two daughters.  Her blog, Digital Photography for Moms, offers tips and short cuts to help other Moms create great pictures of their kids.