If you would like a refresher on the demonstration I gave, there is a two-part video tutorial here that you can take a look at. Please note though that this video uses Photoshop Elements 5 and the conversion dialog has changed since then, with the thumbnails for adjusting red, green and blue channels, as well as contrast being replaced with slider controls.

The other technique I demonstrated was how to retain only selected areas in colour while converting the image to black and white. This tutorial demonstrates how to do that as well as revealing some other ways of doing the black and white conversion.

One of the biggest advantages that the full version of Photoshop seems to offer over Elements is access to the Curves palette – and if you’ve used Curves you’ll know just how handy they are for controlling contrast.

What many people don’t realise though is that Curves are in all versions of Elements since version 5. Check out this video lesson to find out how to use them.

One of the features on the wish list of most advanced Photoshop Elements users is Layer Masks. It is one of the key features that separates Photoshop Elements from Photoshop – but it doesn’t have to be that way. It is possible to create faux layer masks in Photoshop Elements if you know how – and today, I am going to show you how.

One of benefits of this approach to creating faux layer masks in Elements is that it uses features built into Elements and it doesn’t rely on a third party plug-in so it works with most versions of Photoshop Elements.

The important lesson to take from this tutorial is not how to do the sharpening, but how to create the faux layer masks that you can use for many purposes.

The new version of the Camera Raw plug-in replaces the original one that was installed with Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Elements 7.0; and Premiere Elements 7.0.

Downloads are available here.