Thank you for the compliments. :) You do, indeed, have the sharpen tool, but it is hidden on the "Filter" menu. To get to the various ways of Sharpening, select:
Filter -> Sharpen
I use plain old "Sharpen" but it *is* a blunt tool. If you're just starting, I'd stick with that but if you're intuitive about how the program works, "Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharpen Mask..." -- is that counterintuitive name or what?!? -- allows you to control exactly how and how much it sharpens but I'd rather just sharpen, smudge, and delete the white lines. *shrug*
I started with Photoshop Elements 3.0. The most useful tools that PE 3.0 lacked were curves and the ability to add a mask to a layers. Most everything else is about the same. There were a few other differences but they're very minor.
If you're doing what I did, teaching yourself absolutely everything about using PE and you've never really used it before, I cannot recommend enough spending some time over at awmpdotnet's excellent set of Photoshop tutorials. She has an amazing grasp of the program and her tutorials take you on a fairly complete tour of the basics of PS.
If you're looking for tutorials, I collected my favorites and sorted them by info content and why I personally liked them. They're on this graphics intensive page. I'm certainly not the first person to do that and I have links at the bottom to other people's tutorial indices. If you're stuck on dial-up and waiting for 100+ icons to download is burdensome, you're always welcome to go through my memories, instead. I never did finish reclassifying them by WHY I'd added them the way I did on the index but at least you don't have to wait for a protracted download.
If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. I'm a newbie, too, and I don't really know a lot but I am more than willing to share anything I know. And welcome to the Photoshop addiction!
no subject
Filter -> Sharpen
I use plain old "Sharpen" but it *is* a blunt tool. If you're just starting, I'd stick with that but if you're intuitive about how the program works, "Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharpen Mask..." -- is that counterintuitive name or what?!? -- allows you to control exactly how and how much it sharpens but I'd rather just sharpen, smudge, and delete the white lines. *shrug*
I started with Photoshop Elements 3.0. The most useful tools that PE 3.0 lacked were curves and the ability to add a mask to a layers. Most everything else is about the same. There were a few other differences but they're very minor.
If you're doing what I did, teaching yourself absolutely everything about using PE and you've never really used it before, I cannot recommend enough spending some time over at
If you're looking for tutorials, I collected my favorites and sorted them by info content and why I personally liked them. They're on this graphics intensive page. I'm certainly not the first person to do that and I have links at the bottom to other people's tutorial indices. If you're stuck on dial-up and waiting for 100+ icons to download is burdensome, you're always welcome to go through my memories, instead. I never did finish reclassifying them by WHY I'd added them the way I did on the index but at least you don't have to wait for a protracted download.
If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. I'm a newbie, too, and I don't really know a lot but I am more than willing to share anything I know. And welcome to the Photoshop addiction!