Supercharge Photoshop Elements: channels and layers and masks, oh, my!

Photoshop Elements is a great program for beginning photographers, but it lacks some basic functionality advanced users expect. One enterprising user, though, has developed a workaround to approximate some of the more glaring omissions. Elements Tools is a set of Photoshop elements actions that gives some basic options for channel mixing, color balance, curves, layer mask, and quick mask, as well as some element alignment tools. Installation is manual, so you'll have to be comfortable navigating the application folder and deleting cache files by hand, but the effort is worth it if you're ready to move to the next level of photo editing, but aren't ready to spring for Photoshop yet.

The author also has a nice tutorial on rolling your own filters, if you'd like to customize things even more.

[Via DSLRBlog]

Tags: channel mixer, ChannelMixer, channels, freeware, layers, masks, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements