Photoshop FAQ
There has been so many questions about this, I feel like I need to create a "all on one page" FAQ guide.

Tutorial

see Converting to B&W

see Depth of Field

A couple of books are often recommended: Photoshop elements book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby & The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2 by Richard Lynch. The "for Dummies" series is also a great way to start your digital imaging experience.

Tutorial

Many plugins are available: you can create these with Photo Graphic Edges from Auto-Fx, Splat from Alien Skin, PhotoFrame from Extensis or you can create them easily with a few textures and this Tutorial.

You need to match (as much as possible) the colors, tints and textures... I always recommend Cloning BEFORE cropping... so you can steal stuff from an area you are going to crop (to avoid "digital" patterns).
You can also modify the transparency % or change the "mode" to "lighten" to generate a result similar to the Healing Brush in PS.

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Elements is VERY impressive. I've been using Photoshop "forever" and I've tried the demo for Elements. Most common photo editing can be done with PSE, unless you plan to do professional work, PSE will do 99% of the job and save you $600!

Tutorial

NO... that's why you should always save the PSD file before committing to it (flattening)

This tool is not included in previous versions of PS or Elements; it was added with the release of PS7. You can simulate the effect by using the clone tool with a "lighten" mode.

FAQ

Imagine if you did a traditional SB page and you didn't have to glue any thing... the background would be your page.... the first the photo would be on a "transparency" (allowing you to move it at any given time... your title would also be on a transparency... your journaling on one... and the embellishments on the last one... You could store the layout, come back a few days later and change only the color of your title without having to destroy the entire layout.

Several plugins are available:
Image Align
Richard Rosenman's Shareware
Power Retouche
or Lens Doc by Andromeda

After scanning or flattening an image you can move the background layer because it's locked. Simply double-click on the layer (in the layers menu) and you'll get a dialog box that says "new layer" the default name should be "Layer 0".... Click "OK" and your Background layer is now a regular (editable) Layer.

Tutorial or Tutorial

See Collage

RAM, How much memory should I have on my computer: You should always have twice as much RAM than the size of the file you are editing (on top of the minimum required memory to run the program) to avoid crashes.

Tutorial

See Extracting

See Tinted Photos

If the image is really blurred. PS won't do miracles... it can revive information that went missing when the shot was taken. When a photo is slightly blurred, you can blur the rest of it even more (except for the focus area) it will somehow look sharper that the rest of the image.
Tutorial