Secrets to Photoshop Elements

I first started editing photos using Google's Picassa editor. It works very well and I paid the extra (I think) 25 dollars to use the premium stuff in Picnik. For Christmas, TH got me Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. I haven't looked back.

The best part of Elements are the actions. Actions are basically macros for your photos. You click them and they run multiple effects on your photo at once. The possibilities for the effects are limitless.

Being not overly technically savvy, I don't write my own actions. But the internet brims with options. By far, the best paid option is MCP.  This is the same person that created MCP Project 52. The actions are expensive (for me), but are so well designed and useful that they more than make up for the cost.

As for free (and the actions that I edit the VAST majority of my pictures with), check out The CoffeeShop. Her actions and textures are wonderful and I love supporting a stay-at-home photographer hobbyist. Here are some before-and-afters from Coffeeshop action photos:

and 

The "before" pictures are on top and straight off of camera. 

Check out The CoffeeShop, I love using her actions!