The Burn, Dodge, and Sponge tools
The Burn, Dodge, and Sponge tools are probably the best unsung heroes of Elements. Why? Simple: they are easy to use and are very effective.
The Burn and Dodge tools are electronic representations of what I did for years in a black-and-white printing lab. "Burning-in" a photo was a technique for making part of a print darker than the rest of the image, using something such as a cardboard mask with a hole in it to make it happen. After the base exposure was done, I'd continue to expose the print—but only the bits of it that I needed to go darker—by holding the cardboard mask between the enlarger lamp and the photo paper. By gently moving the card mask so that the additional exposure only fell onto the area that I wanted to go darker, I could manipulate the global exposure so that it became a custom exposure. A dodging tool worked in reverse. This was a hand-cut bit of card taped to some wire and held between the enlarger...