Retouching: 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 visually.
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 like 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, I could manipulate the global exposure to that of a custom exposure. The dodging tool worked in reverse—a bit of card taped to some wire and held between the enlarger lamp and photo paper...