1. Open the photo in Elements.
2. Select the Levels tool.
3. Click on the black triangle on the left and drag it to the right until it just touches that blob of black in the graph. If preview is selected,notice how the image darkened. The darker colors typically look more realistic if they're dark (duh). Go ahead and try moving the triangle a little more to the right. Some of the elements in the picture may become fully black. That's OK, if they don't matter (perhaps a shadow in a part of the picture we don't care about) and the parts of the picture that do matter look better. We just set the Black Point.
4. Click on the white triangle on the right and drag it to the left until it just touches the blob of black on the right side. Now the lighter colors and especially the bright whites should stand out.Just as with the Black Point keep moving that triangle until the picture is at its best. We just set the White Point. The picture should look a lot better with just these 2 steps.
5. Finally, click on the grey triangle in between the black and white triangles and move it left and right until the overall brightness of the picture looks right.
6. Click OK, save, and celebrate.

This won't work on every photo, but it does wonders on lots of them.