Photoshop Elements

[Suburbanmom]

Jann1033, try saving it as a photoshop file (.psd). When you re-open it, it should still be a layer on top of the background. I usually make the background black so it is easy to see the watermark. HTH!

 

[jann1033]

hooray! that ought to work, i just started thinking it must not be saving it in layers...duh the little layer place is uncheckable, should have given me the hint.... off to try that now.

 

[MICKEY88]

that's what i'm doing now( saving to another folder) but i'm "supposed" to , according to the book, be able to save the watermark and just open and drag it , it opens and drags fine but is opaque, the whole page i mean...so as of now i'd either have to batch process after i open convert save to jpg, copy and save to jpg in another folder or watermark each time making a new watermark each time.. which is okay really now since i'm doing old photos but once i get these old ones done it probably would be easier for me to watermark each as i go but unless i figure out how to save the water mark right, i can't without making it new each time

photo watermark pro makes it all so simple, you open your folder, layout the watermark the way you want it on one pic, top,bottom, diagonal,, repeat, colors, opacity...size...whatever you want, then batch process the whole folder...

 

[Amy]

Mr. Squirrel came to visit my bird feeder this morning, and I got his picture, hoping to use it for the "Rule of Thirds" thread. (I have the squirrel on the intersection of one of the "lines" for the rule of thirds, but if I crop it it'll be better.)

Anyway, I was shooting thru the window and screen and it was so cloudy I had to bump up my ISO to 400, so the shot isn't that great:

So I decided to play around in Photoshop Elements 4 to see if I could make it any better (why clean the house when I can mess around with my pictures, right? ). I've seen posts where someone will say that they "sharpened" their photo, but I've never used sharpening or unsharp mask, so I decided to give it a try, and viola!

(I even cloned out the bird dropping on the fence behind the squirrel, too.)

My question: I achieved this result using the Unsharp Mask filter. Using the sharpen tool only made the photo granier, didn't "sharpen" the photo at all. So why is it called an "Unsharp Mask" filter when it makes details sharper? And why would I ever want to use the Sharpen tool when it only adds grain to a photo? Can somebody show me an example?

Thanks!

(See, that's the whole problem with this Photography Board - the more I learn, the more questions I have!)

 

[jann1033]

Mr. Squirrel came to visit my bird feeder this morning, and I got his picture, hoping to use it for the "Rule of Thirds" thread. (I have the squirrel on the intersection of one of the "lines" for the rule of thirds, but if I crop it it'll be better.)

Anyway, I was shooting thru the window and screen and it was so cloudy I had to bump up my ISO to 400, so the shot isn't that great:

So I decided to play around in Photoshop Elements 4 to see if I could make it any better (why clean the house when I can mess around with my pictures, right? ). I've seen posts where someone will say that they "sharpened" their photo, but I've never used sharpening or unsharp mask, so I decided to give it a try, and viola!

(I even cloned out the bird dropping on the fence behind the squirrel, too.)

My question: I achieved this result using the Unsharp Mask filter. Using the sharpen tool only made the photo granier, didn't "sharpen" the photo at all. So why is it called an "Unsharp Mask" filter when it makes details sharper? And why would I ever want to use the Sharpen tool when it only adds grain to a photo? Can somebody show me an example?

Thanks!

(See, that's the whole problem with this Photography Board - the more I learn, the more questions I have!)

unsharp mask is a throwback term and used to use some kind of blur technique while messing with other things to get it sharper... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking
i wonder if you were over sharpening with the sharpen tool which might have made it look spotty,. if you noticed a halo ish border it probably was...you are only supposed to sharpen once and do it last thing.
i usually use the adjust sharpness( in elements 5, not sure if it's in 4 or not) when i convert from raw, ( amount 20 radius 60) that i read couple places just removes the softness that digital in general can cause. with raw i think you can sharpen once when you convert and then a little more if need be but usually the above does the trick.

 

[Lizziejane]

I also use Adjust sharpness rather than unsharp mask. I got a couple of books by Scott Kelby, and he highly recommended this process. If used too much, as Jann said, unsharp mask can give you weird looking halos.

I use different settings to Jenn - I use an "amount" of 75%, radius anywhere from .5 to 1 - very rarely over 1. Also, you have a drop-down box to choose "remove - lens blur, gaussian blur or motion blur" - I choose lens blur. And then check off the "more refined" box.

I always sharpen on a layer, so I can drop the opacity if the sharpening looks too much (view at 100%) I used to apply the sharpening to everything, until I got prints made up and wondered why people's skin looked weird. Now, if a shot has any person in it, I do the sharpening on a layer, then simply use the eraser to take it off the faces. If it's a close up, I'll sharpen the eyes and nothing else. Also, be careful with landscapes - doesn't take much to get leaves and grass looking crunchy (which could be the "grain" you were mentioning!)

 

[Amy]

unsharp mask is a throwback term and used to use some kind of blur technique while messing with other things to get it sharper... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking
i wonder if you were over sharpening with the sharpen tool which might have made it look spotty,. if you noticed a halo ish border it probably was...you are only supposed to sharpen once and do it last thing.
i usually use the adjust sharpness( in elements 5, not sure if it's in 4 or not) when i convert from raw, ( amount 20 radius 60) that i read couple places just removes the softness that digital in general can cause. with raw i think you can sharpen once when you convert and then a little more if need be but usually the above does the trick.

Thanks for the replies! I don't shoot in raw, so that stuff went right over my head, but the Wikipedia link made some sense to me. I can sort of understand how it adds a blur to the original and compares the two and then sharpens it. Weird, but it kind of makes sense.

A lot of this technical stuff just confuses me; I prob. need to take some other photography courses, but since I don't use a dSLR or shoot in raw, I figure a lot of the stuff won't apply to me. The way I work on a photo in Elements: hmm, let's see what this thing does. Oops, don't like that, hit undo. What about this thing? That's good, I'll keep it.

 

[jann1033]

just fyi, camera raw 4.3.1 has a new slider that is "clarity"...somebody just told me( can't remember who , sorry) it basically does the same thing i was doing with adjust sharpness ( 20/60 sharpening) so that is a useful feature imo!one slide and it 's automatically defuzzed

 

[LMarge]

Amy,
Whatever you did - it looks good!!! I love your explaination of work flow for PSE!!! Sounds just like mine - let's try this, yeah, that's cool - okay - how about this - uummm, no. - undo - now this - still not right - okay this one - very good - save!! Such a professional method of work!!! I think if I can ever get to a class on PSE, I'll be so dazzled by what it can do that I'll never leave the computer again!!!Hence, my dh is glad that the timing is never right for me to take one!!!

 

[ElizK]

So I received Photoshop Elements 6.0 for Christmas. Great! Can't wait to use it. However, it came with very little instruction, so I need a book. My DisBoard Photography friends had previously recommended books by Scott Kelby, so I ordered it at the beginning of January. Well, for the 2nd time, it's been delayed at the printers. Won't be shipped until March 20. I want to play with my new toy!!! What other authors should I look for?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Pooh_Girl]

Is there any way to stitch pictures together in Photoshop Elements?? We have AutoStitch to stitch together panoramics, but on our vacation last month, we didn't know a whole lot about the program and so anything we couldn't fit into the screen, we took pictures of it in sections. It works great for stitching together landscape pics, but not so much on the portrait ones. I have about 4 different sections of the Christmas Trees from the parks that I would like to put together if possible. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MICKEY88]

have you tried rotating your pics so they are landscape orientation, then using your program..

 

[jann1033]

i have elements 5 and it's under file merge photo pano(?) in the editor or organizer, never used it so no idea how easy it is to use

 

[Pooh_Girl]

i have elements 5 and it's under file merge photo pano(?) in the editor or organizer, never used it so no idea how easy it is to use

Thank you soooo much for the info!!!!!!!!! It worked great!!!!!!!!

 

[Shutterbug]

I need new photo editing software and also later I want to be able to make DVD's with slides shows and such.

Anyone else have this bundle?

 

[jann1033]

i don't have the premier, just the elements, it's great for slide shows, very easy to use...i don't add much fancy stuff to the photos so if you are looking for extra features like that i don't think it has a whole lot( ie scrapbook type things. i has different fades and stuff and you can add music, just not a lot of clip art type things)
i think the premier is more for videos which i don't have

 

[MOmousefan]

I have been using this bundle in a new class I am teaching at my school. We meet every day for a one hour class that contains grades 9 - 12. I did not have much exposure to Photoshop or Premiere before this class, so I learned along with my students.
The bottom line for me is that these two programs are great for the average user who does not need all of the bells and whistles of the full versions. There are tutorials that move you through all of the workspaces and it includes many user-friendly templates.

I would recommend Adobe's Classroom in a Book if you want some extra learning on these programs. Have fun!

 

[Shutterbug]

Thank you.

Yes basically I was looking for something that I could make simple slides shows then take those slides shows and burn them to a DVD to play in a DVD player.

 

[dizneegirls]

Hi, can anyone tell me if Photoshop Elements 3.0 has a lot of features? Can you do selective coloring with it etc??? Thanks for any advice

 

[JR6ooo4]

Hi, can anyone tell me if Photoshop Elements 3.0 has a lot of features? Can you do selective coloring with it etc??? Thanks for any advice

Yes. that is a simple selection routine.

have you seen the selective coloring thread? if not let me know I will try to find it.

Mikeeee