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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Bring out the best in your images with the latest version ofPhotoshop Elements Photoshop Elements is the top selling consumer photo editingsoftware and Adobe continues to add innovative features that allowdigital photo enthusiasts to do it all. This value-packed referencecombines nine content-rich minibooks in one complete package.User-friendly and detailed, it covers the key features and toolsthat beginner and experienced users need to create high-qualityimages for print, e-mail, and the web using the latest release ofPhotoshop Elements: Photoshop Elements 11. Presented in full color,this resource goes beyond the basics of the application and isundoubtedly the most comprehensive Elements book on the market. * Explores filters, effects, styles, and distortions * Shows you how to enhance your images by painting, drawing, andtyping * Walks you through working with layers and masks * Details ways to retouch and enhance your photos * Checks out the toolbox, options, and other essential menus Fantastic photos and interesting images are just a click awaywith Photoshop Elements 11 All-in-One For Dummies!
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Photoshop® Elements 11 All-in-One For Dummies®
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Table of Contents
Photoshop® Elements 11 All-in-One For Dummies®
by Barbara Obermeier & Ted Padova
Photoshop® Elements 11 All-in-One For Dummies®
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949508
ISBN 978-1-118-40822-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-46202-7 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-118-52107-6 (eMobi); ISBN 978-1-118-52109-0 (ePDF)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Authors
Barbara Obermeier is the principal of Obermeier Design, a graphic design studio in Ventura, California. She is the author of Photoshop CS5 All-in-One For Dummies and has contributed as author or coauthor to more than two dozen books on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Digital Photography. She is a senior faculty member in the School of Design at Brooks Institute and has also taught at California Lutheran University; University of California, Santa Barbara; and Ventura College.
Ted Padova is the former chief executive officer and managing partner of The Image Source Digital Imaging and Photo Finishing Centers of Ventura and Thousand Oaks, California. He has been involved in digital imaging since founding a service bureau in 1990. He retired from his company in 2005 and now spends his time writing and speaking about digital imaging, Acrobat, PDF forms, and LiveCycle Designer forms.
For more than 17 years, Ted taught university and higher education classes in graphic design applications and digital prepress at the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara, and at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has been, and continues to be, a conference speaker nationally and internationally at PDF conferences.
Ted has written more than 50 computer books and is the world’s leading author on Adobe Acrobat. He has written books on Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft PowerPoint. His books published by Wiley include Adobe Acrobat PDF Bible (versions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and X), PDF Forms Using Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer Bible, Adobe Creative Suite Bible (versions CS,CS2, CS3, CS4, and CS5), Color Correction for Digital Photographers Only, Color Management for Digital Photographers For Dummies, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Just the Steps For Dummies, Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms, Teach Yourself Visually Acrobat PDF 5, and Adobe Acrobat 6 Complete Course. He also coauthored Adobe Master Class: Illustrator Illuminated and wrote Adobe Reader 7 Revealed: Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files for Peachpit/Adobe Press.
Dedication
Barbara Obermeier: For Gary, Kylie, and Lucky, who constantly remind me of what’s really important in life.
Ted Padova: For Arnie.
Authors’ Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Bob Woerner, our most excellent executive editor; Andy Cummings, Dummies Royalty; Dennis Cohen, our technical editing czar. And a big thank-you to Leah Valle of 13thwitch.com for many photo contributions.
Barbara Obermeier: A special thanks to Ted Padova, my coauthor and friend, who both celebrates and commiserates with me on the ups and downs of being an author.
Ted Padova: Many thanks to my dear friend and colleague, Barbara Obermeier, for asking me to join her on this project — and for a little handholding along the way, to help me get through it. Also, a special thanks to Arnie Padova, Dr. Olive De Castro, Malou and Regis Pelletier, Grace and Curtis Cooper, Irene and Bob Windley, Stefan Bergfors, George DuBoulay, Richard Leikin, and Michael Bindi for all their special modeling assistance.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions and Editorial
Project Editor: Kelly Ewing
(Previous Edition: Rebecca Senninger)
Executive Editor: Bob Woerner
Technical Editor: Dennis Cohen
Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen
Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Cover Photo: © iStockphoto.com/bholland Image #5314227, Hanis Image #2054524, and Image #3729306
Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Composition Services
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Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Carrie A. Cesavice, Joyce Haughey
Proofreaders: Melissa Cossell, Jessica Kramer, The Well-Chosen Word
Indexer: Estalita Slivoskey
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
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Composition Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Introduction
Some of the things we’re very pleased with in Photoshop Elements 11 are the ease of performing many editing tasks, the simplicity of methods, and a very classy new user interface. Sure, Elements has some nifty new features, but this version has been improved under the hood for much faster performance and ease of operations.
Elements shines on its own turf and is distinguished from Adobe Photoshop in many ways. Not only a program for improving image quality, Elements is a complex software application that offers you many different editing tools for designing a variety of photo creations and sharing your photos in a number of ways. Of course, Elements also gives you all the standard editing features you need for, say, controlling image brightness or working with color correction.
Why should you buy Elements (and, ultimately, this book)? The range of people who can benefit from using Elements is wide and includes a vast audience. Elements has something for everyone — from beginning image editors to intermediate users to amateurs and professionals with more advanced skills.
Experienced users of Photoshop Elements will find many changes in the way you approach editing tasks. Some are not all that intuitive. The benefit is that after you discover these new approaches, you’ll appreciate the work the Adobe Development Team has accomplished with this version. Hopefully, this book will assist you in getting up to speed with new approaches to familiar editing tasks.
If you’re a new user, than we hope we can simplify getting around the Photoshop Elements Organizer and the Photo Editor. Throughout the book, you find steps to perform editing tasks. Take the time to work through the steps, and you’ll accelerate your learning.
For Macintosh users, there’s more good news. With each new upgrade, Adobe has worked hard to bring parity between the two platforms. In Elements 11, you’ll find many fewer distinctions between Elements operating on Windows and the Macintosh.
About This Book
This book is our best effort to provide a comprehensive view of a wildly feature-rich program for both Windows and Macintosh users. There’s a lot to Elements, and we try to offer you as much information as possible within our limited amount of space. We begged for more pages, but alas, our publisher wants to get this book in your hands in full color and with an attractive price tag. Therefore, even though we may skip over a few topics, the pages ahead cover all you need to know about using Photoshop Elements for designing images for print, sharing, web hosting, versatile packaging, e-mailing, and more.
Photoshop Elements has something for just about everyone. We know that our audience is large, and that you may not use every tool, command, or method described in this book. Therefore, we include a lot of cross-references in the text, in case you want to jump around. You can go to just about any chapter and start reading; if a concept needs more explanation, we point you in the right direction for finding some background.
If you’re new to a ForDummies All-in-One, be aware that a book in this series is several books in one. This work contains nine separate books covering distinct areas of Photoshop Elements. You can jump around in the book and investigate the areas that interest you most. Generally, you don’t need to read through chapters in order before going to the chapter dealing with the tasks you’re most interested in exploring.
Each of the nine books contains several chapters covering a particular category of editing images, sharing files, or making creations.
Book I: Introducing Elements
We begin Book I by introducing you to Elements as it appears onscreen the first time you launch the program. The Elements Welcome screen permits you to enter several different workspaces.
In Chapter 1, we talk about changing workspaces, setting up your work environment, looking at tools and menus, discovering panels, using shortcuts, and getting help. In Chapter 2, we explore in depth the tools used in the Photo Editor mode. We provide the basics for using the tools so that you have a clear understanding of what they do before delving into chapters where we use the tools to create a variety of results.
In Chapter 3, we look at navigation and viewing. We explore using the Navigator panel, changing views between workspaces, and zooming in and out of photos, and we cover all you need to know about the Image window when working in the Photo Editor. In Chapter 4, we cover preference settings you use in the Organizer and the Photo Editor for customizing your workspace. Every preference setting you can make in Photoshop Elements is covered in this chapter.
Book II: Elements Fundamentals
As the title of Book II implies, we talk about essential fundamentals in this minibook. Look for opening, closing, and saving files; using the Organizer workspace, available for both Windows and Macintosh users; acquiring images from digital cameras and scanners; and (in a whole lot of coverage) sorting and finding pictures. We also cover creating albums and keyword tags, creating new catalogs, and backing up photos. There’s also a chapter that deals exclusively with cell phones and other handheld devices, particularly the Apple iPhone and iPad.
Book III: Image Essentials
In this minibook, we handle all you’d ever want to know about the characteristics of images. This minibook is image-centric — we cover many essential topics, such as resolution, color modes, file formats, Camera Raw format, color management, and easy photo fixes.
Book IV: Selections
This important minibook gives you all the juicy details on, and techniques for, creating and modifying selections. You find out about each of the selection tools and how to modify, feather, save, and load selections, as well as refine edges.
Book V: Painting, Drawing, and Typing
If you want to know about the drawing and painting tools, this minibook’s for you. We cover the Brush and Pencil tools along with the multifaceted Brushes panel. We also show you how to create vector shapes by using the shape tools and how to fill and stroke selections.
Head to Book V to find out how to create both gradients and patterns and, last but not least, become familiar with the type tools and how to use them to create and edit standard type, type on and in a path, and type with special effects.
Book VI: Working with Layers and Masks
Book VI gives you everything you need to work with layers and cutting, extracting, and masking to select elements on those layers. From the Cutter tool to the Magic Extractor and on to layer masking, we show you how to select difficult elements and creatively combine layers. We also talk about managing layers, playing with opacity, using blend modes, and transforming and simplifying layers.
Book VII: Filters, Effects, Styles, and Distortions
We filled Book VII with tons of handy tips and techniques for using filters to correct images to make them sharper, blurrier, cleaner, or smoother — whatever fits your fancy. You also find out how to use filters to give your image a certain special effect, such as a deckle edge or water droplets. Finally, we introduce some very cool cartooning and art effects using the new Comic and Graphic Novel filters. Just use these filters, and you’re hooked on Elements 11.
Book VIII: Retouching and Enhancing
You find everything you need to know about color correction and color enhancement in Book VIII — getting rid of colorcasts, improving contrast and saturation, remapping, and replacing colors.
In addition, we include using the focus and toning tools to manually lighten, darken, smooth, soften, or sharpen areas of your image. You get to see how you can use the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing tools, and the Red Eye Removal tool to fix flaws and imperfections in your images, making them as good as new. We also show you the Color Replacement tool and how to replace your image’s original color with the foreground color. Finally, you get tidbits of info on how to composite images by following some easy steps.
Book IX: Creating and Sharing with Elements
The wonderful world of creations and sharing is the topic for this minibook. Elements provides you with some extraordinary creation opportunities, such as creating slide shows, photo books, calendars, greeting cards, flipbooks, and more. We go into detail for each of these creation options. Not all files are destined for online viewing, so we cover the complex world of printing color images and getting color right with color profiles in this minibook, and then we move on to sharing projects using online services.
About the eCheat Sheet
We have a handy guide for you, and it’s hosted online. You can download the Cheat Sheet file from www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/photoshopelements11aio.
Conventions Used in This Book
Throughout this book, we point you to menus where you can find commands you need to access. A couple of things to remember are the references for where to go when we detail steps in a procedure. For accessing a menu command, you may see a sentence like this one:
Choose File⇒Get Photos and Videos⇒From Files and Folders.
When you see a command like this, we’re asking you to click the File menu to open the drop-down menu, click the menu command labeled Get Photos and Videos, and then choose the command From Files and Folders from the submenu that appears.
Another convention we use refers to context menus. A context menu jumps up at the cursor position and shows you a menu similar to the menu you select at the top of the Elements workspace. To open a context menu, click the right mouse button. For Mac users with a one-button mouse, press the Control key and click to open a context menu. For Mac users with a trackpad, click your trackpad with two fingers.
A third item relates to using keystrokes on your keyboard. When we mention that you need to press some keys on your keyboard, the text is described like this:
Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S (+Option+Shift+S on the Mac).
In this case, you hold down the Control key, the Alt key, and the Shift key and then press the S key (or hold down the key, Option key, and the Shift key, and then press the S key on the Mac). Then release all the keys at the same time.
Icons Used in This Book
In the margins throughout this book are icons indicating that something important is stated in the respective text.
A Tip icon tells you about an alternative method for a procedure by giving you a shortcut or a workaround or another type of helpful information related to working on tasks in the section being discussed.
Pay particular attention when you see the Warning icon. This information informs you when you may experience a problem performing your work in Elements.
This icon is a heads-up for information you may want to commit to memory. Usually, the icon tells you about a shortcut for a repetitive task, where remembering a procedure can save you time.
Elements is a computer program, after all. No matter how hard we try to simplify our explanation of features, we can’t entirely avoid technical information. If we think that a topic is complex, we use this icon to alert you that we’re moving into a complex subject. You won’t see many of these icons in this book because we try our best to bring the details to nontechnical terms.
This icon informs you that the item discussed is a new feature in Photoshop Elements 11.
Where to Go from Here
Feel free to jump around and pay special attention to cross-referenced chapters, in case you get stuck on a concept. If you’re new to image editing, you’ll want to pick up some basics. Look over Books I and II to get a grip on images and the environment you work in with Elements.
When you need a little extra help, refer to Book I, Chapter 1, where we talk about using the online Help documents available in Elements.
We wish you much success and enjoyment in using Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, and it’s our sincere wish that the pages ahead provide you with an informative and helpful view of the program.
Occasionally, we have updates to our technology books. If this book does have technical updates, they will be posted at
dummies.com/go/photoshopelements11aioupdates
Book I
Introducing Elements
Because we try to present every minibook as a standalone element so that you can move around and jump in at any chapter, a little foundation always makes understanding the big concepts a bit easier.
We start Book I with some essentials related to the Elements workspace, tell you how to launch the program, and offer you a description of many resources available to you.
If you’re new to Elements, this minibook is your best starting place. Be sure to review Chapter 2, where we cover all the tools used in the Photo Editor, and Chapter 4, where we talk about adjusting Preferences to customize your work environment.
Chapter 1: Examining the Elements Environment
In This Chapter
Working with the Organizer
Setting up your workspaces
Moving through the Menu bar and context menus
Picking settings on the Options panel
Playing around with panels and bins
Shortening your steps with shortcuts
Getting a helping hand
Photoshop Elements 11 continues to evolve with new tools and features. Both Windows and Macintosh users also have the continued support for the Organizer and its file management, creation, and file-sharing opportunities.
This chapter starts with some essential tasks to make your photo management and editing experiences an easy process. This chapter’s content may not be the most fun part of this book, but it’s a critical first step for anyone new to Elements. Stay with us while we break down all the areas in the Photoshop Elements workspace where you can turn that photo of Aunt Gina into something that Whistler’s mom would envy.
Launching Elements
After running the installer from the Photoshop Elements DVD-ROM or downloading the program from the Adobe Store, double-click the program icon to launch Elements. When the program launches, you see the Adobe Photoshop Welcome screen, as shown in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-1: The Photoshop Elements Welcome screen for Windows.
On the Welcome screen, you find two buttons for opening the Organizer and the Photo Editor. Click one of these buttons, and you open the respective Elements application.
Organizer: Click the Organizer button, and Elements opens the Organizer, the window where you take care of a plethora of file-management and organization tasks. Among your other options, you can choose to load pictures in the Organizer window so that they’re ready to use for all your projects. The Organizer is available to Macintosh users in Photoshop Elements 9 and above as well as to Windows users.
Photo Editor: Click the Photo Editor button to open the Photoshop Elements Photo Editor, where you perform all the editing for your photos.
Settings: Click Settings (the sprocket icon) to open the Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 preferences for the startup window. Here, you can choose to show the window on startup, open only the Organizer, or open only the Photo Editor. By default, the Welcome screen is set to always open when Elements is launched.
Close: Click the X in the Welcome screen to close it. Closing the Welcome screen has no effect on the Editors or the Organizer. If either or all are open, they remain open when you close the Welcome screen.
Every time you launch Photoshop Elements, the Welcome screen is the first item you see on your monitor. From the Welcome screen, you choose the kind of tasks you want to accomplish in a session. If you want to change from one window to another, for example, or change from the Organizer to the Photo Editor, you can easily navigate workspaces after you open one editing environment, as we explain in the section “Navigating the Different Modes,” later in this chapter.
The window you see in Figure 1-1, along with any of the help information displayed there, may be slightly different from what you see on your monitor when you launch Elements. The Welcome screen displays dynamic content, and Adobe changes the content routinely.
Opening the Organizer
The Organizer is one of several workspaces available to you with Photoshop Elements. Unless you have an immediate task at hand for editing a photo in the Photo Editor workspace, the Organizer is often going to be your first workspace to visit. In the Organizer, you can manage photos and navigate to every other editing workspace Elements provides you.
If you use Photoshop Elements 9 or above on a Macintosh, you have the Photoshop Elements Organizer available to you with many features that have previously been available only on Windows. Many screenshots showing the Organizer in this book equally apply to both Windows and Macintosh users.
To open the Organizer, click the Organize button on the Welcome screen. When you install Elements and first open the Organizer, you see an empty screen, as shown in Figure 1-2.
You can add photos to the Organizer window by using a variety of options we cover in Book II, Chapter 1. For now, we focus on looking at the Organizer tools and understanding how they work. Some of the more important tools in the Organizer include
A. Elements Organizer: On a Windows machine, clicking this button opens a menu where you can choose to close, minimize, and maximize the Organizer workspace. Clicking the button on the Mac does nothing. The icon represents the Organizer, and in other workspaces, such as the Photo Editor, clicking the icon returns you to the Organizer window.
B. Menu bar: The menus contain all the commands you use in the Organizer workspace. On the Macintosh, the Menu bar is positioned above the Organizer icon instead of adjacent to it. Throughout this book, we talk about using menu commands.
C.Media: In Elements 11, you find four tabs at the top of the Organizer window above the Media Browser (see BB). When you click Media, thumbnail images of your media appear in the Media Browser.
D. People: Click this tab, and all images with people tags are shown in the Media Browser.
Figure 1-2: Upon your first launch of the Organizer, you see an empty workspace.
E.Places: Click the Places tab, and you see images in the Media Browser that have been tagged as locations. When you click this tab and click the Keyword/Info button (item FF), the Map button appears at the bottom of the Panel Bin (item R). Click the Map button, and a Google map is displayed in the Panel Bin.
F. Events: The fourth tab above the Media Browser is the Events tab. Click this tab, and all images tagged as events appear in the Media Browser. You additionally see a calendar in the Panel Bin for sorting events according to dates.
G.Search: Type text in the text box to search for photos in the Organizer window. After typing text in the text box, click the magnifying glass icon to perform the search.
H-J.Features buttons: The three buttons represented by tiny icons include, from left to right, (H) Minimize, (I) Restore, and (J) Close (on the top right in Windows and on the top left on a Mac where they are Close, Minimize, and Zoom, from left to right). These buttons function the same as you find in almost all Windows or Mac applications.
K.Import panel: The Import panel displays Albums (item L) and folder locations (item N). In Figure 1-2, media has not yet been imported into the Organizer. Therefore, no folders appear in the Import panel.
L. Albums: At the top of the Import panel, you see Albums. A list of albums appears as you create them. You can add new albums by clicking the + (plus) icon.
M.Create/Share buttons: Click a button to open the respective panel in the Panel Bin (item R).The panels include
•Create: Click the Create tab to make creations you can print or share online.
•Share: Options in this panel provide you with many different opportunities to share photos and creations.
N.My Folders: As you add media, the media are added as folders. You can create folders on a hard drive and add a folder name and the media contained within the folder.
O. Sort By: A drop-down menu permits you to choose a sort for Newest files appearing in the Media Browser first, Oldest files first, or by Import batch.
P.All Media: The text indicates that all media is shown in the Media Browser. If you click a folder, only the media in the folder is shown in the Media Browser. The text then appears as a button to the left of the Sort By drop-down menu. Click the All Media button, and you return to the view showing all the media in the Media Browser.
Q. Ratings: Click a star to rate an image with 1 to 5 stars.
R. Panel Bin: The default Panel Bin displays Keyword Tags, Information, and Image Keywords. Additional panels are opened in the Panel Bin by clicking the Create and Share button at the top of the panel and by clicking icons appearing at the bottom of the panel.
S. Hide Panel: Click this button, and the Import panel disappears providing you more space in the Media Browser to look for photos. When hidden, the button changes to Show Panel. Click the Show Panel button, and the Import panel reappears.
T. N Item: The number of items in the catalog appear as a readout here. In Figure 1-2, no media is loaded in the Organizer, hence the readout is 0 Item.
U. Undo/Redo: You use these tools to undo and redo edits.
V. Rotate: Click the Rotate tool to display the Clockwise and Counter Clockwise tools. Select a photo in the Media Browser, click one of the tools, and you can rotate the image.
W. Add People: Select one or more photos and click this button to tag photos for people recognition.
X. Add Places: Select one or more photos and click this button to display a map where you can tag photos with map locations.
Y. Add Event: Click this button, and the Add Event panel opens in the Panel Bin. The Add Event panel permits you to add new event tags to photos and date and descriptions.
Z. Slide Show: Click this button. and a Full Screen view window opens where you can view all files in the Media Browser as a slide show.
AA. Editor: Click the button, and the Elements Photo Editor opens. If you have photos selected in the Media Browser, the photos open in the Expert editing mode. Click the down arrow adjacent to the icon, and a menu provides choices for editing with an External Editor, Edit with Photoshop (if installed), and Edit with Premiere Elements (if installed).
BB. Media Browser: The main window in the Organizer is called the Media Browser. Here is where you find thumbnail images of photos added to your catalog and thumbnail icons representing PDF files, music files, and video files.
Commit the term Media Browser to memory. This area is where thumbnail images are shown in the Organizer, and we make reference to the Media Browser throughout this book.
CC. Adjust Size of Thumbnail: Move the slider to change the size of thumbnail images appearing in the Media Browser. (See item BB for more on the Media Browser.)
DD. Instant Fix: Click this button, and the Quick editing tools open in the Panel Bin. You can make many adjustments to your photos without leaving the Organizer.
EE. Catalog Name: The name of the open catalog appears here. Click the text, and you open the Catalog Manager.
FF. Keyword/Info: Click this button, and the default panels display Keyword Tags, Information, and Image Keywords.
For maximum viewing of photos in the Media Browser, click the Hide Panel button and the Keyword/Info button. Both panels collapse from view, and the Media Browser occupies the entire Organizer window horizontally.
Adding Images to the Organizer
To manage photos and apply edits, you need to load some photos into the default catalog that appears (empty, obviously) when you first launch Elements.
If you used earlier versions of Elements, the Organizer prompts you to convert an earlier catalog to the new version when you first launch the program. If you want to convert an earlier catalog, follow the onscreen directions, and your photos are loaded in the Media Browser.
To add photos to the default catalog, do the following:
1. Copy some photos to your hard drive.
On the Macintosh, you’re prompted immediately when you launch the Organizer the first time to add photos from your iPhoto library. If you have photos stored in iPhoto, click the Import button to add photos to a new catalog.
Make a new folder on your hard drive and name it My Photos or another descriptive name and copy photos to the new folder.
2. Launch Elements.
Double-click the program icon or use the Start menu to open Elements. On the Mac, click the icon on the Dock or in Launchpad.
3. Click the Organize button on the Welcome screen.
4. Choose File⇒Get Photos and Videos⇒From Files and Folders.
The Get Photos and Videos from Files and Folders dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 1-3.
5. Navigate your hard drive to locate the folder where you copied your photos and then select the photos to import.
If you want to import all photos from a given folder, press Ctrl+A (+A on the Mac). If you want to select individual photos, click a photo and press the Ctrl () key while clicking additional photos.
6. Click the Get Media button to import the photos into your catalog.
You have other options available in the Get Photos and Videos from Files and Folders dialog box. Select the Get Photos From Subfolders check box if you have subfolders containing images. Click the Get Media button and leave all other items at their defaults.
An alert dialog box opens, informing you that you need to click the All Media button if you want to see all photos in your catalog. This button appears at the top of the Organizer window, as shown in Figure 1-4.
7. Click OK in the alert dialog box.
Figure 1-3: You select photos to import in a catalog from the Get Photos and Videos from Files and Folders dialog box.
Figure 1-4: Click the All Media button above the image thumbnails to show all photos in your catalog.
8. View the photos in the Organizer.
As shown in Figure 1-5, photos appear in the Organizer window. In this view, we hid the Import panel and the Panel Bin to provide maximum viewing area in the Media Browser.
Figure 1-5: Photos in the Media Browser.
Each time you add new photos to the Organizer, only the new photos are shown in the Media Browser. To see all the photos in your catalog, click the All Media button.
A number of file-management options are available in the Organizer for sorting images, tagging files with keywords, and creating albums of photos. We cover all you can do with file management in Book II, Chapter 2.
Navigating the Different Modes
Elements provides you with three editing modes. If you’re in the Organizer, you access the different editing modes in the Photo Editor. Click the Photo Editor button at the bottom of the Organizer window or click Photo Editor in the Welcome Screen when you launch Elements from your desktop.
Expert: By default, when you open the Photo Editor, you arrive at the Expert editing mode. In earlier versions of Elements, we referred to this mode as Photo Editor mode. In Expert mode, you have access to all tools and commands, which provides you with limitless opportunities for editing your pictures.
Quick: Use this mode when you need to polish an image in terms of brightness, contrast, or color adjustment or other, similar editing tasks. You can perform quick edits in the Photo Editor or within the Organizer by clicking the Instant Fix tool.
Guided Photo Edit: This marvelous tool gives you step-by-step instructions to produce an editing result, such as removing a colorcast or perfecting a portrait image.
After you have files loaded in the Organizer, you can easily open an image in an editing mode.
You can move around in the Photo Editor to explore panels and different modes. When you change to another mode or explore options in the Panel Bin, you lose the Tools panel on the far left of the Photo Editor screen. When you want to regain access to the Tools panel, click Expert at the top of the Photo Editor window.
Visiting Expert editing mode
Don’t let the term Expert dissuade you from exploring options in this mode. It’s not really a mode used by experts. Rather, this mode simply distinguishes it from the other modes. The Expert mode is where you apply limitless edits to your photos.
Assuming that you want to edit a picture, follow these steps to launch the Photo Editor workspace:
1. Click an image thumbnail in the Organizer.
Following this step presumes you’ve added photos to the Organizer, as we describe in the section “Adding Images to the Organizer,” earlier in this chapter.
2. Click Editor at the bottom of the Organizer window.
After you select the mode, the selected image appears in the Photo Editor’s Expert mode workspace, as shown in Figure 1-6. In Figure 1-6, notice the tabs at the top of the window for changing the modes.
3. To return to the Organizer, click the Organizer button, shown in Figure 1-6.
When you open a file from the Organizer or change to another workspace while the Organizer is open, you have two workspaces open in Elements. The second workspace (such as the Photo Editor) opens while the Organizer remains open. When you toggle between modes, both modes remain open until you exit one mode or the other.
Figure 1-6: After you click the Photo Editor button in the Organizer, the file opens in the Photo Editor Expert mode workspace. To return to the Organizer, click the Organizer button.
Quick switching between interfaces
Your operating system has a built-in Application Switcher. On Windows, press the Alt key and then the Tab key. Keep the Alt key depressed, release the Tab key, and click the application you want to use. On the Macintosh, press the key and then the Tab key. Keep the key depressed, release the Tab key, and click the application you want to use. You can also use the left and right arrows to move between applications in the Application Switcher. The following figure shows the Application Switcher in Windows (left) and on Macintosh (right).
When you’re using the Organizer and want to quickly open the Photo Editor or you’re using the Photo Editor and want to switch to the Organizer, use the Application Switcher. If you need to open the Desktop view, use the Application Switcher to quickly change to the Desktop view. All the applications remain open, and you can toggle back and forth between programs.
Visiting Quick editing mode
If you’ve worked in earlier versions of Elements, you know that the Organizer provides a direct link to the Photo Editor for Expert (formerly Full Photo Edit mode) and Quick (formerly Quick Fix). Previous versions of Elements also supported moving to Guided edit mode from the Organizer.
In Elements 11, you have one place to switch to from the Organizer —the Photo Editor and Expert mode. The Organizer enables you to access tools for quick fixes, but in this version of Elements, you can’t directly launch the Quick or Guided mode in the Photo Editor.
Although it’s true that you can’t launch the Photo Editor and immediately arrive at the Quick editing mode from the Organizer or Welcome Screen, you can apply quick fixes to photos while remaining in the Organizer. Click Instant Fix at the bottom of the Panel Bin, and Photo Fix Options are displayed for making quick edits while you remain in the Organizer.
In order to enter one of the Photo Editor modes, you must first open the Photo Editor (from the Organizer, Welcome Screen, or application icon) and then click the mode you want from the top of the Photo Editor window. To enter Quick editing mode, launch the Photo Editor and click the Quick tab at the top of the Photo Editor window, as shown in Figure 1-7.
Figure 1-7: While Elements is in the Photo Editor, you can easily open Quick mode by clicking Quick at the top of the Photo Editor window.
Getting help with Guided Photo Edit mode
Although the Guided panel isn’t entirely a separate mode, it changes the appearance of the Panel Bin to offer you help with many editing tasks. In Editor, click Guided at the top of the Photo Editor window. The Guided panel opens in the Panel Bin. You have a number of choices for editing tasks. In our example, we chose a very simple edit process to straighten a photo, as shown in Figure 1-8.
Figure 1-8: Click Guided at the top of the Panel Bin and choose a Guided edit task in the Panel Bin.
One common item that appears with many different editing tasks is a mini toolbar. Whenever you see a toolbar, remember to click the check mark to accept your edits. Or, if needed, click the icon with a circle and diagonal line to dismiss the edits and return to the image’s previous state.
Click other items in the Guided panel and find helpful steps to guide you through a number of common image-editing tasks.
Comparing modes
When you examine Figures 1-6, 1-7, and 1-8, you see various tools and panel options. Every mode is designed to help you with different tasks. In Figure 1-4, you see the Organizer, where you can manage files and easily work with projects and file sharing. In Expert mode, shown in Figure 1-6, you have access to all the Elements editing tools and menu commands for enhancing your photos in limitless ways. In Quick mode, shown in Figure 1-7, you see the options for giving images a quick makeover. In Guided mode, shown in Figure 1-8, a detailed help guide in the Panel Bin walks you through steps in an editing task.
In the following chapters of this minibook, we cover all the modes, the tools accessible in each mode, and all the menu commands accessible to you in each mode. Be sure that you understand how to toggle the modes to gain access to the tools you want to use.
In addition to the buttons at the bottom of the Organizer and those in the Panel Bin, in either the Organizer or the Photo Editor, you can easily navigate modes by using the taskbar (Windows) or the Dock (Mac). The taskbar (Dock) serves to open applications. Click an application to open the workspace you want. Likewise, you can use the Application Switcher as we explain earlier, in the sidebar “Quick switching between interfaces.”
Moving through the Menu Bar
As with most programs on your computer, Elements offers you a number of drop-down menus with many different commands that invoke actions. Don’t bother to memorize all the menu commands. Instead, try to develop an understanding of the types of actions included in a given menu. A general understanding of the menus helps you find commands much faster.
First, take a look at the menus in the Organizer. Among the Organizer menus, you find
File: In the File menu, as you might expect, you find commands to open and browse files on your hard drive. You also find a number of options for saving files, such as writing images to CD-ROMs and DVDs (Windows). Commands for managing catalogs, moving files, and printing images are also located in this menu.
Edit: Many commands you’re familiar with — copy, undo, delete, and so on — are located on the Edit menu. In the Organizer, you also find many options for sorting files as well as options for managing color. In addition, you find a number of quick-access commands for editing photos similar to options you find in Quick Photo Edit mode.
Find: The Find menu is all about finding images on your computer. You have many choices for searching photos based on a wide range of criteria.
View: The View menu handles commands related to viewing images in the Organizer window. You can choose the types of media to display in the Organizer, show and hide files, and show and hide certain data associated with files such as the filenames. Choices you make in this menu relate to the display of images in the Organizer.
Window: The Window menu contains commands that display some items in the Organizer, such as the Timeline, where you can view photos according to date ranges. The Window menu also has commands for controlling the display of some panels in the Panel Bin, such as the Quick Share and Properties panels.
Help: As you might expect, the Help menu contains menu commands that provide help when working in Elements. Certain Help commands open your default web browser and open Help web pages on the Adobe website.
Keep in mind that the Organizer is distinct from the editing modes. The commands you find in the editing modes are, for the most part, quite different from the menu items found in the Organizer. The Photo Editor contains the following menus:
File: You find file-opening and -saving options as well as printing commands on the File menu. The File menu also contains some options for combining images and batch-processing files.
Edit: The Edit menu offers you a number of editing tasks, such as copy and paste, copy merge, paste into selections, set up files, and use patterns and brushes. You also find color-management options identical to the commands in the Organizer Edit menu.
Image: The Image menu contains commands used for changing images, such as cropping and resizing photos, changing color modes, converting color profiles, and transforming images or selections. Notice that there are no image corrections for brightness and color adjustments. These commands are on the Enhance menu.
Enhance: The Enhance menu is all about working with images in terms of color and brightness corrections and altering their visual appearance.
Layer: The Layer menu lets you work with layers and gives you access to the many tasks you can do with them.
Select:
