Masks in PSE 4.0
I am trying to add a cloudy sky to a picture and following the instructions on the Digital Photo CD Layers and Selections.
I cannot find however the adjustment layer icon although I can achieve a red overlay with the magic brush selection mask option. But then how do I proceed?.
Can anyone please advise whether this feature exists in PSE 4 and if so HOW? Many thanks
I am using an instructional CD published by the UK magazine Digital Photo giving a series of video lessons on Layers and Selections.
This lesson is obviously showing a version of Photoshop as against PSE4 as it shows more icons.
THe lesson opens an image with an area of flat sky bordered by buildings. An image of clouds is added as a layer. Thebuildings are selected using the magic wand. They then click the 'Add layer mask' icon and the new sky appears. My problem is that this icon does not appear on PSE4. the only mask mentioned is agaainst the selection brush tool, this gives me a red mask on my picture but I cannot see what comes next.
In other words yes, I don't know how to use an adjustment layer. Any advice much appreciated.
Similar Messages
-
Can someone tell me if there is any way to add a fully editable layer mask in pse 8?
Hi I am a web designer and ahve been working hard recently in adding new web graphic skills to my arsenal. Now, the problem I have been expiriencing with elements 8 is that while trying to reproduce a mirrored text effect, following a tutorial online I found myself not being able to add a layer mask on top of one of the text layers, to then apply a gradient. In the end I did it with Fireworks but is there any way around it in Photoshop Elements 8.
Thanks in advance
CarloSure. You can grab the mask from an adjustment layer, or there are a number of add-on downloads. A popular one is here:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51319&highlight=grant%27s+tools -
there is no layer mask button by the layers and I cant find it when i click on layers at the top of my screen. Please help
Hi,
It looks like your using photoshop elements 8?
Photoshop elements didn't start shipping with the built-in layer mask function for pixel layers until photoshop elements 9.
However, there are several workarounds including clipping a pixel layer to an adjustment layer in order to use the adjustment layer's layer mask
and installing a layer mask action.
using an adjustment layer as a layer mask
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasks.htm
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/elements/fake-layer-mask/
(in pse 8 it's called Create Clipping Mask under Layer>Create Clipping Mask Cmd+G)
Layer mask action via Grant's Tools:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51319 -
I was told by a couple of pro photographers on a web site I frequent that my photos are generally over-saturated. I have PSE 10 and almost always make the following edits:
- using the Quick selection, do an Autofix, then increase the Shadows, Highlights, and Midtones to bring out more definition
- using Full, do an Auto Levels, sometimes do an Auto Color Correction (depending on how it looks), and finally do a bit of sharpening using the Unsharp Mask
Rarely do I specifically adjust (increase) the saturation. So my questions are:
1) I think I have a general idea of when photos are over-saturated, but what specifically do you look for to indicate that they are?
2) do any of the PSE edits I am doing above implicitly change the saturation? If so, how can I modify my edits so as not to over-saturate?
3) can you take a look at some of my photos and give me your opinion as to whether they are over-saturated? The first photo of the butterfly in the photostream was specifically adjusted for saturation, but most of the other ones were not.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98772145@N05/
Thanks.I see the same thing if I edit the example fox image in the same ways as you've specified, although this particular image doesn't need much done to it, in my opinion, and so the oversaturation is less than some others.
I think you are on the right track saying out of the Quick Fix things, because these reduce the overall dynamic range more than a little and boost the saturation slightly so the net effect is an unnatural mismatch between the overall contrast and the saturation. Normally if you reduce contrast in a scene the colors are also muted but with your multiple iterations of fixes the opposite occurs.
The other comment is that the sharpness is being applied to things that don't deserve it, mainly noise, and the way you reduce this is to up the threshold a bit to avoid sharpening areas that don't have edges. I found that on the fox picture, a threshold around 15 seemed good, which sharpens the glint in the eyes and some of the fur that is in focus, but leaves the out-of-focus noisy areas alone.
You asked what you might do different, and I have two approaches to give, none of which use Quick or Auto fixes and actually take less steps. First is to use Levels and Shadows/Highlights which are both under Enhance / Adjust Lighting. The third option in this menu is Brightness/Contrast but the fox picture was almost ok so didn't really need any of that. Here are screen shots of the menu items and the adjustments I made to your photo using them:
First I used Levels to adjust the black point to 12 which was where the histogram ran out of values at the low end, and then boosted the overall brightness using the gamma slider to where it looked ok but not overly bright. In this example I used 1.20. With a different sort of picture, you might need to move the white-point down to where the histogram ran out of values on the bright end but this picture had pure white already in it, so that wasn't necessary. The Auto Levels command actually does the black and white point adjustments but it overdoes them a little so I like using the Levels black and white point sliders to be more precise:
Next I did like how you brought out a little more detail in the highlights, so used Shadows/Highlights to compress the light values slightly, and also used the Midtone Contrast to give the textures of the image a little more pop:
None of this increased the saturation appreciably nor compressed the dynamic range so much to make things seem unnatural.
I left your sharpening except using a threshold of 15 as I stated, above. This image was quite blurry so it probably needed more sharpening attention using different radii and perhaps the other sharpening tool, but I didn't want to spend time with that since the most obvious issue at hand was oversaturation.
The second technique, which is a bit more radical but more useful in my opinion, is to open the JPG in the Camera Raw plug-in despite not being a raw format file. This has the advantage of having all the toning sliders available at once without having to go though various menus and buttons to find each small set of adjustments and also just one Auto button to click, though usually I back off most of what the Auto decided for me but it's still something quick to try at the beginning. There is also better sharpening and noise reduction.
Ok, to open a non-raw file in the Camera Raw plug-in, you can use File / Open As... and after choosing the image, set the File Type to Camera Raw, then click Open:
Here is your original image opened in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) with all the toning adjustments at zero:
Below is how I adjusted the toning sliders. I had first clicked Auto and didn't like how it was too dark, so I only left the Blacks at +1 from that, and reset or readjusted everything else. The overall image seemed a little dark to me so I increased the Exposure by half-a-stop, but that washed out the highlights so I dialed them back by setting Highlights to -87, just so there was some detail in the chin fur and foreground rock. Finally I increased the Clarity, which inreases the contrast of the textures, and finally I added a tiny bit of Vibrance. If I had adjusted the blackopint down quite a bit, then that might have oversaturated everything, and I could have addressed that by merely setting the Vibrance or Saturation to a slightly negative value. I also like a little bit extra color in my processing, so a slight bit of added Vibrance seemed good to me. The Vibrance slider is different than Saturation in that it doesn't boost skin tones (reds/oranges/yellows) as much as the greens and blues, so it works to increase color in people pictures without overdoing their skin. I've put the original to the right on the same line so it's easier to compare:
Besides toning you can do detail adjustment, which involves sharpening and noise-reduction. Here is the face portion of the originally processed image at 100% if you click on it. The first thing you'll notice is that all the grainy noise is sharpened even in areas that are out of focus or blurred due to the left-right camera motion, and the other thing to notice is the green and mostly reddish-purple splotches of color noise that weren't quite all removed in camera:
Here are the Sharpness and Noise-Reduction settings I settled on after a few minutes:
The main thing to notice is that the only sharpened parts are the ones that have relatively sharp details, the glint in the eyes and the fur on their side of the eyes and a bit of the whiskers. The rest is mostly out of focus. For a better shot, without the camera motion, the sharpening settings might have been entirely different. The way I accomplished only sharpening the edges that where relatively sharp already and ignoring the noise and other out-of-focus areas was with the Sharpen Masking setting, which is 77 in this case. This is somewhat similar to the threshold setting of the sharpening in the regular Unsharp Mask in PSE, but it has a way to set it visually, by holding down the Alt key while sliding the Masking slider back and forth until only the bolder edges are shown:
I see in this screenshot that I had the Detail slider set to 5, which was probably better than the 25 I used in the screenshot, above. The other thing to notice is the Luminance and Color sliders in the Noise Reduction area are set to reduce the tiny specs of noise and the green/purple splotches.
One thing I need to mention about using Camera Raw is that I think in PSE10 the highest version you can update to may be ACR 6.7 which won't have the same set of toning sliders as in my example--I hacked a version of the 7.1 beta plug-in to use with it to get the new sliders, but normally you would have those available in PSE10 I don't think. You would need to use PSE11 or better yet, wait for PSE12 which comes out in another week or two.
This new method of toning and detail adjustment works ok with images one-by-one via File / Open, but it isn't that efficient ot use for many images. The best thing for that that isn't expensive Photoshop, would be to get Lightroom, which has these same adjustments but also optimized to work with dozens, hundreds, or more images from one photoshoot. The other benefit to Lightroom is that you can use a wide array of filters and brushes that are limited in the Elements-hosted version of the Camera Raw plug-in.
Remember when I said I thought the overall fox picture was too dark, well what is really wrong is the fox is too dark and I could care less about the rocks and other non-important background items. Here is a version of the same fox picture using Lightroom's radial filter to darken the surroundings so the fox is more prominent. The one without the radial filter darkening is at the right:
Lightroom is currently on sale for $129.99 and upgrades are $79.99 with a 30-day trial version available for download if you want to try it:
http://www.adobe.com/lightroom/ -
Need Help Fixing A Flash In An Old Photo..
Im working alittle bit with PS Elements 9 and Im having a problem trying to fix an older photo where the flash was to high at the bottom of the image and also theres these white single dots through the lower part of the image as well shown in the cropped image I uploaded. So if theres a way I might be able to fix these 2 things, I appreciate it, thank you
Those white dots are in all channels...there's nothing to find...so the best your going to get is to use a blur technique to fill the white dots. There isn't enough there to get a good result with either the clone stamp or the healing brush.
I got the above by duplicating the image then applying Filter<Noise<Dust/Scratches with a setting of Radius 3;Threshold 7. Next I used Filter<Sharpen<UnSharp Mask with settings of Amount 92; Radius 63; Threshold 0. (These settings worked on the PNG I downloaded from the forum but will likely need some adjustment on your full sized image.)
It's not beautiful but at least it's less distracting than the white dots. I'd recommend using masking so you on|y apply the filters to a limited area. (See next paragraph.)
Since the damage is only to the bottom of your image, add a layer mask to your filtered duplicate image. Grab the gradient tool and set your color chips to the default black and white. (Shortcut is D.) Press X to swap the color chips so that the Black color chip is the foreground color in your tool box. Set your gradient option to the linear gradient type in the options bar and select the black to transparent gradient in your gradient editor presets. Click on the layer mask in your layers palette. Hold your shift key in as you drag the gradient tool over areas of your image you would like to be unfiltered.
(Note: You could have done the above reversed...fill mask with black paint to hide the filtered duplicate image; set the foreground color chip in the tool box to white and drag the white to transparent gradient in the mask to reveal the area you want to filter.)
I'd try to get her curls as the transition area to bring them back a little from the filtered effect. I think the hair ends in my filtered version are a bit too soft. I think you could get away with the neck and her blouse being soft.
Above is the filtered version of your forum upload that is masked to get some texture back into the hair. I used a brush to with black paint to bring back the hair ends. I used Gaussian blur on my mask to soften my transition edges. I went back and used brush to touch up mask as you can tell if you look at the screen grab of the mask for this version shown below. Ends show some spot but I think it's preferable to them being too soft (gooey) as in my first example which is purely filtered.
Above hand painted mask to bring back hair ends in example.
Example of using a layer mask to hide part of a filtered layer. This is Photoshop but with PSE 9 you also have the ability to natively add a layer mask.
A video on how to use layer masks in PSE 9 is linked below.
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/featured/elements-9-easy-layer-masks/
Rules of masking...
Black masks or hides masked layer...black in my example hides the duplicate layer which has color variations applied...the original image is visible where black appears in the mask.
White areas of mask reveal masked layer...notice the areas in my image corresponding to white areas of the mask are a purple hue...filtered duplicate layer is visible in areas where the mask is white.
Gray areas are semi-transparent...think transition or feathering. You might also call this fading. Darker shades of gray are more opaque (hide more of masked layer...black being fully opaque) while lighter shades of gray are more transparent (reveal more of layer...white being fully transparent). Areas in my example (center portion) gradually transition from the original image to filtered duplicate layer.
Tip 1: You can click that chain between the mask and image to unhook the layer and mask. Click on the mask then use the free transform command (Ctrl + t on PC; Cmd + t on Mac) to adjust the gradient placement in the mask. It's a good idea to click the chain area again and reattach the chain as it keeps you from accidentally moving the area masked.
Tip 2: If you mask the opposite of intended, you can invert the mask to reverse masked areas. (Ctrl + i if using PC; Cmd + i if using a Mac.) -
Rebuild of mediadatabase.db3 not automatic; how to force rebuild?
I had posted earlier (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/570503?tstart=0) regarding adding layer masks to PSE 6 and was successful on my laptop but when I repeated the process on my desktop mac, the auto rebuild of this file (mediadatabase.db3) doesn't occur. Is there some means for me to force it to occur?
According to the instructions, it should be rebuilt upon restarting PSE6 after adding the layer mask .atn and .png files.Finally, success! When you run the Photoshop Setup app, you are given two options as in the 1st screenshot below.
My problem was because I chose the 1st option (thinking that choosing "Reinstall" would be an 'uninstall & reinstall' function) which seemed to maintain the mediadatabase.db3 file even though I had removed it manually to trash & emptied trash. However, when I chose option 2 (next screenshot), this removed PSE6.
Then, run the Setup app again and this time it rebuilds the proper mediadatabase.db3 file. Once this succeeded, I could then add the Layer Mask.atn and .png files to the Photo Creations-->photo effects file, remove mediadatabase.db3 file, re-launch PSE6 and finally I have PSE6 up and running with the layer mask functionality. Phew! Hopefully, patsimcl will be watching this post.
Thanks for everyone's help. -
I work on a PC - Windows Vista, and currently use Lightroom 4. When I try to choose the 'edit in' option and go to PSE11, it will go there and open the file, but it won't let me do anything with it. All the buttons/masks...etc are faded out and when I scroll over them a circle with a line through it comes up. Is there any way to fix this so that when I edit-in from Lightroom to PSE11 that I can actually use it? And if not, how should I save my files then so I can re-open them in PSE11? Would they need to be JPEGs, or something else? I shoot in RAW.
Thanks in advance!Hillsitter,
I use a Windows PC and PSE Version 8.
However, I set up the link to PSE by going to Edit > Preferences and
clicking on the External Editing Tab.
I then clicked on the 'Choose' box and browsed to > Program Files > Adobe >
Photoshop Elements 8.0 and I then clicked on the Elements Organiser 8.0.exe
file to create the Link to the Elements Organiser. I could have linked to
the PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe file.
I know this will be somewhat different on a Mac but the principle should be
the same i.e. link directly to the .exe file.
I hope this helps.
Frank Clark -
PSE 5--what is a clipping mask and how does it work?
Can anyone explain what a clipping mask is, how it works, and most importantly if Photoshop Elements 5.0 has this capability?
Also, are there any tutorials out there that I can teach myself on this topic? I am trying to mimic a layout explained in digital scrapbooking magazine and this technique is used.
Thank you!
HeatherHeather,
You can find one explanation at Janee's tutorials: http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/elements/elemask.htm
Since PSE does not support layer masks per se, the clipping group simulates a layer mask and hence Janee's name for it, "elemask" (cute, huh?)
Here are 2 examples:
In this example I wanted to blur the background leaving the flower in focus:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1euavV1sDqzrEqqqierfc5dSEH9yI01
1. Duplicate the Background layer and apply a Gaussian blur to the new layer.
2. Add an adjustment layer below the blur layer (any kind of adjustment layer will do), but do not make any adjustment - just click OK.\
3. Group the blur layer with the adjustment layer. On the adjustment layer paint the subject with black
to mask out the blur, paint with white to restore the blur.
Of course you can use other tools on the adjustment layer besides the paint brush, e.g., make a selection and fill with the black or white. In some cases it might be easier to first fill the adjustment layer with black and then paint with white.
In this example (not actually a mask but still demonstrates a clipping group) I wanted to crop the picture into a leaf shape.
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ys9Z7FspSwF8HHKGLrxjGVhbTodmF0
1. Use the leaf from the Custom Shape tool to draw out the leaf, creating a new layer.
2. Move the leaf layer below the picture layer.
3. Group the two layers.
Note that in order to move a layer below the Background layer you have to rename the Background layer to anything else (layer 0 in my example). -
PSE 6 for Mac, how to install the new layer mask tool
I just bought the new PSE 6 for Mac, whew what a change in the color of workspace.
My classmates and I are wondering how to install the free layer mask tool that Sue Chastain has on her About site.
Or perhaps first, has anyone used it and do you like it?
Do you put it here?
http://www.jcarter.net/mac-stuff/layermaskthing.jpg
Havent been to this great forum for a while, been busy, I miss you all, and shall try to visit more often.
I remember when I was a beginner at this, I learned so much here and you all were amazing help!
Thanks,
JaneHi Barbara,
Its this one,
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/p/layermasks.htm
So I assumed afterwards that it wasn't for Mac. So I went ahead and installed the older action for my PSE 4.
I was hoping it was platform agnostic, but when I looked at this, the difference between the 2 versions,
http://www.jcarter.net/mac-stuff/previewfolder-missing.jpg
Not knowing where the Previews folder was, threw me overboard.
And I didn't read all the way down Sue's page, as my old brain got ahead of my eyes.
So I really dont know what to do next with this, some of my classmates are wondering the same thing.
Thank you,
Jane -
PSE 9 Layer Mask? Where is it?
...Just installed PSE 9 and am working with it for the first time.
Where, oh where, do I find the installed layer mask feature in PSE
9? I'm stumped.........BillOr select your layer in the panel, then Layer>Layer Mask and make the appropriate choice
-
I'm looking to add layer mask capability to PSE6 on a mac with Snow Leopard and have seen the download from here:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasktool.htm
but the instructions specifically reference OS 10.4 and 10.5 but not Snow Leopard:
"Mac Installer: Download and Run Layer_Mask_Tool.dmg for Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. Special thanks to Andrew Bartlett for creating the installer package for Macintosh."
Can anyone confirm if this does/doesn't work with Snow Leopard? Is there another solution for OS 10.6?
thanksAs Barbara says. This may also help.
http://easymactips.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated -max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=30 -
Action steps that won't run correctly in PSE 7/8/9 (but did in 4 and 6)
I have a wonderful action that was written to work in PSE 3/4/6. It won't run in PSE 7/8/9. After fooling around for a while, I think I understand why. Adobe changed the way Adjustment Layers are handled. In earlier versions of Photoshop and Elements, Adjustment Layers threw up a modal dialog box. That changed so that Adjustment Layers now appear in the Palette Bin as a palette.
Here a sample of some of the action steps that won't work correctly:
Make adjustment layer
Using: adjustment layer
Type: levels
Set Selection
To: none
Set current layer
To: layer
Name: “Adjustment 1”
Set current layer
To: layer
Mode: luminosity
Stop
Message: “Move gray slider left”
With Continue
Set current adjustment layer
To: levels
In earlier versions of PS and PSE, the way these steps would work is that a new adjustment layer would be created, the dialog box giving the instruction would open, it would be dismissed by clicking "Continue," and then the "Set current adjustment layer to: Levels" would generate a model adjustment layer dialog box would open up which would let one make the adjustment.
In newer versions, since Adjustment Layers are handled in the Palette Bin, after dismissing the instructions, the action doesn't stop to allow the user to make change the sliders on the adjustment layer.
The action runs perfectly in CS4 and CS5 and throws up the levels adjustment modal box as it did in PSE 4 and PSE 6, but the action doesn't throw the modal box in PSE 7/8/9
Does anyone know of a way to alter the action steps to allow the action to stop to allow the adjustment and then to resume again?Adding a new levels adjustment layer on top of the Midtone contrast layer
should work, just use a clipping mask to restrict the adjustments to the
areas of the levels adjustment layer below. The histogram will be different, but
actually testing the action is really the only way to know if that makes any difference.
Replacing the levels adjustment layer is another option, though it requires a few more steps.
The following assumes when the action gets to this point,
the Midtone contrast adjustment layer is the active (selected) layer.
To record this part of the action:
1. Duplicate current channel (in the channels panel. drag the Midtone contrast mask
down to the Create new channel icon at the bottom of the channels panel)
2. Ctrl+click on the newly created channel (Midtone contrast mask copy)
This loads the selection of that channel.
3. Drag the new channel (midtone contrast mask copy) to the trash icon at the bottom
of the channels panel.
4. Back in the layers panel, delete the Midtone Contrast adjustment layer.
5. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels
This creates a new levels adjustment layer using the selection loaded from
the duplicated channel and opens the levels dialog.
To load the RGB (composite) as a selection, Ctrl+click on the rgb in the channels panel
and the same is true for the red, green and blue channels.
With layer masks, elements doesn't seem to want to load them as selections in actions,
so that's the reason for the action steps above.
MTSTUNER -
I am using both PSE 13 and Lightroom 5. When I use Lightroom as an external editor and save the photo, it shows up in PSE13 as an edited file but does not look any different. Why doesn't it appear edited?
People who have Photoshop, but don't have Lightroom, need ACR so that they can use Raw files. Without ACR they could do nothing with those (they may also like having ACR so that they can work on other kinds of image using the same kinds of adjustments and techniques, as are used with Raw files).
People who have Lightroom, can get access to Raw files regardless whether ACR is present or not. They can use Lightroom on other kinds of image also, using the same methods. LR can pass images directly into Photoshop without passing via ACR (or else does so transparently, which amounts to substantially the same thing).
ACR does not, strictly speaking, even need to be installed for this external editing to happen. In fact, not even PS needs to be - since a different image editor can be used instead, while still retaining the Adobe Raw conversion etc.
Lightroom "subcontracts out" specialised external tasks, in this workflow, but is still your "main contractor": the image is otherwise located, viewed, managed, adjusted/presented and output entirely using LR.
So IMO we can divide image processing into:
operations that involve pixels and layers and layer masks and adjustment layers etc (of the kind done inside Photoshop)
operations that involve parametric edits (of the kind done in ACR where you are not using a Lightroom based workflow; otherwise, done inside Lightroom)
When PS is called in, that's because those tasks are impossible or unsuitable to do in Lightroom. But those tasks can't be done in ACR either - by definition, since LR and ACR have exactly the same image processing "feature set".
Lightroom is irrelevant to the Bridge + ACR + PS workflow. This workflow requires both your PS and your ACR to be current enough, to support your Raw format etc.
ACR and Bridge are irrelevant to the LR + (image editor) workflow. It is in this case, only LR which needs to be current enough to support your Raw format etc.
RP -
I used to use PS "actions" are they in PSE 8 for Mac?
I have been using an old version of Photoshop for Mac. Under the Windows heading there was an Actions option where I could "record" some actions to edit photos and the"play" it to perfrom the same actions on different photos.
In PSE 8 for Mac I see that under Guided Edit there is an Action player with 4 presets, none of which suit my purposes. It says that I can add (from where I don't know) or create my own actions sets by referring to the Help menu. When I search the help menu for " Create Action set" I get 15 topics and none of them seem to be about creating actions sets.
I'd like to be able to record a set of acttions such as OPEN FILE- SIZE IMAGE-UNSHARP MASK-SAVE-CLOSE- and then play it back.
Help appreciated.
thanks,
RobWhen you save an action from photoshop 7, you should be able to
choose the place for saving (i.e. desktop).
The default place for saving actions is very often in the ps7 application folders.
Something like: Applications>Photoshop 7>Presets>Photoshop Actions.
As far as what actions from ps7 work in pse8, try to record steps in your
action that are available in pse8. Something like unsharp mask will work,
but not a command such as convert to cmyk. There are alot of commands
that are not on the pse8 menus that do work such as a layer mask or trim.
It would be good idea to test your actions in pse8, before installing a whole bunch and
finding that half of them don't work.
You could make test action for this purpose. In ps7, record an action
such as Image>Trim.
Name this action set Test (you can name the actual actions anything you want)
and put it in your pse8 photo creations>photo effects folder.
Then delete (move to your desktop) the MediaDatabase.db3 and start pse7
(this will take a while to rebuild the effects panel).
The Test action should be visable in the effects panel after selecting
photo effects and show all. It wiil just be a black thumbnail named Test.
From now on when you want to test an action, just replace the Test action
with another action named Test, but with the action steps your testing
and no need to delete any files (database).
By testing your actions in this way, you avoid the hassle of making a
xml file and a png thumbnail for an action that may not work.
When installing actions that have been tested, you also need a xml file
and a png thumbnail file in addition to the action. (look at xml and png
files already in the photo effects folder for examples).
You don't have worry about the jpeg files, as elements generates these itself.
It's a good idea to delete (move to desktop) the the MediaDatabase.db3
and the ThumbDatabase.db3 anytime you install actions other than the Test action.
After you start pse8 and everything works, you can delete those files from your desktop.
There is also an action player in pse8 under guided edit>automated actions.
As tempting as it may be to test actions with the actions player, i would avoid that.
One very good reason is that some of commands that are in pse8 don't work with
the actions player, for example, any of the transform commands.
In addition to texaschicksblog mentioned above, you may also want to read this pdf:
http://www.camner.net/files/actions_in_PSE_8_for_mac.pdf
Hope some of this helps.
MTSTUNER -
Inner shadow effect and layers in PSE 9
Hi,
I was wondering if someone could assist me.
In PSE 9, I opened a photo>selected it>created a new layer and applied an inner shadow without a problem. However, when I selected the TEXT tool and wrote some text in a new layer on top of the photo and dropped a shadow and/or bevel on the text, the text appears blurry and the shadow effect doesn't look right. I tried the same effects on the text wihtout adding an inner shadow to the photo underneath and the text looked great. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?
Thanks!Try right clicking on the T symbol in the tool box and choose Horizontal Type Mask Tool.
Then type your text and see if adding your layer style looks any better.
Maybe you are looking for
-
I think my lap top has a lot more problems, then the sun has Hot spots! :) (not that I am down playing any one's situation, nor want to sound cynical or Condescending). Though many of my issues have been resolved through a LOT of time, tech support a
-
How can I load a content area in the floor plan manager?
Hi Guys, I´d like to load a content_area (Page 1 Initial Screen) from another (Page 2 Main screen). Basically, I want to go back to the initial screen from the main screen. How could I do this? (A piece of code would be very useful). Thanks
-
Multiple managed libraries: facebook issues (photos disappear)
I reorganized my aperture libraries by moving projects to their appropriate library from my "working" library. Unfortunately, I published facebook albums from the working library. After I moved the projects to the appropriate library and trashed the
-
Hi Friends, How to upload sales orders... Is it possible through LSMW or we have to go for BDC. please help me... with regards
-
Seeing multiple DCOM errors generating event ID 10016 in System Event log
Hi there. Our current SharePoint server running Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SP1 and not on the domain is getting it's event logs filled up every 15 minutes to an hour with the following DCOM error: Event Type: Error Event Source: DCOM Event