1. Getting Photos into Photoshop Elements

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to get off the ground with Photoshop Elements’ Organizer by getting your photos into its catalog, whether they’re currently residing on your camera, your hard drive, or even on paper.

The great thing about digital images is that you can just keep snapping as much as you want—there’s no chance you’ll run out of film, and there’s no charge for processing your images, so it doesn’t matter how many you end up with. Of course, the more photos you take, the more you need a way to keep track of them so that you can get at the ones you want to show off. Photoshop Elements helps you get all your photos into one place and categorize them according to when and where they were taken, who’s in them, and what the occasion was. Once a photo’s in Photoshop Elements, you can fix it up, edit it in a thousand different ways, and turn it into anything from an online photo gallery to a T-shirt, mug, or CD label. First, though, you have to get your photos into the Photoshop Elements digital catalog.

Photoshop Elements is really two programs: the Organizer, in which you store your photos and apply minor fixes; and the Editor, in which you can apply almost all the power of Photoshop to your images to change them in whatever ways your imagination can conceive.

Of course, before you can do anything at all with your photos, you have to add them to your Photoshop Elements catalog. Most of the time that means copying them to your computer from your phone or digital camera. You can also scan printed photos or drawings (or just about anything else that you can fit on your scanner bed) and move images that are already stored on your computer into the Elements catalog.

You can keep any kind of image file and several kinds of video files in the Elements catalog; if you use Adobe Premiere Elements for making movies, your catalog is shared between the two programs so that you can pull still photos from video footage and insert still images into your videos.

Importing from a Camera or Phone

When you start up Photoshop Elements, the first thing you see is the Welcome screen (see Figure 1.1). From here, you can move into the Organizer or the Editor, or you can get started with Photoshop Elements online services by creating and signing in with an Adobe ID. We’ll talk about Adobe IDs and all the services you can access using them later on; for now, just click Organize to open the Organizer.

Figure 1.1. The Photoshop Elements Welcome screen can take you to the Organizer or the Editor.

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Using Standard Import Options

Copying photos from a portable device—a camera, a phone, an iPod, whatever it may be—is a simple process. The first thing you need to do is make the physical connection between the device and your computer, which is most often done via a USB cable. Once that’s established, you tell Photoshop Elements that you want it to retrieve the photos, and then you choose exactly how you want that job done. This process can be initiated from either Organizer or Editor, so it doesn’t matter which of these you open from the Welcome screen. Follow these steps:

1. Connect the camera and turn it on, or plug your camera’s memory card into your card reader.
2. In either Organizer or Editor, choose File, Get Photos and Videos, from Camera or Card Reader.
3. Photoshop Elements opens its Photo Downloader window (see Figure 1.2). Here you need to configure several settings:
   

   • Choose your camera, phone, or card reader in the Source section.

   • Choose a folder location. The default is the Pictures folder in your home folder, and I recommend sticking with this so that you won’t lose track of where you’re stashing your photos.

   • Choose settings for renaming your image files. You can choose from several different date options, a custom name, or a combination of both the date and a custom name, plus a number that identifies each photo within the group. For example, you might set up your options so that the first image is named 1225xmas_1.JPG, where 1225 indicates that the photos were taken on December 25, xmas tells you that they are, in fact, shots of a holiday celebration, and 1 means that this image is the first one in its batch.

   • Choose whether you want Photoshop Elements to clear the imported images off your device or media. Along with the obvious choices of delete (After Copying, Delete Originals) and don’t delete (After Copying, Do Not Delete Originals), you have the choice to have Photoshop Elements verify that each photo copied to your computer correctly before deleting it. This is the safest, but most time-consuming, option. If you’re really in a hurry, choose Do Not Delete Originals; you can always use your camera controls to wipe the photos later when you have more time.

   Figure 1.2. The settings in the Photo Downloader dialog remain from session to session, so most of the time you won’t have to make any changes before clicking Get Photos.

   

4. Click Get Photos. A window shows you Elements’ progress in importing your photos. When all the photos have been copied to your computer, Elements asks if you want the Organizer window to display only the new images, or your entire catalog. If you don’t want to see this dialog every time you import photos, be sure to click the Always Take This Action check box before clicking Yes or No.

When Photoshop Elements is done adding the new photos to your catalog, you see its main window, containing either all your photos or only the ones you just added, depending on your choice in step 4 (see Figure 1.3). If you chose to see only the newly imported photos, Elements reminds you of that fact and tells you to click the Show All button to see your entire catalog.

Figure 1.3. If you don’t want to see this reminder again, check the Don’t Show Again box.

When you’re using the Photo Downloader, you can click the Advanced button to access additional options that increase your control over the import process. For example, in the Advanced dialog shown in Figure 1.4, you can choose which images you want to import, rather than just importing all of them at once.

Figure 1.4. The Advanced Photo Downloader dialog offers many options not found in the Standard dialog, such as the ability to import photos directly into a particular album.

Processing Camera Raw Images

Most consumer-level cameras store image files in either JPEG or TIFF format, depending on the camera settings. If your camera’s a bit more expensive, however—say, a digital SLR such as the Canon EOS Rebel, the Nikon D40, or the Olympus E-420—it can save images in camera raw format. This minimal format contains a wider range of colors and the sharpest possible details. Before you can work with raw images, you need to convert them to a usable format such as JPEG using the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in. In this process, you can make many choices that affect the image’s final appearance.

You can store raw images in the Organizer just like images in any other format. When you switch to the Editor to modify them, Photoshop Elements automatically opens the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in shown in Figure 1.5 instead of dropping you into the Editor’s usual interface. You can also open raw images directly from the Editor, bypassing the Organizer if you want; just choose File, Open As and pick Camera Raw from the Open As pop-up menu (see Figure 1.6).

Figure 1.5. Making changes to color and image brightness before the picture is compressed into the limited palette of JPEG or TIFF formats gives Photoshop Elements more color data to work with.

Figure 1.6. You can use the Camera Raw plug-in to modify images in other formats besides camera raw.

Scanning Images

There’s only one way to get predigital images into your computer where you’ll have easy access to them: scanning. Flatbed scanners are so inexpensive these days that if you have any older photos at all—or other kinds of artwork you’d like to digitize—there’s really no excuse for not buying or borrowing a scanner and getting started.

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Scanning Prints

Scanning prints is a simple process that may vary slightly depending on the scanner you’re using. Photoshop Elements first asks what scanner you want to use, what format you want the resulting files to be saved in (along with the quality level you want to use if you choose JPEG), and whether you want Photoshop Elements to automatically fix red eyes as it imports the scanned photos (see Figure 1.7).

Figure 1.7. If you have more than one scanner, this is your chance to specify which one you want to use.

After you answer these questions and click OK, the Organizer accesses the software that came with your scanner in order to operate it, and the controls available to you won’t look exactly like what you see in Figure 1.8 unless you have an Epson scanner. Regardless, you always start by choosing File, Get Photos and Videos, From Scanner. Then just follow these steps using your own scanner software:

1. Put the print on the scanner bed, face down and lined up straight. Make sure you’re starting with both a clean print (blow on it to remove dust) and a clean scanner bed (clean it carefully with rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cleaning cloth).
2. Tell the scanner software what kind of image you’re scanning. Document types include text, color photos, black and white photos, and illustrations. Knowing what kind of image it’s working with enables the scanner to process the image in the best way possible.
3. Set the resolution for your scan. Screen resolution (usually 72dpi) is fine for web images, but you’ll want to use 300dpi or more for print images. The higher the resolution, the sharper the details and the more you can blow up the image without seeing the individual pixels that compose it.
4. Click Preview to do a quick overview scan of the image. This enables you to see where it is on the scanner bed and make sure it’s straight.
   

   Don’t use a higher resolution than you need; it just makes the file bigger and therefore slower to load, and it makes no difference whatsoever when you’re looking at the image onscreen.

5. If necessary, select the part of the scanner bed that you want to scan; this may include the whole image or just part of it. Always scan a bit more around the edges than you actually want, because cropping extra bits off is much quicker than redoing a scan because you cut off an important part of the picture.
   

   Some scanners locate the photo on the scanner bed and select it for you. You can usually override this behavior if the software has clipped off an edge or two and you want to make your own selection.

6. Click Scan. The scanner light slowly moves over the image on the bed, and then the software re-creates it in pixels. The resulting file is saved to your hard drive and added to your Photoshop Elements catalog (see Figure 1.9).

Figure 1.8. Each scanner manufacturer ships different software with its scanners—this is from Epson—but the features are almost identical from scanner to scanner.

Figure 1.9. The newly scanned picture appears in your photo catalog

Scanning Slides, Negatives, and Objects

Prints aren’t the only things you can scan with most desktop scanners; increasingly, even inexpensive scanners are sold with a transparency function that enables you to scan slides and negatives. You can also easily scan anything that’s relatively thin in a flatbed scanner, and with a little ingenuity you can scan thicker objects, too.

For scanning slides and transparencies (large-format slides that usually aren’t in a slide mount), you need an adapter or special attachment to use with your scanner. The main difference between scanning slides or film and scanning nontransparent images (called “reflective” images) is that you need a backlight behind the slides to be able to scan them. Some flatbed scanners already have this light built in to their lids; others require you to replace the lid with a special lid that contains the light. If you want to scan a lot of slides or negatives, you might even want to invest in a slide scanner, which usually looks a lot like an old-style CD-ROM drive; you insert the slides or negatives in a slot on the side, they’re scanned, and then they’re ejected (see Figure 1.10).

Figure 1.10. This Ion slide scanner costs less than $100 and makes short work of scanning slides and negatives.

Photo courtesy of Ion Audio, LLC.

What else can you scan? Here’s a short list to get you started:

• Colorful leaves

• Your kids’ drawings

• Buttons, coins, and tokens

• Your hand

• Your dog’s paw

• Fabric

• Small stones

• Tiles

• A scanner bed full of popcorn (after which, of course, you can eat the popcorn)

When you’re scanning larger objects that don’t allow the scanner lid to lie flat, you can use a few techniques to improve your results. Try draping a white cloth over the objects (to substitute for the scanner lid) or painting the inside of a cardboard box white and placing that over the scanner bed. For a more dramatic effect, you can use black instead (see Figure 1.11). The key is experimentation; it may take several tries to figure out what works best with your scanner.

Figure 1.11. Scanning this measuring tape results in an image that shows every detail in perfect focus, which can be harder to achieve with a camera.

Adding Existing Image Files to Your Catalog

Photoshop Elements isn’t just for catalog and working with photos you’ve taken yourself; it’s a great place to stash all the great images your friends have emailed you, pictures you’ve saved from the web, or photos stored on photo CDs or flash drives. Keeping all your photos in the same place, regardless of where they came from, helps you find what you need when you want it.

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Adding Image Files to Your Collection

Follow these steps to copy images from removable media, such as a CD or a flash drive, or from a folder on your hard drive into the Photoshop Elements catalog.

1. Insert the disk, plug in the flash drive, or make sure the new photos are all in one folder on your hard drive.
2. Choose File, Get Photos and Videos, from Files and Folders.
3. Click Computer and navigate to the drive or folder that contains your photos (see Figure 1.12).
   

   Figure 1.12. With Get Photos from Subfolders checked, Photoshop Elements will import all the images it finds on Removable Disk (E:), which is a thumb drive.

   

4. Choose options for the import process:
   

   • Make sure that the Get Photos from Subfolders box is checked so that Photoshop Elements will locate all the images at this location, even if they’re stored in separate folders within your folder or drive.

   • Check the Automatically Fix Red Eyes box to have Photoshop Elements remedy red eye as it imports the photos. Most of the time this works well, but it can occasionally black out an object that’s supposed to be red, so you may want to leave this option turned off and deal with red eyes on an individual basis.

   • Check the Automatically Suggest Photo Stacks box if you want Photoshop Elements to group together very similar photos from this batch in your catalog. Stacks of photos are a good way to keep multiple images of the same scene (as in, “Don’t move, I want to take one more just to make sure the flash goes off”) from overrunning your catalog. You’re still able to access all the images in a stack; you just don’t see them all unless you want to.

   To learn more about using stacks and other methods to keep your photo catalog organized, turn to Chapter 2, “Organizing Your Collection.”

5. Click Get Media to move the images to your Pictures folder and add them to your Photoshop Elements catalog.
   

   By default, the Copy Files on Import box is checked. This ensures that the images you’re bringing into your catalog are also copied to your Pictures folder, while leaving the originals in place. If you prefer not to make new copies of the images, uncheck the box, but be aware that if you delete or move the folder containing the original images the Organizer won’t be able to find them.

Searching for Images on Your Computer

If your hard drive looks anything like mine, it probably has image files stuck in odd places all over: stock photos that came with various programs, pictures that arrived attached to emails, and miscellaneous images throughout your Documents folder. Fortunately, you don’t have to track all those pictures down before you can put them into your Photoshop Elements catalog; the program can do the work for you.

To have the Organizer search your entire hard drive for photos and other media files, choose File, Get Photos and Videos, By Searching to bring up a search window (see Figure 1.13).

Figure 1.13. The first step is to specify exactly where you want Photoshop Elements to look for pictures and videos.

First, you need to tell Photoshop Elements where to look; choose a location (a drive or a folder) from the Look In pop-up menu. Then turn the following options off or on:

• Exclude System and Program Folders—Usually, you’ll want this box checked so that you don’t end up with a bunch of graphics for program welcome screens and the like. If an image lives in a program or system folder, you’re probably not interested in using it for anything (nor would you have the legal right to reproduce it, anyway).

• Exclude Files Smaller Than—This option enables you to leave out tiny files that are unlikely to contain recognizable images, such as all the GIF bullets, smileys, and other clip art that comes embedded in email messages.

• Automatically Fix Red Eyes—Check this box if you want Photoshop Elements to remove red eye from flash photos. Generally, the program does a good job of this, but sometimes it blacks out an object that should actually be red. For this reason, you may want to leave this option turned off and deal with red eyes on an individual basis.

When your settings are complete, click Search to begin the process. The Search Results area displays a list of folders containing images that meet the criteria you determined, with the total number of pictures shown at the bottom of the list (see Figure 1.14). Click an entry in the list to see thumbnails of some of the images it contains on the right side of the window. When you’ve decided which folders contain images you want to bring into the catalog, Ctrl-click to select each of them (or click Select All) and click Import Folders.

Figure 1.14. Photoshop Elements finds all the images in the specified location. Then you decide which ones you want to add to your catalog.

Saving and Exporting Image Files

Photoshop Elements can do a lot—put images up on the Web for you, email them to your friends, and order prints, to name just a few functions—but there are probably going to be times when you want to use your images outside of the program. Generally, this occurs when you want to import the images into another program or send a large batch of images to another person.

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Creating a New Image File

Getting pictures out of the Organizer is simple. You’ll need to know where you want to put the new files and what format you want to use for them. Then, just follow these steps:

1. In the Organizer, click to choose a picture, or Ctrl-click to choose more than one picture, to export to new files. You can export as many images at a time as you want.
2. Choose File, Export as New File to bring up the Export New Files dialog (see Figure 1.15).
   

   Figure 1.15. Before exporting the new files, you can scroll through the list of thumbnail images to make sure you’ve chosen the ones you really want.

   

3. Choose a format for the new files. If you’re just going to email them to a friend to look at or post them on your website, JPEG or PNG are the appropriate choices (JPEG for photos, PNG for clip-art-type graphics). If you plan to submit them for print reproduction, say in a newsletter or the local paper, use TIFF. And if you want to edit them in Adobe Photoshop, choose PSD; this format supports layers and all the other special features of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. If you know the images are already in the format you want to use, just leave the File Type setting at Use Original Format.
4. Designate an image size and (if you’re converting the images to JPEG format) a quality level. The options in the Photo Size pop-up menu range from smallish email size (320 × 240 pixels) to desktop wallpaper size (1280 × 960 pixels); if none of these suits your purpose, you can choose Custom and enter your own preferred dimensions. For JPEG images, drag the slider to control the image quality (and hence the file size). For most purposes, medium quality is fine.
   

   If the custom dimensions you enter don’t match the photo’s proportions, Photoshop Elements maintains the correct proportions within the size you’ve set. So, for example, if you enter 27 pixels for Width and 900 pixels for Height, the photo ends up 27 pixels wide and 20 pixels tall, rather than being stretched to the full 900-pixel height.

5. Click Browse to choose a location for the exported files.
6. If you want to assign custom names to the new files, click Common Base Name and enter the text you want to use for the filenames. Photoshop Elements will use this text followed by a number to name each file.
7. Click Add to include more images in your batch, or click a photo’s thumbnail and click Remove if you don’t want to include it after all. If you click Add, you’ll see a dialog where you can narrow down the images displayed in several ways—by keyword tag, by whether it has a star rating, and so on (see Figure 1.16). Click to choose the images you want to add, and then click Done.
   

   Figure 1.16. If you’re having trouble finding the images you want to include in your batch, you can narrow down the possibilities by specifying an album or a keyword tag.

   

   To learn more about assigning tags and ratings to your images, turn to Chapter 2.

8. Click Export to create the new files. Photoshop Elements lets you know when the export process is complete; check “Do not show this dialog box again” if you don’t want to be notified every time, and click OK.

Using the Right File Format

Photoshop Elements can save files in many more formats than any normal person would ever need to use, including such oddities as Scitex CT (for very high-end professional printing). Table 1.1 gives a rundown on the file formats you’re most likely to need—what they’re for and when to use them.

Table 1.1. Image File Formats