Part 11 Publishing Your Images
Maybe you’re about to enter the big world of publishing, whether print or online. Or maybe you just want to get your images out into the wide world so that folks can see them. Either way, the tasks in this Part will set you on your way.
We’ll start out by looking at ways to apply the same fixes to a whole batch of images at once, so that you can get them ready to appear in your magnum opus. Then, you’ll learn how to save an image in the right format, size, and resolution for use on a Website.
Next we’ll move on to some of the many exciting projects Photoshop Elements can help you create, from printable album pages for your scrapbook to a gorgeous animated Web photo gallery. You can create a slide show, order traditional photo prints all the way up to poster size, or create a classy hardbound photo book. To get started with any of these projects, you can choose photos individually from your collection or use an existing album. (To review ways to organize your photo collection into albums, flip back to Part 10, “Organizing and Presenting Your Photos.)
There’s not enough room in this book to cover all the projects you can create with Photoshop Elements, such as customized CD covers and photo calendars. But in this Part, you’ll get a taste of what’s possible and see how the program works through these projects in general. From there, the sky’s the limit!
We all love to show off our latest pictures. Whether online...
...or in print, Photoshop Elements can make your photos look even better than they already do.
Have a bunch of pictures that need fixing? You can have Photoshop Elements do the work while you refill your coffee cup. Enjoy a break while Elements adjusts the lighting, color, and sharpness of your images; resizes them; renames them; and saves them in your preferred format.
In the Editor’s Full Edit mode, choose File, Process Multiple Files.
Choose the Quick Fix operations you want to apply.
Choose Folder from the Process Files From pop-up menu, and then click Browse.
Navigate to the folder of images you want to process, and then click OK.
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Get Organized First
Be sure to put all the image files you want to process in a single folder, so that Elements will be able to work with them all at one time.
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You Have a Choice
After step 4, you get to choose a place for the revised files to be saved. Either click Browse to pick a destination folder, or check Save as Source.
Choose Rename Files to automatically give the files consistent names.
Choose Resize Images and Convert Files To if you want to resize the images and save them in a different format.
Choose Watermark in the Labels section to add overlaid labels to the images.
Click OK to begin processing.
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What’s a Watermark?
A watermark is a semitransparent design or line of text overlaid on an image to identify it. It’s a great way to ensure everyone knows your pictures are yours, without obscuring their details.
Preparing an image for the Web involves converting its file type to JPEG, GIF, or PNG; restricting its colors to 256; (usually) reducing its size to a few inches wide; and limiting its resolution to 72 pixels/inch.
With your finished picture open in the Editor, choose File, Save for Web (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S).
In the Preset area, choose a picture format and quality, such as JPEG Medium.
Optionally, check the Progressive box (see note at the bottom of the page).
Click OK.
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Progressive Mode
Choosing Progressive mode for a JPEG file causes it to display in stages as it downloads, resulting in a more pleasing experience for users with relatively slow (dial-up) connections.
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Control File Size
You can choose Image, Resize, Image Size before saving to size the image appropriately for a Web page; most Web images are 2 to 4 inches wide, with a resolution of 72 pixels/inch.
Having all your pictures on your computer is very convenient, but lots of times you still want to look at those pictures on paper, in a photo album or scrapbook. Whether your style is traditional (black photo corners on plain pages) or modern (scrapbook designs of every type imaginable), you’ll find a template and layout option to suit you in Photoshop Elements’ Photo Collage Wizard.
In the Organizer, Ctrl-click to select the photos you want to include in your printed album pages.
Click the Create button.
Click Photo Collage.
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Pages or a Book?
Album pages are great for adding to your real-life photo albums or scrapbooks; you can also frame them for a nice gift for grandparents and family friends. If you’d like to create something a little fancier, turn to “Creating a Photo Book,” later in this Part.
Choose a paper size from the Page Size pop-up menu.
Choose a theme from the 48 built-in choices.
Choose a layout for your page based on the number of images it will contain.
Uncheck the Auto-Fill with Project Bin Photos box.
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Moving Day
You can move photos around within their frames, and you can move the frames so that they don’t overlap important areas of other images. Just click and drag after the photos have been dropped in.
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Too Same-y?
Each page in a Photo Collage project uses the same layout. If you want to produce multiple pages with different layouts, you have two choices. You can either create a photo book or create a separate photo collage for each page.
Enter the number of pages you’re creating; all pages will have the same layout and theme.
Click Done.
Click and drag each photo from the Project Bin to a slot on the page.
Click the Rotate button or drag the slider to resize a photo.
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Automatic Scrapbooking
When you’re in a hurry, leave the Auto-Fill with Project Bin Photos box checked; then Photoshop Elements will drop your photos into the page layout in the order in which they appear in the Project Bin.
Click the Next Page button to move to the next page.
When you have finished adding pictures, choose File, Save.
Choose File, Print.
Click Print.
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Adding Captions
If you want to add captions to your images, you need to do two things: Enter the caption information ahead of time and check the Include Captions box. To attach a caption to an image, click the photo in the Organizer and choose Window, Properties, and then type in the Caption field.
Photoshop Elements includes a variety of designs for Web pages, and the program can automatically insert your photos and descriptive text into its templates with just a few clicks. It then generates completed pages ready for uploading to your own Website, exports them to a CD or DVD, or automatically sends the gallery to Photoshop.com.
In the Organizer, Ctrl-click to select the photos you want to include in your Web gallery.
Click Share, and then click Online Album.
Enter a name for the album.
Click Share.
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Where’s That Picture?
If you realize just as you’re getting started setting options for your Web gallery that you’ve left out your favorite photo, click the Add button (+) in the Items section any time before step 4 to return to the Organizer and select it.
Click a template.
Click Apply.
Click Next.
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What Is That Again?
If you haven’t entered any captions for your photos in the Organizer’s Properties palette, Photoshop Elements won’t insert any text on the album pages. To store caption information with your photos, see “Adding and Printing Photo Captions” in Part 5.
Enter a title and a subtitle for the album.
Check or uncheck the Show Photo Captions box, depending on whether you want to include text captions in the album.
Click Next.
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Oops!
If you don’t enter a folder name in the Destination area before clicking Export in step 15, Elements reminds you politely to do so. This name is assigned to the folder that Elements creates to hold all the HTML and image files that make up the gallery. To upload the finished gallery to your Website, just upload the entire folder with all its contents.
Click Next.
Enter the appropriate settings for your choice of export method.
Click Export (for FTP or CD/DVD) or Share (for Photoshop.com).
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What Settings?
The information you’ll need to supply in step 14 varies depending on which choice you made in step 12. If you’re planning to upload the gallery files to a Website via FTP, you must enter your FTP server’s address, username, and password. To share your images on Photoshop.com, just choose whether you want to make the album public or share it only with certain friends. Then you enter email addresses and a message for the announcement email. Finally, if you just want to put your gallery on a CD or DVD, choose your CD or DVD drive and give the disc a name.
What better way to get a good look at your photos—and share them with your friends—than to sit back and let them display themselves one at a time? But, this slide show is not your granddad’s musty slide carousel and projector with the burnt-out bulb. It’s a PDF or a movie file that you can use in many ways.
In the Organizer, Ctrl-click to select the photos you want to include in your slide show.
Click Create.
Click Slide Show.
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Everything in Order
Elements places photos in your show in the order that they occupy in the Photo Browser. To change their order, drag and drop them in the preview area at the bottom of the Slide Show Editor window.
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Party Favor
Slide shows are fun to play at big events, such as anniversary or milestone birthday parties. Collect photos of the people being honored, choose one of their favorite songs, and go to town! The guests will love it.
Set your slide show preferences, such as the duration of each slide and the background color.
Click OK.
Click Add Blank Slide to insert a blank slide for your title.
Drag and drop slides at the bottom of the window to change their order.
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Talking About Photos
If your PC has a microphone, you can record a voiceover track for each slide. Click Narration at the top of the Extras palette, and then click the Record button to add narration. Click Stop when you’re done, and click Play to play back the recording.
Drag and drop graphics from the Extras palette onto the slides.
Click Add Text to insert text on a slide.
Enter your text and click OK.
Click Full Screen Preview to see what the slide show will look like.
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Taking a Break
If you need to stop working on your slide show before it’s finished, click Save Project at the top of the Slide Show Editor window to create a project file that you can reopen when you have time to complete the show.
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PDF or WMV?
A PDF file can be opened in the free Adobe Reader on any computer, but it can’t contain special effects such as pan and zoom. To use all the animation bells and whistles, save your slide show as a WMV file.
Click Save as a File and choose a file type option.
Click OK.
Give the slide show a name and click Save.
When you’ve already collected your photos into albums within Photoshop Elements, the process of turning one into a Web photo gallery is even easier than creating a gallery from scratch. You’ll need to sign up for a free Photoshop.com membership. (See “Managing Your Catalog on Photoshop.com,” in Part 10, for instructions.) Then, just follow these steps.
In the Organizer, click Organize.
Click an album in the Albums palette.
Click the Share button next to the album’s name.
Choose whether you will make the album public or share it only with friends.
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Making It Work
You can only share regular albums; this procedure doesn’t work with Smart Albums.
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How Public Is Public?
Public albums can be browsed by anyone who visits the Photoshop.com Website. Visitors can see your name, address, and other personal data, however, only if you specifically add that information to your online galleries.
If you are sharing the album only with friends, enter a message for the announcement email that Photoshop Elements will send.
Click to add your friends’ email addresses.
Choose whether viewers can download your images and whether they can order prints.
Click Share.
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Keeping in Contact
Photoshop Elements saves the email addresses you enter so that you can reuse them in the future. You can even import addresses from your email program so that you don’t have to retype them; just click Import in the Contact Book dialog.
Want to frame one of your pictures? Want to send prints with your holiday cards? Or, even make a poster to hang on your wall? You can order prints of your photos right from Photoshop Elements, via Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery service. It’s completely secure, so you don’t have to worry about entering your credit card information, and you can have prints shipped to you or pick them up locally.
In the Organizer, Ctrl-click to select the photos you want to include in your slide show.
Click Share.
Click Order Prints.
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Just What You Want
When you’re choosing print sizes and quantities, the boxes at the top of the window enable you to order single or double prints of each photo. The box for a single 4 × 6 print of each picture is checked by default.
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Watch the Resolution
You can choose different numbers and sizes of prints for each picture. An icon next to each one indicates whether its resolution is high enough. If you see a brown minus sign, reduce the size until the icon turns into a green check mark.
Choose the print sizes and quantities that you want to order.
Enter your username and password (or click Sign Up Now if you don’t have an account).
Click Next.
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Think Ahead
If you know you’re going to want to order a poster-size print of an image when you’re shooting it, be sure to set your camera to its highest resolution. You need a lot of pixels to produce a good image at poster size.
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First Time for Everything
The first time you log in, you might see a few extra windows asking for your login information. After that, you’ll see exactly what you see here each time you use the Order Prints service.
Enter a shipping address for prints or choose a pickup location.
Click Next.
Choose a shipping option.
Click Next.
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Save Time, Save Money
If you’re ordering a set of prints to send to a friend or relative, why not have it shipped directly to that person? You can enter address info for multiple recipients, not just yourself. Photoshop Elements saves this information so that you can use it again and again.
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Pick Up Where?
The in-store pickup locations are grocery and drugstore chains such as Kmart and Kroger. There’s no shipping charge if you pick up your photos locally, but you will pay a “convenience fee” of a couple bucks.
Enter your payment information.
Click Place Order.
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Do It Yourself
You can, of course, print your photos yourself using a desktop inkjet or dye-sublimation photo printer. Check out Part 2, “Getting It All Together,” to learn more.
Photo books are the coolest gift ever. It really adds a special air to your photos to see them professionally printed in a real, hardbound book. You can also use the Photo Book Wizard to create a file that you print yourself on your own printer. Either way, Photoshop Elements offers you plenty of templates and page layouts to make your book a truly individual creation.
In the Organizer, Ctrl-click to select the photos you want to include in your book.
Click Create.
Click Photo Book.
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By the Numbers
The minimum number of pages for a book is 20. However, you can specify a larger number when you choose a theme and layout options, and you can add pages by clicking the Add Page button at the left end of the navigation toolbar.
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Laying It Out
Let Photoshop Elements choose layouts for each page if you have lots of photos. Otherwise, specify layouts yourself. Photoshop Elements uses lots of multi-photo layouts, so you’ll run out of photos before the book is complete.
Click and drag photos in the Project Bin to reorder them, placing the title page image in the first slot.
Click Next.
Click a theme.
Click Create.
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Control Freak
If you want more control over the layout of your book, click the radio button marked Choose Photo Layout, and click off Auto Fill with Project Bin Photos. Then you can specify your own layout for each page.
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Even Fancier
Because Photoshop Elements stores each photo in your book on a separate layer, you can apply layer styles to the pictures. Click the image, and then choose an effect from the Effects palette, then click Apply.
Click the Next Page and Previous Page buttons to move through the book’s pages.
To adjust a photo’s size or rotation, double-click the photo.
After double-clicking the photo, drag the slider to resize or click the button to rotate.
After double-clicking a photo, drag and drop the photo onto another photo to swap their positions.
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Jazzing It Up
To add a little extra “something” to your book, check out the “clip art” images in the Content palette. Click and drag any picture onto the page to insert it in the book, and then drag a corner handle to resize the image to suit your taste.
Click Print to print the book on your own printer.
Click Order to buy a copy of the book.
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Hey, You! Yeah, You!
If you’re the type who clicks right through warning dialogs, you may not have noticed Photoshop Elements warning you that it takes some time to create a file for printing your book. Don’t be alarmed when your computer is tied up for a while creating the file; it’ll be done soon.