If you are at all interested in upgrading to the newest version of Photoshop (Photoshop for PC, Photoshop for Mac), you've probably read any number of articles on "What's New in Photoshop CS4." What you've gotten is a list and theoretical notions of what these features could, potentially, do for you, probably driven a bit by the seeding of the excellent Adobe marketing team. What you probably haven't heard is a listing of what you will really use every day in CS4 if you are someone interested in correcting and adjusting photographic images. The reason you don't is no one has time to digest the features before they rush out their articles to be first to press. Honestly, it takes about a year for me to fluidly incorporate new features in my workflow. Including a period of exposure to the CS4 beta, I'm just about getting to the saturation point as to what I really use and feel is a benefit in CS4. In some versions of Photoshop releases, my workflow honestly hardly changed at all. For Photoshop CS4, two features have become part of what I do every day and changed the way I work with images. These new features are the Adjustments Palette, and the Masks palette. Neither are, thus far, available in Elements.

I talk about each of these in context in my new book (The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book for CS4 due out in March of 2009). This blog is all about why I think these features are bound to change your process of image editing if you choose to use CS4.

A bitter-sweet addition to CS4 is the Adjustments palette. The sweet part about the addition is that this palette takes the place of the many dialogs that appear for adjustment layers. The benefit is that the dialogs no longer have to be closed. You can create an adjustment layer or click on any existing adjustment layer in the layers palette, and the adjustment settings appear in the Adjustments palette – immediately. As you make any change, the changes are applied to the image and committed. Previously you had to accept the changes on the dialog by clicking [ok]. If you wanted to make additional changes, you would then have to double-click on the Adjustment layer thumbnail to open the palette back up to adjust the changes. Not any more. Every time the adjustment layer is active, the palette shows the settings you have stored and that are currently applied to the image. The Adjustments palette is ultimately convenient for accessing and making changes to adjustments, and it is a feature that can save many clicks in opening and addressing what used to be dialogs. The adjustments it offers are no different than in the dialogs. It is something that works very well, but for one small factor, the bitter part of the addition.

The bitter part of the Adjustment palette is that you need to have it in view all the time if you use adjustment layers to make any adjustments to your images. You don't really have the opportunity to store the palette away and call it back, and if you did that would defeat the purpose of the palette's advantage. The palette needs to be visible — not just in the palette bin, but in a prominent spot on screen, or you'll have to go hunting for it when you need to make a change. And every time you make a new Adjustment layer, you need to use it, as what is an adjustment layer without adjustment?

Regretfully when an adjustment layer is not active, the palette only displays yet another, redundant means of creating adjustment layers. In fact none of the palette itself can boast `new' features and utility. So it is ultimately useful for defining adjustment layer changes, and not so useful otherwise. If you are a user like myself that already needs Layers and History and Actions and Channels and Info, and maybe Paths and Brushes and Character and Paragraph…the `need' to have the new Adjustments palette in view compounds the issues you may already be having with on screen landscape. Depending on your monitor size and the way you practice editing, this landscape may be more or less precious. While I find it is a bit inconvenient to make more space on my 17" laptop, when I work on my desktop and 30" Apple Cinema Display I do not miss the landscape and appreciate the simplicity. If Adobe offered an option to use the classic dialogs, it would probably have been best for the majority of users.

As it stands, there are advantages and convenience to the presence of the Adjustments palette, though it may be in contention with other features. But as you can't get away from it, it will necessarily, to some extent, alter the way you work. It will certainly take some getting used to.

The Masks palette in Photoshop CS4 is not the obligation that the Adjustments palette is. Masks is, instead, a distinct difference in function from the way users could previously work with layer masks. Although you can still work with masks the way you did prior to CS4, the Masks palette extends layer mask functionality by offering options such as virtual adjustment. That is, you can make slider-based adjustment to masks for such things as Density, Feathering/Blur, Refine (which opens a separate dialog) and Inversion. The palette itself will indeed take up more landscape on the screen, like the Adjustments palette, but it is not quite as intrusive as Adjustments as it is a palette that can be brought into view when needed, and stored in a grouping with other palettes.

The benefit to the Masks palette is that it actually adds to the functionality offered in Photoshop. Where changes to masks directly in previous versions of the program were permanent, changes using the slider in the Masks palette are more like adjustments themselves: the positions of the sliders can be changed at any time and the result on the mask itself changed or even removed. In this way the changes are virtual, and ultimately flexible, as you are not committed to a change as you make it. The ability to adjust masks as you go can come in handy for compositing, and I have found it very useful in working with manual HDR and Depth-of-Field compositing.

If you find yourself blurring and feathering masks, and otherwise refining mask edges, you'll find a place for the Masks palette on your screen. Once the palette is there on screen and you adopt going to the Masks palette for mask adjustment (instead of seeking out permanent alterations like Gaussian Blur), you will find the feature is a new one that you need, and don't want to be without.

The two features do bring something new to the table for Photoshop CS4, and they will certainly alter the way you work somewhat by enforcement and somewhat by choice — of that you can be assured. For me the Masks palette is a giant step forward in handling mask content, and it is a much welcome addition. However, whether it is one so important as to `require' an upgrade will depend on the way you work in the program, and your need for masks or the space you have for more palettes.

Richard's newest book, The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book for CS4, will be available in stores this month! The book adds some 80 pages of new material including a section on manually producing HDR images. Get your copy as soon as it hits the shelves by pre-ordering on Amazon: Preorder your copy now

The cliche experience that many have had is watching a family member trying to master the color on the family TV set. The people-centric medium of TV makes us to look at images where the color being off becomes unbearable and unnatural because skin tones just look wrong. We all know what skin tones should look like so we are compelled to change the screen to make the skin tones look as we expect. It's natural to trust that the color being broadcast to your TV is correct, only changing the settings on the TV can make it right. Hopeful TV color experts twiddle the controls trying to achieve a vague balance that only they can, while everyone else sits idly looking on hoping thing would be alright soon, impatient with the technology, wondering why it can't just be right in the first place -- or if adjusting it is the thing that is screwing it up.

People are more apt to assume that what they see on their computer monitor is accurate when they pull it out of the box. Monitors are not constantly replete with skin tones that remind us that something may be off, as you spend considerable time using it for other activities like checking email or word-processing, which has nothing to do with skin tones at all. When a digital photographer sees a face, it might more often be in Photoshop, where they just change the color with tools in the program offered for that type of control. Regretfully, changing the color and trusting what you see in Photoshop and on your monitor can lead to martian prints and web postings of people in your images, and a quandary: why should color that looks correct in one place be off or plain wrong in another.

The answer is Color Management.

As they say, a little knowledge can be dangerous. Knowing enough to adjust the color in Photoshop doesn't turn out to be enough to make the color right. While some will come to the conclusion that the poor results have something to do with color management, just what they need to do to work with color management is less clear. They may revert to familiar territory and seek out the computer's brightness, contrast and color controls figuring this is how they have to make adjustments fiddling like you might do with a TV. They might get close and even get lucky with this method, but generally nothing could be worse. Adjustments made with the monitor controls as a means of color management end up being a best guess at what everything should look like on screen, and a compromise much like the TV expert's attempts at balancing RGB with the primitive TV controls. Guessing is not a good approach to color.

Some may go a little further and read a few web postings that have to do with adjusting color on their monitor, and these will range from the incorrect to the absurdly simple to the horribly technical ones that you are not quite sure are written in English. Naturally, the TV-color-minded inclination that "it is just color, how complicated could it be..." pushes people more toward accepting the absurdly simple and incorrect approaches. Some may take it a step further to seek out help from an expert (who may be anyone from a well-respected authority in Photoshop or color management to a neighbor who knows "a bunch about computers"). Regretfully the better answers (like the book Real World Color Management by Fraser, Murphy and Bunting, a 500+ page book) may be long and involved and daunting from the outset. On the other hand, getting the color right doesn't require getting a college degree in the subject, and such extensive study may be unnecessary for common folk, who, after all, just want the right color.

Those who want the right color without the doctorate end up taking suggestions from friends or people on forums, or look for the 'right' way to set up their color management. Truth be told, there is not one right way: more than one method will work. In fact, any method of color management that makes sense will work...but the other side of the coin is: the same color management scheme just doesn't work for everyone, and some will work better than others. The best way to get the color right and pick an applicable color management scheme, is, in my opinion, understanding the shorthand version of what you want to achieve and applying the simplest steps possible to get there.

The basics of color management requires:

• Calibrating your monitor
• Creating an ICC profile (usually part of step 1)
• Setting up color management in Photoshop or Elements (and perhaps other programs) correctly
• Setting up previews/screen proofing that make sense (Photoshop, not Elements)
• Applying appropriate color tagging to your images

If you neglect any one of these, you are gambling with your color results, plain and simple. If you do a few and not the others, you are not necessarily any better off than doing none at all. More frustrating, if you don't do them all, things may work sometimes, and not others, and you'll never be able to tell why. But attack each of these components with the intent to know why they are important, how they apply, and how to apply them, and you'll have the skeleton of color management, which is enough to hang your color on. You get skin on your skeleton when you define the purpose of what you are trying to achieve. Do you print to the same printer all the time? Do you print to many? Do you post images to the web exclusively? Do you print and post? Do images all come from the same camera? Do you have many sources of images (multiple cameras, images from friends, clients, etc.)? All these questions filter into your color management choice.

This is not the first time I've mentioned color management in my blog, and it won't be the last. Here are some other Color Management entries:

• What Color Space Do I Use? (Part 1)
• What Color Space Do I Use (Part 2)
• Calibrating My Home Printer

These additional resources should give you some background on making better color management choices.

For more info on approaching color management seriously, I have a 4 week primer course at betterphoto.com called From Monitor to Print that will work you through these 5 essentials, and test your results, making you color competent in a short amount of time with the least amount of work. You'll want to look into good calibration tools like the ColorVision Spyder (by the way, I posted an article on 9.11.08 about using the ColorVision Spyder Express to calibrate a dual monitor system -- which the manufacturer says is impossible). You can also simplify your color life by finding a system and sticking to it (don't change printers, papers, profiles, inks, or services without a plan).

Competent color handling is more than just calibration, but don't get psyched out. Make the effort to know what to do, and you can put it safely behind you.

Amongst the plethora of screens and functions and the thousands and thousands of options that you have in Photoshop and Elements for correcting, changing and composing your images, there are some options, features and functions you should never use. It might seem inconceivable that Adobe would put options you shouldn’t use in the program, but they are there, and some of them are named to sound downright savory. These features lurk in the user interface, and users make the same mistakes over and over by using them. The features and functions that you shouldn’t use span every nook and cranny of the program, from opening your images, to correcting, through saving/printing. Users apply them again and again until they learn what these features and functions are and to avoid them because of the damage they do to their images.

The list of features is tremendously long spanning all versions of Photoshop and Elements. Instead of listing all the features, let me simplify the list by making a few generalizations:

• Don’t ever apply features just because they appear on a dialog and you feel obligated to move a slider or click a button.
• Don’t ever apply features that don’t improve your image or your vision for it.
• Don’t ever apply the features you have not experimented with enough to know how to apply with predictable results.

The crust of this biscuit is simply: don’t feel obligated to use features just because they appear on screen and in the program or ‘sound good’. What you should use are the features and functions (and buttons) that make sense, fit your workflow, and improve your images. Features that ‘make sense’ means that you know what the features do before you apply them to finish images, and not that you ‘click-and-pray’.

For example say you open the Levels dialog â€" which is an imperative tool for image correction. Once the dialog opens, you could click the Auto button. You could also click the White Point, Black Point and Gray balance eyedroppers and apply those â€" some tutorials may even suggest it. But, even if your image seems to improve on your screen, you may not be doing the image integrity any favors. The fact is that even brilliant features used incorrectly can run counter to what you really want to do for an image or even ruin it. It may be easy to go the fast way and click an Auto button, and it may produce pleasing results at a glance, but it can also compromise your images. And what is the biggest objection to applying things the right way? People want it quicker, and they will ultimately accept speed while sacrificing quality…For my images, it is unacceptable to sacrifice quality to save a few moments. It doesn’t make sense to spend lots of time to learn how to take the best pictures, lots of money to get good equipment, and toss away the quality of the images you captured because you can’t be bothered to spend time getting the corrections right.

Tools you shouldn’t use include those that might damage your images, as well as those you simply don’t know well enough to apply. That is, the list of tools you shouldn’t use is virtually different for every Photoshop user based on their level of experience and what they know. The list will change as you learn and gain experience with the program.

Regretfully learning the tools takes time. However, you can use your time learning more efficiently and cut time from experimentation and exploration. The first thing to do: make a short list of tools you know you should explore. Just start listing those you think you should know better. Don’t list more than 30. Make them tools that you think are important (you may find out otherwise). Next set aside a time â€" 15 or 20 minutes a day â€" to explore those features/functions. Plan to explore just one tool a day for as many days as there are tools on the list. To begin your exploration, learn the basics of any feature using the Help materials provided by Adobe. The information there will tell you the way the function was designed to perform and how to apply it. This is a useful starting point: you’ll find out how a feature is applied. Help will tell you little or nothing about the best way to use a feature. Reading up shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

Next try applying the feature/function on an image according to the instructions to see how it behaves in practice. Try to give it a workout using all the possibilities you can think of. Apply it to several different images. Spend between 10 and 15 minutes ‘playing’ with the tool. That should serve as your introduction, and you will probably learn a few things you didn’t know before. However, you’ve probably learned just enough to be dangerous…you may be able to apply the tool, but that may not tell you what it really does and why it works, and that can affect how you use it productively.

To learn proven techniques for the best way to apply features, may take a lot more effort, and sometimes weeks, months or even years of study, depending on the complexity of what you are trying to accomplish. It is the kind of time that not everyone can dedicate to learning. Sampling tutorials found on the web may be helpful, but choosing the right tutorials can be tricky and may not be cohesive with a holistic approach to image editing. Some tutorials may actually contradict one another, and it will be hard to sort the good tutorials from the bad, and the harmful. Beware of tricks and tips that you can’t get to work on images other than those used in the tutorial. Even some books that promise quick results or that are a series of effects may never do much to improve your process with image editing. A scattered approach that does not rely on solid process may prove more confusing than helpful. Many tutorials may be well-meaning, written by people who are excited about sharing their new-found successes. However, good intent doesn’t make for a good tutorial â€" and it may be that what you apply can harm your images…and it may be difficult to tell the difference.

Consulting books and courses by experts in the field, designed to get you up to speed, can save you time and effort. An expert’s years of experience can go to work for you by helping you steer toward the best features and how to use them â€" saving time in exploring the program. Just as you would invest in your camera or additional equipment like lenses, invest in yourself to gain the skills you need to make the best images…don’t expect the equipment or the program to do-it-for-you (you may want to read my blog about “magic toolsâ€�).

So, do yourself a favor and start a list of tools you shouldn’t use today, before you damage another image. Stop oogling at tools that sound like the solution to all your problems, and learn about yourself and what you really need to know. Focus on those that you know and that you can use productively to make your images better. I’d be glad to hear which tools are on your lists, and happy to help you answer your questions about them!

PS â€" There have been some changes and updates on the hiddenelements.com and photoshopcs.com layers websites that you may want to check out…with more to come. I added some elements 6 materials to hiddenelements.com and a switch to php page building so the site will be easier for me to maintain. I also added some materials to fill out the ‘under construction’ pages on the photoshopcs.com site. I look forward to hearing from visitors about the changes.

1. Acknowledge that something went wrong, and don't assume it is a reflection on you (or anyone around you).
2. Study the consequences and understand why things went wrong.
3. Plan a counter action or means of avoiding the same mistake in the future.

With the holidays approaching it is still not too late to take on a project and do your own holiday card. All you really need is an image for the cover, some paper to print on (or a service to send to), Photoshop (or Elements), and a plan for the layout. The plan mostly has to do with printing to the edge, and getting the image on the front of the card.

Printing to the Edge
A layout problem that may confound those making their first cards is printing to the edge of the paper. Though some home printers have a print-to-the-edge feature, there is an edge area of the sheets you are printing that the printer will not print on -- commonly called a grip edge. It is often a quarter to a half an inch broad, and may vary from edge to edge depending on how paper was designed to go through the printer. The solutions to the problem of printing to the edge (and this holds for when you send a job to a shop to have it printed), is to design a little larger and then and crop the paper to the size you want the finished piece. So, for your holiday card, you wouldn't start with paper that was exactly the right size and then use your printer to print the image exactly to the edge; you'd start with a larger sheet, print the layout, and then trim the paper down. To make your layout work, you'd lay out the graphic part of the card to print a bit beyond the crop edge—say, by an eighth of an inch (which is a printing standard). This is known as a bleed. The bleed provides a margin of error for the cropping. If the cut doesn't fall precisely on the crop mark, the image will still come all the way to the edge of the cropped area.

The Basic Layout

Image on the Front
In laying out the card, be sure to think of how you want it to present! When you use a folded card, you have to put the front of the card on the right side of the layout so that when it folds the front of the card is in the right place. It may not be natural to think of the right side of the layout as the front, but that is where it is! The back of the card is on the left.

Outside

On the inside, the left and right facing sides are more intuitive. You usually want to have the saying on the right.

Inside

As far as the back of the card, you can put several things there for information purposes. Sometimes it is fun to put in your real or even an imaginary business name, copyright and date, website (if appropriate), and maybe some information about the photo (subject, title, separate copyright -- if applicable). Usually this is all in small type so as not to detract from the card. Homemade cards seem to always be the ones that stand out from the others.

For More Information...
For better ways to process your images and get the most out of them for your cards and other uses, be sure to check out Richard Lynch's Photoshop courses and his latest book: The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book

Holiday Gift Ideas
If you are looking for a good gift for that budding photographer or photoshop professional, try giving a betterphoto.com gift card. Good for courses, books and apparel!

The Entertainer and the Entertained
Magicians in their magic acts are entertainers. They perform mystical feats designed specifically to cleverly trick us -- those being entertained -- into believing something miraculous is happening when they waive their wand or perform an incantation. Deep down, we know it is somehow explainable, but we want to be entertained, suspend our disbelief, and enjoy the show. We may half-heartedly try to figure out what really happened behind the scenes, but in a way, perhaps, we almost don't want to know: it might ruin the illusion and we'd no longer be entertained. The entertainer practices his craft building the clever and believable deception, and the entertained soak it in without thinking all too hard. That is the difference between the entertainer and the entertained.

The Juggler

Photoshop and Magic People beginning to edit images with Photoshop and Elements often scour the menus looking for the tool that will do something spectacular to their images believing great images are just a few clicks away. It is almost as if they want the program to entertain them with an element of magic or a fantasic feat of mind reading. Photoshop and Elements have lots of tools whose behavior may seem mysterious and unexplainable at first, at least one named specifically 'Magic Wand', but regretfully there are no 'magic' tools that read your mind. No matter how clever the implementation of a function or how well it seems to work there is never anything 'magic' about a tool itself. There is a calculation -- however complex -- that drives any tool application. The behavior can be described and predicted, no matter how we might resist knowing.

To Be the Magician A true magician doesn't waive a wand and hope magic will happen -- imagine what would happen to a magician doing that on stage. The magician knows the secrets of the tricks and what goes on behind the scenes, utilizing props and tools with purpose to craft the perfect deception. Likewise, the imaging magician, must be a master of the tools and craft of post-processing. Just clicking a filter or auto function and being elated or disappointed by the result isn't mastering Photoshop and Elements, it is being entertained. Being entertained can be pleasing at times, but generally it is not how you make a magical image. The tools themselves have no way to see and evaluate the images they work on except as a calculation. They are lifeless props and props never make magic either.

Magicians practice their craft and develop their art, and you will want to do the same to achieve desired results with your post-processing in Photoshop. Changes do not have to be mystical, spectacular or flamboyant to get the most from your images, and post-processing is only a portion of the photographic craft. There is a place for being both the entertainer and the entertained, the magician and the audience. Learn and be awed by other people's craft, but strive to understand the magic of their images like a magician in the audience watching the craft of the magician on stage.

To Learn More My courses teach the timeless fundamentals for Photoshop and Elements that you'll use as the core of your craft. I talk about magic tools in my Photoshop 101 class...namely the "read my mind" and "do it for me" tools: mythical tools designed in the minds of users hoping there is an easier way. But it is the only mention of magic tools in my courses. You get practical methodology for Correcting and Enhancing Your Images, solid techniques for matching your images on your Monitor and In Print, and advanced exploration of Layers: Photoshop's Most Powerful Tool. Each is a facet of the tools you have to master to perfect your image editing craft. My latest book, The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book, is the perfect companion to these courses.

Coming from a writing background (I have an MFA in Fiction Writing), I find it is interesting to note the overlap and comparison of thinking about composition of images and composition of prose. The common quote "a picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind. Interestingly it is said one of the 'rules' of photography is that images should tell a story. If it is true, who should be more likely to have an interest in photography than someone who has studied fiction writing...I find my experiences with writing help me see my progress through photography more clearly.

Writing At College
Taking writing courses was a confounding joy. I might be handed an assignment to write a story, and might be inspired immediately to write a poem. With the suggestion that I write a poem, I might be at no short hand to write prose. Other students I know would claim to get the much-romanced 'writer's block', often meaning they couldn't come up with anything interesting to fulfill an assignment. While my reaction to assignments may just have been some perverse part of my nature, the imposed task would fill with obligation, rigidity and expectation...and I could find respite in doing almost anything but the task at hand. I enjoyed discovery and creativity; it was simply more fun to explore writing to whatever end than to perform a task. The upshot of structured courses was that while I was compelled to complete the necessary work to conform to the expectations, I wrote probably twice as much unstructured work in addition to the formal assignments. To stave off verbal constipation, I made a habit of keeping a scratch book (and still do) where I was free to experiment and explore words. In the abstract paths, scraps, and unfinished pieces may not be my best work and material, and much I've never shared or published, but some inevitably filtered back into other finished work, and it is still where I do my most intense learning.

And After College...
 Later, continuing down a lawless path, I taught college English for several years, and tested ideas from my own learning, using my students like guinea pigs. I tried to abandon rules entirely as part of the curriculum -- rules, I reasoned, were something no one really cared for, and college students should have had their fill by the time they met me -- so I had my students exploring writing itself rather than tethering them to the rule book. They wrote a lot, improved tremendously by following their interests, and seemed to allow themselves to enjoy the experience of writing which, in turn, helped them learn from it, often coming in a back-handed way to the rules -- whether they recognized them or not. 

Choosing Your Rules
The best of rules, when you know them, become simple, helpful guidelines built on common sense: suggestions as to what will achieve success with relative consistency. While anyone can resist rules, the essence of rules can't totally be ignored. Rules of writing attach meaning to words and without that reference writing would never convey an intended meaning; likewise, you can't take a picture without light in the absolute dark. Rules may not fit your perspective as you hear them, but they may have other meanings, and more fitting, creative, and personally meaningful interpretations. For example, the rule of thirds really says to me: "don't be boring", which can lead to a lot more than 4 suggested options. There are all sorts of writings, just like there are all sorts of photos. Some photos might tell a story, and might seem more like a poem, a story, or even a novel -- and some may only be meant to be snippets, scraps, experiments, and vehicles for learning. If you following the rule that each shot needs to be a story as an imperative, you may hold yourself back from capturing some less structured frames, experimenting and exploring possibilities, and learning from and enjoying your time taking pictures. In other words, you will do well to follow the rule of trying to tell stories with your images -- so long as it doesn't oblige you to try and squeeze impossible imagery from an inappropriate scene when you might, instead, happily snap the shutter to learn some nuance about light, shadow, shutter speed, or color that may later help you 'tell a story' in better conditions.

Practicing Lawless Photography
At times, when you are frozen, looking for the ultimate shot in a dramatic scene that is being elusive, it may help to put the rules out of your head a moment and just look through the viewfinder. Snap off some frames without expectations, move in and away, tilt the camera, shoot portrait and landscape, change your lens...Think of as many rules as you can while doing it, and break every one -- for a reason if you can think of one, or just because. After you shoot a series, view the results to see if anything you shot suggests a direction, and then use that suggestion and refine the result. You can always use rules first if you feel naked -- or you may find you follow them more naturally as you shoot view and refine.

For more information about Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, visit http://hiddenelements.com and http://photoshopcs.com

Are You A Photoshop Junkie?
Photoshop junkies are people who religiously upgrade from one version to the next without thinking as if a new release were some type of signal that the current version of the program would soon expire and stop working. Others upgrading without a second thought may believe that owning the newest version of Photoshop automatically makes their images better. Regretfully, "cool" new features may sound enticing, but in the long run these enhancements may be something you rarely use -- or use once in a lifetime -- that isn't a reason to upgrade. The boring reality is that sometimes what you have is really what you need. While it does not carry the social status of owning Photoshop, it is easily possible that Photoshop Elements may serve every need you have even if you are a demanding digital technician (and at a savings of 90% (!) of the cost of Photoshop). Upgrading out of habit, obligation or anything other than a clearly defined need makes you a junkie.

The Truth About Upgrades
It is Adobe's job to make their product compelling enough so that you want to upgrade. In the early years of Photoshop, every version had a significant new feature. Digital imaging had a lot of maturing to do from the first release in 1988, so the room for improvement seemed endless. Now, as Photoshop has matured, the list of enhancements for any version may be as long as your arm, but it may be less clear if you really need to upgrade because features are not always something every user will benefit from.

Richard's Philosophy of Upgrades

1. Don't automatically upgrade to a new release of Photoshop. You don't owe it to Adobe, and your version of the program will still work months and years from now.
2. It is not a social embarassment to skip an upgrade version of Photoshop. For example, if you are on CS2 already, you can probably wait for CS4. People may point and wisper under their breath, but how long can they do that for? Just ask them for a compelling reason to upgrade.
3. Know the Photoshop upgrade cycles. You can count on a new version every 18 months or so. Don't get the last version after it's been out 17 months when it suddenly goes 'on sale' or you'll be looking and yearing to get the next version in a month all over again.
4. Don't be swept away by the hype of the 'cool' factor of new Photoshop tools. Advertising can make features look more promising than they are. Find out what tools and functions actually do by reading reviews before you upgrade, and weigh how much you think you'll actually use them.
5. Find at least two actual must-have features in any new Photoshop upgrade that will save you time, effort or improve image quality on a daily basis before considering an upgrade.
6. Don't upgrade if there are a significant number of tools and features that you already don't know how to use. Learn the tools you have. New features will take weeks, months and perhaps years to incorporate into your workflow. Give them time to sink in before looking for more features you won't use.
7. Find out about system requirements and compatabilities BEFORE you purchase a Photoshop upgrade. If you purchase a version that requires a new operating system, it may trigger a reaction where you'll have to buy a whole new system at many times the cost of the upgrade just to run it.
8. Just because it costs more doesn't mean it does more for you. Know what you are buying. For example, don't get the extended version of Photoshop CS3 instead of the vanilla version if you have no interest in medical imaging, 3D modeling and video editing.

Adobe has consistently put out an enticing product that gives users a real reason to upgrade. Adobe does work hard at it, they have a fabulous, well-tested product, and have generally productive reasons for upgrading. However, there is no reason to feel pressured, rushed or obligated. The new version will be there when you are ready for it, and your old, tried and tested techniques for image editing will not soon be worn out and displaced by the latest tool if you learn the right techniques. The real task is to learn the right techniques and theory to make your image editing efforts less tool-centric.

As a Photoshop professional and author of Photoshop and Elements books, people looking to buy a computer to use for image editing often ask my opinion about what I recommend. I use Mac as my main work station, and have a PC laptop. Though Mac is a preference for me, I think the platform isn't as critical a decision for image editing as it once was. However the peripherals and accessories I put into my 'ultimate system' whether on mac or PC can be fairly extensive. To me, the additional expense is not only unavoidable, but essential to handling images safely and getting the best results. All the items I choose are not necessary for every system and all level of user, and some of your personal preferences may differ. But some core elements should be considered beyond just the platform to enhance your image editing experience.

The following are all part of my main work station:

*Dual, matching monitors

*Spyder monitor calibrator

*2+ GB of RAM

*4 matching hard drives

*dual core processor

*Kensington Turbomouse

*DVD Writer

*External backup drive

*Card reader

*Power backup system

Keep in mind that for my work with professional photographers I need a lot of processing oomph. If you are a more casual user you may not really need all this stuff, and some of that is personal preference. But here is a breakdown of what advantages each of these provides:

Dual, Matching Monitors
Dual monitors provide a lot of visible landscape, generally at a fraction of the cost of a larger monitor. Another option may be a very large screen, like the 30" Mac Cinema Display, but that is not in the price range of many users. Two monitors may require an additional video card depending on your setup, but really a large monitor may demand a video card upgrade as well. The goal of increased viewing area is to allow for room to open multiple palettes while viewing your images large on screen.

Spyder Monitor Calibrator
Monitor calibration is essential for getting good results with your images consistently, in print and on the web. If you don't calibrate, your monitor color may be off, and you can't possibly trust what you see on screen. Dark monitors will find you overcorrecting images and the results will be light in print; monitors with a color shift will find you compensating toward the shift's complement color -- a monitor with too much red may find your prints consistently leaning toward a cyan hue. Hardware calibration can measure the color on your screen with great accuracy and will be the cornerstone of good color practice and workflow.

2+ GB of RAM
One of many complaints I hear from users as they upgrade to new versions of Photoshop and Elements has to do with the program running slower. Often running slower can be attributed to keeping an old system and trying to run a more demanding program with the same equipment. Current system requirements for Photoshop suggest a minimum of 512 MB of RAM, this is in addition to what you need for your operating system (Windows Vista requires 1GB of RAM), and really the size of your images. There is almost never too much RAM and you may want 4GB to stay ahead of the curve.

4 Matching Hard Drives
It might seem like overkill, but I use 4 hard drives on my system: 1 for system/programs, 2 for images/work in a RAID array, 1 more for a dedicated scratch disk. Drives should all be fast, and it is handy to have them in matching size and manufacture so you can swap them out in emergencies (e.g., for example if one drive in your RAID goes out, you can sub in the scratch disk while waiting for a replacement). Keeping work separate from your programs allows you to run a RAID array to make instantaneous backup of your work to protect you from losing anything. A dedicated scratch disk allows photoshop plenty of room to scale its memory needs without conflicting with image saves and program activity. A RAID can easily be set up on a Mac; PCs will require additional software.

Dual Core Processor
Photoshop is a processing and memory hog, and having a fast processor at the core is essential for peak performance. Photoshop has been built for a long time to handle dual core processing, and that capability leads to less wait and more productivity.

Kensington Turbomouse
There are various input devices to choose from, and my input of choice is a Kensington Turbomouse, and has been for many years. Mice require a lot of wrist movement and potential strain, and Wacom tablets while interesting and unique, do not provide the kind of accuracy and control I can get with a trackball (try stopping in the middle of a stroke with a graphics pen, for example). The trackball is really a huge inverted mouse with the advantage that it never needs to be moved, takes up little desk space and offers the ultimate in control of your cursor. Don't get a flimsy trackball with a small controller...it just isn't the same.

DVD Writer
As images mount on your drives you will eventually need to back them up to make room for new ones. One of your best long-term options for high capacity storage/archive are DVDs, which offer about 6 times the space of a CD. They are also quite durable, and likely your best option currently for image archive and storage.

External Backup Drive
For daily or weekly backup, to keep your current work safe should you experience some type of computer meltdown, you can make use of an external drive with at least the same storage capacity as your work drives. Doubling the capacity will allow you to retain the original backups while making the new, and considering the low cost of hard drive space these days, a single large backup drive will save you infinite worry and offer the capability to restore work easily.

Card Reader
A device that I have found to have ultimate utility on the road as well as for daily download of images is my portable Wolvarine drive. It sports additional slots for a variety of card types, and an 80GB capacity which allows me to take approximately 12,000 photos before having to touch base with my main desktop. It has an internal power pack so it can operate anywhere, and attachments for car lighter plugs. Great for backing up cards on the road, and reading them into the computer. If you keep two cards on hand, you never need to waste time downloading before you geet to the next shot; download one while you keep shooting.

Power Backup System
Power backup allows you to stave off the ultimate, unpredictable catastrophe: power loss. Power can go out at any time, and some types of power/surge protectors offer surge protection and full switched power that automatically stores and kicks in during a power outage -- and can save your work. A must if you live in an area where unpredictable power outages occur.

Of course, my image editing program of choice is Photoshop, but Photoshop Elements is often just as good for most users who will never need the additional non-photo-editing features (CMYK generation, Actions/Scripting, Web development tools). Some of this list is equipment you can accumulate and reuse between systems as you upgrade.

You may notice the glaring omission of a home printer. I am not big on printing at home, and send everything to a service. To get the equipment I'd want for that I figure I am saving about $80,000 in a printer cost which I assume is worth it ;-). You can also save yourself the headaches associated with maintaining supplies and printer maintenance/calibration/profiling. I discuss this in a lot more detail in my From Monitor to Print: Photoshop Color Workflow course.

If you are looking for the ultimate system for editing images, or even to begin upgrading as you begin to take image editing more seriously, this list of key components should prove helpful in your consideration of building the ultimate system. I'd be glad to answer additional questions on the subject (Contact Richard: richard@...)

Don't miss my online courses starting September 3rd!

• Photoshop 101: The Photoshop Essentials Primer
• Correct and Enhance Your Images
• From Monitor to Print: Photoshop Color Workflow
• Leveraging Layers: Photoshop's Most Powerful Tool

I am pleased to announce that my new Photoshop book The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book  was officially released today. You can find it online by clicking the book title, or go to http://aps8.com/taplb.html .  I will be updating my http://ps6.com website very soon and will be adding tools for Photoshop users on that and http://photoshopcs.com . Elements users will not be left out as many of the new Photoshop tools I will be releasing will work with Elements as well...

I hope you will support my new effort by taking a look at the new book, and perhaps consider taking a course with me online at betterphoto.com, including Photoshop 101, Photoshop Color Workflow, Correct and Enhance Your Images, and Leveraging Layers: Photoshop's Most Powerful Tool

If you have any questions, please let me know. I've got lots of new stuff ready for my blogs on hiddenelements.com  and my betterblog at betterphoto.com !

Question:

Where can I find in-depth, unbiased reviews of software for photographers? I have looked on the net but what I mostly find are pretty abbreviated descriptions. No real in depth analysis and suggestion of what works well together.

Short Answer:

All reviews are biased; you are your own best reviewer.

Long Answer:

Any review of software is necessarily biased. Asking this question of me you will likely find my preference for Photoshop and Elements, but I'll do what I can to make sense first. Reviewers need to be familiar with software to do a good, in-depth review. This usually means reviewers have to be users of what they review, which forms a bias. There are many packages on the market, some more and less obscure. Popular packages like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Aperture, Paint Shop Pro, Corel Draw, and GIMP all have their supporters. But even somewhat more obscure packages like Microsoft's Digital Image Editing Suite, PhotoImpact and Photoline32, can be substantially powerful options for image editing and show pockets of advocates. It has been my experience that many of these programs can function reliably at a high level. There are likely other programs as well.

What really makes an image editing software package "the best" is what makes it the best for you and your needs. If you are looking for full-featured image editing, many of the packages will provide what you need with a variety of different abilities and tools--some of these options may have been packaged with your camera (Photoshop Elements is popular as software bundled with digital cameras and scanners). If you are looking for a robust package that will handle web graphics, animation, video editing, vector graphics/type and multiple file formats, you may have no other choice than Photoshop. If you are looking for ease-of-use and quality results, then you may want to consider looking at newer programs specifically designed to provide easier image-editing solutions, like Lightroom or Aperture.

Ultimately, if you are looking for an opinion that will absolutely tell you which is best, it won't happen. Your choice should be based on your needs and interests, with a nod to the popularity of the package. Package popularity becomes important when it comes to finding help, tutorials, courses and additional support. Where there are lots of users, there are lots of tutorials and help.

I prefer Photoshop and Elements because I use them, and have for a very long time. I have an aging comparison page that looks at Photoshop vs. Elements vs. Paintshop Pro:

http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/vs_elements.html

These are three programs that I have used and have written about. A lot of the information still holds true.

As far as 'what works well together', I like to keep it simple, and stick to one program that covers it all. To me that is Photoshop OR Photoshop Elements. Using either of those, I can steer away from plugins and add-ons by using a full featured program that doesn't require integration. I do have exceptions for add-ons that I have made myself that extend the functionality/ease-of-use of Elements and Photoshop. Other hardware would include an additional monitor and video card, trackball, and calibration device. You really shouldn't need several software packages to get your image editing done, unless you like the added complexity. For every software package and plugin you add, you increase the learning curve. If you are having trouble doing a particular task, it may not be the image editing program that has to be changed, and you may not really do any better adding a plug-in that promises to 'do it for you' : it may be that you will need to change your approach to tasks, and changing your approach to tasks may be facilitated by learning more about the program (through the Help feature, tutorials, and possibly books and courses). Learning from others can save tremendous amounts of time.

Postscripts:

* Richard now teaches 4 courses on betterphoto.com

1. A beginner-level introduction to Photoshop: Photoshop 101
   
2. An intermediate-level course for mastering color management Color Management for Digital Photographers
   
3. A second intermediate-level course dedicated to core imaging techniques Correct and Enhance Your Images
   
4. And an advanced-level, specialized focus on using layers Leveraging Layers: Photoshop's Most Powerful Tool

* Richard's new book The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book will be out at the end of July!

* Listen to Richard talk about image editing in a recent two-part interview with Jim Miotke on BetterPhoto Radio: Part 1, Part 2

[Continued from Part 1]
In the previous entry in this blog, I discussed some of the theory involved in
choosing a
color space. Let's look at my current workflow as an example.

My Choices
I choose to use an AdobeRGB (camera)>sRGB (convert to sRGB in Photoshop)>sRGB
(add
an sRGB profile to send to print) workflow for what I believe are sensible
reasons based on
my long experience in digital imaging.

I capture in AdobeRGB for a few reasons:

*I have a high-bit digital image sensor that captures at least 12-bits -- or 16
times the
number of colors captured in 8-bit images. With 16 times the number of colors as
8-bit,
most or all of the 8-bit sRGB colors will be captured If a few are not, I'll
never know.
*The added range may come in handy at some point when technology becomes
enhanced
and if not, conversion to 8-bit RGB for output should not create much unusable
color.

On the other hand, I work in sRGB as a working space for several reasons:

*I like the concept of working with color in ranges that can be properly
displayed on my
monitor.
*I seldom output to CMYK, but instead use light-process (LED/color laser)
printing.
*The process and service I use all the time requests sRGB files, and tests with
AdobeRGB
have proven the service's request to be right--for this closed system.
*sRGB is a broadly-used 'default' color standard, that even in systems where
profiling fails
to make a good translation, the results are within a predictable range. AdobeRGB
images
where the profile is dropped will usually desaturate drastically. I don't want
that problem
for the small potential benefit.
*I am not sure that I can define it as a benefit when "better images" would mean
NOT
matching what I see on screen...I'd have to define it as luck.

I print to light process as it is more efficient than using ink, and the results
are closer to
what I see on my monitor, as well as more durable.

My closed process (closed, meaning I just about always do the same thing) ending
with a
need for RGB dictates most of the rest of the workflow, and my decided
preference for
seeing all the color I work on, solidifies the outline. One of the keys to any
successful
workflow is testing, which means taking an image and trying to process it both
ways, and
seeing if the result is better either way. "Better" to me can only be defined by
the ability to
match the screen...and that really eliminates AdobeRGB as a benefit, as if I
can't see the
colors that Adobe RGB can produce, any benefit of additional color – beyond what
I see on
screen -- would naturally not match.

All that said, if you are more adventurous than me and don't mind working on
color that
you will not see on your monitor, an AdobeRGB workflow may be adopted and used
with
success mostly in a closed workflow where results go to a CMYK printer. However,
should
the AdobeRGB workflow be adopted, you will need to be diligent about following
the
process and being sure the profiles are not dropped, or the result will be a
sometimes
serious desaturation and compression of dynamic range. This happens because when
a
profile is dropped (or if it is not included on save), devices will likely
assume an sRGB
profile, or something very close, and remap the colors in the image: the
'broader' range of
colors is mashed down into the 'smaller' space and the result is less impressive
than just
starting with sRGB and sticking with it. Also, images with AdobeRGB profiles
posted to the
web either using browsers that do not recognize profiles, or which drop profiles
as part of
processing will result in the same desaturation and loss of dynamic range.

Why Do I choose This?
My conclusion to this point is that I can certainly get an AdobeRGB workflow to
produce
results, but I am not convinced that these are 'better' – and I am not convinced
that the
added risk of color trouble is worth the potential gain. AdobeRGB images may be
brighter
in print, and in some cases may show a difference, but that surprise may not be
accurate
in the sense that what you see on your monitor is NOT what you get in print.
Things may
change in the future, but now, with the broad popularity of the RGB workflow
(having
shifted with the advent of digital cameras and inkjet printing conversions),
sRGB seems a
more stable and reliable flow. That may change at some time in the future.

Your Choices
If you have read all the way through this entry and the last, hopefully the
sense of this
comes through. You can get results with either color space –- or other color
spaces not
mentioned. But what you choose to use needs to make sense to you, to where your
images
originate, the processes you choose, and those choices need to blend with your
workflow
rather than being considered as independent. My considered opinion is that my
workflow
is best –- for ME. Yours may be different, but hopefully you have made your
choices for
good reason. If you have not calibrated your monitor, have no real concept of
how to make
the best corrections to your images, and don't make other sensible choices in
your digital
imaging, don't be quick to blame your color space. There is more to making good
images
than choosing a color space.

Those are all considerations for a latter blog entry.

Postscript
If you have enjoyed this entry or found it useful, you might like my new book:
The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book [http://aps8.com/taplb.html]. It will be out
in July of 2007!

What Color Space Do I Use? (Part 1)

[PART1 of a 2 part answer about using Color Space]

Question:
I am fairly new to Photoshop, but rarely use it because I don't know what to do with an image. In your last blog entry you mentioned having a 'workflow'. I guess you mean by that a process to follow when editing images. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?

Answer:
Short Answer: Yes. Have a workflow and use it with every image.

Working with images isn't random. You shouldn't just fiddle with some filters and auto-corrections and hope to suddenly stumble on something to make your images look good. What you really want to do is outline a process to follow so you are sure your images will look their best every time.

A good workflow takes setup into account as well as image correction.

1. Calibrate your monitor, create an ICC profile, and make color management decisions
2. Store your original images safely
3. Evaluate the image (composition color and tone) to develop a list of things to correct (in steps 4-8)
4. Make general color and tone corrections
5. Make small damage corrections (dust, etc.)
6. Make composition changes (cropping, replacing, removing objects...other 'heroic' measures)
7. Make targeted color and tone corrections.
8. Add enhancements (soft-focus, sharpening, etc.)
9. Save the working/layered version of the working image
10. Save a purposed/final image for output/use

Even long-term users of Photoshop may not have a sensible workflow in place, but the fact is that it can save tons of time and account for consistent results.If asked which is the most important of the 10 items above...I'd have to say you need every one of them to get the most out of your images. If you are missing any of them, you'll want to consider adding them to your workflow.

• Calibration and color mangement decisions can greatly affect your outcome
• Storing your images is essential to ward off data loss
• Evaluating an image tells you what to do and keeps you on track with corrections
• Having an order to your corrections helps you correct logically so you aren't taking on the wrong issue at the wrong time (color correcting a hat that is the wrong color before color correcting the whole image makes no sense)
• Storing your layered work can save tons of time in making later changes or enhancements
• Saving your final image separately allows you to make the best image for any purpose (e.g., a downsized JPEG for the Web, a full-sized EPS or TIFF for print)

With a workflow established, you'll never be puzzled about what to do with your images and you'll be ready to explore them the same way every time, checking over your list so nothing gets missed.

I teach a course on betterphoto.com that will help with workflow issues. It is called From Monitor To Print, and helps you establish a full workflow, covering all 10 items in the list. You can find the course here:
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC01.asp

If you are simply uncomfortable with Photoshop, you may need even more basic help, which I can provide in my Photoshop 101 course, found here:
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC03.asp

But whether you take a course or not, take notes on what you want to do and establish a workflow. It will save you time, and probably money as well!

Question:
What is the best way to learn Photoshop?

Answer:
Short answer: There is not one 'best way'.

Many people are daunted by trying to learn Photoshop. There are hundreds of
tools and
infinite possibilities. Infinite. You can pick an image and do anything with
it...even create
an entirely different scene. But the point of working with images would seem to
be to
improve what you have taken, and not to turn a picture of a cat into an elephant
(by
applying the "turn this into an Elephant" filter, of course!). Most people will
not expect to
accomplish such transmogrification, and what would be the point when you could
make
the result simpler with a visit to the local zoo?

One of the reasons users find Photoshop daunting is that they try to learn too
much—or
even all of it—at once. A better approach for most people will be to learn
a-tool-at-a-
time. Pick a tool, read about the tool in Photoshop or Elements Help (press
Command+/ or
Ctrl+/ [mac/pc]), then open an image and explore the tool by applying it. Don't
look so
much for expert results as the opportunity to learn how the tool behaves. That
experience
will go a long way toward incorporating it into your workflow. 15 or 20 minutes
a day puts
a new tool into your belt.

Further, and following this line of logic, you can limit the tools you look at
to only those
that are more practical for what you want to do. If you will be working with
digital
photographs for the sake of editing and improving them, you can virtually ignore
whole
sets of tools, and in the case of Photoshop, an entire application (Image
Ready). in my
courses and books I have a list of 30 or so core functions and tools that you
can pretty
much expect to incorporate into your work with any image. Some of these are
terribly
obvious, like Open and Save, but you quickly get into the heart of a tool set
that helps you
stay focused on correction and the task at hand. People hem and haw about Curves
and
how important they are to correction, and honestly I think they are a bit of a
hack the way
it is often described to use them, and at this point in my editing I rarely use
them at all.
Levels are a far more accurate and useful tool, except in specific
circumstances. But the
point is that with a significantly limited set of tools, you can accomplish what
you need to
in editing almost any image...as long as you know which to use.

That said, some people will find books most helpful, some DVDs, some online
courses,
some live seminars, a rare few personalized instruction, and others just poking
about in
the program. Having learned Photoshop at a time where there were no books or
tutorials, I
would suggest that poking around can be effective, but it is likely to be the
slowest
method of learning unless you already have a lot of digital imaging experience
with
another program. Any one of the products that help you learn Photoshop will
likely cut
months and years off learning. Here are a few things that will help:

1. Get acquainted with the interface. Learn about palettes and menus and where
the tools
are stored. ( See my Photoshop 101 course on betterphoto.com for an outline).

2. Have a goal in mind when opening Photoshop rather than just hoping it will do
something for you or that you will suddenly feel inspired. Do you want to
improve images
from a recent shoot? Learn color correction? create a new logo? The answer to
the question
"what do I want to do?" will give you direction and save time.

3. Take a note from your own learning history and follow the path that has been
most
successful for you in other endeavors. If you have been successful learning in a
classroom,
take a course; if you learn from books, take a look at the books in a local
store and see
what looks most interesting to you.

4. Don't expect to be an expert overnight. Personally I have been using
Photoshop daily for
about 15 years. I learn something new every day. It could be about the program,
about my
images, about seeing, composition, settings, whatever...but there is always
something new
in thee program as long as I allow myself to see it. Becoming an expert will
likely take
months or years.

5. Establish a base workflow, including a solid color management setup, good
step-by-
step correction practices, and test your output. You will be following a similar
set of steps
for most images unless you will be doing a lot of work to them. Outline your
process or
borrow someone elses (see my Workflow course on betterphoto.com).

6. Experiment with limitations. Don't give your self open-ended amounts of time
to try
and achieve an effect by applying filters willy-nilly. Again, have an idea of
what you want
to achieve, and allow yourself 10-15 minutes to experiment with a result rather
than
running all over with it. At the end of the time, post the image to a Photoshop
forum
somewhere and ask for help in what you want to achieve. Try my forums found
through
http://hiddenelements.com

I hope that helps people get on track toward learning Photoshop in their own
way. If you
have questions feel free to send them for future editions of the blog. Send to
Richard
Lynch thebookdoc@...

I wanted to let Hidden Power enthusiasts know that I will be
teaching courses online at betterphoto.com this coming semester.
Courses will begin July 6th, go for 8 weeks, and registration is
limited. The following courses are offered:

From Monitor to Print: The Photoshop Workflow
How to get better prints from Photoshop or Photoshop Elements using
the entire workflow process from calibrating your monitor and
choosing a profile to making image adjustments to color and
composition, to seeing the results in print.

Leveraging Layers: Photoshop's Most Powerful Tool
How to use layers to get the most out of your images. This course
starts with the basics, but ramps up to award you with a doctorate
in layers after only 8 weeks. Master the most powerful tool in
Photoshop (or Elements), and master image editing for life!

You can sign up for the courses at betterphoto.com here:

From Monitor to Print:
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC01.asp

Leveraging Layers:
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC02.asp

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Richard Lynch
thebookdoc@...

Some people have said that there are links in the previous message that don't
work.
Regretfully, some email browsers are reading in invisible characters. I have
attempted to
redo the links here for the Newsletter, Tools, Books, and Photoshop Elements
Workflow
Class.

Hidden Power Newsletter:
http://hiddenelements.com/files/hp_elements_vol15.html

100 New Hidden Power tools (Elements 4, Mac and PC):
http://hiddenelements.com/downloads.html

Hidden Power Tool List
http://hiddenelements.com/hidden_power_4_tools/hppe4_tool_list.html

Hidden Power Elements 4 Book (for Mac and PC)
http://aps8.com/hppe4.html

Photoshop Elements Workflow Online Class (Richard Lynch instructor)
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/RIC01.asp

I hope these work. if not, copy and paste the links into your web browser URL
field and hit
return.

Several people have told me there is no Elements 4 for mac. YES, there is--just
out this
month. My new book is the first out to cover mac and PC. See Elements 4 for Mac
here:
http://aps8.com/elements4mac.html

Richard Lynch
thebookdoc@...
http://hiddenelements.com

With the new release of The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 4 ( http://aps8.com/hppe4.html ), I am releasing a new issue of the newsletter for March 2006:

http://hiddenelements.com/files/hp_elements_vol15.html

My Hidden Power book for Elements 4 is the first book on the market for Elements 4 that covers Mac and PC. It is also the only book that adds 100 tools customized to empower Elements 4 users.

Please do let me know what you think of the newsletter!

New tools for Elements 4:

Booster Elements, Curves plugin for Elements 4:
http://hiddenelements.com/booster/

Hidden Power tools for Elements 4:
Tool List: http://hiddenelements.com/hidden_power_4_tools/hppe4_tool_list.html

BUY THE TOOLS: http://hiddenelements.com/hidden_power_4_tools/

Richard Lynch

Sorry the newsletter went out without a header...If you didn't see it, or your
spam catcher grabbed it, you can get your issue online:

http://hiddenelements.com/files/hp_elements_vol14.html

Some people have had trouble with the links generated by the yahoo list anyway.
Please feel free to visit the website to get the newsletter...the content is the
same and the links work!

http://hiddenelements.com/backissues.html

We're on issue 14.

Sorry for the additional mailing. Please do let me know what you think of the
newsletter!

Don't miss the new tools:

Infrared: http://hiddenelements.com/infrared
Bud's Frames A for Elements 3: http://hiddenelements.com/freeframes.html
And the actions whitepaper for Elements 3 users,
How-to Run Photoshop Actions in Adobe Photoshop Elements 3:
http://hiddenelements.com/actions_whitepaper

Richard Lynch

---------------------------------------
Hidden Power Newsletter
May, 2005, Vol.14
---------------------------------------

The Original Newsletter for Photoshop Elements Users

-----------------------
IN THIS ISSUE
-----------------------

Toys for Elements 3 users released this month:
     • Some Old, Familiar, FREE Tools for Photoshop Elements 3
     • The (Very Cool) Hidden Power Infrared Tool
     • How-to install actions in Elements 3


BUY IT NOW:
Find all the things you need to work with Elements to the max.


FAQ


LONG ANSWERS (6)


SHORT ANSWERS (21)


OPINIONS


-----------------------------------------------------
NEW TOOLS FOR ELEMENTS 3
-----------------------------------------------------

After some inexplicable trouble with the website (that came down to a single space in the code...) the Hidden Power Elements 3 site is up, rebuilt, and navigable for all: http://hiddenelements.com. This site does not leave Elements 2 users behind, it just adds a dimension for Elements 3. This month I was able to add a few new tools for Elements 1, 2 AND 3. These include the brand-new Hidden Power Infrared tool, the free Bud's Frames for Elements 3, and a how to on running Photoshop actions in Elements. There are new immediate downloads for most tools, and more stuff to follow quickly in the coming weeks. Check out the current list of downloads on the website.

The Hidden Power Infrared tool was added this past month at the request of users. The Infrared tool makes the most of converting RGB color images to mimic black-and-white infrared. Infrared effects have some distinct characteristics, like glowing foliage, black skys and water, film grain, and a dramatic "other-worldly" feel. To shoot true infrared effects, you will likely have to use film, but the Infrared tool is a good digital substitute, with the ability to adjust results in a way that isn't possible when shooting IR film.

Bud's Frames A for Elements 3 are a set of 22 picture frame effects for images developed by Bud Guinn. These actions have been updated from the actions released for Elements 2. There is no limitation on image size, for example. The effects should install to and work in Elements 1 and 2, but I haven't tested. Feel free to send me your results! Elements 1 and 2 users will have similar frames when using the Hidden Power Actions tools.

I also posted a tutorial on How to Run Photoshop Actions in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I am hoping that some industrious persons will scour the internet for actions and report back on which can be used with Elements as is. collecting a list of actions that don't work will keep people from re-testing the same stuff, and will help develop a target list of actions for conversions. I'll post the results on the website and in the newsletter.

New tools on the horizon, anmd likely due out in the next month include: a Curves Tool & Channel Target combo (more to it than meets the description), a new base free tool set for Elements 3 with some exclusive tools rolled in (like simple curves), a tool set for foreign language versions of Elements, two more bud's frame sets for Elements 3 (B and C), and two styles sets from Al Ward.

One thing about this issue of the newsletter that you may have already noticed: newsletter is now all HTML, In fact, I have converted ALL the back issues to HTML so it will be easier for everyone to access them from the website. This change will allow for me to add images, hot links, and more interesting formatting for the coming issues. Don't be fooled by expensive imitations: the Hidden Power newsletter for Photoshop Elements was the first, and will continue to be the best. It will also continue to be free. If you haven't read past issues, you can get all 13 online. FREE.

Please send questions and requests as they arise! thebookdoc@... One more planned enhancement to the website is a request line. This will be up before the end of the month.

--------------------
BUY IT NOW
--------------------

Below is a list of products that are useful for those who work with Photoshop Elements.

Adobe Programs:
Get Photoshop Elements (for PC):
http://aps8.com/ elements3.html
Get Photoshop Elements (for Mac):
http://aps8.com/ elements3mac.html

Books:
Get The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3:
http://aps8.com/ hppe3.html
Get The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2:
http://aps8.com/ hppe.html

Tools:
Get the Hidden Power tool set for Elements 3 (the same set that comes with the book, without the book):
http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028
Free, downloadable Hidden Power tools:
http:// hiddenelements.com/downloads.html
Hidden Power Infrared:
http:// hiddenelements.com/Mend
Hidden Power Mend (Healing tool):
http:// hiddenelements.com/Mend
Hidden Power Dynamic Image:
http:// hiddenelements.com/dynamic

Equipment:
Calibrate with ColorVision Spyder (complete package):
http://aps8.com/ calibrate.html
Calibrate with ColorVision Spyder (just the Spyder):
http://aps8.com/ spyder.html
Kensington Expert Mouse (what I use for image editing):
http://aps8.com/ trackball.html
Kodak DX 7630 Digital Camera (point-and-shoot recommended in issue 13):
http://aps8.com/ kodak.html
Canon Digital Rebel (midrange SLR recommended in this issue):
http://aps8.com/ canonrebel.html

----------
FAQ
----------

These questions continue to be frequently asked since the last issue.

--
Q: I try to install, see a DOS screen flash, and the installation seems to fail. Where can I get an installer that works?

A: The flash you see is the installer doing its job. The Hidden Power tools are already installed. Restart Elements, and you'll find them in the Effects palette.

--
Q: Please provide the password for installing the Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements.

A: Please read the introduction to the book...you'll find what you are looking for, along with some other handy information.

--
Q: I can't install the tools, can you help?

A: There is extensive troubleshooting information on the website. Please visit the site and try all the solutions. If you still have trouble, please let me know.


---------------------------
LONG ANSWERS
---------------------------

1. Installing Actions in Elements 3
2. Should Layers be Grayed for .bmp Files?
3. What Happened to the Hidden Power Website (hiddenelements.com)?
4. How Can I Make a JPEG Web Image Transparent?
5. Medium-priced Digital Camera Recommendation?
6. Are You Nutz, Richard?


-
1. Installing Actions in Elements 3
-

Is it possible to run Photoshop actions in Elements? I have seens
some actions for Photoshop that I would like to try, but I can't for the
life of me see how to install these in Elements.

You can run certain actions in Photoshop Elements. This is originally what I released the Hidden Power Actions tool to do. Later on when Adobe cut off access to the way I implemented that tool set, I decided to install tools through the Effects palette. This actually still works in Elements 1, 2 and 3, and requires no knowledge of HTML or XML. In other words, you don't need to know any code to get it done.

I've written up a set of steps here to give you a little more than the basics. A full-blown whitepaper on running actions in Elements can be found on the hiddenelements.com website: How To Run Actions in Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, 2 and 1

1. Locate or create an action that you want to run in Elements.
Actions for Elements can be found on the web, or you can create them yourself — if you have access to Photoshop (6, 7 and CS). Action files work on both Mac and PC, without alteration. Save the action file into a folder that is named to categorize the action.

2. Set Up the Action Preview.
The action preview image is the key to launching your action in Elements. This image file displays in the Effects palette and points Elements to the action you are attempting to run. Photoshop actions that you download from the internet will not have this preview image, so you will have to create the preview in order to kick off your actionin Elements.

a. Open Photoshop Elements.

b. Create a new image that is 64 by 64 pixels. Do this by choosing New from the File menu (File > New), or by pressing Command/ CTRL+N (Mac/PC) on your keyboard. When the New dialog appears, enter the name for the action, change the dimensions to 64 by 64 pixels and make the mode RGB.

c. Design your preview image as desired. This image can be changed later on after you run the action and are sure that it works. In fact you can use a sample of what the action does to create the preview after you run it. After you have created the look you want flatten the image (you may want to save the file with layers before flattening).

d. After flattening the image, open the Layers palette and double-click the Background layer. This will open the New Layer dialog. Change the Name of the layer to match the name of the action that you want it to run.

e. Save the file as a Photoshop document in the folder where you saved the action (.atn). When saving be sure that the option for Save Layers is checked.

3. Install the Action Folder in Elements.
You will need to locate the Effects folder in the Elements program folder. The Effects folder is located in slightly different places on PC ( C:\ Program Files\adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\Previews\Effects) and Mac (Applications: Adobe Photoshop Elements 3: Previews: Effects). Copy or move the entire category folder that you created in Step 1 into the Effects folder in Elements. After you have added the action category folder to the Effects folder, you have effectively installed the action. All that is left to do is make Elements recognize the new files and run the action.

4. Delete the Effects Cache folder.
To delete the Cache folder, just dump it in the trash and empty the trash. It is best to do this when the Elements program is not running. When you restart Elements it will look for the Cache, and when it doesn't find it it will rebuild according to what is in the Effects folder. In effect this forces Elements to recognize the new files you have installed.

5. Restart Elements.
Restart Photoshop Elements (e.g., from your desktop shortcut). If the Effects palette is not visible, open the palette by selecting it from the Window menu from the menu bar in Elements. If using Elements 3, choose Effects from the drop list at the upper left of the palette. With the Effects palette in view, allow Elements some time to rebuild the cache and display. Depending on how many items you have in the Effects, this can take a while. Be patient. When rebuilding activity seems to stop, take a look for your new action by viewing the list, or by selecting the category from the drop list. If the action appears in the list, you are ready to run it.

6. Run the Action.
To run the action, be sure an image is open, and double-click the thumbnail in the listing. An image must be open for the effect to run, even if the action opens a new image during the action.

-
2. Should Layers be Grayed for .bmp Files?
-

I use PSE2, and I'm trying to edit a .bmp file, but my layers palette is
completely grayed out. Why is that? Is editing .bmp files different in
PSCS?

There is more than one type of file that is called a bitmap, and a difference between bitmap mode and a bitmap file type. One type of bitmap is a bitmap mode file. It is a literal black-and-white file (a bit-depth of 1) where pixels are either on or off forming a black and white pixel grid (no grayscale). A .bmp file is referred to as a bitmap file as well. However, .bmp files can be RGB and Grayscale mode and can have 24-bit color. Traditionally, a .bmp file is considered as a PC file type — and it is not in bitmap mode. In some sense, all non-vector (fixed resolution) images are bitmaps in that they are mappings of bits. However, reference to a "bitmap" file is usually the .bmp file type or the bitmap mode. The Bitmap mode and .bmp file type are used for very different things.

If you have a black-and-white 1-bit bitmap, the file itself will be in bitmap Mode, and this will limit what you can do with the file pretty severely. The file will have only one layer and you will be limited to working with it in pure black or pure white. This seems to be what you are describing. This type of bitmap file will not support layers, which would explain why the layers options are grayed out. Elements (and Photoshop) are context sensitive: when a feature is not available in a particular mode, it is grayed out and rendered inaccessible.

When editing in PSCS or Elements, Bitmap mode files behave pretty much the same. To edit bitmap mode files using layers and other features, you will want to switch, at least temporarily, to another mode that supports these features (e.g., RGB or Grayscale). Be aware that changes you make that result in grayscale will be converted to a black and white pixel mapping if you switch back to bitmap mode. Additional layers will be flattened in the result.

Circling back to the idea that bitmap mode and bitmap file type are different things, you should be sure why are you working in Bitmap mode or with a .bmp file type, and that the mode and type are the result that you want. Usually bitmap mode files are used to store lineart. That is, if you are making a scan of a line-drawing, like pen and ink, you might make the scan in bitmap mode at a high resolution, 600- 3200dpi. The resulting bitmap will have the benefit of high resolution (so that curves and edges appear smooth and sharp, rather than blocky), and the high resolution will not carry the bulk that you have in a higher bit-count file. For example, if you scan line-art in a bitmap mode file at 1200 ppi, the file would be about 8 times the size as a grayscale file, and 24 times the size in 24-bit color. Likely you would want to lower the resolution of the 8-bit and 24-bit images as the information in those files will affect output differently than a bitmap mode file. As for storing images in .bmp mode, it is likely not the best choice. TIFF is more commonly used for storage and for print, and is likely more compatible with other programs and layout. In short, if you don't have a specific reason for using bitmap mode or .bmp file type, don't.

There is more information about file type, mode and bit-depth in the Hidden Power books. But if you have more questions about mode or file format that you don't think I answer here or there, I'd be glad to fill the information in.

-
3. What Happened to the Hidden Power Website (hiddenelements.com)?
-

Your PE2 book website and forum website both proved valuable resources.
I have not been able to access the site recently. I do hope you plan to
update them to PE3. Will you, and if so when?

First, thanks for contacting me about the problem. The site has never been down, really, but apparently it was not visible to a select group of visitors due to some incompatabilities. The great disappearance of the Hidden Power website was temporary, and only affected people using particular browsers, and those using Norton Security.

I had spent several weeks earlier this year after the release of the new book updating the Hidden Power site for Elements 3, and then I added back the Elements 2 materials. Regretfully, at the same time, an error in the page code propagated and made the pages inaccessible to some visitors. Of course, many, like yourself, just assumed that the site was down. Meanwhile I could browse it just fine on my Mac and PC, and I had no idea anything was wrong -- till hits to the site started to drop.

You may have been visiting the site just after the change. I fixed the problem as soon as I was aware of it. The updates to the site are an ongoing thing at this point. For example, I converted all the back issues of the newsletter to HTML (from RTF and TXT files), and have finally had some time after fixing the troubles to add in some new tools (Infrared and the free tools). I continue to try to get others (authors, developers, knowledgeable Elements users) involved to help add content. This will hopefully lead to more content in the way of tools and more tutorials and articles./ p>

I'm hoping the navigation of the site has been simplified by the changes. Certainly the look of the site has been changed: it is more text oriented. In the long run I will probably do something to enhance the look of it...I stripped out a lot of things attempting to find the underlying problem. At the same time, I also changed services to one that will allow me a little more flexibility in development (to automate download after purchases, for example). The drawback was that I had to rebuild everything from scratch (as the previous system was proprietary) and it took some time. I will eventually be setting up an area for tips and tutorials, which should be a big draw alongside the newsletter archive and tool downloads (I've got plans to continue to enhance the latter). The How to Run Actions in Adobe Photoshop Elements white paper is currently the only tutorial on the site. I have 20 or more articles that I hope to be converting over the next few months. I am open to suggestions.

I welcome interest from readers who want to help as well as anyone who wants to contribute tools and tutorials. I'm convinced this site can become the ultimate resource for Elements users. And please, if you see something wrong on the site, let me know!

-
4. How Can I Make a JPEG Web Image Transparent?
-

I have a JPEG that is jagged around the edges and doesn't have a transparent background. I do not have the original psd file. Is there a way to resave this JPEG maybe to a GIF so I can have a transparent background while not loosing quality. I need this image for a website.

I think that you know by the way you asked the question that the result would be better to do from the original image, because the JPEG compression will affect the result. There is also a question of resolution, and whether you have what you need already separated in the original. However, since you asked this way I'll approach the answer as if going back to an original isn't an option.

JPEG images will not support transparency. You can make them appear to be transparent by matching background colors, but sometimes you will need genuine transparency, where you can see through certain areas of your image to whatever is in the background. In this case you can use either GIF or PNG images, as both support web transparency. PNG offers some advanced features, but those files may be less compatible with certain browsers. GIF image transparency is perhaps less sophisticated, but it is more broadly compatible with browsers.

You can convert from the JPEG file to GIF to create transparency for the web. You will have a little bit of a challenge creating the transparency depending on the content of the image. From what you describe the image is already somewhat degraded, either by the compression or lack of resolution. Making the image partially transparent will likely not solve these problems, and you may need other corrective intervention.

As far as making part of the image transparent, try this:

1. Open the image.
2. [I assume the image is flattened] double-click the Background in the layers palette.
3. Make a selection of the part of the image that you want to make transparent.
4. Press Delete. This will remove the selected area.
5. Save using Save for Web, and use GIF and Transparency options.

The problem you will likely run into here is that the selection will not be tight to the object. You may want to fiddle with the selection using various means of selection adjustment (anything from starting over to using expand/contract). If there are drop shadows, you might want to consider recreating them...drop shadows in transparency situations can be tricky. I have an article on my Photoshop website (http://ps6.com) that needs some updating for the examples, but discusses transparency for print and the web in detail. You may want to explore the tutorial links there.

-
5. Midrange Digital Camera Recommendation?
-

In the last issue of the newsletter you made a recommendation for
a budget digital camera (Kodak Easyshare DX7630). Do you have a
mid-range recommendation?

My concerns for a mid-range camera would include flexibility and durability. The difficulty here is that you can either get a high-end point-and-shoot, or a lower-end SLR. Anyone spending mid-range money is likely more serious about digital photography, either that, or they just have money to burn. I really think that in either case I would recommend the Canon Digital Rebel. My reasoning is simple: it is the lowest cost digital SLR from a major manufacturer, and it gets good reviews just about everywhere. I don't own this camera, but I've used one. Having an SLR will allow you grow with your experience...you can add lenses to suit your shooting needs, work in various manual modes, and do all the stuff that you might with a high-end analog camera in digital for a comparable price. The 6.3 megapixel image is what I calculated and continue to believe is equivalent of 35 mm film.

Here is a review (not my own): http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/ eos_300d-review/index.shtml

Some notes on the article: very nicely considered and complete. I have no real gripes with the content whatsoever.

Again, keep in mind digital camera shopping is not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. You really need to get out to the stores and hold the darned cameras in your hand. The feel of my Sigma would turn off a lot of people who want a pocket camera. Those with big hands will want a bigger camera to provide some grip...those who don't want a lot of bulk would get frustrated lugging a camera bag instead of having a sleek camera they can really slip in their pocket.

Though I have only had my hands on a Digital Rebel for a few shots, I found it easy to use and would consider it an infinitely better choice for those who are turned off to digital because they like the options offered by their analog SLR. This camera bridges the gaps in price and performance, as well as in options. However, take your own personal needs into account when shopping for a camera. You may find something better for you.

Shop for the Canon Digital Rebel on Amazon

-
6. Are You Nuts, Richard?
-

[To preface this, I get a lot of email, and I try and answer it all. Most of the time it is a simple query, and sometimes they are complements or other comments that I can only say 'thanks' to. Sometimes people get a little peeved over having difficulty with a tool installation (which is understandable). And other times, and thankfully rarely, I get accused of terrible Internet schemes that I have planned to bilk cash from people. Some have suggested I was selling books or software that I knew didn't work, that I posted techniques that can't possibly do what they say, or that I was being greedy by selling tools rather than giving all of them away. Once someone accused me of writing a bad technique that was in another book by another author that I had absolutely nothing to be with. In all, even if I engaged in a small percentage of the things that people have accused me of, I would gain a bad reputation mighty quickly, and that might not work well for sales. Almost anything can be twisted. This may be another of those situations where you can please some of the people some of the time...]

Are you people nuts? What kind of response is this?!? I complain that
the CD fails to install and that the book and CD give conflicting instruction
(the CD says the password is on page 23) and you send my message
back to me (albeit promptly) with a salutation of "Enjoy" without answering
the question?!

The email that you received was an automated response simply confirming your question was submitted. Sorry that it offended you. There is no team of "people" manning the email — just lil ol' me. While it would be great to have that kind of time, I am not sitting in front of my computer 24 hours a day waiting for the next question to arrive. I used an automated response to let you know I received a message...it wasn't meant as an answer to the question, and I don't believe it poses as such. The confirmation says: "You sent the following Request to Richard Lynch from the hiddenelements.com web site." and : "All attempts will be made to fill popular requests and answer promptly (if that is required)." [This particular submission system was on the old site and is not currently in use, but it will be restored shortly.

I don't know that an auto-response warrants your accusation about being nuts. Lots of web sites use auto-responders for very similar purposes...The hope is to let visitors know that request are received and have not fallen into some black hole. As finicky as the web is, you can't really be sure that submisions are received without a confirmation. It also puts a little pressure on me to send an answer.

In any case, I have read your email. Sorry you had trouble with the installation. You said that there was something wrong with the CD. It is highly unlikely that the CD is bad, and even less likely in your situation as you suggest you were able to read the installation instructions from the CD. If you can open that file on the CD, chances are the CD and the files on it are fine. Actually, if you entered the password and a black screen flashes, chances are that the tools are already installed. This is the most common problem that people have with the installation: it goes too quickly. Have you checked in Elements to see if the tools are there?

About the page number — it was my idea, admittedly, but the publisher's execution. I asked if they could put a page number in the readme on the CD. When I asked, the book was not yet paginated so I couldn't tell what page the password was on. You see, the publisher creates the CD...they also do the layout for the book, and I have no way of knowing what will fall on which page. It is likely that different departments at the publisher make the CD and layout, so there isn't even a person at the publishing house that is really to blame. As it turns out, someone doing the CD materials probably got a page proof, counted in 23 pages from the front of the book and determined the password was on "page 23". Regretfully the pages were not numbered from the beginning of the book. The password is in the introduction, which I suggest that everyone using the book read: It has valuable information, like the password. Apparently you found it, however.

If you would like to tell me exactly what the instructions were that made you say: "I have never encountered a more screwed up set of instructions to install a CD." I'd be glad to know. The instructions for installing, from what I understand, should pretty much say: "double-click the installer and let it do its thing". Your one need was to find the password, which you did successfully — even though it was on a different page than noted on the CD. If the tools are already installed and you just haven't looked for them, perhaps the installer isn't so screwed up after all...

Thanks for writing.

----------------------
Short Answers
----------------------


-
1. An Elements 3 Book?
-

> I am working with your Hidden Power book
> and the tools for Elements 2. What about
> Elements 3.0?

The book and tools have been updated for Elements 3: See the Elements 3 book on Amazon

-
2. How to Use Duotone Previews
-

> On page 127, The Hidden Power of Photoshop
> Elements 2, I click on the
> Duotone_Preview_Bar.psd I get a large solid
> color bar come up in sepia or pantone
> color. What am I supposed to do with this?
> I already know what color I'm using. If I go
> into the Hidden Power tools and click on the
> Duotone Power Bar a bar comes up in the image
> I have on the desktop showing the gradient from
> dark to light color. What I'm I supposed to do
> with this?

I am pretty sure this is discussed in the book, also on 127. The PSD file is for manually testing gradients to be sure they are helping you create the kind of tone/ color response that you want in your duotones. You can use it to see a preview of the smoothness of the tone and color gradient in a way that will not be apparent in the image. See figure 5.16 on page 122. The testing should show a smooth gradient in just about every case (excepting special effects).

The automated tool I included creates the bar right in your image as a preview. the removal tool takes it out once you have checked the duotone. The PSD and automated tool are two different methods to check the same thing: that your duotone is working with, rather than against, the tone of your image.

-
3. Installing the CD Images
-

> When I click on the examples on the CD, I get
> neither explanation nor installation, just the
> Control Panel listing of the files. Can you
> help me to get this up and running so I can
> begin to work with the book?

Please read the introduction to the book where you will find out more about the tools and installation. The book is the explanation for the tools; installation is a matter of kicking off the installer. This installation will not install the images/ examples. You only need these example files to follow along with the exercises in the book. Just access them as you need them by opening with Elements from the CD.

-
4. Compare Mend and Healing
-

> How do PE3's Healing Brush and your Mend Tool
> relate to each other [basically duplicate,
> overlap, have similar and different qualities]?

The Healing tool in Elements 3 and Hidden Power Mend (for Elements 1, 2 and 3) do a very similar thing. Healing will be quicker and perhaps less flexible than Mend. Mend will create a set of layers with the tone and color changes so that you can adjust them individually--a flexibility that Healing does not provide. I built the Mend tool for Elements 1 and 2 users because they didn't have the Healing tool, like you do in Elements 3. I am not pushing the Mend tool on PE3 users as they have Healing, but it can be educational and interesting. The results compared side-by-side will be similar, but Mend will help you understand how the Healing tool works. I think Mend is better (my humble opinion) because it will allow more adjustments and fine-tuning after the application because it leaves the correction layers as components. Healing hides all that from the user.

If you are asking how it works and how I figured it out: Duplicating the Healing tool took a few weeks - and I figured out most of it in my sleep. Same with CMYK separations. I am more of a technician than an artisan - at least when it comes to processing images. How did I figure the 150 steps? I'm not really sure...but likely it was one result at a time. How does it work? It compares color and tone and texture in the sample to the target and makes a blend. Mostly it substitutes in the color and texture of the sample into an average of the tone of the area.

-
5. Elements 3 Tool Upgrade
-

> Where can I buy and download the Elements 3 tools
> you mentioned in your February newsletter?

The upgrade tools are for sale at Sybex. You can get the tools whether or not you have the first book (for Elements 2). I recommend having one or the other, however, as the book tells how to use the tools.
http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028

-
6. Installing Tools in Elements 2
-

> I followed the steps for tool installation [PSE2] exactly and
> got an error that I could not write to the installation
> drive. I don't know what's wrong. Here's what I did: I
> double-clicked the installer, clicked OK on the introduction,
> chose the HPPSElements2 (D) disc with the browser button, then
> entered the password, and pressed extract. That's when
> I got the error. What's up?

Seems like you chose to try and install to the CD - which you can't write to - instead of your harddrive. You are not trying to locate where the tools are installing FROM, but where you want them to install TO. When you browse for an install folder, look for your Elements program folder - most likely on the C drive. The default Adobe installation folder for the program is C:\Program Files\Adobe\PhotoshopElements2 for PC and Applications:Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 for Mac.

-
7. Error in Color and Luminosity
-

> The extracting luminosity from color directions in steps
> 4 & 6 have two layers named luminosity. I believe step
> 4 should be named Composite.

I think you are right. Thanks! I'll get it in the errata for the book.

-
8. Highlight and Shadow Instead of Curves?
-

> The inclusion of "Shadows/Highlights" to adjust lighting
> in PE 3 seems to me a much easier and quicker way of
> improving many images over the previously necessary
> use of Curves, etc. For example, the exercise on pp.22-24
> of you book on Elements 3 still bases the image's
> improvement on Curves; however, in experimenting with
> that image my eye seems to see about the same level
> of improvement using "Shadows/Highlights" as with
> Curves, and it certainly is easier and quicker for me
> to use. Please tell me, am I missing something or
> superficially making changes that would be better done
> otherwise?

My book is not made of 'easier and quicker' solutions; it is about controlling your images. Some tools work better in some cases, and it is rarely the quicker one. If I have access to both tools, it is likely I would choose Curves every time. In this case it may come down to the way you like to work. I think Shadow and Highlight can work on that image, but I don't know that is it specifically "better". It certainly would not be better targeted. The point of the book is to demonstrate specific tools - especially those that the user otherwise does not have. With curves, you have specific control. With Highlight and Shadow, you have the limited control Adobe allows you. You can't really pinpoint a range for the highlight/shadow tool as you can with Curves. That Shadow and Highlight works for a particular image is not surprising, but it doesn't, from my perspective, dictate that it needs to be covered or recommended. I don't think anyone can envision exactly how that tool is affecting the image. Part of the idea behind the book is picking a tool set that can be used in any situation, and limiting that tool set for simplicity, power and control. I like knowing what is happening. With masking and curves or other means, I can specifically control a range of tones. With Shadow/Highlight I guess I could make a correction, but I would not be sure what was happening or why it worked. Curves remain my tool of choice for this type of adjustment.

-
9. Missing Steps on Page 59
-

> On p. 59 the instructions say to "repeat steps 5-11".
> On p. 58 there are only 7 steps, so I'm wondering if
> 4 steps were left out on p. 58

No steps were left out. In editorial (after the book left my hands), the steps 8-11 were changed into bullets. This may have been because of formatting I applied accidentally or some other error. Who knows. In any case, the steps are the bullets. If you number the bullets continuing from the previous section (which ends at 7) you'll find the missing steps. I'll add that to the errata.

--
10. Isolating the Flower
--

> On p. 58 (HPPE3) I don't see how you isolated the
> flower of the lily.

Following the steps for that particular exercise, the flower is not separated or isolated. The information you see as an additional layer is painted with a tool in a layer above the image, as I believe is suggested by the copy and captions in the book. As I painted, I followed the shape of the flower. The Figure in the book attempts to capture the idea that the information was added in a layer.

--
11. Converting to Grayscale
--

> Ref page 131 (hppe2) Why do you have to convert
> the image to grayscale? Can you not work with colors.
> You say duplicate he channels. Do I go into Hidden
> Power Tools Separations and select the Split RGB
> channels? You do not say to do this in the Manuel.
> How do I get the channels?

This example has to do with channel calculations. Channels are usually considered as black-and-white representations of a given color component (as explained more fully in the book's early chapters). I guess you could work with color, but frankly I would have some difficulty myself predicting a result because of the level of complexity. The idea of calculations is usually to re-define a specific channel or achieve a grayscale result. My question to you would be: "what are you trying to achieve?"

The book is cumulative...in other words, it assumes that you understand earlier concepts before moving on. In this case, you may extract channels in many different ways: Split RGB, Split CMYK, Split Luminosity and Color, etc. you could also make channels from selections, hue/saturation results, and more. The examples in the book provide...examples. Your creative sense may take you quite a lot further than the simple examples I show. I do believe that this particular section of the book says that the variations are too many to cover.

What you want to calculate depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The book is suggesting a general procedure. If I tell you specifically which channels, it is no longer general procedure. We come back to the question I ask above. If you let me know specifically what you are trying to accomplish, I can get you a better procedure.

--
12. Do You Answer Email?
--

> If you are not going to answer my inquiry
> please e-mail back and let me know if you
> are not going to waste your time.

I attempt to answer every question that I get, and I answer most promptly. The answers you see in the newsletter are usually a collection of the most interesting of these; all have already been sent in reply to the questions. Please allow some time for response, up to about a week. If I haven't answered it by then, I may have lost it in the shuffle. If you consider that I have some 30,000 readers (that is guessing, and only pertains the the Hidden Power books), you might see how it can become difficult to answer everyone's email promptly. Most authors don't even bother. Another way to get answers is to visit the forums, which frankly aren't getting the kind of use I would have expected. Try: http://hiddenelements.com/foruminfo.html

--
13. Elements 3 Book Light on Color Management
--

> I like your book, but it is somewhat light on
> color management.

As an old-timer in digital output, I tend more to the school of Dan Margulis in that I got results before profiles. I think users sometimes get bogged down in the weight of color management and I went "light" on purpose in the book...though 'light' in this case is actually pretty heavy (and likely heavier than just about any other book on Elements) considering the user has only one choice to make in the color management dialog. The book shows how to do things with a profile, rather than what Adobe would allow on the surface. I appreciate that many use color management with success, but there are only so many colors CMYK can represent in the end, and good practice and correction will likely get you more consistent and predictable results than those obtained with more invasive color management. If photographic results are really imperative, it may be better to use a photographic process (CRT or output to film).

--
14. Will You Sell My Tools?
--

> I have some ideas for tools. Would you be willing to sell them off your site?

The short answer is: Sure. The longer answer is: I am not sure. It would depend on whether I was going to be doing all the development based on the idea and what you thought was both a fair price and fair share. I hesitate to ask for ideas as I have many of my own that I really don't have time to get to, and on the off chance that someone else had the same idea, they might later think that I had stolen it. In another case you might think you have a great idea, and I might not see it that way because it either doesn't fit with the quality of tools I like to present, so I might not be interested in including it with the materials on the site; I don't want to get people angry by turning down their ideas. Sooo, a much more realistic answer is: if you have a finished product many people are going to be interested in (or already have been), and it isn't something that overlaps Hidden Power tools, I would be glad to include it in the Hidden Power download area. I would also consider short articles. But please be aware I reserve the right to reject absolutely anything, and that I have a list a mile (ok, half-mile) long already of things I want to do. I welcome anyone to discuss their ideas in the forums (see: http:// elementsusers.com).

--
15. Calculations Setup
--

> In HPPE2, page 131, Calculations setup. I attempted
> to do this with an image of mine and couldn't get it
> to work. What am I trying to accomplish? Admittedly
> I didn't try using the example image.

The idea of this section is to explain calculations in preparation for the CMYK separation — which you are approaching. If you want to do something interesting with calculations, try the manual sharpening...The idea is basically to look at a means of combining elements in your images. I believe the flower image used in these diagrams is included with the book, on the CD.

--
16. Secure PDFs From Elements
--

> The March issue of Shutterbug magazine has a good review
> of Elements 3. In it the reviewer states (on page 61) that
> you can save your image to a PDF file and then set the
> parameters so when you email it, the recipient can't modify
> or print the image. Something is evidently adjusted in the
> print driver? How do I do that?

Well, you can do this, but I don't think it is an Elements feature. PDF files can be protected from printing or editing, and that would be an option in Adobe Acrobat or Distiller. Probably even in files created through PDF online services. This can be set when printing, or after the file has been created, but from what I know you do that in Acrobat, not Elements.

That said...I wouldn't be too dependent on the security for PDFs being an ultimate safety valve for your images. A simple screen shot will make an image editable once again.

--
17. Defining Modes
--

> I've got a few mode questions. Is Color: Is it the
> same as Hue? Is Saturation the intensity of a Hue?
> Is tone the same as brightness? If so, where does
> luminosity fit in?

Modes are all defined in the back of the Hidden Power books in the section that describes Modes. Color mode affects changes in hue and saturation, not just hue...hue is hue only. Saturation is definitely the intensity of the hue, yes. If you put a drop of blue dye in a little water and then add more water, you keep the hue but decrease the intensity/saturation. If you take the blue dye solution and add a drop of black dye, the hue and intensity stay the same but the solution is a darker tone. Luminosity is tone considered outside of color: it is what is left over if you remove the color. It is a component of luminosity and color separation.

--
18. Tips and Answers for Elements 2
--

> I assume that unless you indicate otherwise, your
> tips/answers are applicable to all versions of PSE
> and Hidden Power.

It is funny...I know most books are version specific, and sometime can't help but be because of programming changes. However, techniques I use rely less on tools than technique. That is...just about everything I do should be applicable to any version of Elements. The tools and steps might be slightly different because of changes to the program, but the concepts remain the same. Just to say, most tools that I make are compatible with Elements 1, 2 and 3, and work on Mac and PC...it is the way I like to work.

--
19. It Takes a Week to Get the Tools
--

> Your order pages say it can take up to a week to get
> your tools by email. That seems like a long time to
> get an e-mail product.

Up until recently, the online ordering of tools was not automated. It takes either money or time to work out an automated solution, and I chose to keep prices low. Mend and Dynamic Image tools were personalized for each user. On the other hand, it is impossible for me to provide daily service — it would significantly raise the cost of the tool to have to fill orders every day. I will likely soon have all the tools available for immediate download. Check out the listing: http://hiddenelements.com/ downloads.html

--
20. Power Tools Deleted My Effects
--

> I attempted to install the Elements Powertools from
> the disk included with the Hidden Power of Photoshop
> Elements 3 book. Not only did the install not work,
> but it seems to have deleted almost all of the
> Styles and Effects previously installed in Elements.

Actually, if you are not seeing previously installed items, the installation likely worked as planned and you need to be patient and wait for the menus to rebuild. Please allow about 5 minutes with Elements and the effects menu open to let the program rebuild the cache. You'll see things slowly start to fill back in on the menus. This process is a LOT slower than the installation itself. My tools will never do anything to your computer or Elements; the installation frankly isn't complicated enough to cause errors.

--
21. Dynamic Image Tool for Black-and-White
--

> I am working on black-and-white images. I was
> using the Dynamic Image tool, but I am not sure
> about where to start to "dynamic image" it!
> Can you help?

My standard color correction routine will actually work to improve the dynamic range of black-and-white images. Depending on the image, Dynamic Image will work too, but it may make some images contrasty. You have the most latitude in converting to black-and-white from color images, but as you will be scanning images (I suggest scanning to RGB and converting in case there is yellowing) from B&W, you will have a little less latitude.

If I could get a sample, I could probably make better suggestions.

I did read the request: "Here's my request. I am going to start photographing old black and white family pictures. (My scanner isn't as good as my Nikon 8m Coolpix.) I can shoot in RAW and I've almost got everything I need to double polarize the shots. But if they are black and white shots, I'm not sure the tools I use the most (see above) are what are best to bring out the best in the images. I realize I'll probably need to touch up the pictures first. I like the restoration part. Thankfully, they aren't in too bad of shape. Not sure about where to start to "black and white correct and dynamic image" it!"

however, I am not sure exactly what it is that you are requesting. What do you want a tool to do for you?

-----------------
OPINIONS
-----------------

This Opinions section is a new section of the Hidden Power Newsletter, where I snip out a few voiced opinions from my emails
and other places. Be heard by sending your opinion to me. Be heard by potential book buyers, and post your reviews and opinions of Hidden Power on Amazon.com by writing a review. If you like the Hidden Power book and tools, and newsletter, this will help assure that I keep them coming.

--
I got your Infrared tool and it is really fabulous! I've had a few other plugins (more expensive ones) and I don't have the control or results I get with this. Good job!

--
As a new purchaser of Hidden Power of Elements 3 and am overwhelmingly impressed. Keep up the good work, and subscribe me to the newsletter!

--
Just bought Hidden Power for PSE3, and love it so far. It's like that first week in a good college class when you look through the textbook and can't wait to understand (and yet can't imagine ever understanding) the stuff towards the back.

--
Regarding Hidden Power of Elements 3: Love the book!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

--
Are you people nuts?

--------------------------------------------------------
Do let me know about questions and comments, and let me know what you
think about the newsletter. rl@...
--------------------------------------------------------

Brought to you by Richard Lynch in conjunction with The Hidden power
of Photoshop Elements 2 and The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3

http:// hiddenelements.com

Copyright © 2005 Richard Lynch
------------------------------

--------------------------
  Hidden Power Newsletter
  February, 2005, Vol.13
  --------------------------

  The Newsletter for Elements Users

  -----------------
  IN THIS ISSUE
  -----------------

  THIS MONTH:

  In this issue we look at The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3.
It is time to solve those  installation problems, find out a little
more about sharpening, take a cut at splitting a  channel in a
different way, and find out why Photoshop is boring...


  WEBSITE UPDATE, TOOL UPGRADE RELEASED, HIDDEN POWER 3


  BUY IT NOW


  FAQ


  LONG ANSWERS ()


  SHORT ANSWERS ()


  OPINIONS


  -----------------------------------------------------
  WEBSITE UPDATE, TOOL UPGRADE RELEASED, HIDDEN POWER 3
  -----------------------------------------------------

The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3 was released a few weeks
after my last newsletter in  November. Since then I've been working
on updating my website and getting together some  tutorials and new
tools, while answering installation questions. I've also been trying
to  work out a deal with the publisher to distribute the tools for
Elements 3 users separately  from the book. We finally got that
together.

A beta for the web site up: http://hiddenpowertools.com. I got that
done at just about the  same time that the deal I had worked out with
the publisher for selling the tools separately.  I welcome your
comments on the website. If you don't want to get the book this time
around,  you can find the tools sold separately on the Sybex
website:  http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028 . You can
buy them and download/install  TODAY. I hope that this serves those
who were looking to just get the tools without having to  buy the new
book.

New tools on the Horizon include a Curves Tool & Channel Target combo
(more to it than meets  the description), Quick Mask, a tool set for
foreign language versions of Elements, and a  well-delayed type tool.
Free tools are a little further off, but I am sure to have some in
the coming months.

Please send questions and requests as they arise! thebookdoc@...


  ----------
  BUY IT NOW
  ----------

By purchasing items using the links below, you will help to support
Hidden Power development  while getting the best prices around.

Get Photoshop Elements (for PC):
      http://aps8.com/elements3.html
Get Photoshop Elements (for Mac):
      http://aps8.com/elements3mac.html
Get The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3:
      http://aps8.com/hppe3.html
Get only the Hidden Power tools for Elements 3:
      http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028
Calibrate with ColorVision Spyder
      (complete package): http://aps8.com/calibrate.html
      (just the Spyder): http://aps8.com/spyder.html
Hidden Power Mend (Healing tool):
      http://hiddenelements.com/Mend
Hidden Power Dynamic Image:
      http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic


  ----------
  FAQ
  ----------

I've gather a few select items for those who don't have time to read
the whole newsletter.  FAQ stands for Frequently Asked
Questions...and I have gotten these few questions that follow  in
various forms over the past several weeks. I hope they help.

--
Q: I try to install, see a DOS screen flash, and then nothing...

A: The flash you see is the installer doing its job. It is likely
that the Hidden Power tools  are already installed. Just restart
Elements, and you should be good to go. If not see #4  under the Long
Answers for more in-depth commentary on installation and
troubleshooting for  the tools. I forgot to put the install
confirmation in the PC installer...and installation  happens in a
virtual flash.

--
Q: Please provide the password for installing the Hidden Power of
Photoshop Elements.

A: Please read the introduction to the book...you'll find what you
are looking for.

--
Q: You said you'd be making the tools available separately from the
book. Have you done that  yet?

A: Sybex, my publisher, and I have agreed on terms for selling the
tools only. You can get  the tools from the Sybex site:
http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028

--
Q: I didn't see a set of free plug-ins for 3 on the Hidden Powers
site. Is there one? Do the  current ones work with 3?

A: There will be a set of tools for Elements 3, eventually. It takes
some time to put them  together. I'll announce in the newsletter and
on the website when it is available.


--------------------
LONG ANSWERS
--------------------

1. Isolating a Channel
2. Photoshop is boring
3. How Is It Best to Sharpen?
4. Why Can't I install the tools for Elements 3?
5. Digital Camera Recommendation?


  -
  1. Isolating a Channel
  -

<<I have been able to use your RGB tools for separation, and have
followed the tutorials in  the book for separating out channel
information. However, when I use the automated tool, it  flattens the
image, and I want to sometimes make a targeted change to a particular
layer. If  you can answer the following question, I think I'll know
what to do to solve my various  queries. How do I create a red
channel? From a single layer?>>

The quickest way to do this may be to just copy the layer you want to
work with into a new  image and then run the RGB tool. Several Hidden
Power tools use similar technique, creating a  new image to allow a
calculation or other layer-based function. Creating the new image
allows  you to use tools from the book to speed up the separation.

If you want to make the separation in the same image, you can do it
without the tools (or  instruction from the book) by manipulating
layers manually. If all you want is the red  component, I have an
easier, quicker method than described in the book. The book process
was  designed to help make sense of the digital flow; the following
steps just get the job done  quickly:

  1. Duplicate the Background layer. Change the name of the duplicate
layer to Red Channel.

  2. Create a new blank layer grouped to the Red Channel layer. Call
it Red Fill. Fill the Red  Fill layer with red (RGB: 255,0,0). Change
the mode of the layer to Multiply.

  3. Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and group it with
the Red Fill layer using  the Group With checkbox in the New Layer
dialog, then click OK. Choose Reds for the Edit mode  in the
Hue/Saturation dialog when it appears.  Slide the Saturation slider
all the way to the  left (-100), and the Lightness slider all the way
right (+100).

You now see the red channel. If you click on the Red Channel layer
and press Command/CTRL+E  the layers will merge and the red channel
will be left as a layer. Of course you can use the  above technique
to extract green and blue image information, too. You just need to
change the  names and color.

To isolate the red channel without flattening the file (and without
my Hidden Power tools),  it is just 5 easy steps, based on those
above:

  1. Create a new layer at the top of the layer stack, and press
CTRL+ALT+Shift+E/Command+Option+Shift+E (PC/Mac) to stamp visible.

  2. Create another layer at the top of the stack and fill with red
(R=255, G=0, B=0). Change  the color layer to multiply and merge
down.

  3. Add a hue/Saturation adjustment, (not an adjustment layer).
Choose Red from the drop list  and set lightness to +100. The layer
should turn grayscale, revealing the red channel.

  4. Add a red fill layer grouped to the Red component, and change the
mode to Multiply.  Change the mode of the Red component layer to
Difference. This will subtract out the  influence of the red channel
in the current image.

  5. Duplicate the Red component layer and the fill layer and group
the duplicates, then set  the layer mode of the Red Component copy to
screen.
Make adjustments that you need to the Red Component copy.

You can then play with grouping and masking as necessary to get
maneuver your change into  place in the layers.


-
2. Photoshop is boring
-

<<When I got Photoshop Elements, I thought it was going to be a lot
of fun. I haven't been as  entertained as I expected. It seems to me
you have to go into it with something in mind, or  else you just
don't get much accomplished. Am I missing something?>>

I have taught creative writing and creative imaging, and perhaps this
isn't what you want to  hear but 'boring' is in the eye of the
beholder. If you are going into Photoshop Elements to  do something,
it isn't the program that you will have to expect to perform tricks
or keep  your interest like a video game might. YOU have to provide
the interest, and perhaps that is  one of the hardest things to come
to terms with. If I am writing a story and it turns out  boring, it
is either because I was unable to do something interesting or just
having a bad  creative day...I'd be hard-pressed to blame that on MS
Word (no matter how delightful doing  that might be).

I, for one, very rarely find that there is nothing I can do in
Photoshop Elements to make an  image more interesting. Usually, in my
case, that means cleaning up the defects and  correcting tone and
color. Not everyone will find delight in that like I do. If I were
looking for something more entertaining, my direction might be as
frivolous as running a few  filters on an image, or opening an image
(or several) at random and playing with it to  achieve some
interesting results.

In writing as with images, teaching creative stuff was always a
matter of getting students to  realize it was OK to play. My guess is
you don't see using Elements as a game. It is likely  you either
expect to perform at a specific level, or don't know what you might
do that is  fun, and have led yourself to an impenetrable wall of
disappointment -- not getting enough  from the program.

My books (Elements 1 & 2: http://aps8.com/hppe.html; Elements 3:
http://aps8.com/hppe3.html)  don't really get into teaching
creativity. A book that promised to make a reader more  creative
would essentially have to teach creative behavior rather than how to
get things  done. In other words, a text to learn creativity would
coax a user to play and experiment in  order to find the 'fun'. It
doesn't really take a lot of space the way i just wrote it. I can
teach techniques for creativity, but I can't promise to make a reader
creative if they have  no capacity or interest in experimentation and
play...Sometimes that comes from having no  goals or expectations at
all. Again, it isn't the tool or the book or the inspiring object
that makes us creative, it would still be the sense of play.

My prescription to try and solve your boredom would be to go into the
program without  expectation. Open an image and start by doing some
basic things like dust corrections and  other perhaps mechanical
procedures like color correction until you see something in an image
that strikes a fancy. If it is interesting enough to explore, you'll
start playing with  solutions...I bet you might find some inspiration
there.


-
3. How Is It Best to Sharpen?
-

<<Isn't using unsharp mask in LAB supposed to be better than just
sharpening an RGB image?  Can it be done in Elements? Which channel
gets sharpened?

First, sharpening should be used to improve images that are already
good -- not to sharpen  blurry images. I get more into that in the
book, but think it is good to start with that  here. The specific
problem of sharpening an RGB image is that you sharpen the color
along  with the tone: everything in the image edges is enhanced,
including color noise. That's where  you have the problem.

The allure of sharpening in LAB mode is that color is extracted from
tone. I talk about this  a little in the book having to do with the
Luminosity and color separation and RGBL. with  tone separated from
color, you can sharpen just the tone to define edges, without
enhancing  color noise.

If sharpening in LAB, you will most likely apply the sharpening to
the L channel, or  Luminosity. This will improve edge contrast for
the tone without reeking havoc on the image  color. You can do a very
similar thing in Elements without leaving RGB by doing the following
(again, here, without the tools):

  1. Create a new blank layer at the top of your layer stack and name
it
Sharpen.

  2. Press Cmd+Option+Shift+E/Ctrl+ALT+Shift+E (Mac/PC) to merge the
content of the image to the Sharpen layer.

  3. Change the Mode to Luminosity.

  4. Sharpen the Sharpen layer using Unsharp Mask.

Because the upper layer mode is luminosity the result will have less
effect on the color. You can make the difference even less by first
converting the Sharpen layer to tone:

  1. Create a new blank layer at the top of your layer stack and name
it
Sharpen. Fill with 50% gray. Shut off the view for the layer.

  2. Create a second new layer at the top of the stack and name it
Source.

  3. Press Cmd+Option+Shift+E/Ctrl+ALT+Shift+E (Mac/PC) to merge the
content of the image to the Source layer.

  4. Change the Mode of the Source layer to Luminosity.

  5. Merge Down (press Cmd/Ctrl+E)

  6. Change the mode of the Sharpen layer to Luminosity.

  7. Sharpen the Sharpen layer using Unsharp Mask.

You may not see a lot of difference between these two techniques, but
careful comparison (you might want to use Difference mode) will show
quite a lot. The second set of steps will result in something nearly
identical to
what you'd get in Lab without the mode switch.

Blurring color will likely improve the results, by reducing color
noise!


-
4. Why Can't I install the tools for Elements 3?
-

<<I have tried to install the Hidden Power 3 tools several times, and
I can't seem to. Do you  have some definitive trouble-shooting
information?>>

This is actually quite a large order. While probably 99% of people
trying to install have no  trouble at all: they just click on the
installer and the tools end up in Elements...no  problem. Some
people, on the other hand, can go through trouble for several
frustrating hours  hoping only to install the tools. This part of the
newsletter is dedicated to avoiding those  problems. I'll be posting
this separately to the website as well.

There are a bunch of little things that can be going wrong...I have
had experience with  everything from people trying to install the
tools without installing Elements, people  installing to a second
installation of Elements and opening the wrong program, people
having  trouble because of various system-unique problems (one person
had a CD-ROM player that did  not function, another no CD-ROM
player), to more standard problems, like virus protection  getting in
the way, or the tools getting installed and the user not knowing
(failing to look  in the program or failing to restart Elements after
the install). There are a plethora of  simple problems you can have
during installation of even simple software. I'll try to go  through
what I know here.

First, here is how you should install:

INSTALLATION
1. Turn on your computer.
2. Disable virus protection.
3. Insert the Hidden Power CD from the book into your computer's CD-
ROM drive.
4. Locate the Hidden Power tool installer on the CD (if the CD
autostarts, you will use the  Power Tools link; if the CD does not
autostart, the installer will be in the Power Tools  folder).
5. Close out of Elements if the program is open or opens on startup.
6. Double-click the installer that you located in step 2.
7. Read and address any installation screens that appear on your
monitor.
8. Restart your computer.
9. Enable virus protection.
10. Start Photoshop Elements 3.
11. Check in the program for Hidden Power tools. You will find them
in the Styles and Effects  palette. Open the Styles and Effects
palette by choosing Styles and Effects from the windows  menu. Choose
Effects from the drop list on the left and the Hidden Power tool
categories  should become available in the drop list at right (it may
take a few minutes for Elements to  rebuild the cache...).

If you called me on the phone, the first thing that we would likely
do is run through the  installation as per the steps above. They are
a little conservative (meaning all those steps  are rarely
necessary), but effective in most cases.

If the installation is complete and you still cannot access the
tools, please follow the tips  in the trouble-shooting section just
below. Take the steps in order, one at a time.

TROUBLESHOOTING
A. Be sure you have followed all the instructions in the installation
instructions above,  including disabling virus protection and
restarting your computer before bothering with  troubleshooting. Some
of the following trouble-shooting steps may seem redundant. Please
humor me...

B. Reboot your computer, then restart Elements. Check for the tools.

C. Be sure the tools you are installing are in the Elements Effects
folder. The Effects  folder is in the previews folder (Photoshop
Elements 3.0/Previews/Effects). You can find this  folder in the
Elements program folder, as follows:

      PC installer will install to:
           C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\

      Mac installer will install to:
           Adobe Photoshop Elements 3: Previews: Effects:

If the tools are not installed, try the installation again.

After you try the installation again, look for the tools. If they
aren't there, you need to  locate them. Search for 'PowerTools'. If
they have installed, see C. If not, be sure you have  not changed the
folder name for the tools (for PC it should be Photoshop Elements
3.0; for  mac, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3). A PC-only problem can be
that Elements is installed on  something other than the C drive. [See
If Elements is Installed on something Other than the C  Drive below.]

D. Be sure you have Elements installed only once and that you are
starting the Elements  application from the folder where you
installed the tools.

E. Delete the Elements Rebuild the Adobe Photoshop Elements Settings
file. This will restore  default palette placement and tool settings,
and will delete your color settings -- so it  should be used as a
last resort. [See instructions for Rebuilding the Settings file
below.]

F. If you have completed A through D, and you see the files in the
right place but the tools  still do not appear in Elements, open and
save the PSD files associated with the tools,  saving each without
making any changes. use Save As... [See Resaving the Image Files
below.]

G. Reinstall Elements, and then reinstall the Hidden power tools from
the CD.

H. While it is highly unlikely that you will get this far without a
solution, you aren't done  yet. Contact Richard by sending an email
to: thebookdoc@.... Please use the Subject:  Installation Trouble
HPPE3

IF ELEMENTS IS INSTALLED TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE C DRIVE
This is a PC-only issue. You have two choices for fixing this:

      1) Install Elements to the C drive and
         reinstall the tools from the CD.

      2) Install the tools from the CD to the
         C drive temporarily and move the tools
         to where you have Elements installed.

If you chose the second option, in addition to installing and moving
the tool folders (tool  folders are named: PowerBonus,
PowerSeparations, PowerTools1, and PowerTools2), you will want  to
delete the Effects Cache folder. You can find the Cache folder in
the "Photoshop Elements  3.0/Previews/" folder. You may want to
rebuild the settings file as well.

REBUILDING THE SETTINGS FILE
To rebuild the Settings, hold down the
Command+Option+Shift/Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys (Mac/PC) on  the keyboard
when starting up Elements -- immediately after choosing Edit and
Enhance Photos  on the Welcome screen, if you are on a PC. Hold the
keys down until the prompt to delete the  Adobe Photoshop Elements
settings file appears, and click [YES]. The deleted file will be  re-
created automatically.

RESAVING IMAGE FILES
If you can see the installed tools in the right folder in Elements,
and you still don't see  the tools in the program, you might try
resaving the image files used to store display  information for the
tools. There are 4 image files, one for each Hidden Power tool:
PowerBonus.psd, PowerSeparations.psd, powertools1.psd, and
powertools2.psd. Just open  Elements, open the image files (one at a
time), make no changes to the file, and save using  Save As...

Once done saving the files, restart Elements.


-
5. Digital Camera Recommendation?
-

<<My sister asked for a camera recommendation as she knows I take
digital images all the  time. I am not sure what will be the best for
her in her price range (around $300). I do know  she isn't patient
with the focusing search, and that she'll have the camera for a
while.  She'll want something easy to use...>>

I recently recommended a consumer camera to a number of people
(including close relatives and  my boss), though I don't use it
myself. All have come back with rave reviews, about  ease-of-use,
features, and cost. The Kodak Easyshare DX7630 (See:
http://aps8.com/kodak.html). It is a 6MP camera, so has the capacity
to shoot what are really  35mm equivalents. The first digital I ever
used was a Kodak...though it was priced slightly  more than my car at
the time, and was targeted to a much different market. Kodak makes
some  pretty good products for digital photography. At under 500, you
can get many decent  cameras...but few will have a pixel count as
high as this Kodak (lots of pixels usually  equates to better
quality) and quick focusing. The camera will be viable for several
years at  least as far as pixel count is concerned.

Here is a review (not my own):
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/kodak/dx7630-review/index.shtml

Some notes on the article: The ISO images they show in the review are
pretty deceptive. Many  digital cameras won't even let you take those
images at night. I am not quite sure what thet  reviewer was
thinking. The later comment about the 6MP being overkill is
irresponsible, and  shows a lack of understanding of photography in
general. 6MP has been a target resolution for  standard matrix
capture in my book, because it equates roughly to 35mm. I use a Sigma
SD9  myself (http://aps8.com/sigmasd10.html), which only has a 3.4MP
effective image, though the  capture is really 10.4MP. It is a
different technology for capture and would be overkill for  casual
shooters.

Conversion lenses make the Easyshare good enough for many advanced
purposes (I see you can  get a set of lenses on ebay for 79$), but
they are completely unnecessary. Nice lens, nice  exposure
times...The only downside seems to be a proprietary battery, and for
me, no RAW  mode. It is likely that a casual user won't care about
the latter. You'll want a 256MB card  for image storage -- which you
can get free or very cheaply if you shop around. I prefer  eCost for
memory card needs. You can often get what you need for just a few
dollars (after  rebate).

Keep in mind digital camera shopping is not a one-size-fits-all sort
of thing. You really  need to get out to the stores and hold the
darned cameras in your hand. The feel of my Sigma  would turn off a
lot of people who want a pocket camera. Those with big hands will
want a  bigger camera to provide some grip...those who don't want a
lot of bulk would get frustrated  lugging a camera bag instead of
having a sleek camera they can really slip in their pocket. I  like
the idea of the Easyshare DX7630 because it seems to ride the line,
having low cost and  good solid features. However, taking into
account your needs, you may find something better  for you.


------------------
Short Answers
------------------

-
1
-

>I have a good system that is working well for me now
>enhanced by your tools, but if I stick with Elements 2
>will you still be supporting it in future???

I expect to make enhancements for Elements until Adobe makes it
impossible. Steps they have  taken between releasing Elements 2 and
Elements 3 suggest they will not soon be ruining the  experience for
those who use my tools!


-
2
-

> In Photoshop, you can edit the selection using
> Transform without affecting the image, but can
> Photoshop Elements do it?

Sure. With the selection active, you can...

  1. Create a new layer, and call it Temp Transform.
  2. Change the opacity to 0%
  3. Fill with any color.
  4. Start the Transform function and distort to your heart's content.

You can Delete the layer when you are done.


-
3
-

> I recently purchased Scott Kelby's book on Elements.
> I'm wondering if your's will have a greater slant
> towards the Mac version as opposed to Scott's PC slant?

Scott and I have decidedly different approaches to image editing. He
is a tools-first kind of  guy and I am certainly for understanding
fundamentals and techniques-like how a digital image  goes together.
Scotts books will be lighter in theory, and will be more-or-less a
surface  approach to using the tools.

That said, my new book is all on editing...I don't even mention the
organizer as I do not  consider it important-at least not as far as
editing an image. I supply tools that ramp up  the power of elements,
allowing you to do thing people still say are only possible in
Photoshop. The book is decidedly 'advanced'. It is not a book that
you would pick up if your  intent is to render some neat effects
quickly, or if you don't have a serious interest in  photography and
getting the best results. You learn how to take an image apart and
put it  back together like in no other book. This gives you total
control over color and objects in  your image, and the tools give you
the power to accomplish your ends.


-
4
-

> How do I put "white frames" around pics......like the Ansel Adams
> pics? I've got Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

The simple way to do this is just change your background color swatch
to white and increase  the canvas size (on center) to, say 20
pixels...This will put a 10 pixel border around the  image. The
larger the picture, the broader the border should be. You either have
to be  working with a flattened image (Layer>Flatten Image), or you
can create a new layer below the  image to use as a background and
change that layer to a background (Layer>New>Background from  Layer).
It works either way.


-
5
-

> I'd like to get the Hidden Power book, but I recently bought PS
> Elements 3 for Mac OS X. Do you know if your hack will work with
> PS Elements 3?

Please, let's not refer to it as a 'hack'. Hacking would be changing
code in Adobe's program,  which is illegal. It is an enhancement,
plain and simple. I have updated the Hidden Power  book (and tools)
to work with Elements 3. If you get the Elements 3 book, it works
with both  Mac and PC.


-
6
-

> I am currently exploring an educational version of
> Elements 2, borrowed from a friend. Is this a downscaled
> version of the full elements 2?

I don't have that particular item at my disposal. However, if it is
like other educational  packages, it will likely be the full software
package missing the manual, along with other  offers and information.
This reduces the cost of distribution for the manufacturer.


-
7
-

> I would like to purchase Elements, but wasn't sure if
> I should save up for version 3 or go for one of the
> many version 2's now for sale on ebay.

The reason those Elements 2 packages are up for sale on ebay is
probably because the owners  moved to Elements 3 ;-) If you have a
serious digital camera or a scanner that can capture  more than 8-
bits, you might want to get Elements 3 just for the options offered
for working  with high-bit files and RAW imagesÑeven if you aren't
interested in those possibilities right  away.


-
8
-

> Do you intend to continue the Newsletter, and will it
> still serve the needs of those who (like me) don't
> intend to upgrade from PE2?

The newsletter will appear as needed...I will be shooting for once a
month, but expecting it  out every other. It will serve the needs of
those who ask questions. I can't answer what  isn't asked!

My goal with future tools is to make what people have the greatest
need for as well. So if I  get a lot of requests for a tool for
Elements 2, it is likely I'll do it.


-
9
-

> In your latest newsletter, you mention that Mend
> and Dynamic Image will work in PE 3. Having both,
> I wonder how to install them in PE 3. Is it the
> same as PE 2 installation?


As luck would have it, when I made those tools I was trying to
simplify the installation. As  it turns out, Adobe didn't change how
the Effects palette gets loaded. Installation for the  Dynamic Image
and Mend tools is actually exactly the same for Elements 1, 2 and 3 --
  and the  tools work unmodified in all three.


--
10
--

> I agree with you that PE 3 is worth it just for the RAW
> (and 16 bit processing). I shoot with a 5MP Olympus C5050Z,
> and I swear that the processed RAW images are a lot clearer,
> even when printed (Canon i960). Or maybe it's my imagination.

I don't remember if the Camera RAW plugin has a default for
sharpening, and this may be the  difference: you prefer the Adobe
settings to those used internally in the camera. the real  benefit to
RAW images and 16-bit is having more data to mine.


--
11
--

> Could you change my email address for the newsletter?

First, thanks for contacting me. I'm glad some people find the
newsletter valuable enough to  remain subscribed. As far as your
subscription to the newsletter, just re-subscribe with the  new
address. I believe you can still do that by sending an email from the
new address to:  hpe-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You can unsubscribe
with the other address if you still have  use of it by sending an
email to: hpe-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. If you don't it will get
weeded out when I start getting rejected attempts to send the
newsletter.


--
12
--

> Using Adobe Photoshop Album 2 I made a number of slide
> shows with music and created pdf files. I recently got
> Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 and could not figure out how
> to add music to the pdf file for a slide show. I had no
> problem using the program to make a slide show with music
> and then make a wmv file. Am I missing something?

This is not the type of feature I experiment with very much. However,
it also doesn't sound  like something that would be in Elements. You
may want to get Premiere Elements. Photoshop  Elements and Premiere
Elements are available in a bundle, as well. See
http://aps8.com/premelements.html


--
13
--

> I really like Elements 2 and would like to upgrade for
> some of the new things you have, but I operate on windows
> 98SE. Will Hidden Power work? I have had problems with
> newer programs because they are not set up for 98.

As long as you are on an operating system supported by Elements, the
tools will work (as long  as you have the tool version that matches
your program version). That said, you can find the  System
requirements for Elements 2 and 3 on the Hidden Power website:
http://hiddenpowertools.com (this address will be updated for
hiddenelements.com very soon).


--
14
--

> Will someone please tell me about Hidden Power as I have never
> heard of it?

This newsletter sprang from the Hidden Power books (see:
http://aps8.com/hppe3.html). I am  the author of the books, and I use
this newsletter to answer questions and keep people  informed about
Elements and developments in Hidden Power.

The idea of Hidden Power and my intention was to take Elements and
ramp up the power so that  you could do just about everything you
could do with Photoshop. I found many treasures buried  in the
Elements interface; Elements is built over the top of the Photoshop
engine, and some  hidden features can be accessed using my tools. i
built a whole methodology around  that...which is the Hidden Power
book.

While people speak of 'plugins' in association with Hidden Power,
that isn't entirely correct  as I have not programmed plugins which
may be frought with bugs and complexities...I have  merely accessed
Adobe tested and released functionality in most cases that is lying
dormant  in the program.

Some other tools I have created (those that don't access hidden
features) are unique Hidden  Power tools that help you work with
images. These tools are mostly NOT available in  Photoshop. In fact,
these tools are born of actions I created while working in Photoshop
to  help my workflow. They run using Photoshop
functionality, but put together complex steps in a way that makes
them easy to use--and again  they are not really plugins. Actions are
a means of automating and scripting in Photoshop.

The complete listing of tools included with the new Hidden Power book
is listed here:
http://hiddenelements.com/hppe3tools.html


--
15
--

> I bought HE 2 and loved it. I read somewhere that tools
> from HE2 will not work in PSE3. I just bought PSE3 and
> wonder if I should bother to load the HE2 disk...which
> of them will work in PSE3?

The CD from the Hidden Power 2 CD will not work with Elements 3 due
to Adobe's changes in  Elements 3. As you are getting the new book,
your tools and program version will match, so  this doesn't matter.


--
16
--

> I can quickly tell which images come
> from my 20D and which came from other cameras
> that I have owned. In a sense I am thinking of
> Photoshop CS versus Elements 3.0 in the same way.
> Is this a viable comparison?

No, that really isn't a valid comparison. I can make corrections in
Elements or Photoshop  usually with nearly identical results. The
difference in your cameras resolution and ability  to capture
(lenses, exposure features, etc.) will force a sort of qualitative
difference.  Elements and Photoshop have essentially the same
processing engine and capacity to handle  images. CS will not perform
magic, and you'll find that just about everything you need to do  can
be done in Elements when it comes to image editing. You might just do
it a little  differently.

As one who is terminally frugal, you won't really need CS unless you
are doing volume CMYK  work, full 16-bit editing, web work, or are
recording your own actions.


--
17
--

> Where do I install the the disk that came with the book?
> How to I access the tools once I installed the files in
> my computer - of course I need to know how to install
> the darn files!!

Please take a look at the book and on the CD to find some basic
instruction for installing  the tools. Visit the website (or read #4
under Long Answers above) for more information about
troubleshooting.

The tools for Elements 3 are found on the Styles and Effects palette.
For Elements 2 and 1,  the tools are installed to the How-To and
Recipes palettes. Description of these locations  can be found in the
book, and there are color images of the palettes on the final page of
the  color section in each book.


--
18
--

> Where is the bloody password for the PhotoShop Elements 3
> Hidden Tools CD?

Please count in 23 pages from the front of the book...I asked the
publisher to insert the  page number, and they counted from the front
of the book--not using the actual page numbers.  Please note that it
is in a section about installing the tools in the book's introduction.


--
19
--

> When installing HPPE3, at no time was I asked what
> system I was running, or asked for the password given
> in the book. I could not find any trouble shooting
> guide on the disk.

Have you checked to see that you are successfully installed?
Troubleshooting information  should be in the readme...for whatever
reason that seems to have left it out. Sorry about  that. I'll have
the new web site up this week and the information will be there.
However,  while you seem to suggest a problem, it does seem that the
installer performed. As the  installer was initially built on a Mac
(that is what I work on about half the time), I'd like  to be sure
the parts are not installed before trying something else.

I know you searched, but please take a second look in two places: If
you go to the  application folder (applications: Adobe Photoshop
Elements 3: Previews: Effects: ) there  should be 4 new folders there
named Power[etc.]. If these are not there, that is indeed  strange --
unless you have not installed the Elements program to the default. If
they are  there, they should show up in the elements program. If you
look in the Styles and Effects  palette, choose Effects in the drop
menu at the top left, the power tools should appear in  the menu at
right. if they do not, that too is puzzling -- if the files were
successfully  installed. If the files are not there, we'll have to
figure out why they were not installed  -- thought the installer said
they were. If they are there and do not show in the program,  we'll
have to determine why they are not appearing. If the latter, few
things could be wrong:

1) you need to allow more time for Elements to rebuild the cache
before the tools will appear  (up to 5 minutes with the program and
Style and Effects palette viewed).

2) It is possible that you did not make the default installation for
the program and the  tools are installed elsewhere (not in the path I
suggest), though they should work because  they will seek out the
program folder.

3) If you did not use the default installation of the Elements
program and renamed the  folder, they may be installed to the wrong
place, or not at all--or to a folder that is  titled Adobe Photoshop
Elements 3 that does not contain the program.

4) If you have virus protection, it may have disallowed the
install...If so, you might try  turning it off and installing again.

About the password...I intended to put it in the installer, and had
some trouble with that  feature in the installer creation program. As
a deadline for the publication was looming, I  decided not to require
the password. The install should occur without it. However, the book
was already printed by that time, and there was no way to remove the
password from the text.


--
20
--

> I ordered Hidden power for Elements 2 from Amazon.com,
> which dutifully sent me, after two months' wait,  H.P.
> for Elements 3! I won't violate the book nor the CDrom
> to check whether HP3 contains anything useful to an Element
> 2 user. Is there any way to download the software relevant
> to E2 and keep the book? I don't intend to move to E3 as
> it would require, I have understood, moving to Windows XP
> first. Should I send the book back from France?
> I suppose the situation means HP for E 2 is out of print.

I can't speak for Amazon or why they would send what you didn't
order, but I am sure the  Elements 2 book is not out of print -- in
fact i suggested to my publisher that a lot of  people would likely
not upgrade to Elements 3. I would contact Amazon about
exchange/return.  The software for Elements 2 is available in the
book only, and I am not at liberty, by  contract, to distribute it
without permission from the publisher. I assume you mean that you
don't intend to move to Elements 3...it requires Win 2000.


--
21
--

> [after successfully installing]
> I really appreciate your time and patience with this
> problem especially when there is only one of you to
> deal with the hordes of dummies like me.

You can't possibly be a dummy, as a dummy would not have bought the
right book, and then  would say to me "how could you sell tools that
don't work?!?!"

You realize at least that there is some problem going on, and that I
wasn't trying to get  rich quick selling tools that don't work. That
would be career suicide.


--
22
--

> I am looking for a tool that removes glare. Specifically,
> I shoot a lot of stained glass panels (my wife is a stained
> glass artist), and it isn't always possible to get a glare
> free shot. I can email you an example if you need.

The Mend tool might be your best bet. It would be
difficult/impossible to automatically  distinguish glare from other
highlights in the image, so there is really no way to automate a
tool to do exclusively that. You'll have to learn techniques for
correction, though it may be  best to learn techniques for reducing
glare. You may need another type of off-camera lighting  so you can
get the shots you need.


--
23
--

> I was wondering if there is a way just to crop the pictures
> into a star instead of messing with individual layers?

You might do this with the Cookie cutter tool, but you will not get a
vector-edge sharpness.  To get a crisp edge, you have to add a
clipping path. While it doesn't change the appearance  of the image
as a rectangle in Photoshop, it does essentially re-shape the image
border. See  pages 248+ in the Hidden Power book. I can't help you do
that one without the tools.


--
24
--

> I am having trouble with display of
> some of the Elements tools, including
> Hidden Power. Any ideas?


It might be a good idea to refresh your Settings--which may have
somehow become corrupt. Shut  down Elements. Have fingers poised over
CTRL+ALT+Shift/Option+Command+Shift (PC/MAC), and  restart Elements,
then immediately press the keys and hold them down. You will be
presented  with a dialog to rebuild Settings...say [YES] by clicking
the appropriate button. To be sure  the changes take, shut down
Elements and restart. It may take a few moments for the program  to
rebuild everything. If you are on PC, you won't want to press the key
combination till you  choose Editor in the Welcome screen.


--
25
--

> I am an amateur using Elements for photo enhancement
> I do about 500 images a year. Given my usage, in your
> opinion, will PSE be the only program I'll need
> (given that I'm planning on using it well)

Most people buy Photoshop and don't even need it. Personally, I use
Elements at work. My more  considered opinion can be found in an
article I published here:

http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/vs_elements.html

You should be able to figure from that if you REALLY need Photoshop.
Sometimes experts don't  even need it.


--
26
--

> In the Extracting Luminosity from color
> discussion on page 50, there is no layer
> called composite. In step 4, did you want
> the first layer called Luminosity to be
> called Composite instead?

Yes. This would agree with the Layers picture. Thanks for the typo
report...I'll add to the  web page.


--
27
--

> Where do I find the dodge and burn icons,
> I can't find them?


Press O on the keyboard, you will get a tool in the same group as
Dodge and Burn. Cycle  through this group using the shift key: Just
hold Shift and press O to cycle through the  tools in the group. It
is otherwise on the Elements toolbar.


--
28
--

> Just to confirm, your new book "Hidden Power
> of Photoshop Elemenets X" is meant to include
> tools for Elements 3, and I guess 1 and 2 also.


Well, the tools for "X" have PE3 specific tools. I believe most of
these tools will work in  Elements 1 and 2, but there are a few
changes in the functionality from earlier programs that  I had to
adjust for so certain tools may fail -- like snapshots. Those with
Elements 1 and 2  should probably get the Hidden Power of Elements 2
book, which is still on sale:  http://aps8.com/hppe.html


--
29
--

> There is no Quick Mask tool in the new book.
> Why'd you leave it out? I used it all the time.

I have a fairly versatile work-around for quick mask...it isn't the
same, no...

1) create a new layer at the top of the layer stack.
2) change the foreground color to red.
3) change the opacity of the layer to 50%
4) paint in the layer with whatever brush you'd like, use selection
and fill, etc...it will  look quite like a Quick Mask.
5) convert the layer content to a selection by pressing
shift+clicking on the layer in the  layers palette.

While this is not Quick Mask, it offers the same opportunities and
allows much flexibility.  I'll be making a tool for Quick Mask users
in the next month or so.


--
30
--

> I think I have a bad CD. Can you send me another?

While it would be very rare that you have a bad CD, you'll have to
contact the book  manufacturer, Sybex. I realize I am the author, but
I do not control the book content, nor am  I allowed to distribute
materials from it; as part of the contract with the publisher, I
forfeit those rights. Please see the sybex website here:
http://sybex.com . I believe the  dedicated form for product support
is here:

http://sybex.com/webuserfeedback.nsf/ProductSupport?OpenForm


--
31
--

> I have sent you several emails at rl@...
> and never got a response. You seem quick once I tracked
> you down on the forum. Why don't you answer the other
> email?

Regretfully (as I explain in the errata), my service changed
policies, and I was unable to  maintain my mailing accounts as they
were. I hav fixed the problem (finally) and the email  you send to
any published address should get to me. That is not a preferred
address. Use  thebookdoc@..., or rl@.... You are less likely
to have a typo in those.


--------
OPINIONS
--------

This Opinions section is a new section of the Hidden Power
Newsletter, where I snip out a few  voiced opinions from my emails
and other places. Be heard by sending your opinion to me. be  heard
by potential book buyers, post your reviews and opinions on
Amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/write-a-
review.html/?asin=0782143857

--
You are totally right on with regard to the discussion about the
request (demand?) to make  your book available for free. Really, what
are people thinking?

--
I have been an enthusiastic amateur for longer than I care to
mention. Your book has been a  great insight into the working of
digital photographs and how they are put together to an old  hand of
working with film.

--
I purchased your Mend and Dynamic Image tools and want to thank you.
I use both in Elements  3. Even though Elements 3 already has the
Healing tool, I think Mend works better and offers  more control. As
for Dynamic Image, I can't thank you enough! My drab images are
popping off  the page and look tons better than before.

--
Your book has to have been the about the best value for money I've
ever been lucky enough to  come across! It has enhanced my enjoyment
of my hobby immeasurably. Thank you.

--
I also don't think you owe anyone an explanation about your product
or it's prices. I doubt  very seriously if Donald Trump explains
himself to anybody!

--
The Dynamic Image Tool works like a charm Richard. Reduces all those
laborious tasks to a  quick and easy to use form.

--
Its Great, Super. Smashing on your book The Hidden Power Of Photoshop
Elements 2!

--
Incidentally, although I have only just started reading the book I'm
already impressed with  the content. This is so much more helpful
than many other books, that appear to think  everyone wants to learn
how to make "cool" effects. Learning about colour theory and how
colour and tone interact is much more interesting for me and, I am
sure, will represent a  much more solid base of knowledge about
photography in the longer term. I'm not entirely sure  I understand
everything that I have read so far, but in a sense that makes it
more  satisfying.


  --------------------------------------------------------
  Do let me know about questions and comments, and let me know what you
  think about the newsletter. rl@...
  --------------------------------------------------------

  Brought to you by Richard Lynch in conjunction with The Hidden power
  of Photoshop Elements 2 and The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3

  http://hiddenelements.com
  http://hiddenpowertools.com

  Copyright (c) 2005 Richard Lynch
  ------------------------------

Three quick announcements before I get to putting out the Hidden
Power newsletter:

1. If you didn't know it yet, The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements
3 has been released and is available at most book stores. This
contains 20% new material and 20% more tools, all updated for
Elements 3. You can get it online: http://aps8.com/hppe3.html

2. I have reached an agreement with Sybex about distributing the
Hidden Power tools for Elements 3 separately as an upgrade. You can
get a copy of the tools from the Sybex site for $19.99. Find them
here: http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/5028

3. The Hidden Power website has been updated for Elements 3. I
welcome your feedback before the site goes officially live at the
hiddenelements web address. Please visit the prototype at
http://hiddenpowertools.com

Feel free to send me comments at thebookdoc@...

Now on to that belated newsletter! Lots in store for this issue...

Richard Lynch

--------------------------
Hidden Power Monthly
November, Vol.12
--------------------------

The Newsletter for Elements Users

-----------------
IN THIS ISSUE
-----------------

THIS MONTH:

In this issue we look at the release of Elements 3 and how that
impacts Hidden Power users. Do you need Elements 3? What is RAW, and
why do you care? All that and some good information on managing color
too!


ELEMENTS 3 AND HIDDEN POWER


LONG ANSWERS (7)


SHORT ANSWERS (15)


-------------------------------
ELEMENTS 3 AND HIDDEN POWER
-------------------------------

My last newsletter warned that I had a busy summer ahead, and I
couldn't have been more on target. Since the opening of the Elements
beta back in May, I've been at work updating my Hidden Power book for
Elements 3 and finding a new way to implement the Hidden Power tools:
Adobe made changes that preclude the use of the tools I created for
Elements 2. I can announce that as of last week been successful in
both the issue of updating the book and in creating a new tool set
that will work with Elements 3. All of the tools have been adapted,
including Curves, Color Balance, CMYK, Channels, etc. Some were added
from the free tool sets, like Layer Masks, Trim, Fade, and more.

The updated book, The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3
(http://www.aps8.com/hppe3.html), and a new tool set (included on the
CD) will be available with the new book when it is released in
December.

To be absolutely clear: Those who are upgrading to Elements 3 will
have to purchase the new book in order to continue to use the Hidden
Power tools. Tools from the Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2 will
not work with Elements 3. I may be making a tool set available from
the website for those who have already purchased the book and who
only want the tools. Please keep tuned to the website and this
newsletter for announcements. If you are interested in the toolset
only, please contact me via email.

Updates to the book The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3 include
added information about bit-depth, information about working with 16-
bit images, importing files that use the RAW format, and working with
Healing and Spot Healing tools. Everything in the book was examined
with a fine-toothed comb, and adjustments were made to procedures and
techniques to make them somewhat more friendly. In the process, some
50 pages were added to the book--about 17% new material. Some
new 'impossible' things are discussed in the book, like how to change
an 8-bit image to 16-bit.

Please send questions as they arise! thebookdoc@...

There is one more little secret coming out, but I'll have to keep it
till next issue...


--------------------
LONG ANSWERS
--------------------

1. Should I Get Photoshop Elements 3?
2. Color Management Using a Profiling Device
3. Why Not Provide an Upgrade for Hidden Power Users?
4. Embedding sRGB Profiles
5. General Questions About Hidden Power tools
6. Can I Get These in Addition to Hidden Power?
7. Why Bother with RAW Capture?


-
1. Photoshop Elements 3
-

<<I already have Elements 2 and your book and tools. Is it worth
upgrading to Elements 3?>>

With Elements 3, users have very few reasons to move to Photoshop
CS...even fewer than with Elements 2 and my tools. While you still
don't have many of the features that Hidden Power enables, there are
a few additions that were not available for access with Hidden Power.
The most notable of these are RAW file support and 16-bit editing.
Just so you know if they are important to you, I'll explain.

RAW files are raw image data files as they are captured by the
camera. Before you see a TIF or JPG file, the camera has really done
pre-processing to convert the raw captured file data into an image.
These raw files are generally useless to those taking pictures unless
they have dedicated software that comes with the camera that can
decode the files--but now Elements can decode those files for you,
using a fairly friendly interface. The advantage is that you get to
step back in the process and take hold of the information in the
image BEFORE your camera automates processing of it. You can
potentially achieve better results.

RAW files also tie to 16-bit image editing. Some cameras actually
capture more bit depth per pixel than the 8-bits per channel you have
previously been able to work with in Elements. Images may be captured
by the camera in 12-bits, for example, and then those 12-bit images
would be converted to 8-bit TIFF or JPEG files. Once converted, that
captured information detail is lost. The loss may not be crucial, but
it can be a missed opportunity for improvement. For example, if you
shoot an image that is too dark, having more bits to capture detail
may help when you are trying to reclaim details from the shadows that
might otherwise have been lost in a conversion to 8-bit. 16-bit
import capability allows Elements to retain all the raw information
captured by your camera, rather than the compiled 8-bit version.

For the most part, RAW and 8-bit capabilities will matter only to
those who have digital cameras that can capture images with anything
greater than 8-bits that will save RAW file formats, or those with
scanners that have greater bit-depth capabilities.

I can safely say that 16-bit editing and RAW file support were the
two most frequent requests I got for new Hidden Power tools. Now,
both have been addressed by Adobe as standard features in Elements 3.
If you really need that functionality depends on your equipment, and
if you plan on using the capability. Other festures have been added
to Elements, but as far as I am concerned, these are monor in
comparison. The most interesting of these is the Healing tool (which
you have the ability to imitate with the Hidden Power Mend tool:
http://hiddenelements.com/Mend), and for PC users, the Organizer
(this is not available for Mac).

You can order Elements on Amazon:
PC: http://aps8.com/elements3.html
Mac: http://aps8.com/elements3mac.html


-
2. Color Management Using a Profiling Device
-

<<One area I continue to be a bit confused about is colour
management. However, I think I should be OK once I get a monitor
profiling device. Do you have a device you recommend?>>

You are not alone in confusion over color management. I have toyed
with the idea of dedicating a book just to that. It might not be a
terribly long book, but it would be something hopefully to clear up
the mire Adobe created.

If you are considering getting a profiling device, it is a good idea
if you are serious about results. You will likely get better results
with Elements and a profiling device than if you purchase Photoshop
CS instead of the device. And you will get better results, whether or
not you choose to embed profiles. The key thing that the profiling
device will do is make an accurate calibration of your monitor --
which is in turn used to preview your images. While you can calibrate
by eye, you will not be so accurate as a device which measures
directly from your screen. When you can trust what you see on screen,
you will make better corrections and get better results going to any
printer.

Keep in mind that RGB is not the same as CMYK and the two will never
be identical--no matter what program or profiling you use. This is
just inherent in the color models.

I do use a particular product, the Color Vision Spyder
(http://aps8.com/calibrate.html or just the Spyder
http://aps8.com/spyder.html). Using the product allows you to
first 'normalize' your monitor through adjustment of its color
controls, and then you calibrate using the Spyder device. I have used
this on several different setups, and am always amazed at how the
device will make two very dissimilar monitors behave very much alike.
I couldn't be more pleased with the results I get.


-
3. Why Not Provide an Upgrade for Hidden Power Users?
-

<< [In response to an email I sent to a user suggesting I might make
a tool set available from the website for a discount.] I thought that
you were an "advocate" for users of your product. Having just
purchased the Hidden Power 2 book, I shouldn't have to buy another if
I wanted to use your tools in Elements 3. I should have a means of
upgrading! I certainly will update to the new PE3 now that it is out.
Whether I get your material is another matter. It seems to me that
when I have bought software before, that a discount to upgrade has
been arranged for those who purchased close to the release date of a
new product. It may have been appropriate to stop selling the book a
few months ago, knowing that it would be rendered obsolete shortly.
Perhaps we can start a thread on your forum about this? Can I get a
refund from you?

I belong to a large group of digital photography enthusiasts. We
pushed them to buy your book and disks and your latest tool. I
realize you want to make money and not give away the store, however
sometimes listening to the customer and not squeezing them does
better for your product in this market and for the future success of
newer products. It would be very nice to get a patch and make it
usefull in Elements 3 gratis for this group>>


If the book is not the one you want, return it to the store you
bought it from. My site links to Amazon.com, so that would be where
you purchased it. I believe they have a fairly liberal return and
exchange policy.

  I am sorry you are not satisfied with my solution. While I see your
point, I don't know that expecting a free update is completely
feasible. First, you have to understand that development of new tools
for this version is not my choice. Adobe engineers the program...and
I enhance it. They charge for incremental versions because they
improve the program -- no matter how incrementally. I had to
completely re-engineer the tools for Elements 3. It isn't my idea.
Adobe changed the program and therefore the implementation. There
were really two alternatives...one: forget about it and not make the
tools and leave elements users looking to Photoshop CS, or Two: make
the tools and invest some time for Elements 3 users. I chose the
latter. I spent quite a few figuting out an alternative and going
through each and every action to make it function correctly with
Elements 3. It was not at all just flipping a switch. Second, you
have tools that work perfectly well in Elements 2...

I charge in order to make up for the time I invest -- just like you
might like to get paid for going to work, whatever it is that you do.
I am not trying to 'squeeze' people...If I were I would be charging a
lot more. I spent months of time in re-writing and development, and
the publisher pays me about $2 per book sold. While I have considered
selling a tool set from the hiddenelements.com site for those who
want the tools and not another book, I would have to charge a
reasonable price. I already get about $10 for single tools (Mend
[http://hiddenelements.com/Mend] and Dynamic Image
[http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic]); my suggested price of $20 would
be less than the cost of a new book ($27 if you bought through Amazon
[http://aps8.com/hppe3.html] ), less than the cost of the tools I
currently have for sale, and less than the cost of purchasing
Photoshop.

The discounts on upgrades that you may have received in the past are
not likely on books, but software. My product is a book and the
information that comes in it; the tools that come with it are just
helpers for the content of the book, and enhancements to the program.
When authors write books, they have almost no say about marketing,
distribution, etc. I wrote the book, and I do not sell it. I would
like to help, but refunding your purchase would cost me the price of
the new book, $40 -- or $27 if you bought through Amazon
(http://aps8.com/hppe3.html). I can't absorb that return cost
logically and still continue to write and be an Elements advocate.
While I might like to help, there are contracts and legalities
involved, most of the rights to which I sign over when I sign the
contract with the publisher.

Publishers do not take books off the shelf immediately when a new
version of a product is announced. Many people never upgrade software
version to version, and books sell long after one and even two
software versions later. It would be unfair to those seeking
information on Elements 2 to discontinue the book. The book is not
obsolete, it works with Elements 2, as advertised. The next version
of the book works with Elements 3--including completely re-vamped
tools, and added content over some 4 months of work. Just to say,
Adobe has been pushing an Elements upgrade to Photoshop CS from
Elements, knowing that they will be releasing a new product. They
know probably a year in advance when the product will come out: do
you expect them to announce it that far in advance? As a business
they have to do that or lose months of revenue. It is not an attempt
to deceive...it is just geting mileage out of the product already
created. If you were to make pots, and had a backlog of thousands of
them knowing you were going to come out with a new design, would you
destroy them all to keep people from buying them? the product I
created works for Elements 2, and if you own that, the tools and
techniques are valid.

I would love to have the time to just put in hours of my life toward
building tools that don't exist in order to give them away, as I do
enjoy it...but my wife wouldn't much like it nor be as
forgiving...and my children would be robbed of my time for nothing.
In the same way, I might just write my books and give them away.
Frankly, I consider it just a little unfair that you feel my
expertise and research is not worth the small investment for the
tools. If they are valuable to you, that inherently means they are
worth something, and what I ask is not a lot. I've asked for reader
support -- mere opinions -- so I can help users get more out of
Elements, and never really got what I expected. I might have acted on
many responses for free, just to enhance later versions of the book.
Sharing is a two-way street. What you propose is that I invest even
more time to find a means of giving tools away by qualifying
purchases. Managing this type of thing, if you are familiar, can take
quite a lot of time--how do I weed out the people who have made a
purchase since September from those who just want a freebee?

These same tools would cost hundreds more in Photoshop, and other
plugin manufacturers are making individual tools available for more
than the cost of my book! I am making them available for a few
dollars--about what you would pay for a good photographic filter. I'm
sorry, but I believe that is pretty reasonable. I spend many hours
working on my website, filling information out to use for my
newsletters, answering reader questions, replying to email...all of
which I do for free. just how much more do I have to give away? If I
give away everything I develop, I make nothing for my time...and what
impetous is there for developing more tools if i don't benefit in the
slightest from it?

I wish i could be more charitable...but I have to be practical. I
would be glad to know What do you think is fair for the time I
invest, or if you hold by the idea that i should just give my time
away. If you would like to start a thread on the forum, be my guest.
I am open to suggestions and discussion. In fact, I'd like to get
feedback from newsletter subscribers...

If there is something else you think I should do, I would be glad to
consider it.

[I would be glad for your feedback on this issue: thebookdoc@...]


-
4. Embedding sRGB Profiles
-

<<Do you know of any ways I can teach people to use Elements to get
their image looking good and then embed an sRGB profile so it's seen
accurately by others? Do you have any color management tips in your
Hidden Power book?>>


If the sRGB profile is necessary/desireable, it is best to start with
that profile (at least in Elements 3). If you work with No Color
Management, the files will get converted to other profiles when you
embed them. You can see this by opening an untagged file (this will
assumes a working profile) and then convert to sRGB, the colors
change (unless the working profile is the same as the target). In
fact, embedding a profile will most likely be a mistake in an image
that has no profile, as the image information will be converted.

To fix the problem, you have to do this little round-about:

1. Open the untagged image in Elements using No Color Management.
2. Save As and *embed the profile*.
3. Close the image
4. Change the color management to Full Color Management.
5. Open the image.
6. Select all and copy.
7. Open an image with sRGB profile.
8. Paste.

Full Color Management will do the right thing and convert the image
from the working profile to the sRGB of the image it is being pasted
to. That is, it will convert the image to the profile, rather than
just assigning it (which will usually be inaccurate).

My book does discuss some of using color management...I am hoping
discussions on the forum will take place concerning this as well.


-
5. General Questions About Hidden Power tools
-

<<a) Can your tools be used on Mac OSX (10.3.5)?>>


I work on Mac at home and have a PC...my tools will always be cross
platform, as long as Adobe continues to make products that are.


<<b) Do I have to buy the book, can I just buy the tools?>>


Well, using the tools is discussed in the book, so the tools without
instruction is not recommended...it would probably take weeks to
figure out what some of them do, and it is spelled out step-by-step
in the book. If you have a previous version of the book, instruction
there will help. I may be making a tool set available separately for
the release of Elements 3...it will NOT come with instructions.


<<c) Is there a downloadable version of the book?>>


No.


<<d) I am mainly interested in tone curve and quick mask.>>


I have considered selling the Curve tool separately...if that is all
people want, no need to spend $40. I should have that available some
time soon. If that is all you want, send a request
[thebookdoc@...] and I'll make it available...sooner. Quick mask
for Elements 2 is in the free tools: http://hiddenelements.com


<<e) I am in Japan.>>


Amazon ships everywhere, so you should be able to get my book. I sell
other Hidden Power tools for delivery by email. See the mend tool and
Dynamic image: http://hiddenelements.com/Mend
http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic


-
6. Can I Get These in Addition to Hidden Power?
-

<<I have read about Paul Shipley's Curves and Ling Nero's actions
tools, and of course Hidden Power. Do all of these work together? Do
they work at all? What tools should I get?>>

First: yes, the Hidden Power tools really work. About 20,000 readers
have used them. The new tools for Elements 3 have undergone rigorous
testing. Paul S. is making Curves available for Elements 2..I don't
know if he will for Elements 3. As for Ling's snap actions...Those
will currently only work in Elements 2. I do not believe there is an
update planned.

As for my tools, there are several different sets. The most complete
set for Elements 2 is currently had by buying the Hidden Power of
Photoshop Elements 2 (http://aps8.com/hppe.html). My tools for
Elements 3 are already done, and the book will be out in December
(http://aps8.com/hppe3.html). Unlike last time, I may be making the
tools available separately for those who have already purchased the
book. There is a free tool set on my site that has tools that are
different than the ones included with the book.
http://hiddenelements.com/freetools.html. Most of these tools have
been incorporated into the Hidden Power tool set for Elements 3. I
also sell a healing tool (http://hiddenelements.com/Mend) and a tool
I call dynamic image which improves just about any image
(http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic). These latter tools will work
with Elements 3 as well.  I am considering making a tool set
including curves available separate from the book. Send an email if
you are interested: thebookdoc@...

As far as snap actions...there is nothing that it can do for Elements
2 users that my tools can't. It is just an interface to run actions.
In fact, I showed the person who created that how to do it...thinking
they were going to help me out. They surprised me with a separate
release, and it has been impossible to explain, and causing many
people a lot of confusion. In short, snapactions will play actions in
Elements 2. So will me free tools. My sets come with added
functionality that you can't get in snapactions. That is because I
actually develop photographic methods...the creator of snapactions is
a programmer, not a professional image editor.

I will try to convert actions for framing and effects to Elements 3
over the coming months. Suggestions are welcome.


-
7. Why Bother with RAW Capture?
-

RAW files offer the shooter the opportunity to get the most out of
information captured by the camera, plain and simple. If your camera
shoots in 12-bit and produces an 8-bit JPEG, many calculations have
happened along the way to compile the image from the RAW data and
shrink down the file size. This can be read: compromised original
capture with a loss in ultimate quality. This loss may not be huge,
and in fact in some shots you may not notice it at all (in comparing
RAW and JPEG). The images you will not see a big difference in are
those that are properly exposed. However, the latitude that you have
in working over an image and coming up with what you need from the
RAW data is worth the extra processing time for those who are serious
about their images. That is, if you already know about exposure,
aperture, composition, and have some experience in digital image
processing, you might shoot RAW images to give yourself more to work
with in achieving the goals of your images in post-processing--and
perhaps to give yourself better data to store as the source of your
image captures in your archives.

In other words, just like a user might appreciate the speed of
automated processing when using Auto Levels or Auto Contrast, setting
your camera to store JPEG images might be a godsend in having the
process completed for you. However, if you don't only shoot statues
outside on an overcast day at noon or so...you may have more vision
as to what makes an interesting image. If you shoot scenes with a lot
of potential for manipulating shadow detail or highlights (low or
high-key images), you would certainly like the advantage you have in
manipulating the images from your RAW originals. If you shot a rock
concert, for example, the latitude you gain in manipulating the
highlights, shadows, and light color would certainly favor RAW files.
You would more likely be able to manipulate the image without causing
or enhancing damage that could be caused by over-working the image in
8-bit or by the JPEG compression.

Once your images are processed and you are ready to go to print, it
is true that you will be printing to an 8-bit color device (I don't
know any printers that claim to handle 16-bit images). This is a
current technological impass which may be changed in the future...16-
bit images haven't been around all that long in common practice.
However, whether this is a 'loss' at this point is questionable.
Technically you will be changing from trillions of colors to
millions, but there is question as to whether the result goes beyond
human perception. The real thing that you are trying to do with RAW
files is not to print them, it is to get the best darned image
information you can off your camera. One of the maxims for ending
with the best results is starting with the best image...not one that
you will "Photoshop" later. That means trying to capture what you
imagine you see in the viewfinder and in your imagination using the
equipment you have. If you are a creative shooter, your images will
potentially gain from using RAW...Not everyone needs it. Will you
lose a lot if you don't use RAW? I'd suggest it is the ability to
fine-tune images coming from the camera.



----------------------
SHORT ANSWERS
----------------------

-
1
-

<<Will the hidden power of Photoshop Elements 2 book and CD work with
the newly announced Adobe Elements 3 or should I just stay with
Elements 2?>>

The tools from the Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2 book will not
work with Elements 3. Regretfully Adobe changed some things in the
program, and I was forced to change how the tools were implemented.
You should probably stay with Elements 2 IF you have no need for RAW
file import, 16-bit image editing, the Adobe Healing tool.

I may be releasing some tools separately from the book so users
wouldn't have to re-buy it if they only want the tools. I'm not sure
yet, though.


-
2
-

<< If you make an 8-bit image a 16-bit image, does it become more
resistant to banding/posterization in subsequent edits, or is it
still basically just an 8 bit image?>>

First, without techniques in the Hidden Power book, you cannot
convert 8-bit images to 16-bit.

Second, once you know how to make the change, the newly converted 16-
bit image is just a bigger 8-bit image till you make a change, then
the changes are calculated in the 16-bit environment. As far as the
value of that...just like desiring Photoshop CS, sometimes it is only
a psychological desire rather than a real need. You can't print a 16-
bit image on a CMYK printer. In my never-so-humble opinion, if you
are consistently making changes to your images that result in
banding, you are not working with images the right way--or you are
taking them improperly. Unless you are rescuing images or doing
retouching, most of 16-bit is beyond your needs.

16-bit conversion will most likely be useful for adjusting grayscale.


-
3
-

<<Really enjoy the book, but hoping the next edition has darker and
larger type!>>

I brought up this issue with the publisher and they have made a
change in the type face while giving me some 50 additional pages to
add. I made a lot of changes in an attempt to make the book easier to
read. I hope all that helps.


-
4
-

<<How do tools become Photoshop tools? If I use some tools and close
the layer before I complete changing it, an attempt to reopen the
layer produces an error message that it is a full Photoshop layer and
cannot be changed under Elements. How is that possible?>>

The Hidden Power tools access some things that are left over from
converting Photoshop into Elements...the fact is that Adobe uses the
same engine to run both programs. While Hidden Power allows you to
create an adjustment layer of certain types, it is built not to let
you edit them. These "Photoshop Only" features are the ones that
produce the error.

You can just replace these layers by creating new ones.


-
5
-

<<I like giving thanks or praise where it is deserved. I went to the
Amazon site back to where I ordered the book and did not see where I
could write a comment. I
guess you will have to lead me along even to do that!>>


If you don't mind doing it, i don't mind leading. I think I have made
this as easy as
possible. Just follow the link here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/write-a-review.html/ref=cm_rev_write_2\
/?asin=0782141781&store=books

Be sure you copy the whole link.

Positive feedback can influence other buyers, so your input may
actually help me keep at making more enhancements for Elements users.
I'm glad to have your feedback!


-
6
-

<<At this point I don't see any strong reason to upgrade to Elements
3 since I can't even use version 2 that well yet, but I expect I will
want to somewhere along the line. Is it worth it?>>

Well, I want to be consistent. Don't look for me to push you to PE3.
If you have stuff to explore and are happy with what you can
accomplish, then stay with PE2 a while! PE3 (and 4, 5, etc.) will
still be there whenever you decide you are ready.

The big advantages are in 16-bit editing and RAW file support --
which you don't have in PE2. If you don't know what that is....then
skip it for a while. These are high-end features, and if you are up
to working with them, you will probably know it. I worked in
Photoshop for 10 years or so without either...and I continue to learn
today. Chances are you have a lot to explore!


-
7
-

<<My guess is that it would be worthwhile to just upgrade to PSE 3.0
and get the 3.0 book in December. Would that be your recommendation??

The key things that Elements 3 offers is RAW file handling, 16-bit
editing, the healing tool and the Organizer (the last only if you are
on PC). That said, you can get away without any of these things. If
you are pushing toward quality and advanced use of Elements, it may
be worth your while to wait for the upgrade...it will help you gain
potential in image editing quality. If you are just thinking its best
to always have the newest, don't bother till you are sure you need
it. Some people can skip upgrades and be perfectly happy--that is a
decision based on what you need and your skill level.

For me, the RAW capability alone is worth the upgrade IF you have a
digital camera that has RAW file capabilities, because that is a $99
plugin (at least last time I looked). There are pros and cons to 16-
bit--and I can argue for or against. Ultimately, for the best quality
and for the future, it is a good idea. I have a healing option for
PE2 users (not as fast, but as good--or better because of possible
adjustments).

It isn't one or two tools that will make the difference. It is web
work, working consistently in CMYK, and needing broad 16-bit support
that really make the difference now. Elements is a pretty powerful
package. In the end, it is a decision you need to make, but my
recommendation is to make it on NEED rather than WANT.


-
8
-

<<I got a security error downloading something from your website.
With all the problems related to security, spam, viruses, etc. this
is NOT a good thing. I cancelled the download but I still feel
nervous about it. Now I wonder what might happen if I attempt ANY
download from your web site.>>

The error you got was likely related to th fact that the installer
was trying to write files to your drive. Your virus protection caught
that. It actually needs to be disabled before you install.

There is nothing wrong with providing these downloads and nothing on
my site that contains viruses. The RTF file that you were downloading
is completely harmless. I believe the link should clearly
state "click here to download more detailed instructions". I have
been doing web work since 1995. Downloading files is rarely harmful,
and usually those harmful files will come from suspect sites. I would
have very little to gain by making a virus available to people...

If you want to know what is being downloaded before you click, keep
the Status Bar open on your browser, it will display the links.


-
9
-

<<would it be a fair assessment that pp 132-3 is a manual version of
the channel mixer? Or is that an over-simplification?>>

A slight oversimplification. You have MANY more options to combine
elements if you know how to do it the manual way as I explain in the
book. The Channel Mixer interface is just a convenience, but it may
actually limit the true potential of channel mixing.


-
10
-

<<Performing the RGB sep. with preview yeilds a composite as well as
the individual channels. What is the purpose of the composite? Is it
anything to do with the black Screen mode layer we should place below
the channel we want to influence??>>

As it says in the book, the composite acts like a screen for the
components to project against. Try turning off the composite. the
results show the components projecting against the background and
that should lighten the result.


-
11
-

<<I thought you were yelling at me>>

One thing I regret is that I communicate from a distance. My problem
is I try and get to the point because I answer a LOT of mail.
Sometimes a response may sound curt--it is completely
unintentional...I'm very rarely even mildly upset. I'm glad to have
your questions, and hope my answers make sense.


-
12
-

<<Elements 3 has new resizing types. Are these dramatically different
than those in Elements 2?>>

As far as the additional bicubic modes for the resizing modes...these
are only dealing with levels of sharpening after the application of
resizing. You can mimic them using resize (bicubic) and applying an
Unsharp Mask.


-
13
-

<<I had read somewhere that Elements cannot handle profiles so I just
accepted this as true and devised my work-around to deal with the
perceived limitation. There is no way to get around the inherent
limitation imposed by Elements having to do with printing profiles.
There is no way to assign a profile for printing.>>

I am not sure that there is a limitation. If you click the "show more
options" box on the print dialog when you go to print, you can select
a printer profile at the time of printing so long as you have it
installed.

That Elements is limited is something that has been propogated on the
internet. I was victim of thinking that way myself till I started
really looking at the program. When I found curves and layer masks
and a slew of other things--all of which people still claim aren't in
there--I realized that the program was a lot more powerful. On a
forum the other day someone knew about my tools and STILL claimed
Elements didn't have curves, while admitting my tools opened access
to them. People WANT to believe Elements isn't as powerful as it
really is...I can't explain that. I can say it is all most users will
ever need.


-
14
-

<<I don't have the full version of Photoshop yet (don't laugh - I'm
new, learning and on a limited budget :-) but have been using
Elements and really love what I'm able to do in it. If I shoot in raw
will elements be able to open it?>>

Why laugh at Elements? The program runs over the same engine as
Photoshop with pretty much all of the power that most users will ever
need. Do you process CMYK images? Do you do a lot of web site
development (not galleries)? Do you need to write your own actions
and scripts for image processing? If not, there may be a good chance
you won't ever need more than Elements has. Elements has gotten a bum
wrap as an inferior program. Elements 3 will have RAW and 16-bit
processing. You can add RAW processing to Elements 2 with the RAW
plugin (I believe it is $99). Even before Elements could handle RAW
and 16-bit, as a Photoshop user of 10 years (at the time) I switched
over at my regular job to Elements so I could budget for an equipment
upgrade instead...It has worked out very well. I'd never laugh at
Elements...and those who would just don't know what it can do.


-
15
-

<<I just clicked on your link and saw your elements book. WOW... can
you really work in channels in elements? That's something I've been
wanting to do but didn't think I could. Can you work in channels in a
similar way as in the full version?

Yes, you can. I show how to split out the channels step-by-step, and
provide a tool that you click to perform the steps for you. Once
separated, you can adjust each channel separately...

Just understanding that process will give you tons of understanding
about digital that Photoshop users never really have...even many
pros.

New book out in about December! More tools coming to me site.

Stay tuned.



--------------------------------------------------------
Do let me know about questions and comments, and let me know what you
think about the newsletter. rl@...
--------------------------------------------------------

Brought to you by Richard Lynch in conjunction with The Hidden power
of Photoshop Elements 2 and The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3

http://hiddenelements.com

Copyright © 2004 Richard Lynch
------------------------------

The link in the newsletter to the Dynamic Image tool was incorrect.
Please use the following link:

http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic

The package comes with Hidden Power Dynamic Image and Hidden Power
Basic Color Correction. These tools lead you step by step to better
images in a matter of minutes, using proven techniques. You get both
for $12. The page shows what the tool can do with a few sample
images. A full tutorial will appear shortly.

--------------------------
Hidden Power Monthly
May 31, Vol.11
--------------------------

The Newsletter for Elements Users

-----------------
IN THIS ISSUE
-----------------

THIS MONTH:

A New Hidden Power: The Dynamic Image Tool

LONG ANSWERS (5)

SHORT ANSWERS (11)


-------------------------------
THE MONTH IN HIDDEN POWER
-------------------------------

A new tool is released this month: The Hidden Power Dynamic Image tool. This
tool can help you pump some life into images that seem like they should just
have a little more pop. It does so without blocking up the shadows or blowing
out the highlights. See more in the Long Answers section below.

Mend tool users! You can get a free copy of the Hidden Power Dynamic Image tool
by submitting your user experience with the Mend tool. Just send me a short note
(less than 1000 words) about what the Mend tool has done for you. If your
experience is used in the next newsletter, I'll give you the Dynamic image tool
free! Responses do not have to be positive, gushing or otherwise phoney...Send
your experiences to: thebookdoc@...

New tool with the next issue: Hidden Power Type. I know I mentioned it last
issue, but orders for Mend have kept me busy, and I want to be sure I handle
orders well enough before posting additional products. In any case, it gives you
something to look forward to!

Please feel free to send your other tool requests. While I am moving in to
another busy Summer, I look forward to getting users the tools they need. It has
been a while between issues, and this is partially because questions and
requests are slowing down. I look forward to your input. Please send questions
as they arise! Thebookdoc@...


--------------------
LONG ANSWERS
--------------------

1. The Dynamic Image Tool
2. My Experiences Without Color Profiles
3. More Actions for Elements Users?
4. What Working Color Space is Recommended?
5. Tool Installation


-
1. The Dynamic Image Tool
-

<<I'm an experienced film photographer just now returning to photography after
20 years away from it, learning digital for the first time. I'm very grateful
for your "Hidden Power" book; it really is a great course in the technique. I'm
serious when I say it is a worthy successor for Ansel Adams' Basic Photo Series
was for the "Zone System". Every time I think of a tool or something to add, I
study some more and there it is. I'm looking forward to the action you were
referring to in
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=7874186. Where
will the article come out?>>

The article will be out in Digital Photography Techniques
(http://www.dcmag.co.uk/) in issue 12, and the tool will be available as of the
release of this newsletter! [BTW -- in a promotion, new subscribers get a free
copy of my new book on Photoshop CS!] I call it The Hidden Power Dynamic Image
tool. It is a semi-automatic correction tool that will help you improve the
dynamics (tone, contrast and color) of just about any image that seems to be
lacking a little zip. All you do is let the tool lead you through a series of
simple steps; it won't blow out the highlights or plug up the shadows, and your
images will improve.

While I am not much for automated corrections, semi-automated processes can
dramatically enhance images if approached the right way. My testers and I have
gone at this on enough images that I am satisfied the theory behind it
translates into results. Get the tool here: http://hiddenelements.com/dynamic/
There is a simple example of the type of results you can expect, and a link to a
purchase page. I'll have something more substantial up soon.

What the tool does is actually pretty simple: it uses a highlight and shadow
mask to target highlights, shadows and midtones. By making adjustments with
Levels according to on-screen instructions, you adjust image tone to make it
more dynamic. The masked Levels adjustment retains more detail than just blowing
it away as you would with something like the Brightness/Contrast tool. With the
masking, the reaction in the image tends to be more like what happens when using
Photoshop curves—but you don't have to be a Curves whiz to get results.


-
2. My Experiences Without Color Profiles
-

<<I managed well enough for twenty five years when I used to print color film by
conventional means, so I cannot see why going to the n-th degree with profiles
should be necessary with digital printing. If you need reproducibility with
different equipment, then maybe profiles are mandatory. If you have one fixed
setup, I strongly suspect they are overkill as I am consistently getting results
that I believe would be hard to better even with their use. My views results
from action I initially had to take to get around the fact that I cannot get
Adobe Gamma to work on my PC (as it falls over when I try to save a new profile
due to an apparent incompatibility with shell32.dll in Windows XP). I used the
calibration image at http://www.peak-imaging.com/htmls/download.htm where the
grayscales and color patches are crisp and easy to make judgements by eye
without measuring instruments.

First, I put it to use to adjust my monitor settings so the grayscales are
neutral. I set the color temperature, brightness and the contrast. I did not
need to adjust the monitor gamma or color settings at all but with an ATI
graphics card one even has curves available for the latter! The next step is to
get a print on the papers I use from the calibration image that has correct
grayscales and ideally matches the colors on the monitor. I easily found by
trial and error the print driver settings to match with my equipment. Virtually
everything I have printed since with those settings is spot on and closely
matches the appearance on the monitor.>>

The procedure described here by this experienced reader is pretty much what I
suggest in The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2. The idea is that if you
test your actual output with your printing device and make intelligent choices
about color settings (mostly via calibration), your results will be optimized
WITHOUT using an embedded profile. If you optimize your view, and make the most
out of your image, no profile is going to rescue it -- and if it does, I'd be
MORE worried because the profile is making changes to your image. You want your
prints to match your screen, and no matter what people are pumping about
profiles, you may not need them.

As I believe I say elsewhere and hopefully most readers understand: using
profiles is not a silver bullet for getting good color. You have to know why you
are using them and exactly what you are profiling. Adobe RGB isn't 'better' for
everything. It isn't even better for most things. I worked with Photoshop for
many years before there was profiling at all, and there was still a way to get
reliable results. In fact, I'd say that form was MORE reliable because there was
no guessing (as there wouldn't be with proper profiling use).

The real answer here has to do with what the original space is, and what the
output is. If you are looking at a monitor and expecting to match those results
and you are creating web pages, embedding a profile is pretty useless. If you
are printing to CMYK, taging the file accurately MIGHT be helpful IF you are
sending an RGB file. There is not a fine difference between understanding your
images and output and hoping a profile will do it for you. There is a fine
difference between that knowledge and deciding how to control the result.

Don't guess, know. Don't just chose a profile, use them.

The lure here that so many users are biting is sometimes the poor description of
Adobe RGB having a wider gamut. Wider gamut is a little bit of a scam. There are
still the same number of colors in sRGB and Adobe RGB. The idea that the colors
are mapped differently doesn't make it an advantage. It SOUNDS good (wider
gamut), because it makes you feel like there is more to get. Functionally, you
need something more capable than your monitor to show the difference, and
something better than CMYK to print what you see. Good luck. As bland as sRGB
is, it is a good, visual compromise to working in an environment where what you
see is what you get.

My guess is, 98% of people using profiles don't have the slightest clue as to
how to use them correctly. The other 2% use them because they are either a)
supposed to, or b) they got good results one time that they didn't duplicate
with sRGB. I wouldn't bet the farm on a guess -- or a single comparison. There
are choices for a reason, and you either use them, or you fake like you know
what you are doing. Simplifying and working without profiles is a good bet for
most users. That isn't a popular opinion, but it is a well tested one.

The method of checking a printout against the monitor is the preferred method of
getting results from a print. In fact, I find fancy equipment a little
ridiculous, and wish only that there were a software maker bright enough to make
software like I had some 5 years back that allowed me to create custom previews
that I could use to correct for results on specific paper. Barring that, a
simple calibration has to suffice. If you insist on using other color spaces and
embedding profiles, you'll have to dive in all the way for it to work. Its a
complexity most people don't need to endulge.


-
3. More Actions for Elements Users?
-

<<I had an idea...Maybe you should quiz your present readers, about their
current use of actions so you can find out what they need? There is a need for
more Elements help via actions, or I am a nut! If you could make the interface
easier to enhance, that might help as well.>>

One of the regrets that I've had over the past year is that I can't seem to get
people who write actions for Photoshop interested in Elements. I thought that
would have been a no-brainer. Regretfully most users have been apathetic about
posing ideas of what they need. The fact is, my Dynamic Image tool was born of
several reader questions. I know a LOT of people are using my tools (20,000
copies of the Elements book sold this year and many people have downloaded the
free tools), and many read the newsletter, but when I've asked for response I
have gotten a trickle rather than a gush. My guess is it may be that most users
really don't know what they need -- so it falls to me to tell them. I wish I had
more time to develop extras...and come up with the ideas for them. I have more
tools waiting in the wings, but I'd rather respond to what people tell me they
need.

I very much appreciate your email, and hope you will feel free to make
suggestions in the future. As far as making the interface easier, that is really
an Adobe thing -- and I regret to say I have the inkling that it will get harder
instead (better for the programmers, worse for the amateur). They have an XML
framework set up in Elements 2, and most people will find that harder to work
with than HTML. If I can't get people to poke around in HTML, it is less likely
that they will even look at XML should future versions of the program rely on
it.


-
4. What Working Color Space is Recommended?
-

<<When I open jpg image in PS Elements 2 it asks if I want to open the image as
1) use the embedded profile, 2) convert the documents color to the working
space, or 3) discard the embedded profile. What is recommended?>>

What is recommended really depends on your workflow and what you need to
accomplish. You seem to be using Full Color Management as your choice for color
management (This uses Adobe RGB as the working space as shown by your
screenshot). I don't really recommend this for those who don't know more about
the process...reason being that managed profiles can cause more harm than good.

However, as you are offered the option, I would do what you did and not jump to
a conclusion. Options are offered for a reason and you have to consider the
variables for the outcome. If you are going to maintain a full color management
setting for color preferences, the assumption of the workflow is that you will
use profiles to 'talk' to one another. This means allowing them to convert
information, either using the embedded profile as a translator for display, or
actually converting the information in the image from one profile to the other.
As this is the case, the logical choice is either of the first two--though they
are not equivalent. You should probably do some testing within your normal
workflow to see which produces the best results. By 'best', I don't mean
prettiest. I mean which thing will help you get closest in your result to what
you see on the monitor. My guess is converting will produce the most reliable
results if you use the images in various ways, as it will keep your outgoing
workflow to the AdobeRGB profile.

Jumping back a little, unless you are getting Adobe RGB images from your camera
or scanner (and if this is your typical image, then you don't have this
concern), I would probably simplify the whole mess and just shut off color
management. This way Elements will pretty much assume sRGB, and your Mismatch
screen won't appear. If you have a calibrated monitor, and use the right
techniques, your images won't do any suffering.

A whole lot is made of color management, and the sheer bulk of information (good
and bad) makes the choice and implementation all the more confusing. In my book
I outline what seems to be a simple method, and it has to do with shutting off
the color management. 'Bigger' color spaces don't necessarily have more colors
-- they all have 16 million in RGB. Quite frankly, that they are mapped
differently shouldn't make a difference if color management works like it
should. In practice (and I've been practicing more than 12 years -- most of that
without color management as an option), it seems that what you get used to is
what works. I don't advocate using color management because it adds a layer of
complexity that you should really understand before you implement it -- and then
once you understand it, you may not need to implement.

Testing is really the only thing that works. and I prefer to simplify by
removing, rather than adding, variables.


-
5. Tool Installation
-

Let me preface this...I have been accused of being pompous, a nut, inane,
condescending, stupid, wacko and a few other things for the solutions I have
suggested to users for troubleshooting installations. I am sure it is
frustrating to have trouble with installations, but be assured I can only
approach installation problems as anomalies. I have tested everything, and it
works...where it doesn't work, there is something different or wrong. The reason
for most of my wacky solutions is that 1) I have no idea who users are and their
experience with computers when they contact me, and 2) I have seen what works.
While I do what I can to put information in the readme files for installation,
it seems that not everyone will read them...and some do then make a different
interpretation than I intended. I do know this: I have tested everything I
release on modern equipment on Mac and PC. I cannot account for every system
configuration or change made to operating systems. I can't tell which virus
protection programs will halt an installation, or what name changes users may
have made to a program file (!?!). I've heard quite a lot of problems with
installing, and perversely I get more from Mac users. I find this perverse as I
create the tools on Mac.

Here are a few tips from users and my archives:

<<I was having trouble installing from the CD, so I assume it was faulty. I
created a disk image of the CD and used that for the install and it worked.>>
Glad it is working. The solution adds more to the mystery than it removes, as if
the disc was faulty, it could not have transferred the information.

<<Here is a list of the installed files [attachment on email]. I know things
installed, but I don't know why it isn't working!>> You are trying to out-think
the installer. All you have to do, as per the instructions, is start the
installer. It should show an initial screen that describes the installer. You
click OK, and are led to a screen that allows you to BROWSE for the installation
folder. DO NOT TYPE the dissections in, click the Browse button ( looks like:
[...] ) and locate the Photoshop Elements 2 program folder. When you choose the
right directory, the program will install.

<<Hi Richard...The read and write permission must be activated in all of the
folder>> I believe these have to be turned off manually...However, turning them
on or deleting the Elements installation and re-installing should eliminate this
problem (unless there is some utility that locks files (!?!).

<<I purchased and installed the mend tool and I followed your instructions to
the T for installing it. However when I go to the effects menu and click on
"Mend" all that shows up is the original image. There is no set up icon. When
the program downloaded it was automatically unzipped by Stuffit Delux. Is that
the problem you allude to in your instructions for downloading with the Mac?>> I
have found that Stuffit doesn't unzip well--for whatever reason. I have made the
suggestion in several places to use a different utility. For those who still use
Stuffit, either by choice or because it is automated, open the Mend.psd file and
save it using Save As, without making changes to the file. Then delete the cache
and re-start Elements. This is not an insane solution...what happens is Elements
is smart enough to read the ZIP encoding and then resaves the file so it can be
read by the Effects interface.

<<I am at a loss. The instructions say: "Target the installation by choosing the
elements directory when Prompted" I can not find the directory to my Elements
and how do I find this directory so I can get the tools downloaded?>> In DOS,
what you might call folders are called Directories (DIR). The Elements Directory
is a folder where the program is stored. It is usually on your C drive in the
Program Files folder in the Adobe folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop
Elements 2. Locate that folder during the installation.

<<I installed the bonus tools and they appear when I first open the program,
then they disappear and I can't find them anywhere. I open the How To tab and
the Hidden Powers palette appears but not the bonus tools. I don't know if the
download was entirely successful or not.>> It was successful. The bonus/free
tools will appear in the Welcome menu. To get back the Welcome menu, choose
Welcome from the Windows menu. To access through the How To palette, click the
Other tab in Hidden Power and then click Actions. You can navigate back by
clicking the Hidden Power header on the free tools.


<<I'm having difficulty installing the CD to my computer. I get as far as the
browse button to send the installation to a directory. I click okay on
HPPSElements2 (D:), and Error comes up "Some files could not be extracted.".
What is wrong?>> Unless you have a second hard drive or are on a network, the D
drive will be the CD. You can't install the tools to the CD. You need to install
the tools to the Elements program file. On a PC, this is usually C:\Program
Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2. Please use the browse button you get the path
rather than typing it in (the latter is less accurate). I then click on extract
and password comes up.



----------------------
SHORT ANSWERS
----------------------

-
1
-

<<I have a set of USM filters that I'd like to apply over and over and am hoping
to stick 'em on the recipes palette. I get a sense that this is a custom action
and that doing so can only be done from within Photoshop proper. Doable in
PSE?>>

Doable with Photoshop. If you want to program your own actions, you should get a
copy of the PS6 demo. It is free and does not expire. The free tools on my
website have an actions player, and adding actions to batch is really pretty
easy. Just take a look at what I did with the free batch tool. If you need more
information, please ask!


-
2
-

<<I tried the "Trim Image" tool, but did not see any change. Is there anywhere I
can get a little more description of how the tools work?>>

I believe the tool is described in the readme. I guess this is most helpful when
you do something like create a drop shadow for a separated object (over a white
background), and want to trim to the edges. The advantage is that you can trim
automatically without having to measure where the edge of the shadow ends.

Reveal shows you stuff that you may have moved off the visible canvas. Try this:

1. duplicate your background.
2. Choose the move tool and slide it left 100 or more pixels.
3. Click Reveal.

Your canvas size will change to encompass the image area you pushed out of the
frame. This will work up to 30,000 pixels in any direction (there is actually a
hidden matte on your images that extends this far). Reveal won't work after you
crop an image , which should remove all hidden elements in the matte area.


-
3
-
<<On page 44 in the area for Turing Black-and-White to color again in the
paragraph Prepare the RGB Layers the number 1 instruction is "Activate the
Background layer of the separated image." What do you mean the Background Layer
of the separated Image? Where do I find this background layer? When I click on
the Lilly I get the original colored Lilly and the is only that one image in the
palette and the red, green and blue do not come up. How can I get a red, green,
blue, composite, and background thumbnail to come up in the layers palette?>>

First, the instructions in the book are cumulative in some respect; you have to
understand the stuff at the beginning to tackle the stuff that comes later. You
seem to be having trouble with the idea of Layers and the RGB separations, which
are the first things you get to in the book. When I discuss layers, it pretty
much exclusively has to do with the Layers palette (Windows
>Layers). Backgrounds are the base layer in the layer stack and they will be
labeled "Background" on the layers palette. The separation is what you create by
going through the steps in the book, or by clicking the Split RGB tool in the
Hidden Power set.

As I just mentioned to someone else, as I mean to imply in the introduction to
the book, the understanding you will be reading about is a summary of about 12
years of digital imaging understanding. It will hopefully take a little time to
completely absorb itÅ0â9¢„Å0Ñ7take your time. It is the goal of the book not to
make something you read and dispose, but something that is valuable and
lasts--perhaps for years.


-
4
-

<<I purchased your book Hidden Powers for Photoshop Elements 2. I have installed
the software that came with it, but I am having trouble running it. When I first
installed your software, it loaded itself in the How To section. I later
installed your Hidden Powers III, and it installed itself in the Windows drop
down section, I am running Windows XP. I now have your program installed in two
places. I like it in the How to drop down section, since in the windows drop
down section when you run it, it does not minimize itself after it loads and it
blocks the screen with the image I am working on if I run it from the Windows
section. I hope that you have some idea what I have just typed.>>

The tools that you get on the internet and the tools on the CD are distinct.
They are loaded to different places exactly because they are NOT the same. As
far as using them, you answer your own question when you say you've had the book
only a week...the book is where you'll find instruction. Give it some time. As I
say in the introduction (or at least imply), the understanding you will be
reading about is a summary of about 12 years of digital imaging understanding.
It will hopefully take a little time to completely absorb it...take your time.


-
5
-

<<Is there some way to allow PSE2 to open and handle the 16 bit tiff files I get
from my Sigma SD9 pics edited in Sigma's photoPro2 software?>>

I believe the program will convert any 16-bit files to 8-bit on opening. It is
currently not possible (that I know of) to work with 16 bit files in Elements.
It was not possible until recently (the release of CS) to work in 16-bit in
Photoshop with most tools enabled. For the most part, most people don't need
16-bit as it can't be output...it is good for archiving, some editing functions,
and capture. Unless you are making some pretty radical corrections to your
images, you may never notice the difference. If you are concerned, make the
16-bit edits in the camera's software, archive, and then move to Elements.

[I would try this with several images and compare to images handled in Elements
alone...just to see if you can really determine a clear difference.]


-
6
-

<<I went to Hidden Power and opened the Curves tool that YOU provided and
clicked Help. But when I click that button, I get a message "Curves: Could not
find Help for this feature." It seems natural that when I am shown the interface
for some tool, and there is a Help button in the interface, then clicking that
button should give me some useful information about that tool. You've done a
pretty shoddy job with this if this is an example of your work.>>

The Help button you are referring to is in the interface is programmed by Adobe.
They chose not to place the Help in -- I have nothing to do with their part of
the interface, I just provide access to what they created. I realize this may be
a little confusing. However, I can't take blame for their code. I also can't
change it. You have to curse Adobe's work on this account, not mine.

To me the 'Help' file I provide is the book that accompanies the CD and tools;
that should be most of the help you need. If you don't find it there, try asking
me a question via email, send to the forum, or send to the newsletter. Just to
say, without the tools, you'd never see the Help button. My guess is you won't
find another author to a) answer your questions after you've bought a book or b)
find another book that provides access to curves. I hope that is a better
example of my work and attempts to help.


-
7
-

<<What does one do with the options presented when, in the interface for your
Curves tool? These appear when I click the Options button visible on the curves
dialog. Can you give me some indication of what that is about?>>

Those settings are for automating corrections, and as that is the case they are
pretty useless and I'd steer very clear of them. I am sure you might be curious
as to the controls, but what the book puts forth is really all you need. Like I
suggest at the beginning of the book, my hope is to simplify your endeavor while
getting professional results...not to offer up every knob and twiddle-button.
These "Options" will certainly promise something they can't deliver. You are
better off reading the correction instructions in the book and following the
practices I suggest, regardless of the options. Feeling the need to use all the
buttons is a little like reading a fire alarm box that says "Break glass, pull
lever." if you do it just because it is there and says so, you might find
yourself in a bit of trouble.


-
8
-

<<I want to make adjustments with Curves. So what am I supposed to do, where am
I supposed to look, if I wish to see what could be called 'my original image,
modified as per the current deformation of the red-channel curve'? A simple
question. I hope it has a simple answer.>>

Well, the simple answer is that you need to understand all of the other
technique that comes before page 100. You need to make a separation and apply
the curve as a layer above and grouped with the Red layer. The idea of
separating channels in layers is discussed and it seems your questions as to
where to place adjustments are covered there. The book is cumulative. Unless you
are a very advanced user, I wouldn't recommend just jumping in at page 100 and
expecting to understand all that is going on. Once you understand the concept of
separating and recreating color in an image in the way that elements can, THEN
it is time to move on to adjustments.

Elements is not the same as Photoshop, though it can accomplish most (and
probably nearly all) of the same things. Indulging ALL of the technique is
important. What you are doing may be more along the line of the analogy that I
think some editor suggested cutting from my book having to do with a fellow who
wanted to build a house by starting with the installation of the sink--because
he was pretty fond of the sink. The only problem is, there was nothing to mount
it to, no piping to supply the water, etc. It might seem a no-brainer that the
sink should supply water, but it can't be installed before the walls are built.
While you are seeking a "turn the handle so the water flows" answer to your
curves question, you are at the same time asking what it is connected to to
supply the water. Discover the whole process by starting at the beginning of the
book.


-
9
-

<<Recently when I had to restructure my HD after a bad virus attack, when I
attempted to reload the Hidden Power tools I got a Runtime Error message.
"Runtime Error 202 at 000042A3". How do I fix that?>>

This is cause by not browsing for the program folder during the installation.
When you see the Browse button [...], click it and locate the elements program
folder. On PC, that is most likely C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 2.


-
10
-

<<I followed your directions, but that seems inane [SEE!] to open a file and
resave without making changes. Saving isn't an option, as far as I can tell
unless I make changes to the file. I find this process of installing the Mend
Tool to be less than user-friendly and am doubting if there is a Mend Tool in
the package you e-mailed me.>>

It may seem inane to you, but that is what you have to do if you choose to unzip
with the tool you are using. The real problem is that the directions state you
have to unzip with a particular tool. As you are not doing that, the other
solution is to open the file and re-save it (use Save As...). While that seems
to the user to make no changes, saving it REALLY DOES.

It would be ridiculous of me to 1) sell a tool that was a fake, or 2) sell one
that didn't work. I have a reputation to uphold outside of this one
(inexpensive) tool, and if I were going to be doing a scam, I'd probably go the
route of some other authors and offer a $300 DVD that is not much more than an
infomercial for my books. I'm not interested in making a killing, or I'd charge
more for the tools. It is not possible to make an installer that installs
flawlessly no matter what operating system or configuration the users has...I
have to be able to some extent to depend on the user following instructions. If
you visit the forums as the instructions suggest
(http://retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=142), you will see that
several Mac users have had trouble installing and that there are a number of
different solutions to try. This is odd, as I use Mac to create the installers
-- so you'd think PC users would have more trouble. The trouble is the utility
you are using, and the OS...and perhaps the mailing program you use. These are
issues outside the installer itself that I cannot control. It will install, and
it does work. Please try the initial suggestion. Whether or not it makes sense
to you, it will likely take care of the problem.

<<Thanks, it fixed the problem.>>


-
11
-

<<I am happily learning where Mend can fix the spots by itself, and where I have
to have a bit of smarts to go along with it.>>

Any tool that is so absolutely automated that you don't have to think at all
when using it to make an artistic decision is a frightening tool indeed. I hope
to make my tools with just enough options to provide both solutions, and
intelligent options for adjustment. From the response I have gotten thus far, it
seems I'm doing OK.



--------------------------------------------------------
Do let me know about questions and comments, and let me know what you think
about the newsletter. rl@...
--------------------------------------------------------

Brought to you by Richard Lynch in conjunction with The Hidden power of
Photoshop Elements 2

http://hiddenelements.com

Copyright © 2004 Richard Lynch
------------------------------

--------------------------
Hidden Power Monthly
March 26, Vol.10
--------------------------

The Newsletter for Elements Users


-----------------
IN THIS ISSUE
-----------------

THE MONTH IN HIDDEN POWER LONG ANSWERS (4)

More age-old questions get answered, but with a somewhat new twist. Learn how
resizing works, what Quick Mask is great for, and how customized effects can be
achieved.

1. Is Elements better than Photoshop?
2. Using Quick Mask
3. Customizing Effects
4. How does resizing work?

SHORT ANSWERS (16)

These short answers are all over the map, from questions about the book and
tools to getting serious about image editing. One thing they have in common: the
answers are short.

MEND TOOL CORNER (11)

Questions and answers about the Mend tool, installation and function.


-------------------------------
THE MONTH IN HIDDEN POWER
-------------------------------

The Mend tool has surprised both me and users. I was surprised at the inital
interest in the tool, and users seem generally surprised that it works as well
as it does! If you haven't gotten the Mend tool yet, the general consensus of
those that I have heard from is that it is worth the money and then some.

Get more information on the Mend tool for Elements here:
http://hiddenelements.com/Mend

If you are a Mend tool user and you'd like to contribute a quote or other
information to appear in the next newsletter and on the Hidden Power website,
please contact me (thebookdoc@...). If you like the Mend tool, and want to
see more additions to Elements, let people know about the tool! Successful
distribution will allow me to spend more time developing even more stuff. If you
haven't gotten Mend, get it now...

http://hiddenelements.com/Mend

In other news, two more tools will be released shortly. One is a type tool which
adds in controls that you just don't have in Elements now: tracking (the space
between letters) and leading (the space between rows of type in a paragraph).
There is more to it than that, but the end result is, you will finally have much
better ability to control type in Elements layouts!

The second tool is one that may be more exciting to a broader range of users:
Auto-Adjust. The tool uses some good processing sense to make adjustments to
drab images, punching up the contrast while making sure not to lose highlight
and shadow details. It isn't anything like a levels or contrast auto-adjust...it
is smarter and can really help blah images. This one is ready to go, but I want
to get up a good tutorial before I roll it out to users.

I am hoping for a release of both of these within the next month.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to forward: rl@...


--------------------------
LINKS
--------------------------

The Hidden Power website: http://hiddenelements.com

The Hidden Power forum at RetouchPro.com: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/
forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=142

The Hidden Power newsletter archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hpe

Free Hidden Power Tools: http://hiddenelements.com/freetools.html

Or from Adobe: Mac:
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=7531 PC:
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=7516

Get the Hidden Power book: http://aps8.com/hppe.html

Buy Elements: http://aps8.com/elements.com

Get the new Mend tool for Elements: http://aps8.com/mend.html


--------------------------
LONG ANSWERS
--------------------------
1. Is Elements better than Photoshop?
2. Using Quick Mask
3. Customizing Effects
4. How does resizing work?


-
1. Is Elements better than Photoshop?
-
> I want to be able to make elements that I can't do
> in DIP 9. I use DIP 9 for all my scrapbook pages,
> but know I can do things in PS7 or PSE I can't do
> in DIP 9. What is your opinion based on the fact
> I do have access to PS7, should I struggle learning
> it or go the easier route of PSE???

I have to be honest, I am not really sure what DIP 9 is.

People make a bigger deal out of the difference between Photoshop and Elements
than there really needs to be. I don't know that I consider one program easier
than the other as they are different variations on a theme. One has more tools
and different ways to do things, and the other is a bit stripped down so there
are potentially fewer things to get in the way. If the latter is attractive,
stick with Elements. If you are a professional with sophisticated needs,
Photoshop may be something you should consider.

If you already have PS7, I would consider sticking with that rather than moving
to Elements -- if you will be doing things with four-color printing, spot color,
web design (Image Ready), and writing your own actions (though you can write
them and run them in Elements). Either program can probably do what you need,
and I am not entirely sold on one being easier than the other...Elements may
actually require a better understanding of manipulation to use it in advanced
arenas and with tough projects. Either will require that you develop your skills
and understanding over time.


-
2. Using Quick Mask
-
> After installing the tools and found the quick mask, but
> was unable to actually use it. I suspect it is because I
> just don't understand how. I wish there were some better,
> or expanded, tutorials for the Quick Mask tool (from the
> free download) and some of the others as well.

Time has been a factor in supporting the free tools. The idea is, I have lots to
do, and when I have to make a decision as to how to use my time, the thing that
gets left behind are the freebees. I regret that, actually, as they are usually
a lot of fun! However, I don't always have the time to commit...and regretfully,
there are bills to pay.

Be that as it is...Quick Mask was included with Hidden Power Actions III. You
can get that by downloading the free package from the Hidden Power website.

Using Quick Mask, pretty much goes like this: 1. Make a selection. 2. Click To
Rubylith (on the Welcome menu ... using HPAIII).

Step 2 converts the selection created in step 1 to a quick mask. The selected
area will be transparent and the unselected area will be ruby (50% transparent
red, by default). You can make changes to the mask by painting with white to
clear areas or painting with black to add back ruby.

To convert back to a selection: 1. click To Selection (on the Welcome menu ...
using HPAIII).

This converts the rubylith back to a selection based on any changes you may have
made.

The Quick Mask tool is good for seeing the softness in your selections and lets
you use pixel editing tools to adjust your selections. For example, if you make
a hard selection of an area using a standard tool, the selection line on screen
shows what the selection masks. If you make a feathered selection, the selection
line only shows where 50% or more of the image is selected. Switching to Quick
Mask can give you a better visual idea of what is being masked, and by how much.


-
3. Customizing Effects
-
> The Effect settings in Elements are pretty limited. Is there
> any way I can expand these functions? I am especially
> interested in applying glows.

Effects were actually included with Hidden Power Actions III. For these I
customized the way you can apply Effects and the result doesn't have to be
limited by the measley settings you get in Elements. Sometimes it is just better
to create your own effects.

In this case it is actually pretty easy -- if you already have the object you
want to apply the glow to isolated. If not, try this:

1. isolate the image area you want to apply the glow to on its own layer. E.G.,
make a selection of the area of the image you want to apply the glow to, and
copy/paste (the selection may take some time, but also might be unnecessary if
you already have the area on its own layer. Copy paste will create a new layer
with the area you've selected).

2. Activate the layer you want to apply the glow to. (It will already be
activated if you have used the copy/paste method.)

3. Create a new layer. This will make a new, blank layer above the current
layer.

4. Group the blank layer with previous (press cmd/CTRL + G).

5. make a selection the shape of the layer that the glow will be applied to
(press Cmd/CTRL + click the mouse). You'll use this selection to guide the
Stroke in the next step.

6. Stroke the selection using Edit > Stroke. You'll be able to change color,
stroke width, color mode and location/orienation to the selection marquee. Use
Center to cover the edge best. The stroke will be drawn in the empty layer
created in step 3.

7. Deselect and apply a Gaussian Blur to the stroke using about half the
diameter of the stroke size. You can use more, less or none at all if you'd
like, but half will give you a feathered blur for the glow.

You can now change the transparency, mode, color and even apply other effects on
the inner glow -- as well as change the positioning -- to get the effects you
really want without depending on the presets.

If anyone were interested I might be coaxed into creating a set of actions that
would allow users to control their own effects without having to rely on the
presets.


-
4. How does resizing work?
-
> What does PSE do to get from 3200 to 500 pixels?
> Are pixels combined, eliminated, shrunk?

Elements will interpolate your information based on the interpolation method you
select when downsizing your image. Usually you will use Bicubic interpolation,
which downsizes and "sharpens" at the same time.

Interpolation affects how the choice is made between merging pixels. Pixels are
a standard unit within the image (pixel = picture element), so they are not
shrunk. In a sense they can either be combined (bicubic and bilinear
interpolation do averaging between pixels to determine new values) and/or
eliminated (Nearest Neighbor chooses from the best representation of pixels
currently in the image without averaging); in going from a larger image to a
smaller one, in some sense image information has to be removed.

Sizing down should not have as great a visible effect on the final image as
sizing up would. While sizing down is common (repurposing for less demanding
output) sizing up should be a relative rarity (when you size up, information is
added to the image -- representing the application flat-out guessing at what
should be there...). In other words, while both interpolate and 'guess', you see
less of the image as it gets smaller--and what is dismissed by the application
will weigh less on the result. Sizing up is like using a magnifying glass to
zoom in on the flaws in the process.


---------------
Short Answers
---------------


-
1
-
> I am having an installation problem on Mac.
> Your tool install from the CD hangs with the spinning
> ball, whether I run it from the flash screen or the
> fscommand folder.

What you are suggesting is a 'hang' is more likely the installer looking for a
place to install. Please try this:

1. Disconnect all peripherals (this INCLUDES your internet connection).
2. Restart with extensions disabled.
3. Create a folder on the desktop called Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.
4. Run the installer.

What this will do is make sure the installer is not searching external equipment
and the internet for a place to install. It will also create at least one place
to install to (the desktop folder). You SHOULD be offered a choice during the
installation. If not, check the name of the program folder. If so, Please choose
the ACTUAL program folder and complete the installation.

If you still have trouble, please tell me what happens.

There has not been ONE SINGLE INSTANCE where a user failed to be able to install
the tools. We'll get them in.


-
2
-
> I am trying to get my printing back under control (Epson 1280).
> I had it working and then bought a new system, and
> it doesn't work anymore -- and I forgot what I did!
> 1) my print out of CMYK.pdf is a good bit too
> saturated, even tho' both grey scales are fine.
> 2) blacks tend to block up and get blotchy with
> hints of blue or green.
> I admit to going against your recommendation and buying paper
> that was on sale...

It is clear just from this that something is wresting control from your
printout. You need to get into the printer settings and figure out how to pry it
back. It has been a while since I used a 1280, so I don't know the settings
off-hand. You'll have to go in and look around a bit. the book makes suggestions
around page 217 (is this hidden power or special edition using?). You may have
to shoot a couple sheets to find the problem.

Note that the book specifically suggests NOT buying paper on sale. If you switch
papers and brands, you will get different coatings, absorption rates, and
results. My goal in printing is to keep the variables to a minimum so I always
know what I will get. Here, you have changed several variables, which makes
locating the problem all that much more difficult. You'll have to run through
the whole process to figure it out and get back on track.


-
3
-
> I have PSE v1 that came with my scanner.
> Will the tools in HPE work for me with
> version 1, or will I have to buy version 2
> to use the tools?

My Hidden Power tools were developed for Elements 1. They had to be updated to
work on Elements 2, and actually install differently. The book and CD include
installers for both Elements 1 and Elements 2 for Mac and PC.


-
4
-
> I am an Elements 2 user. Is there a Healing Brush
> (band-aid icon) tool available for Photoshop Elements
> Version 2? That is the one item I would like to see
> in Elements. Otherwise I don't have a need for Photoshop
> (at my given talent level!!!). I heard somewhere this
> is available. Is it easy to install?

You caught me just at the right time! In February I released what I call the
Mend tool. This tool does essentially what the Healing tool does in Photoshop.
You can get it for just $10 if you order online, and it works in Elements 2 (I
would assume it works in Elements 1 as well, but I haven't tested it there).

To find out more and place your order, visit: http://hiddenelements.com/Mend

Installation requires unzipping a file and placing the resulting files in the
Elements Effects folder.


-
5
-
> I've spent 2 days searching forums and trying to
> figure out how to use the tools on my own. I can't
> find this information anywhere. Surely, somewhere
> there is basic information on how your tools work.
> ie. quick mask, selective color, and the other
> tools that appear on the help menu. Please help me.
> I really want to learn how to use the masks especially.

Feel free to ask questions about how to use the free tools in the user forum on
retouchpro.com
(http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=142). I
did not provide a lot of documentation (not really more than a description), as
I added these tools by request of readers. If I had thought they were really
more valuable than what I put in the book, I'd have included them there. My
point: the tools in the book cover these situations, and pretty much
consistently with better versatility. The main thing the free tools set out to
accomplish was to provide an interface for using Photoshop actions. I documented
that in several readme files included with the installation.

I would much rather approach image problems per the image, rather than tool
first. If you have any examples of things you can't seem to correct, I'd be glad
to look at those and work something out! However, if you want information about
a specific tool, ask about it...chances are I'll try to give an answer.


-
6
-
> I had firm impression when reading the
> specifications of Hidden Power Tools II
> that the set includes one called Non-Printing
> Annotations.

Well, it was supposed to! Annotations was announced as being part of the tool
set as I almost released it, but then my testers had trouble with the tool. I
couldn't really figure out what combination of operating system and versions was
throwing off the function, so I decided not to keep it in...then forgot to
remove some part of it, possibly from the release notes (?). It is something I
should try again, but right now the only method of working with annotations that
I found was so cumbersome that it would be something I would not want to
support. I get so many "how do I unzip a zip file" questions (and continue to
get them though I hand out instructions in the readme) that I can't see putting
out a truly complicated, multi-step tool. Feel free to prod, it will help me
remember to try. Just because I haven't found the solution yet doesn't mean it
isn't there.


-
7
-
> Thank you for the HPE Jan. newsletter. For some
> reason your email newsletter came through with
> strange "=" signs embedded in the email, which
> made it very difficult to read.

You can get the newsletter in text format from the website:
http://hiddenelements.com/newsletter.html

Regretfully, the number of email clients and the way email is handled can
sometimes cause incompatibilities. This should be a simple thing, but never
seems to end up that way. Hopefully I provide enough alternatives so you can
read the newsletter one way, or another.


-
8
-
> Any chance I'll be able to get a pen tool for
> Elements to help me make selections?

Having a Pen tool is unlikely for Elements 2, and I am guessing it will not be
included in future Elements upgrades. Hidden Power leverages functionality
already in Elements, it doesn't really create new features. This way, what you
use is Adobe tested.

You can convert to Paths from selections using the tools provided with Hidden
Power, and this will automatically limit the number of nodes depending on the
settings you choose. Effectively you can edit paths by switching to selections
from paths and re-creating those paths. You take a shape, convert to a
selection, alter the selection and convert back to a path. In this way, any
shape you can make by selections you can convert to a path.


-
9
-
> Does your program give support for printer, camera, and scanner
> profiles? Can you specify cmyk conversion options and rendering
> intent?

You can completely customize black generation and separation weighting for CMYK.
I use an example of a simple separation and generate black based on darkness and
lack of saturation. You can get more or less complex. Profiles don't come into
play.


--
10
--
> Do all PS actions work in Elements with your addins, or only a subset?

All Photoshop actions can be made to work -- at least in essence. These may have
to be edited. You can edit actions using a PS6 demo. Look on Jumbo.com and other
program download sites. Many actions work with just a name change. I am
attempting to get more people to write actions and convert them for Elements,
but few people have joined in with my enthusiasm. If you know anyone who is
enthusiastic, I'd like to talk to them!


--
11
--
> Any way we can get a tool similar to the nozel/hose
> sprayer feature in painter?

I am sure this can be simulated...However, I'd need a good example of use. I've
not found a real use for this type of thing -- that is not to say anyone else
might not. It is, however, more difficult to solve those problems that I don't
use as a matter of course. Have an example?


--
12
--
> Can you have partially selected areas in a mask? In clipping groups > it is an
all or nothing effect. Fades and masking are much easier > with partially
selected areas of a layer.

Yes, you can have partial masks. I disagree that clipping is all or nothing in
that a partially opaque base to a clipping group will partially mask an area.


--
13
--
> I understand 16 bit editing vs 8 bit is somewhat controvercial, but
> my own tests show some benefit, especially with gradients and
> extensive post processing. The benefits may be subtle, but they are
> there. FWIW, PS has much better gradients than Photopaint (better
> addition of noise)

You can't output at 16 bit. If you are finding better results with 16 bit, it is
probably partially due to handling during editing. The end point is: if you can
get a result using 16 bit when printing to 8 bit technology, those same results
are technically possible with 8 bit editing. CMYK, no matter how you process
your images, always has the same number of color combinations.

But, if you insist on 16 bit editing and it is a sticking point, you won't be
getting it right now in Elements (I am not convinced that it is impossible.)


--
14
--
> Selection is my biggest gripe with Elements. With PS (and Knockout),
> there is just no comparison. There are far more ways of selecting,
> and these can be combined in so many ways.

If you learn to use what Elements has, there really is very little difference
along this line. I believe that the saturation masking and Blend Mask tools I
provide in Hidden Power will do more than any standard Photoshop tool in tone or
color based selection with greater ease. In short, the tools are there in
Elements, you may need to use them differently. I would be glad to see an
example of what you think Elements can't do.


--
15
--
> I think advance blending options were left out of Elements layers.
> This is useful if you can't to copy into one of the channels
> associated with your mode (like R, G, or B for an RGB image)

They also say CMYK was left out of Elements :-) . You can separate anything you
need to as long as you know the theory -- or if you have the tools I created to
help you implement that theory.


--
16
--
> Is there a History brush in Elements? Not only
> can be set to any mode in PS, but set to snapshot
> versus multiple previous states.

Using Hidden Power, you have a history snapshot that can be taken and stored in
a layer. You can apply it in modes, modify it, duplicate it, mask it, unmask,
apply filters...really it is MORE versatile than the static snapshot you get in
Photoshop. You can apply it with and brush or brush setting. This is available
with the book on the CD.


-----------------
MEND TOOL CORNER
-----------------

-
1
-
> Can I buy the Mend tool without using PayPal?

I added a payment option for purchase through the mail using a check (US funds).
I still deliver the tool as an email attachment, but this allows you to pay by
check or money-order without having a PayPal account. I still think Paypal is
the best option, and you really get a 33% discount by purchasing that way. It is
far more convenient, and WAY quicker.

Both options are explained here:

http://hiddenelements.com/Mend


-
2
-
> How well does the Mend tool work?

Many have asked for more details about how Hidden Power Mend works, and are
curious about its healing power. In case you wanted to see a bit more, I posted
a tutorial, demo and explanation here:

http://hiddenelements.com/Mend

Let me know if you have questions or need more information.


-
3
-
> When I click on the 'Patron' button I get an error

Though I tested this, some people are having trouble. Don't mind it. The Patron
portion of the tool is an information file which I'd hoped you could use to
check your registration info. At the same time, it really doesn't matter to the
working of the tool. I've only heard isolated complaints, and I assume it has to
do with Elements not handling missing system fonts. In other words, a bug in
Elements.


-
4
-
> When I try to install the tools, I put the file in the
> right folder, but they don't appear in Elements... > any idea what the problem
can be?

If you mean that you are just putting the ZIP file into the Effects folder, then
you are missing a step. You need to download the ZIP file (save it from your
email to your hard disk) and use a utility to decompress the file. I don't know
how your email client works, but the zip file might already be on your system.
If you have a look around for it using your computer's Search feature, you may
find it lurking in some obscure folder. Once you unzip the file, have a look at
the instructions in the readme. In case you have trouble with that, I have
posted the entire readme file here:

http://www.hiddenelements.com/Mend/readme.html


-
5
-
> About unzipping...I am using Windows XP, which has a
> built-in unzip feature. Do you know if the XP unzip
> feature works for the Mend tool?

Try it. If it doesn't work the first time, you can try dropping the Mend folder
on the utility a second time. The problem with unzipping is less that something
does it wrong (in ruining it) than that it stops before all levels of unzipping
are complete. Worse comes to worse, just take the folder and drop it on another
extraction utility. Chances are it will take care of the files which are
probably just not fully expanded.


-
6
-
> You instruct deleting the Cache in step 3 of the
> install instructions. Do I gather your instruction
> intends removing all aspects of the Previews Cache
> from PSE2 prior to installing your Mend tool? If so,
> I assume the removal of the Previews Cache is of
> no real consequence to PSE2's performance?

I'd never tell you to do anything that would harm your program...my goal is to
do the opposite. The only thing that will be noticeable is that the cache will
rebuild when the program starts up again. This may take a minute or two. Once
rebuilt, you have actually just refreshed the cache...nothing bad about that.


-
7
-
> In Step 4 of the install instructions you say to
> rebuild preferences. Do I gather correctly from your
> instructions that this will be a "wizard like"
> process which is basically self evident in execution?

Rebuilding the preferences is automated. All you do is hold down the suggested
keys when restarting, and click [Yes] when prompted to rebuild. The program will
delete the preferences and rebuild them, requiring no input on your part. The
upshot will be that palettes and preferences will return to default positions.
You may need to change color management and other preference settings.


-
8
-
> Just tried the Mend tool once and it seems a bit
> cumbersome(a lot of steps), but as I say that
> was only one quick time.

  Well, just to let you know what is going on behind the scenes: in order to get
the right results, some 80 or more steps were necessary. These steps do some
pretty sophisticated checking between the sample and the target to determine
what the best result will be. Simplifying the tool further would be, in my
estimation, dumbing it down. I wanted to get the best result for users.

Elements executes all those steps with input from the user at 5-6 different
points. Elements is not built for scripting, or I'd have been able to build a
much neater result (e.g, completely automated). I am guessing that for $10 it is
a better choice than spending $600 to upgrade and get something a little faster
and not any better in Photoshop.

I think you'll see with a little use that the tool will make short work of
corrections by helping you fit in changes without a lot of alteration --
especially in areas that may be difficult to clone to -- like knees, cheeks, or
other body areas where there are a lot of curves. I am not sure what you tested
the tool on, but try a few different images...I think you'll be surprised what
it can do given the opportunity.


-
9
-
> When I use the Mend tool, the previews sometimes
> look worse before I get to the end result (which
> always looks better). How do I know what to do?

The nature of this Mend correction is that there has to be a comparison between
the original area and the clone. The things you see on screen don't really
matter as the correction is occurring -- as you say, it improves by the end,
which is the point. The instructions on screen are meant to give you some sense
of what to do when using the Mend tool. Most adjustments will be based on brush
size. Don't worry so much about what you see on screen and in previews, as layer
modes will sometimes affect what you see. Adjustments to tone that happen will
tend to be black-and-white...but by the time you get the the end of the
application, the color is re-introduced. The color and tone have to be worked
separately to get the best result.


--
10
--
> I have ordered the tool, how do I download it?

When you place an order for the tool, I have to customize it for you. This takes
some time, and I like to do it in batches, so I do it just once or twice a week.
This lets me work on other development without breaking my time into tiny
splinters. You will receive the tool by email...this is explained on the Mend
tool order page: http://www.hiddenelements.com/Mend/mend_buy.html


--
11
--
> Can this tool run on the Macintosh platform?

All of my tools are cross platform. Most (or all) work on Elements 1 and
Elements 2.



--------------------------------------------------------
Do let me know about questions and comments, and let me know what you think
about the newsletter. rl@...
--------------------------------------------------------

Brought to you by Richard Lynch in conjunction with The Hidden power of
Photoshop Elements 2

http://hiddenelements.com

Copyright © 2004 Richard Lynch
------------------------------

Many have asked for more details about how Hidden Power Mend works, and are
curious about its healing power. In case you wanted to see a bit more, I posted
a tutorial, demo and explanation here:

http://hiddenelements.com/Mend

Let me know if you have questions or need more information.

Richard Lynch