Photoshop Elements 3.0/4.0
Organizing a Lifetime of
Photos
Lesson One
Photoshop Elements 3.0 (upgraded to 4.0 in October
2005) is generally recognized throughout the digital photography industry as
the most comprehensive program for Organizing and Editing a lifetime of photos.
Organize and Edit are each virtually stand-alone programs which can be fully
integrated when needed. Recently PC Magazine reviewed the existing competition
among Editing/Organizing programs on the market and gave Elements 4.0 its Editor’s
Choice Award.
A.
Quick Guide –
Quick Shortcuts to all Major Functions
1.
Get Photos
2.
Print
3.
Share Photos
4.
Undo and Redo
5.
Create
6.
Edit
B.
Main Window – Catalog
concept of filing, fundamentally different than the Folder>File system.
Follows data based management systems so successfully implemented in Quicken.
1.
Photo Browser – Organize
section
a.
Tags
b.
Collections
2.
Date View
a.
Year, Month and
Day
b.
Stack of photos
by day
C.
Search and enter all images into Photo Browser
1.
Create a new
catalog: File>Catalog>new or open
2.
Click “Get
Photos”
3.
First time use – File>Get
Photos>Search
a.
Looks in “all
hard disks” , usually over 100 KB
4.
After initial
inventory, generally use Files and Folders
a.
Click on picture
of Camera>Files and Folders>My Pictures>actual file recent photos are
stored in. See 2 page handout “Downloading Photos from Camera to Organize in
Elements 4.0 and creating a CD backup.
5.
Discuss how and
where most class members store or file folders now.
6.
Thumbnails of all
digital photos are now copied together with their “paths” into the Photo Browser.
Organizer does not disturb existing file location nor will it write over edited
photos.
D.
Review Calendar Graph along top of Organizer’s Main Window.
1.
Show bracketing
for selecting time periods.
E.
Organize – Timeline concept – Create, Organize and Apply Tags to images to help
searching later on.
1.
Least enjoyable
thing we do. Most photo systems organize by naming every photo and searching by
name. This is so time consuming that we never do it effectively.
2.
Review and set
Bottom Row Options.
a.
Sorting order
b.
Details
c.
Show/Hide
properties – Metadata or EXIF data on every digital photo.
d.
Photo Review -
F11
e.
Photo size slider
3.
Easy and fun with
Organizer’s “Tagging System”
4.
Major Tagging
Categories:
a.
People
b.
Places
c.
Events
d.
Other
e.
Hidden
f.
Favorites
5.
Let’s Create a Tag
a.
Click “People”. Note arrow direction. Right
> only main category heading. Down>Shows all sub headings and tags
b.
Type in separately:
(1) Children, (2) Youths, (3)Adults
a.
Next highlight photos
in Children category
b.
Review Control
Click and Shift Click
c.
Click on each
category separately, holding down left mouse key and drag to any highlighted photo.
c.
Click Places
1.
Right click on
Places and click on Create New Sub-Category. Then type in (1)Grand Canyon, (2)
2.
Next, highlight all
photos in each category. Use Shift and Control keys and left click on photo(s).
3.
Left click and
hold down mouse key and drag over any Grand Canyon Trip highlighted photos. Do
the same in each heading.
d.
Click Events
1.
Right click on
Events and create sub-categories for (1) Fruit Shoot, (2) Davis Monthan Air
Show, (3) Tubac Auto Show, (4) Scavenger Hunt.
2.
Tag these photos
e.
Click Other for animals, interests (boats and
cars, etc), sunsets, landscapes, or where none of the above categories are
applicable.
f.
Click Hidden
1.
Photos that you
are not proud of or do not want to be selected on a “find” search. They can be
selected but will not normally be displayed when searching entire photo well.
They can be found by clicking the open box in Hidden
g.
Click Favorites
1.
Photos that are
very special are called “Favorites”
2.
Click and hold
down left mouse over Favorites and drag to any highlighted photo. Remember
photos can have any number of tags but less is better than over-categorizing.
6.
Editing Tags – If
you later reconsider your tagging and want to make a change it is very easy.
a.
Highlight any
photo where you want to edit the tag and right click on it. Go down the list to
“remove tag” and click on that option.
b.
Then locate the
preferred new tag and drag it to the highlighted photo and the tag is changed.
It is just that easy.
F.
Extensive Help options. Click and Review
G.
Fixing or Simple Photo Editing
Comprehensive Editing in Photoshop Elements 3.0 is
beyond the scope of this class on Organizing your Photos. Editing with
Photoshop Elements 3.0 is part of a separate course taught by
However, to introduce this subject we will use the
simple and quite adequate one click fixing program contained in Organizing:
1. First
highlight any photo in the Organizer Browser needing some improvement. Next, click the Auto Fix
Window in Edit. – Then click Auto Smart Fix and any of the other three sub
programs needed. Next click Crop at the top and adjust the cropping as desired.
This program is simple to use but has the most sophisticated automatic
enhancement tools available in any editing program on today’s market. Sometimes
it can be too automatic. Many other editing procedures are taught in greater
detail in
H. Creating projects will be covered in next
week’s hands on session.