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Note: This lesson deals with CSS, and how it can be applied to an individual document. The text for this exercise is taken from a recent write up I did for my computer club. The background logo was taken from one of the instructor's downloaded gif files, and the color modified using Photoshop.
Photoshop Organizer is used to help us keep track of all the photo files on our computer. And when we give it the time to work, it will show us thumbnails of all the picture files we have. BUT --- sometimes, if you are like me, you just may not want to wait while Photoshop Elements scans in all those photo files from that Camera Card memory device that you just stuck into your computer. And you especially don't want to wait if you know that you did not erase (or reformat) all the previous photos from your Camera Card before you began taking all those new pictures. So when Photoshop Elements starts to scan your card, you just stop the process.
Ok, then what do you do to get all your photos that are on your hard drive to show up in the Organizer? Here's how.
You only do it once in a while, so let the Organizer do the work.
When you come back, the Organizer will have scanned all your files and compared the photo files to all the ones in its Organizer inventory of thumbnails. It will allow you to add the new files, and skip the old files that are already in its inventory.
Once you have all your photos logged into the Organizer, you can take any of these and edit those using Photoshop Elements. You have two editors to choose from: the Quick Fix Editor and the Standard Editor. If you have a lot of photos to clean up and get them to a friend or relative, then you might try the Quick Fix Editor for a fast touch up.
CAUTION: Do a Save As for each of your photos and save them with different names. That way you protect your originals.
ALSO: Save them in a new, separate folder. For this write up I will create a folder named "sep06 PE demo", and save them there as PSD files.
Now, you really want to get these files ready to send to your friend via email. What next? Here we will use a nice feature of Photoshop Elements for batch processing of files. First, close all your open files, but do not closePhotoshop Elements. If you did, just open Photoshop Elements again. Then select File | Process Multiple Files from the menu. You will get the following.
First, set your source folder and use the same folder as your destination folder (you could put a check mark in Same as Source). You want the new files renamed. You can choose a new name or accept the default - postpic. Now we set the image sizes and quality of the output files.
Try a width of either 600 or 500 pixels for photos to friends, and set the Resolution to 72 dpi. This is excellent for viewing on a computer or the internet, and will keep down the file size. The height is linked and you should leave it as is to allow the processor to resize the images with the right size ratios. Also, accept a setting on JPEG Medium Quality. That gives a nice, clean picture for your friends. Since you already adjusted these photos, undo any checkmarks on the right side of the screen for the adjustment area. Then click OK to finish the process.
[Hint: If you want to do batch processing of a really large number of photos, you can also let the batch processor make the photo adjustments. Just add checkmarks on the right. I would probably use Auto Levels and Auto Contrast and go with those to see what you get. It may be enough.]
Your photos will show up inside your destination folder and inside another folder called processed, which is created by the batch processor. Now you can attach these files to your emails to your friends. All done.
There are additional questions that will be addressed during the SIG meeting. Here are some of the questions: