Guidence and advice needed

[canuck257]

I have Photoshop Elements (PSE) 13 which I bought recently to replace a copy of 5 that came free with my wife's point and shoot several years ago. Having briefly tried some basic editing with it, I'm not sure it was the correct buy. I guess my problem is that I don't understand many of the processes that it is capable of and I don't have a specific "picture" in mind when I'm working with it.

To my questions;

Is there another software package that I should look at to work with or replace PSE which might be easier to understand or add to the capabilities of PSE? I'm shooting RAW and .jpg Fine and would like to be able (when I learn how) to manipulate both formats.

Does anyone know of a glossary of the abbreviations used in the field of post processing? I have some difficulty following many of the threads here for lack of understanding the terms.

I have seen some very attractive "frame effects" on pictures posted here, where does one source those?

Finally, at least for now, if you post a reply please remember this statement that was made to me when I started my flying instructor training. If you are going to teach the farmers wife to fly then you must communicate in "farmers wife" speak not in "pilot" speak.

I must add that I am gaining a huge amount of pleasure and knowledge from the members of this forum and witnessing photographic and creative standards that set formidable, but I hope achievable goals.

 

[Moab Man]

There's really not bad software out there IMO. Even some of the free programs can do some pretty good stuff. However, my advice is that you pick a software and know that you will have to sit down and grind through it until you learn it. There are many great resources on Youtube to teach different editing techniques.

I don't know the price in Canada, but here in the U.S. you can purchase a monthly subscription to Photoshop Creative Cloud and Lightroom together for $10 per month. You really can't beat that deal. Of course you won't know how to use either of these programs, but this is where you pick one and start the learning grind.

I am a Photoshop guy, but Lightroom is very popular and easier to use from what I hear.

Hope this helps and I hope that I have spoke "farmers wife"

 

[Horoscope Fish]

I have Photoshop Elements (PSE) 13 which I bought recently to replace a copy of 5 that came free with my wife's point and shoot several years ago. Having briefly tried some basic editing with it, I'm not sure it was the correct buy. I guess my problem is that I don't understand many of the processes that it is capable of and I don't have a specific "picture" in mind when I'm working with it.

To my questions;

Is there another software package that I should look at to work with or replace PSE which might be easier to understand or add to the capabilities of PSE? I'm shooting RAW and .jpg Fine and would like to be able (when I learn how) to manipulate both formats.

Does anyone know of a glossary of the abbreviations used in the field of post processing? I have some difficulty following many of the threads here for lack of understanding the terms.

I have seen some very attractive "frame effects" on pictures posted here, where does one source those?

Finally, at least for now, if you post a reply please remember this statement that was made to me when I started my flying instructor training. If you are going to teach the farmers wife to fly then you must communicate in "farmers wife" speak not in "pilot" speak.

I must add that I am gaining a huge amount of pleasure and knowledge from the members of this forum and witnessing photographic and creative standards that set formidable, but I hope achievable goals.

Diving in to post processing can be a bit daunting; PSE, though, is a good place to start. This video should help get you up and running: Photoshop Elements Tutorial

Another good source is Lynda.com, though it's not free... Still for one month ($25) you can get up to speed quickly. There are several courses on PSE to choose from.

 

[WayneF]

I have Photoshop Elements (PSE) 13 which I bought recently to replace a copy of 5 that came free with my wife's point and shoot several years ago. Having briefly tried some basic editing with it, I'm not sure it was the correct buy. I guess my problem is that I don't understand many of the processes that it is capable of and I don't have a specific "picture" in mind when I'm working with it.

There are many aspects of what can be called "editing", for example various radical modifications of the picture.

But that is mostly overkill, and all that most of us routinely need is the ability to "correct" the pictures we take, fixing white balance, fixing exposure, cropping to fix composition, and straightening to fix slanted images. These things are easy, only white balance needs a bit more attention. I doubt there are any "general" explanations about editing, but specific questions about problem points about specific tools are usually easily answered in the forum.

My opinion is that the best and easiest tools to do this would be in the ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) features, including as provided by PSE. This includes using ACR for working on both JPG and raw images, but raw demands proper white balance attention. PSE omits several ACR features, but it provides the basics. Lightroom would be more fully featured, and Photoshop has it all too.

Here is an introduction to finding the raw editor in PSE (again, including for work on either JPG or raw images).

Photoshop Elements | Workflow | Adobe Camera Raw | Digital Photography

The one thing about ACR is that it is lossless editing. That means as you fix things, it only saves the list of the changes you make. It does NOT change the original image, it saves the description of the change - only the list of edits is updated. This is actually a philosophy we learn. One thing is that we can always Undo changes, even cropping, because the original is never directly modified. So if other programs view the image, they only see the original version, but ACR knows how to show you the corrected image. But this necessarily means that you have to OUTPUT a new JPG from ACR, which will include the corrections, and which other programs can then see.

This might be too much to say at first, but when you want additional changes later, you discard that last output JPG and output a new one with the newer changes. This never shifts data back and forth. Changing the edits does not have to back out the old change from the image data, it merely modifies the list of changes for the next Output (from the original version).
This is one of several strong advantages of ACR (plus it can deal with raw images too).

For example, in an image, suppose we fix white balance, exposure, straightening and cropping. But then later we decide we want a different cropping, maybe to print 8x10 instead of 4x6 inches.

If we had just saved our original JPG, we would have to start all over, and fix everything again.

With ACR, we simply change cropping (which modifies the list of changes to be output), and it retains all our other changes, and we simply output a new temporary JPG for use. Extremely easy.

 

[canuck257]

Thank's guys, you given me some very valuable pointers and links. Just to prove I'm paying attention I have just modified this RAW file using ACR. I did this on a laptop with a very shiny screen which I know is not ideal but it's a start. I do have a very large monitor on my desktop which will be my primary processing unit. Comments are welcome please.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

Thank's guys, you given me some very valuable pointers and links. Just to prove I'm paying attention I have just modified this RAW file using ACR. I did this on a laptop with a very shiny screen which I know is not ideal but it's a start. I do have a very large monitor on my desktop which will be my primary processing unit. Comments are welcome please.

I'd say you're on the right track but I also think that shot needs a little help with it's White Balance.

Adjusting WB is always (always!) going to be hugely important so take a look at this tutorial on how to use Adobe Camera RAW (ACR), a module that comes with Photoshop Elements, to correct the white balance of your photo's. To open a photo in ACR once you're in Elements, you go to the File menu and click on "Open in Camera Raw".

 

[canuck257]

Thank you Paul. The link was very helpful and, armed with that assistance, I revisited the picture and played further with the white balance with better (I think) results. It seems to me that much of this is a matter of personal taste as to what the finished product should look like in terms of overall colour tone.

Reference is made to clipping of the histogram in the linked article. Could you explain what clipping is and what form does it appear in the histogram?

 

[Daz]

Just to elaborate on Moab's comment, the Adobe Creative Cloud is an awesome deal, and they have just released a new Lightroom (Lightroom 6) today

Lightroom on the face of it is a very basic program (to look at) with some sliders where you cant really go wrong, after you have got comfortable with the sliders you can advance and delve a little deeper into the program with its other options

I almost exclusively use Lightroom now, I only used to use Photoshop when I was using a muslin background to get creases out, but I have now learned how to do that in Lightroom (Plus I am now on vinyl)

 

[LouCioccio]

A couple of books that may help and do buy the paper back not the e-book. Take which ever book you decide to your local office store (Staple,Office Max,etc) have them cut the binding and put a spiral on it. The book(s) will lay flat.
Barbra Brundage Missing Manual Elements 13 (I've used her books when our club taught Elements) very good at explaining, Scott Kelby Elements 13 but his is showing you how not much why although he will go into some stuff and finally the Adobe Classroom in a Book (which started me in the beginning with Elements 4).
Almost anything I learned was following the book and the tutorials they have.
The books will go into RAW very well and if you just bought a DSLR everyone is shooting RAW just some choose to have the final output from their Camera as JPEG. I still have my slides and negatives after a job and the same when I shoot an event I keep the RAW's. For now I would shoot RAW plus the lowest resolution JPEG's and see if I can match my RAW to at least or better. I only had one student who was unable no matter what he did he could never match his RAW out to his Camera JPEG. I told him it not to get frustrated if the JPEGs are pleasing for you they just shoot Jpeg's.
Hope this helps. Also check around your locale to see if a club or organizations offer classes. Our computer club is gearing up for a classes on Mac OS X and Basic DSLR class come next week.

Lou Cioccio

 

[Horoscope Fish]

It seems to me that much of this is a matter of personal taste as to what the finished product should look like in terms of overall colour tone.

Weeell... Yes AND no.

Correct color is... Well, correct; as in the colors in the photo are an accurate reflection of what was presented. If you want to take creative liberties with color, that's fine and dandy but to my way of thinking, correct color means the color has been properly balanced and it's from that stable platform that I begin to play around with color if I think a particular photo needs it. But, all that being said, this is your journey, not mine!

Reference is made to clipping of the histogram in the linked article. Could you explain what clipping is and what form does it appear in the histogram?

Sure can... I loves me some histograms!

Start with this tutorial on Luminous Landscapes, Understanding Histograms to get your feet wet and then go here and read, A Practical Guide to Interpreting RGB Histograms by Steve Hoffman. Once you fully grasp everything in those two articles, you'll be better than good to go.

 

[canuck257]

Many, many thanks for the advice and the links guys. I'm now much more comfortable with PSE and reasonably confident that I can make it work well with time.

The other question I had was, how or where do you get the very nice frames I see on some photo's on this site?

 

[Horoscope Fish]

Many, many thanks for the advice and the links guys. I'm now much more comfortable with PSE and reasonably confident that I can make it work well with time.

The other question I had was, how or where do you get the very nice frames I see on some photo's on this site?

Different applications (PS Elements, Lightroom, Photoshop, et al) probably all have different options but here's how you do "frames" in PS Elements.

Go nuts.