photo shop elements question

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SusanG

SusanG

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Jul 1, 1999
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Holland, PA, USA
Most of the photo editing needed for my shop is straightening the frames in shots of finished projects. Does Photo Shop Elements have the tool to straighten frames? It may be called "warp" in Photoshop.

I'm thinking of getting Photoshop Elements. How deep is the learning curve? Will this come in handy for my images? What features do you use the most? Would you recommend a different app/program for photo editing? Mostly I'm editing photos to put on my website, use in my email newsletter and to on FB.

Thanks!
Susan
 
Yes,

Top tool list - image - transform - perspective or free form - do correction



I prefer Corel Paintshop Pro

Side tool bar - straighten or perspective correction - do correction
There is also a simple barrel distortion correction for short lenses.
 
I'm a big fan of Photoshop Elements. I photograph frame jobs against a gray felt backdrop. I fill the viewfinder frame as much as possible, taking care that the top edge of the frame is parallel to the top of the viewfinder. In Elements I use Image>Transform>Skew to square up the apparently trapezoidal frame. (There is also an easy tool that can eliminate barrel distortion etc.) I usually tweak the brightness and contrast a bit, then use Auto Sharpen. If using the image online, I then Image>Resize it to 72 dpi at whatever overall size I want it to appear, and as a last step use File>Save For Web, which creates a jpeg at your choice of resolution with a compact file size.

It also has a great Clone Stamp and other tools for repairing imperfections, eliminating glare spots, etc.

Those are my basic tasks, but Elements is a powerful program in which you can create all manner of fantastic photos and graphics. If you are not working with a service bureau for printing in CMYK, it's probably all you might ever need, and is quite a good value. There are plenty of online resources, including youtube videos, for learning how to use it, as well as a number of good third-party books. There is also a Grumble-like forum called Elements Village.

:cool: Rick
 
Elements would be a great choice to process photos of frames.
In addition to perspective correction, lens distortion correction and cropping your frame photos, you should also adjust other aspects such as exposure levels, white balance, colour and sharpness!

If your lens distortion or perspective correction needs more than minor adjustments, and the edge of the picture frame is close to the edge of the frame of the photo, there may not be enough space to correct it without losing some of the picture frame. My advice is to frame your photo in the screen or viewfinder before taking the shot, with some space around the picture frame, if your lens distorts.
Below is an example of photo correction. If the shot was taken much tighter than the original, some parts would have been cropped off during lens correction.
Gimp1.jpgGimp2.jpg
 
Susan,

Some of the other responses correctly detail methods (in Elements) to change the perspective of a photo. I want to recommend Lightroom as a better long term solution for most of the Photo editing and management of your photo files. The investment in learning the software will be similar to achieve your objective but lightroom will probably serve you better in the long run. Regards and best of luck.
 
Thanks Akunamatata and welcome to the Grumble. Has anyone else used Lightroom? The photos that Ormond showed are pretty much what I need to achieve. I'm not experienced in photo editing but I think that I can pick it up the skills. Up until now, my better half has graciously done all of my photo editing for me. He's a graphic designer and has all of the updated programs. He does it in Photoshop but isn't familiar with Elements so he wasn't sure if they would include the tool needed. I just feel that maybe it's time to learn.
Susan
 
i use both

i would suggest elements will be better for what you want

lightroom is essentially a raw convertor and a database

the editing tools is lightroom and just not up to any serious kind of editing, you dont have proper control. for example sharpening in lightroom is dumbed down for want of a better way of explaining it

in saying that, its a great application

you do realise you could use picassa to do what you want, its a little basic and lacks any real finesse but its FREE!!!
 
stcstc said:
you do realise you could use picassa to do what you want, its a little basic and lacks any real finesse but its FREE!!!
Click to expand...
If you want a free program, Gimp is excellent and probably more powerful than Elements.

I personally have never liked Picasa. It has some potentially good features, but last time I tried it, most of the features weren't very good!
 
I've been using Photoshop Elements (I'm actually still using the 2.0 version) for years now and it has all the tools that I've ever needed. I straighten all the photos of frames for my website & Facebook pages and have done some good photo restoration work as well. I didn't find it too hard to get the hang of it either.
 
Karen, I started off with version 2 and would still be using it today except that it doesn't run on the current chip architecture and operating system I have. I am up to version 11 now, but honestly 2.0 is very quick, user friendly and intuitive... just more fun to use. For the kinds of operations discussed here, you don't really need layer masks and all the other latest bells and whistles anyway.
:cool: Rick
 
osgood said:
If you want a free program, Gimp is excellent and probably more powerful than Elements.

I personally have never liked Picasa. It has some potentially good features, but last time I tried it, most of the features weren't very good!
Click to expand...

A caveat about Gimp. I had a friend a few years ago that tried to steer me away from Photoshop to Gimp (he thought paying for any program was evil and if it didn't run on Unix it couldn't be any good - but that's another tale. )

I tried it and parts of it seemed pretty good but I have a large library of Photoshop images and the first thing I found is that Gimp will not read Photoshop layers. Gimp promptly got deleted.

Maybe this has been corrected but in the anarchal world of Open Source software, priorities are only that if someone who is working on the software thinks it is a priority; otherwise its not. My last attempt at Gimp was probably 7 or so years ago. Maybe someone who has more current experience with the two can comment.

I can't comment on layer compatibility in Gimp from Elements images.
 
Larry Peterson said:
I tried it and parts of it seemed pretty good but I have a large library of Photoshop images and the first thing I found is that Gimp will not read Photoshop layers. Gimp promptly got deleted.

I can't comment on layer compatibility in Gimp from Elements images.
Click to expand...
Good point, Larry! Changing from Photoshop to Gimp would not be a logical step to take! Maybe your friend was thinking too much about saving money rather than thinking logically and sensibly!
I don't think it's a big issue for someone wanting to edit photos of frames and other stuff. They probably won't need to use layers for that.
I would recommend Elements is a good starting point for people who haven't had much experience with editing photos. It's not expensive!

For anyone who does not want to spend any money, Gimp would be a great solution!

Susan,
You could try the trial version and use You Tube to find tutorials on whatever you want to do. I'm sure that by the time the trial is over you'll be hooked.
Down here, software used in business can be a tax deduction and that might be the case in your country too!
 
Safe to ignore FYI --> Lots of Photoshop file format stuff (PSD files in particularly) is proprietary; PS also has its own way of storing resolution information in "standard" formats like TIFF, too, such that other programs have trouble sometimes. For example, ImageMagick, which is a free image library commonly used on web sites, doesn't handle TIFF files resized in PS correctly.
 
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