Everyday Elements

Mobile Memories: First Pedicure {and tip for uploading pictures quickly with DropBox}

2012-02-27T04:00:02-08:00

Welcome to a new series of posts called Mobile Memories!

Each Monday I will share a picture (or three or four) taken with my cell phone. I hope that becomes an interactive series, with readers sharing their mobile pictures taken during the week also (more info at end of post).

I have been working a LOT lately, and have been strung pretty tight stress-wise. I knew I needed a break before I really lost it. So on Saturday I took some time for myself and went to get a pedicure. And, since pedicures are more enjoyable when you have company, I brought along my daughter Georgia. This was an exciting experience for her as it was her first pedicure.

Now, mind you I did not have my first pedicure until I was almost 38. She is eight – so she is thirty years ahead of me! LOL

If you have never had a pedicure, I highly recommend getting one. Forever I thought they would be so expensive, but they are not. In SC and NC the average rate is around $30. They care for your feet plus apply polish of your choice, which lasts forever!

Georgia’s pedicure was quicker than mine (I reckon my 40 year old feet need more help), so they painted her nails while she waited…..which she smudged before we even left! They were very good about it and fixed it for her.

The BEST camera is the one you have on you at the time

I want to encourage you to use your camera phones more because often they are the cameras we have with us almost 100% of the time. Those cameras will be the ones you are able to capture the small moments in life, which are often some of the sweetest ones.

I have been remiss in using my camera phone as much as I should, an error I am quickly correcting!

Alright, now on to the “tutorial” portion of this post.

Once you are taking more pictures with your cell phone, you will need to upload them to your computer frequently. I shared how to upload using Organizer, but today I want to show how to do it without using a USB cord – via DropBox. (Yes, iCloud is great and wonderful, but for the non-iPhone people, this may be useful)

Dropbox describes itself as “a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily.”

Here are some ways I use Dropbox:

share pictures with customers, friends, family
share documents with my virtual assistant
share documents with business associates
upload pictures and videos from my iPhone and iPad
share pictures and documents between my Macbook Pro laptop and PC desktop

When I take pictures on my iPhone and want to access them fairly quickly, or to share to my iPad (for larger viewing) then I upload them to my Dropbox account. Then when I want to view it on my iPad, I just open Dropbox and there they are! Same for when I want them to share on the web or other ways.

The screen prints below show the Dropbox app on my iPhone (they have an app for Android phones also).

When you want to upload pictures, just do the following steps:

go to the Dropbox app
click on “Uploads” and then the + sign in top right corner
choose the folder you want to upload (you will need to create folders in Dropbox)
tap the pictures you wish to upload to that folder

Once uploaded, just go to your laptop/desktop/tablet and open your Dropbox folder (or app on iPad) and your photos will be there! If you uploaded a bunch at once, give them a few moments to finish uploading).

Sometimes I move the pictures FROM the Dropbox folder to the appropriate folder on my desktop/laptop for future use. Or, like today, I just opened the pictures in PSE straight from the Dropbox folder.

To open in PSE, simple go to File, Open, navigate to the Dropbox folder on your computer and then choose the pictures you wish to open. Tip: my Dropbox folder is under my personal user account on my hard drive.

SHARE YOUR MOBILE MEMORIES

Using the Linky tool at the bottom you can link up a “mobile memory” you captured in the past week. This can be from Flickr, your blog, Instagram or other applications. If you do not know how to join a “Linky party,” watch this tutorial.

I can’t wait to see what “mobile memories” everyone captured!

Making Use of Undo History

2012-02-24T09:07:42-08:00

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Today I am sharing a B.A.S.I.C. tip, but since it is something I use almost every time I edit in PSE (or Photoshop, see end of post), I want to bring it to light for those who are new to Photoshop Elements. Actually, there are many of semi-veteran of PSE who do not know about or utilize this panel, so hopefully I can shed light on it for them.

UNDO HISTORY

You find it under the Window menu, in the top menu bar.

Here is where I have my Undo History positioned in my PSE workspace. Wonder how I got it there? See my tutorial on how to customize your workspace.

When you click on Undo History tab, wherever it is located in your workspace, it will open up to show the last X number of edit steps you have taken. Below shows you a long list of the steps I took when editing the picture.

Now for the FUN part. Let’s say you are editing, and then you realize the skin is too smooth or the eyes are too sharpened. Instead of hitting the undo arrow time after time, in hopes of finding the right spot, you can open up your Undo History and go back to that point. In the screen print below, that if I wanted to go back to where skin was smoothed or eyes sharpened, I would go further up, to where you see EE Deep Clean Finishes.

When you run an action, you will see the action as a whole step by itself; it does not list out all the layers in that action.

In my example below, if I got to the end of my edit and I decided I didn’t like the Mobile action (coming soon), or that I liked it but wish I had reduced it more, I can go back to that point and work from there again.

PLEASE note that once you go back to a particular step and start editing again, do anything, the Undo History goes from there. You will not be able to get the old steps back.

Now, let’s talk about HOW MANY history steps you want PSE to remember/hold on to. You might think “oh, I want a bunch!” but that will slow PSE down. Try not to go over about 50 history states.

You set the number of history steps/states you want PSE to save by going to Edit, Preferences, then click on Performance tab.

If you have Photoshop CS#, you have something similar, but it’s simply called History. It functions much the same way the Undo History does, with a few extra perks thrown in.

See this video tutorial to see how to utilize the History panel in CS#.

Below is a very quick video showing me using the Undo History panel in Photoshop Elements 10.

Please note: The video will not show up in a blog reader or if you are receiving this post via an email subscription. You will have to click through to the actual post.

How to Crop Images in Photoshop Elements

2012-02-22T09:49:57-08:00

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I remember when I first started using Photoshop Elements (I began with PSE 7) I would crop the picture any old way, not realizing I could set the exact crop size I wanted. I am assuming that many new users out there are like I was, so I’m sharing this very basic tutorial on using the crop tool in PSE.

Please, please, please crop at the end of your edit and always save the edit (as a new file – do NOT overwrite the original) before cropping.

Just do it, you’ll thank me later.

Once you click on the crop tool in the tool bar (see below), the ‘Option Menu’ for the crop tool shows up below the main menu. Where it says ‘Aspect Ratio’ you can click and set what size image you would like to crop to.

If you would like a 5×7 picture, then choose that, as I did in the screen print below. If you want an 8×10, then choose that.

What happens if you choose the crop size you want, but it is the wrong orientation? Like you need it to be 5 inches wide by 7 inches tall (portrait), but the tool is set to 7 inches wide by 5 inches tall (landscape). All you have to do is click the arrows in between the two dimensions, as shown in screen print below.

What if you do not see the size you want, simply click on ‘No Restriction’ in the Aspect Ratio menu and then put in the dimensions you would like in the boxes beside the ‘W’ and ‘H.’

Yes, cropping in PSE is just that simple. There is MORE that I could go into here, but I am not going to right now. I want to keep it simple for those who are just starting out with PSE. I will do a more advanced cropping tutorial in the upcoming months.

Now, only because I know in my heart the questions about the rule of thirds overlay is going to come up, I will address what it is and how to get something similar in older versions of PSE.

One of the “upgrades” Photoshop Elements 10 received was the rule of thirds overlay in the crop tool (which Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 both have), so that when you choose your crop on the image, you can see how the Rule of Thirds (ROT or Ro3) agrees with your crop.

If you are wondering “what the heck is rule of thirds?” pop over to Digital Photography School for a quick tutorial on it (I’ve been planning to do a composition post but just haven’t gotten to it yet).

If you have an older version of PSE, you can still see a ROT overlay, but only in the Grid view.

On a PC, go to Edit, then Preferences, then Guides and Grids and put in the settings circled below.
If you have a Mac, click on Photoshop Elements in top left-hand corner, then Preferences, then Guides and Grids and put in settings below.

To view the ROT grid, then go to View, Grid and you will see it. To turn it off, go back to View, then click Grid again to deactivate.

Questions for me? Leave them in the comments and I will answer back in a reply to that comment here at the blog. When I answer questions via email, other people never see the answer, or they never get answered because I’m so behind in emails. So, moving forward I will always try to answer in a blog comment reply.

To be clear – if you leave me a question, check back here for the answer (but give me a few days LOL).

Safely Move Image Files with PSE Organizer

2012-02-20T07:56:39-08:00

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about organizing images in Organizer with albums, as a way to find them easier and speed working with them while in PSE full edit mode. The response from readers was wonderful, and some great questions were asked in the comments. A few questions were related to moving files (due to their computer hard drive space filling up) and how to still have them tagged and in albums if they are no longer on your computer hard drive.

The answer to that question is to move the files from inside Organizer. That way the program knows where they are and can access the file when you choose to edit it (if you have the external hard drive connected).

To reiterate – when you upload pictures from your camera or card reader, the pictures are copied onto your desktop/laptop hard drive, to the location YOU specified during import. The pictures are in a folder on your hard drive. Organizer simply shows thumbnails of those images, and gives you quick access to them when you choose to edit.

Imagine that when you imported pictures to your hard drive via Organizer that PSE attached an invisible string to it. When you are browsing pictures in Organizer and then choose to edit one, PSE simply follows the invisible string to access that particular file. If you move the file, or the folder the file is in, via Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, then the invisible string is broken and when you want to edit the image, PSE has no idea where it is.

Okay, so now that we’ve covered where the image files are, let’s talk about how to move them from the hard drive to an external drive in a way that Organizer can keep track of them.

Open your PSE Organizer and look to the top right-hand corner. We need to change our view from Thumbnail View to Folder Location View. You will click where it says “Display” and when the drop down menu appears, choose Folder Location.

Your computer folders should show up on the left-hand side of your Organizer screen. Navigate to the folder you wish to move.

Note: I have tried to move folders that have many subfolders and my Organizer hung up, so I used a small folder. You can move top-tier folders, but allow your Organizer lots of time to “churn/work.”

Once you have clicked on the folder you would like to move to the external drive, go up to File, then click on “Copy/Move to Removable Drive…”

Another dialogue box will appear, and you will click on the drive you wish to move them to. I had three alternate drives available, but the one I wanted to move the folder to was the I drive, which is where my Western Digital 2 terabyte hard drive was connected.

Once you choose the drive, then choose the folder location on that drive. You can make new folders on the drive, so if you want to create a master folder, then monthly folders, you can do that.

You will see the folder move from your computer hard drive to the external drive in the Folder Location view in Organizer. Below you can see that move folder now resides on the I drive.

These same steps can be applied if you just wish to reorganize your image folders (in case how you imported them was not exactly what you want now).

I feel compelled to let you know that Lightroom does this very same thing (moving files/folders) but in a much more user friendly way. If you are new to photography/editing, keep learning PSE, but if you are serious about file management then Lightroom needs to be moved to the top of your wish list.

Below is a quick video showing these same steps. The video cannot be viewed in email or blog readers; you must click to view the original post to see the video.

Also, the video should play on iPads. It may take the video a few moments to begin after pressing play, so give it time. If you are having trouble with it play at all on your iPad, make sure your iOS is up to date.

Save Time Uploading Pictures With a Card Reader {and a giveaway}

2012-02-17T09:30:09-08:00

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Ever stumble across a little thing that is both affordable and enjoyable/useful? When I do, I get so giddy it’s ridiculous. Today I am talking about one such item: the Kingston card reader.

For a LONG time I used the USB cord that came with my camera to upload pictures from my camera to my computer. When I went to Savannah last year, all the other photogs had snazzy little card readers and I started thinking “what’s the big benefit?” So, when I came home, I started doing some research and basically the main reason card readers are advantageous is because of the speed the pictures can be uploaded.

After finding out the benefit of a card reader, I went shopping for one. I found the Kingston card reader at Amazon and was first incredulous that it could be any good because it only cost $16 (it is now $13). However, the wonderful ratings it had convinced me to give it a try.

Wow! Was I surprised at what a little treasure I had! It was super easy to use and pulled the pictures from my card very quickly!

The reader takes multiple memory card types, including those most used by DSLRS: SD and CF (compact flash). Above you can see my Lexar Pro CF card in the reader.

Once you connect the reader to the USB cord (that comes with it), or put it in the USB port in your laptop (there is a cord for those who need extensions, like me, or just insert the short attached cord to your laptop), a dialogue box will likely open up and you can choose the program you wish to use to import. Above you can see that I am given the choice of two Organizers (because I have multiple PSE versions on my PC), Adobe Bridge (for CS5) and Lightroom. After selecting, just import as you did before.

See the two readers in the background of the above images? Those were purchased by me, to give to TWO lucky winners from today’s giveaway! I have them ready to ship out as soon as the giveaway ends.

GIVEAWAY SPECIFICS:

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!

Thank you to all who entered. Winning comment numbers were:

Here are your random numbers:
169 131
Timestamp: 2012-02-22 20:45:08 UTC

I am in the process of identifying the winners and emailing them.

To enter to win one of the two readers, simple tell me if you (primarily) edit on a desktop or a laptop. For example, I have both a desktop and a laptop, but the majority of my editing is on my desktop, so my answer would be desktop.

One entry per person
Entry must be left on THIS BLOG POST not at Facebook
Giveaway ends Tuesday, February 21st at 11:00 PM
Winners have one week to respond to my email, after which an alternate winner will be chosen
Winners chosen via Random.org

Disclaimer: The Amazon links included in this post are affiliate links, meaning I earn up to 4% on sales made on the item or other items purchased when the link is used. I appreciate purchases made through these links because they help me pay for the giveaway prizes I personally provide here at Everyday Elements.