PSE10 Insert Invisible Watermark

Question

I need to put an invisible watermark in some of my PSE10 edited PNG files, but since I am an amateur, I probably don't need an online subscription right now. How do I easily put an invisible watermark in my PNG files using PSE10 without subscribing to an imaging service.

When I go to Filter->Digimarc all I see is the option "Read Watermark". When I search through the PSE10 help, all I see are instructions on how to read such an invisible watermark.

Thanks,

Shawn

Asked by Shawn Eary

Answer

First off I am not sure if there is an easy way to create an invisible watermark in PSE without buying a Digimarc subscription. With that said there is a way to create an (almost) invisible watermark using the blue channel and layer styles but this is not possible in PSE. Here is a tutorial on how this is done in PS. (Maybe download the trial version of Photoshop to insert the watermark?)

With all of that said if you are going to release the PNG file into the public via the web license the file using creative commons.

Answered by Lynda

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JPEG XR Plugin for Photoshop Elements 10?

Question

I think I took a neat picture of a butterfly that I just used PSE10 to cut out of its background. Now, I want to package the butterfly as "free" clipart using appropriate tags to preserve my intellectual property.

Is there a decent JPEG XR plugin for PSE10 that supports transparency? If there is such a plugin, would using the plugin or JPEG XR force me to pay a royalty fee to a company every time I give someone a copy of my butterfly?

I've seen several posts on Bing that there used to be a JPEG XR plugin for older versions of Abobe Photoshop CSX, but all links I find to that plugin seem to be broke. Also, I am a very crude ameture so I don't want to shell out the money for CS6.

Thanks,

Shawn

Asked by Shawn Eary

Answer

I am not sure about a JPEG XR Plugin for PSE, however, I would use PNG for my file.

You could download GIMP and then use the GIMP JPEG XR Plugin to do what you are looking for.

Hope this helps.

Answered by Lynda

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Lightroom vs. Elements vs. Photoshop: Side-by-side comparison?

Question

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the available options in regards to the three major photo editing apps from Adobe.

Does anyone know of an article or site that lists the features of Lightroom, PS Elements, and PS, side by side? I know that Lightroom revolves around edits and workflow, and that PS is the big kahuna of image editing. Where does Elements fit in to this understanding?

Asked by Eric B

Answer

The three tools approximate three general levels of functionality and capability. Photoshop Elements is an entry-level image editing package. It provides image editing and some library management capabilities. It has some rich capabilities, and supports all the common editing capabilities of Photoshop. Adjustment layers allow non-destructive editing to a degree, however there are fewer adjustments possible in Elements than Photoshop. It is limited, and if you do a lot of photographic editing, you will eventually run into Elements' many limitations.

Photoshop Lightroom is a professional image editing package. It is specifically geared towards the digital photographer with an advanced workflow, RAW image support, and extensive library management capabilities. It is designed to expose the key tools important to editing digital photographs, such as a histogram, white balance and tone adjustments, color adjustments, detail adjustments (i.e. noise reduction and sharpening), as well as some advanced features like camera and lens profiles to correct distortion and vignetting. Lightroom also offers some rich tools that go beyond the basic on-screen editing, including print and book creation, slideshow generation, and web site publishing. New publishing modules in Lightroom 3 allow direct upload of your images and metadata to sites like Flickr and Facebook.

Photoshop CS is the ultimate image editing program. It is a low-level tool, giving you direct and total control over pretty much any edit you can think of. It's capabilities extend far beyond photographic editing and support artistic image creation and editing of a very wide variety. For a photographer, Photoshop brings HDR generation and editing, panoramic stitching, and a whole host of additional tools that are not available in Lightroom. Photoshop lacks some things provided by Lightroom, however, particularly its ease of use and clean workflow designed specifically to optimize a photographers image management, editing, and publishing. The most common and useful operations that need to be performed on digital photographs can be completed in much less time with Lightroom. Photoshop itself lacks any real kind of library management outside of Bridge.

Unless you do very light weight photography with only the most basic of edits, Lightroom is highly recommended as the central tool for managing, editing, and publishing your photographic works. It has an ideal price point, making it easy to acquire. Photoshop CS is a great tool to have to cover the cases where Lightroom is lacking, such as HDR or panoramic stitching. If you need the ultimate control over your prints and ICM profiles, Photoshop also has an edge on Lightroom and offers the ability to soft-proof your prints on screen.

Answered by jrista

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How can I work around Photoshop Elements 7's inability to open JPG files from my Android phone?

Question

I copied some photographs that I took with my Android phone to my laptop. When I tried to open them with Photoshop Elements 7.0, I received the following error message:

Could not complete your request because reading spatial lossless jpeg files is not implemented.

Is there a workaround for Photoshop Elements 7.0? If I upgraded to the latest version would it work then?

This question was previously asked at the Adobe forums with no responses currently.

Asked by Gdalya

Answer

The problem seems to be that I set up my phone to encrypt my SD card and when I pulled files to my PC, they came off still encrypted. A fuller discussion of this issue can be found on Android Enthusiasts Stack Exchange.

Answered by Gdalya

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What work-arounds are the for the lack of Layer Styles in Photoshop Elements 10?

Question

Since Elements doesn't have the per-layer Blending Options feature, I'm wondering how other Elements users deal with this restriction.

Asked by Pieter

Answer

Photoshop Elements 9 has layer styles under the Window > Effects menu. See this article here How to Add Shadow and Glow Effects in Photoshop Elements 9

Answered by MikeW

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Add rain effect to a photo?

Question

I have a photo that I would like to post process to add a rain effect. Can anybody explain how I would go about adding the effect or suggest a good tutorial?

Ideally I would be able to use my existing software (Photoshop Elements 8).

Answer

A good place to start: http://www.pxleyes.com/tutorials/photoshop/category/rain/

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How do I simply adjust the color temperature In Photoshop Elements?

Question

How do I simply adjust the temperature of an image in Photoshop Elements?

Answer

There is a walkthrough of the camera raw white balance feature on the adobe web site.

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How to use Lightroom and Photoshop Elements together?

Question

I know the catalog cannot be shared between these two programs, but what is a good way to have them coexist together? It seems like I would have to have a separate copy of my photos that each program would use. I use Lightroom, but looking at picking up Photoshop Elements and Premiere 10.

Answer

If you install both programs on the same computer, you can open the images in Photoshop Elements directly from within Lightroom. See instructions here or google "lightroom open in photoshop".

The advantage of this (compared to exporting the images, then opening in Phososhop) is that the *.PSD files are automatically accessible from Lightroom's catalog, and can (optionally) be stacked with the original RAW images, making your workflow a lot simpler to manage. You can also add metadata to the linked PSD files.

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Can Lightroom and Photoshop Elements share catalog info?

Question

I like Photoshop Elements 10 cataloguing abilities to find people and objects in photos. I own Lightroom but managing a 30k plus catalog is hard and would appreciate the consumer friendly version in PSE.

Is it possible to link them? How?

Answer

I tried this with Adobe Photoshop Elements 10(Elements). I created a simple catalog in Elements then tried to open it in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4.1(Lightroom). I was unable to see the option to "Upgrade Photoshop Elements Catalog" as is suggested by Adobes help file here. I did not see that option under the File menu as it suggested.

I actually found a thread on the Adobe forums where people describe how sometimes the option shows up and sometimes it doesn't. No one appeared to have a solution to the issue, and I don't at this time either.

So next I compared the two folders of catalogs, and obviously they are completely different from that standpoint.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 Catalog Folder:

Adobe Lightroom 3.4.1 Catalog Folder:

Furthermore your main goal is really to share the catalog both ways not just as an upgrade option from Elements to Lightroom. This is not possible at this time. First of all Elements is a destructive editor(with the exception of image rotation). When you make a change to the contrast for example, you have to either write over the existing file or create a new one. You do not just save the changes to the XMP metadata, sidecar file, or catalog such as in Lightroom.

For example, when I make an edit in Elements such as red eye correction, the software automatically creates and saves a new JPG file.

A potential workaround would be to make the changes, or tags that it sounds like you want in Elements. Then select File>Write Keyword Tag and Properties Info to Photo. Then just import the new files into Lightroom. So you could tag peoples faces using the face and landmark detection tool of Elements, Elements would save these tags to the original files, and you could then use those tags in Lightroom. If you are going to do this, just be careful of the edits you make because of the destructive nature of Elements.

I think the workaround is what you are looking for. While not giving you full control both ways, it will allow you to do the tagging that Elements features and still work with the power of Lightroom.

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