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Post by michelb on Mar 3, 2022 20:29:58 GMT
Well, it's time to give my choice among all those creative and imaginative answers. It was really hard to decide. I have chosen to give an advantage to those who tried to solve the depth sense without noticeable cropping. A crop challenge would also have been extremely interesting!
I wanted to give the first prize to the improved sense of depth with natural looking, I hesitated between Billy Jean (Lillias) and hmca (Helen); My preferred one the the one from Lillias. I also wanted to give a prize to one of the best ideas to solve the depth problem. PeteB has found a very effective color solutions I would never have thought of. Then curiously, I did not get many attempts to solve the problem by a robust use of blur/sharpness, so kudos to Pete61 for its very effective and still realistic result.
Of course, I was delighted to see all the creative interpretations with cropping and color effects, thanks to all for working on the subject.
My personal attempts were based on the ideas that the base image was already sharp enough with good depth of field and mostly very saturated. Playing on the existing depth of field was challenging. I managed to create a mask based on the details in foliage to separate the 'in focus' parts from the less sharp parts on the foreground and background. Not very effective all in all, any manual masking would have been easier and more convincing. When you want to enhance some parts, the solution is often to 'tone' down the surrounding parts by using desaturation, detail blur or negative clarity. That helps a lot with the very saturated bridge. I also wanted to see if the depth of field guided edit could be used in a different context than the usual gradient from foreground to background. Using the elliptical gradient was good enough and switching to the 'expert' mode kept the mask which I was able to fine tune manually.
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Post by michelb on Feb 21, 2022 19:47:03 GMT
My attempt mainly based on the depth of field guided edit plus framing.
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Post by michelb on Feb 21, 2022 17:36:52 GMT
The problem is slightly different if your images files are already in an external drive.
Sorry, I had to interrupt my previous post (grandparent duties...) I just meant that if you are keeping your image files on an external drive, it's enough to copy the catalog folder either to the new computer or to the same external drive. If the catalog is already on the same external drive, you just have to be sure that the drive is recognized with the same drive letter on both computers. No backup and restore required, although a backup is always a good idea. Keeping the photo files together with the catalog on an external drive is the usual way to share your library between two computers, and that works the same with upgrading toa new computer. Just remember to deactivate your license on the old computer (menu Help >> sign out).
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Post by michelb on Feb 21, 2022 8:40:33 GMT
Hi Roger and Sepiana, No problem, the answer is already in the organizer subforum, section resources 'moving organizer catalog' which gives the detailed procedure.
Now that the full backup is available, use the 'restore' command in the new computer. Either choose to restore on original location or if 'on custom location', also choose to restore original folder structure.
The backup and restore is not really a 'move', it's a copy which keeps the original catalog and images folders unchanged. So, it's a very safe solution.
Warning to other users: This is different from installing a new PSE version on the same computer. No need to move image files, you just 'convert' the catalog to the new database format and structure. The problem is slightly different if your images files are already in an external drive.
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Post by michelb on Feb 15, 2022 20:04:20 GMT
Thank you for your very informative and reasonable sounding response. My computer is a MSI Creator 17.3" UHD (3840 x 2160) display, NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M (display adapter) display set at 250% I just opened PSE22 a minute ago, on the organizer side none of the drop down menus will function at all, nothing. When switched over to the editor side the drop down menus function with an enlarged text. All the other programs on this computer with drop down menus work with text that is normal in size related to the display. Again, the organizer drop down menus do not drop down no matter what the text size is. What I can tell from the complaints we are seeing on the Adobe Elements user to user forum, is that I have never seen a similar issue for the organizer.
Side personal note: Your monitor choice is the opposite of my own choice (a conventional HD definition of 1920 x 1080 or 1200 pixels) with a 24 to 27" viewed at 2 to 3 feet distance. I would never choose a 4k monitor even if offered for free. So I can only imagine that the 250% ratio you are stating is the equivalent of text font size for 125% in my own display with the Windows display settings.
May I suggest testing another external monitor such as any HD TV set (1920 x 1080) with an HDMI cable to see it that would work with the organizer? Otherwise, posting on the Adobe Elements forum should bring answers from other users with similar issues.
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Post by michelb on Feb 15, 2022 10:36:54 GMT
There is no move of files in the conversion process to a new version. There is an identification process of the drive by Windows. How does Windows identify the drive?
This is not shown in any of the usual Windows tools such as the Explorer or the disk manager. You have to start a 'command prompt' to open a command line Window like in the old DOS time...
Right click on the Windows 'start' button, bottom left, and select the 'command prompt' line (invite de commande in French) In the Command prompt Window, type the command 'Vol C:' or 'Vol J:' to get the internal serial number of the drive referenced by Windows. The result is displayed in hexadecimal format.
In the internal organization of the catalog database, the location of every file is given by two chunks: the drive identification (the above hexadecimal value translated in decimal' plus the full path (the folders and subfolders hierarchy). In the conversion process, the organizer reads the drive identification and concludes that it corresponds to the C: drive. Why
One reason may be that for Windows there is a confusion between C and J. If they have the same identifier, the organizer is lost. And that can be the result of a cloning of an old conventional drive to a new small SSD drive which copies the identifier. So, it's important to know what has been done to the drive before the conversion attempt.
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Post by michelb on Feb 15, 2022 8:12:03 GMT
Hi Terry,
First, if you have not made progress about your earlier post, please continue with your original discussion. There is nothing automatic to merge catalogs in Elements, but you can merge them manually while keeping keywords, captions and ratings. Read my answer again and ask as needed.
The core of you our current issue is due to a change in the way the dropdown menu texts are showing. This has been discussed here in a relatively recent topic I have not yet searched for...
I'll try to be short. When high resolution displays (like 4K...) were introduced some 10 years ago, the menu interface for Photoshop and Elements were not ready to support that resolution in the menu and tools interface, at least in Windows. It took 4 to 5 years for Adobe and Microsoft to offer a choice between 100% or 200% display. That solved the issue correctly for most users, but for many laptops with small displays and intermediate resolution, a 150% option would have been needed. On the other hand, there are still a significant part of users which still use low resolution under the recommended 1200 x 800 pixels. The menu text can't be displayed fully on such low resolution laptops (or on high resolution ones without a magnifying glass). Note that the interface of the organizer was not coded on the same components and could comply with options offered directly by Windows.
It appears that changing the whole user interface of the editor to a modern conception would have been a huge rewriting of everything with the necessary consequence of changing everybody's personal workflow. So Adobe decided to provide (without public explanations) to offer a partial solution for the current trend of users with small sized laptop display and relatively high resolution (at least 1920 x 1080). They only increased the size of the fonts of text in the dropdown menus. That made those menus readable without a magnifier, but they sometime require to scroll down on the bottom to show the last options. Many users with bigger displays complain that it's not aesthetic. Difficult to please everbody!
So please state what is your display size in inches and its resolution in pixels so that other users with the same hardware can give you some advice. Also state which option is selected in your preferences for display: 100%, 200% or automatic.
The description of your issue may also point to a problem with your GPU. Anyway, the font size of the dropdown menu can't be solved by reinstalling PSE2022.
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Post by michelb on Feb 15, 2022 7:12:48 GMT
Hi Michel, With respect to the first two question, no to both, all I did was install pse2022 and said yes to "convert existing catalog". PSE2018 is still installed but referencing Huk Photos. I have a current catalog backup of PSE2018. How did you 'move' the files from C to J before attempting the conversion ? If you have used another method involving using an external tool than the organizer (the explorer, a backup or sync utility, a cloning utility...) please describe in more details. What is interesting for troubleshooting is to understand what can explain that the conversion process does not identify your drives correctly.
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Post by michelb on Feb 14, 2022 21:29:51 GMT
Two correct ways to move image files folders to another drive: - in the organizer, by drag and drop of the master folder in 'tree mode' to the new drive. - by a full backup and restore on the new drive. (Not likely, your catalog folder would have been restored on J) .
Which one did you use?
Is your PSE2018 still installed and functioning well with the pictures in J ? The PSE1018 catalog is still on C, renamed with a 1 suffix.
If you uninstalled it, did you make a full backup of the catalog before installing PSE2022 ?
Did you try to 'reconnect' missing files? For instance the '2007 12 05' folder by guiding the reconnection to the same folder on J ?
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Post by michelb on Feb 13, 2022 21:18:31 GMT
Sometimes, I wonder if it could be possible to forget the idea of 'cropping' or 'trimming' with a pair of scissors your paper image. Instead, imagine you are working in the old darkroom with an enlarger and a margin setting tool. You can move the margin holder around and you can 'zoom in and out' by moving the enlarger head projector up and down. Well, it seems that it was a similar metaphor which has been used recently to change the crop tool of Adobe Camera Raw. The margin holder is the window, and you move it around and change the crop ratio while you set your magnification by moving the head up and down. Now, you set your margins in ACR and you can move the 'projection' around and up and down. No scissors needed.
Now, back to Chris Ann's excellent suggestion. Since only pixels are meaningful until you decide to print/display a picture, it's logical to use the drag and drop solution from the photobin to a blank 'canvas' of the right size and resolution. When you drag your whole picture, forget cropping and scissors. Think enlarging, moving, tilting the 'preview' of the image so that only the portion of the image you want to keep is displayed within the bounds of the 'canvas'.
Two possibilities. - You don't have to enlarge. That means that the resolution of the source image is enough and that no upsizing will take place. You are at ease for printing. - You have to slightly enlarge to fit your selection. Check the result, that may be acceptable. Anyway since you are dealing with a 'smart' layer, all the resolution of the source image will be used. A bigger enlargement is not possible. In such a case, even if resizing a copy of the source image can't provide more details, it might be necessary to 'upsize' the copy to avoid jaggies.
The advange is that you don't have to make resolution calculations to crop. Very often, you don't have to enlarge with today's megapixel cameras. By the way, practicing this workflow may help you to live with the crop change in ACR which has caused so many complaints!
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Post by michelb on Feb 7, 2022 8:08:44 GMT
Thank you to both Michel and Buckskin. This is the latest screen shot with all the moves and deletions completed, to me the folder structure looks proper, I hope it passes your expert scrutiny. Again thank you for your sharing your personal time and knowledge with me, greatly appreciated. All perfect for me.
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Post by michelb on Feb 6, 2022 18:40:01 GMT
Here is how I imagine the folder structure including the 'assets' subfolder with the themes has been created.
This folder branch starting with ProgramData is not intended to store your imported images, it's to store data necessary for the programm to work. You should still see it in its original state on your C: drive. So what you are seeing on J: is a copy. Already note that the program itself will continue to use the original folder on C: and totally ignore the copies on the J: drive. Why such a copy on J: ? Probably if you have imported in bulk or directly from the C root folder. There is no reason to keep those files in ProgramData in a catalog. So, when you do a backup and restore, you also copy those files on J:
Now that they are on J: nothing prevents you to delete entirely the My Family Photos from the Explorer. If those ProgramData files were still on C, of course you would delete them from catalog but not from disk.
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Post by michelb on Feb 6, 2022 13:38:15 GMT
The 'Solarisation' effect in black and white needed only a black to white to black gradient map in normal mode. You can replace the blacks with other dark colors and change the gradient layer mode from normal to overlay or difference:
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Post by michelb on Feb 6, 2022 8:11:16 GMT
Hi Michel As per your suggestion I dragged and dropped the PHOTO CORRAL folder to the OUR PHOTOS and it is now directly nested in Our Photos. Can you offer advice as to what I should do with the 'MY Family Photo" folder and related sub folders under Program Data. Your reply indicates that restoring with "keep original folder structure" might be the issue. if I attempt a second restore but this time just use the "New Location" command and restore to OUR PHOTOS will eliminate "MY FAMILY PHOTOS". Your screenshot shows that the subfolder levels which were skipped are all empty except a for a 'Pictures' folder under 'William'. Have a look at this folder and decide what you want to do with the files in that Pictures subfolder. Maybe move that subfolders elsewhere (I would rename it to avoid confusion with the default system 'Pictures' on the C drive). Or move the photos within that subfolders elsewhere. Once there is no longer any picture in the catalog under 'My family photos', the organizer will no longer display this empty folder branch in the tree view. You would have to select 'Our photos', right click and choose to show empty folders. However, this empty folder branch will still be shown in the Windows explorer, even if it does not use disk space. Before deleting the whole empty folder branch directly from the Explorer, you can check its size in the explorer to be sure there are no other file types left for some reasons.
For your other question, I would still use the 'keep original folder structure' option. Indeed, without that option, the empty subfolders would be discarded, but you'd lose the folder structure. You can see that it's easy and safe to do as described in this discussion.
Just a general note about dragging and dropping folder branches in the left folders panel: that works the same as with the Explorer. If you are moving a big number of files within the same drive or partition, the process will be very fast; the Explorer will simply update the logical folder tree without physically moving files on the drive; the organizer will simply reflect that folder tree change. However, if you move that branch to another physical drive, that will imply moving all files physically which may require hours. Let's say you decide to move your whole master folder of 500GB from the default location on C to J; instead of using backup then restore, you can simply drag and drop it directly under your target master folder on J.
This solution has the following advantages: - you avoid creating useless folder levels from the backup and restore - You can move selectively and progressively different branches to the new drive - If you do that just after a periodical full backup, it takes about the same time as a restore
Needless to say, moving a whole library is something I would not do without a full backup anyway. That said, the move is reasonably safe in the Organizer. I had once a power failure during the process: nothing was lost from the originals; I only had to wipe the already copied files before starting again. There are reports that in Lightroom similar moves may be a bit risky.
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Post by michelb on Feb 5, 2022 21:41:07 GMT
A far smarter man than I will soon be along to help you with this. From what I do see in your folder tree structure --- Program Data and Adobe should not be there, but in C:/Windows, unless you have reasons of your own for them being there. Buckskin, My guess is that this tree structure may be the result of a restore with the option to keep the 'original folder strucure'. With this choice, the full path is restored even if some levels are void and redundant. The usual problem with the default 'Pictures' path shortcut under C: in Windows is that it hides intermediate levels like Users. Those are reproduced when moved to another drive from backup and restore.
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