As a scrapbook enthusiast who fully believes in putting her computer and graphic programs to full use when it comes to altering pictures to fit my scrapbook layouts to perfection, I long ago became a fan of the software program Adobe Photoshop Elements. For the record, I am currently running version 3, though two newer versions are available. It has continued to meet my needs and I see no reason to run out and spend money on a new version just yet. Originally I chose it as a much cheaper alternative to the full fledged Adobe Photoshop, as it has always allowed for quite a large amount of photo editing, including such editing basics as converting color photos to black & white or sepia tone, and more playful alterations such as using artistic and special effect brushes.
Recently, I became aware of what is referred to as an Action when in discussion about graphic programs in general. An Action is a series of edits bundled into what appears to be a simple single action, but is actually a series of actions, allowing the software program the Action is run in, to alter your photograph in a much more detailed, yet much less time-consuming way than one would be able to do without the Action. If I have not lost you after that explanation, some examples of Actions that I have since used include turning a single photograph into numerous puzzle pieces or several photos into what looks like a film reel, all with little effort on my part beyond loading the photograph into my workspace and applying the chosen Action to it.
I had previously learned, wrongly, I might add at this point, that an Action could not be run in such a basic program as Elements, and needed a full featured program such as Adobe Photoshop. Thankfully I learned this was not so. While not all Actions made for Adobe Photoshop will run in Adobe Photoshop Elements, many will, some dependent on which version of Elements you are running too, so do keep this in mind if you decide to try out Actions in your own copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements.
To begin to use them, you first must install them into the correct directory and make sure that all elements of the Action are available for the program to read. This can involve various steps, some that beginning users might be a bit more reluctant to do than more advanced users, but really are not that difficult as long as the proper steps are followed.
For example, after installing a new Action to the proper file, double check that the Elements program itself is closed, then open the file Adobe on your hard drive, (on my computer, I left clicked once on My Computer, and double left clicked my C drive, which happens to be my local drive). From there I double left clicked Adobe Photoshop Elements (in my case Adobe Photoshop Elements 3), and continued to double left click Previews, Open Cache, open Effects Cache, and then selected and deleted the three files within. I then closed all of the folders. Once closed, you will reopen the program Adobe Photoshop Elements itself, so when the program loads, it will rebuild these three files you just deleted, in turn finding the newly installed Actions, and giving the program the opportunity to show the actions in the program's menus for easy access and use.
The simplest way to do any of this is to use a third party creator of an Action that has been designed for use in Elements. My favorites and the most straightforward Actions when it comes to installation I have found come from a website created by Panos Efstathiadis titled PanosFX. On this site are clearly written directions for downloading Actions to Adobe Photoshop Elements, and getting them up and running.
If you have always wanted to try some high-end graphic editing, but your budget cannot afford a high-end graphic program, this might be the solution to your dilemma, and all within even the tightest budget.
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Tags: software
