Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Free Photoshop (and Elements) Actions

June 11, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Photoshop

Thanks to my photo buddy Leaca, I found a wonderful free set of Photoshop (and Photoshop Elements) actions from CoffeeTeaPhotography

Awesome! Downloaded this morning and will hopefully have time to experiment with some of them soon!

Dipping Into Purple

June 4, 2009 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Photoshop

Took two of the photos from a local cemetery shoot and combined them in a diptych in Photoshop Elements. Not exactly as perfect as I’d like (at the bottom seam especially) but I didn’t want to mess with it too much.

(click for larger version)
purple diptych

(FYI, here’s a recent tutorial for making your own dips in Photoshop Elements)

(all photos are copyright protected. Do not use or copy without written permission)

Photoshop Elements 6 Mac – Save For Web Not Working

September 22, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • Mac Software • Photoshop

I don’t normally use the “save for web” option in Photoshop Elements, but tonight I wanted to. Click, click, click, I was choosing “File>Save for Web” and nothing would happen.

Google to the rescue. Found this helpful post on Adobe’s forum

I run as a standard, non-admin user so it appears that the Save for Web option is a little buggy for non-admin users.

The thing to do is launch Photoshop Elements in your Admin user account and run the Save for Web option at least once. Then log back into your standard, non-admin account and it should work from then on.

Worked for me! whoo-hooo!

How To Create Photo Diptychs, Triptychs & Montages

September 21, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Flickr • Photoshop

Creating a photo diptych, triptych, or montage is very easy using one of your favorite photo editors. This tutorial will be using Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac) but most any graphics/photo editor will do.

Note: a diptych is a fancy way to say a montage (or collage) of two photos, a triptych is three photos. Flickr has several groups for dips and trips and other montages.

For examples of diptychs that I have created, check out some photos on my flickr stream (tagged w/ diptych)

Let’s create a two photo diptych first.

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Adobe Installation Error

September 4, 2008 by debbie T | Mac Software • Photoshop

Whoo-hoo! I purchased the download version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac) and after downloading, I tried to install the app.

I had previously installed then uninstalled the trial, and now the full version would not install. An error message appeared and shut down the installation.

“critical errors were found in setup incompatible payloads already installed” – see screen shot below.

adobe install error

I googled the error, and found an answer on the adobe.com web site
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403796

I followed the steps for Solution 2, and whoosh, Photoshop Elements started to install. I am a happy camper!

Photoshop Elements Download or Box?

September 4, 2008 by debbie T | Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software • Photoshop

I have been wanting to purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements (Mac) for awhile now. I downloaded the trial, and I really enjoyed using it.

So, today I went to Adobe.com again to check out prices, and surprise! PSE 7 is coming out for Windows. But that is another story for another day. The versions are so “off” that I don’t anticipate the Mac version coming out until early next year.

So, it’s $70 for the upgrade version, and there is a choice of box or download. Amazon is selling the full boxed version for $70, but I would have to wait for shipping. So, I google to find what the differences are between download and boxed. Hmm, not much help anywhere online.

The Adobe Help Chat link was staring at me, so I clicked on it to start my Help Chat. According to the Help Chat person, everything is virtually the same, except that the box version has a paper manual. There is a pdf version for Mac users.

I asked again if there were any missing brushes or art files? Nope, according to chat.

So, it sounded good, but I wanted to be extra sure so I called the Adobe 800 Sales phone, and spoke with a sales rep. I got a different story from him. He said that I wasn’t able to download a full pdf of the help manual. When I mentioned that the Chat rep said that there was one, he claimed that he never heard of it, but he did a search and did indeed find a downloadable pdf file of the Help Manual. For those interested, the manual can be found on their PSE Resources/Documents page.

I questioned him about any missing brushes or files, he said no, the software was exactly the same, except the download version didn’t have extensive help.

He then said something very troubling. He said that once I upgraded to version 7, I wouldn’t have access to the version 6 file anymore. Huh? If I had the DVD boxed version, I would have a physical disk, but with the download, I would be losing out. Again, huh?

I told him that I could burn my own DVD disk. He tried to tell me that home burned disks don’t have the longevity that commercial disks have. Yeah, but duh, I can burn more than one copy, and even copy it over to an external hard drive for backup. And by the time the disk was bad, years later, I probably wouldn’t care about that old version anyway. I was pretty shocked that he was so misinformed.

And the real kicker is after I hung up, I was browsing over at Adobe.com again, and found this quote on their Download Info & Instructions popup page:

I quote:

How to re-download software:

Sign in to Your Account at the Adobe Store at any time to re-download your purchased software. Just follow the instructions given above for downloading your software.

So, he pretty much didn’t know what he was talking about!! sigh. I just love customer service. There is an option to download the file at any time later!

Well, dinner is probably ready in a minute, and I still have to make my purchase! whoo-hooo!