Quick Trick: Layer Thumbnail Appearance

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I was looking through some previous tutorials and it occurred to me that I’d neglected a really simple thing that makes my life so much easier, and the screenshots for our tutorials easier to follow… Layer Thumbnails. I work on a 14″ laptop, backlit by 100 square feet of windows, and I have senior eyes, so I like those thumbnails to show me exactly WHAT’s on the layer at just a glance. I’m not so worried about WHERE it is on the layer. So the default Thumbnail settings (see below) really fail me. If you’re trying to work with the defaults and wish you weren’t, read on!

This is what I see when I’m scrapping. Those BIG Thumbnails are so helpful.

Go over the the upper right corner of your Layers Panel and click on the stack of horizontal lines. The menu that opens has a lot of options. We’re only concerned with one at the moment.

That option is all the way at the bottom of the list. Click on Panel Options…

Here are your Layer Panel Options. Click the biggest of the Thumbnail Size options. For Thumbnail Contents, click Layer Bounds. That tells it you only want to see the actual object on that layer. You don’t really need to see the Entire Document, do you? I mean, it’s right there on your canvas, right? Last, click on Use Default Masks on Fill Layers. Then your Layers Panel will look just like mine!

We finally got some much-needed rain last night and it has cooled off nicely with it, so I’m off to spread some mulch on my flowerbeds. See you next week!

Photo Edit: Plumb and Level

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I’ve been going through my sister’s Maritime vacation photos – I finally have all the ones I want to scrap in a folder on my laptop – and like most vacation albums, there are a number of local landmark photos. They’re important to the story, but especially if taken with a cellphone camera, buildings can look a bit off kilter, more like a pyramid, wider at the base with angled walls. Sometimes that affect is desirable because it gives a sense of the grandeur of the building. Other times it looks odd. But there’s an easy fix!

Let’s practice on this photo. Some of you will recognize it as the setting for Anne of Green Gables near Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Built in 1831, it was originally the farmstead of David and Margaret Macneill, relatives of Lucy Maud Montgomery. She never actually lived in the house, but grew up nearby. The house is now a national historic site and has been carefully restored and renovated to more closely resemble Maud’s fictional farmhouse. You can expect to see a lot more of Green Gables over the next few months. 😉

The easiest, most accurate way to straighten up a tilted building is to use the Grid Tool. You’ll have seen me use the Grid in previous tutorials, but I’ve never really talked about it. So let’s do that. To access the Tool, click on View>Grid or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL (for Windows users)/CMD (for Mac users)>’.

The Grid can help with object positioning, scale, speed scrapping, pretty much anything that requires precision, and for architectural repairs.

I’ve always used a red Grid, with Guidelines every 1 inch and Subdivisions every 1/4 inch. But it’s not going to be as useful for this with these settings. To change them, Edit>Preferences>Guides & Grid…

Here, you can customize your Guides and Grid to your own liking. My Guidelines are solid lines, Subdivisions are dotted lines, which is the default. If you’d prefer to work with Dashed Lines or Dots for your Division type, set the Style accordingly. They will be harder to see than solid lines though. You can choose the system you prefer: Pixels, Inches, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points, Picas or Percent. Then choose how you’d like your Grid to look. I’ll change my colour to Black; you can use the Color Picker to choose a custom colour if you like.

That Grid looks a lot more helpful now. But before we start messing with adjustments, I want you to make a Copy Layer to work on so the original remains original. Right-click>Duplicate Layer…>OK or CTRL/CMD>J.

Now to do those architectural repairs… Distort will undo distortion! Remember I mentioned how I like Distort because it allows adjustments in multiple directions in one step. Image>Transform>Distort.

Looking at the photo, I knew I had to pull the upper left “handle” further left and down slightly to make the walls plumb, and the upper right “handle” up and to the left a bit to make the foundation level. The Grid lets me align those edges appropriately. If you find that your roofline is raised or lowered by your adjustments, that’s easily fixed too. Turn your working layer’s visibility off and pull a Guide down from the top edge of the canvas so it lines up with the roofline on the original. Then switch back to the working layer and shift the upper edge of your photo so the “new” roofline matches the old one. Don’t worry about those gaps; they’re going away.

Before I sort out the empty gaps, I’ll turn the Grid off by reversing the steps to turn it on. View>Grid or CTRL/CMD>’ .

First I Cropped the photo to clean up the right side. Then to tell Elements what I want to Fill, I used the Magic Wand Tool set to New. That way I can Select the gap with just a single click.

Next, Edit>Fill Selection.

Choose Content-Aware from the pull-down menu, set to Normal Mode and 100% Opacity.

There! The gaps are gone! Select>Deselect or CTRL/CMD>D to remove the marching ants.

That weird lighter arc from taking a photo through a car window will take a bit of fiddling to dampen. But overall, I like how it looks.

This is another little trick I expect to use a LOT now that I’ve taught it to you. Next week I’ll be shining the spotlight on all of you, with the monthly Challenge Spotlight. Which Challenge will I choose?

Guided Edit: Saturated Film Effect

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My sister recently took her first real vacation in about 10 years. She and a friend took a driving trip around the Maritimes. My sister was born in New Brunswick, but hadn’t been back there since she was 2 years old… she’s 51 now. So she was more than thrilled to see where her very first home was. She took a MILLION photos, and has given me permission to use them for scrapping purposes. I think you know what I’m going to do with them, right? Anyway, when I was looking for a likely photo for this tutorial, one of hers lent itself to the task.

I’ve played with Guided Edits before and found some I really like to use. I never could think of a use for the one I’m going to show you today – until today. The Saturated Film Effect Edit may be a real game-changer! As you can see, this photo is a bit insipid, but I’m going to fix it.

OMG! I JUST noticed the seagull on the far right, after staring at this photo for hours!

This is the path to the Guided Edit: Guided>Color>Saturated Film Effect.

The text on the screenshot is verbatim from the instructions for the Edit. Each time you click the Add bar, the effect will be increased.

Here’s what it looks like after one click. Give the result a quick but thorough look before you click again.

After two clicks, I’m seeing a nice deepening of the blue of the water, but a less-pleasing change in the colour of the grasses in the foreground.

Yeah… no. The grass after three clicks looks ghastly!

So I clicked on the Cancel button. I’m working on that Copy Layer (the original layer is turned off) and I’ll Mask off the grass and try again.

I opted to use the Selection Brush set to Mask, with a 75 pixel hard round brush. The Overlay is set to 50%. I could go a bit lower and still see my Mask well, but let’s leave it. I’m not going to be too fussy about the individual blades of grass. Here’s what the Mask looks like.

I want the grass to be untouched going forward, so I’ll Invert the Selection by Select>Inverse or CTRL/CMD>SHIFT>I before moving to the next step.

Now that I’ve protected the rocks and water, I can Edit>Cut or CTRL/CMD>X the grass away from the Copy Layer.

Okay, let’s run the Guided Edit again.

Aha! That seems to be the ticket! There’s good definition in the rocks and the shadowed area, the water is a beautiful blue and the seagull is just hanging out. So I’ll click Next.

This is another fork in the road. I need to decide if I’m happy with my results so I can Save As the image, or if I want to keep tweaking in Expert. Y’all know me, so you know where we’re going…

I expected Elements to add a new layer with each click, so I’m not sure where these extra layers came from. But I’ll go with it.

I think I want just a bit more punch so I’ll change the Blend Mode on the topmost layer to Multiply.

Oh. Maybe not that much! But since I have so many other layers, I’m sure I can figure it out. Maybe an Opacity drop will help.

It’s better at 75%, but maybe still not quite there. What happens if I change the second layer there to Screen? Remember, Screen lightens.

I adjusted the Opacity on the two Blended layers until I was satisfied I hadn’t ruined my image. There’s good contrast, the rocks look sharp and the grass looks natural.

Here are the two versions side-by-side. I’m definitely going to use this Edit again!

If you’re planning to watch some fireworks tonight, I have a tip for you for getting the best photos from your phone, courtesy of Chari at Persnickety Prints. Turn off the HDR mode and use Live Photo instead. For Android users that’s called Single Take. Essentially, you’re taking a very short video which will allow you to choose the perfect image. Turn the flash OFF. Hold the phone as steady as possible, then tap the screen to lock the focus. Make sure you have some landscape or monument of some sort in the frame to give you a sense of scale and to add visual interest to your composition. If you’re using a DSLR, make sure you’re using a tripod to eliminate camera shake. Again, no flash. If your camera has a fireworks setting, choose it and the camera will take care of the other settings. If not, set it to Manual, ISO 200, Aperture F/8 and shutter speed at 5-15 seconds. Check the first couple of images and adjust the speed as needed. And have fun!!

Quick Trick: Scroll Through Blend Modes

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I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve suggested to try a bunch of Blend Modes on a brush, scribble, stamp or even photo layer. But I never thought to tell you how to do it quickly and easily. Let’s fix that right now! This will be one of the Quickest Tricks I’ve ever shared with you.

Make sure the layer you want to Blend is the active layer. Then just double-click on the Blend Mode control bar. Now you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse, or the ↑ and ↓ keys on your keyboard. It’s really just THAT easy! To turn it back off, just activate another layer. (If you forget to take that last step, Elements will continue to consider the ↑ and ↓ keys to be tied to the Blend Mode function and you won’t be able to usee them to nudge your layers up or down. You’ll figure it out fairly quickly!)

See? Quickest Trick ever!

Are They Scribbles? Doodles? 

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How was your week? Mine was ridiculously busy! We had a bit of a disaster-in-the-making when the top window frame molding in our family room just… came off. There’s a drapery rod attached to it, and it was hanging on to the wall just by a bead of caulk. <horrified> Turns out it was only secured to the wall with pin nails. Now it’s firmly screwed into the studs and everything is back in place. <whispers… my husband is NOT handy… pass me the drill and the screwdriver then step away from the ladder!> Anyway.

I was looking at my private messages and saw another one from Glee asking about using doodles. In May one of the Challenges required the use of either doodles or scribbles. They can be amazing additions to a layout, but how? And is there a difference? What follows is how I use them – and it’s all ONLY MY OPINION so consider what I say accordingly.

Doodles and scribbles are essentially the same thing, with doodles often taking some identifiable form. Some designers create doodles then colour inside the lines to make what looks more like a sticker. I’m not going to say anything much about those; I see them as simply another element to add to clusters. But scribbles? They can add such a cool touch. Scribble/doodle implies the result is sitting right on the paper, so my inclination is to put them in the background, on my (neutral) background paper. I pulled a bunch of scribbles from my GingerScraps stash and will show you what I mean. Keep in mind that you can recolour, change the Blend Mode and/or Opacity or add Layer Styles to all of them to change up the way they work with your layouts.

Scribbles and doodles are casual things, typically something we do with our hands while we’re required to pay attention to something else. When set into the background of a layout, they’re an anchor for everything that touches them and add a nice whimsy. That’s not to say they aren’t useful in a more formal setting. Ultimately, your layouts are YOUR layouts and you can do whatever you want.

Because I’m very visual, I tend to look at the scribble and think about the most appropriate use for it. With this one, oriented horizontally as shown, it almost looks like a scrawled signature. I might put it behind a ribbon or narrow strip of paper. It could also anchor a photo to the background.

I see this one in my mind’s eye tying together a list, a series of word strips or even several small photos.

Look at all that fury! The dark, heavy lines speak ANGER to me, making it perfect for art journaling.

Anybody like a #2 pencil? I have several boxes of them in my craft room. Maybe that’s why I like this scribble so much.

This is the actual size for this scribble when I dragged-and-dropped! I just had to play with it.

When I changed the Blend Mode to Overlay I loved the result. I might decide to Duplicate the layer though to give it just a touch more presence.

I like how sinuous this one is. I could see having several smaller photos overlapping the sides of it but letting most of the visual impact remain.

This aggressive scribble makes me think of people who sign documents with a great big flourish.

I instantly felt happy when I saw this. It’s so bubbly! It could make a sweet anchor for a cluster.

Sorta like this!

I would frame a face in a photo with this one. But my OCD would make me use it in such a way as to get the entire scribble inside the boundaries of that photo. Unless… I went down the realism rabbit hole… Maybe I’d turn it into a sticker by adding a white stroke around it. Then it would be a doodle. 😀

I might use this to underline a title or as a divider between title and journaling. Or. A border!

With a little Rotating, Flipping, Solid Fill Layering and decreasing Opacity I came up with this. It would be equally appropriate as a background paper border or a photo border.

I loved this one so much the second I saw it.

What say you?

This is definitely a background anchor.

It took me a minute to think about what I’d use this with. I think it could overlap the edge of a photo or even give it a don’t-like-this vibe.

But then… how about a very simple siggy?

Or a variation?

I’m going to use at least one scribble/doodle on a layout later today. See if you can pick out what I’ve done when it shows in the Gallery.

Next week is our monthly Challenge Spotlight, when YOU take centre-stage. See you then!

Quick Trick: Dropping Things Where You Want Them

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And that’s a wrap on May… Time for our Quick Trick of the month. This handy little tip may just blow your mind!

Back in the earlier versions of Photoshop Elements, dragging and dropping objects onto our templates was simple. You activated the layer where you wanted your (flower) and when you dragged it up onto the template it landed on the layer where it was intended to be. Then somewhere around Elements 14, that all changed. Suddenly it didn’t matter what layer was active, it seemed Elements put the (flower) wherever it wanted. Randomly. It’s incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to constantly have to move things up and down the template’s layers stack and I know it was a MAJOR pet peeve for me. Why mess with something that worked?? Well, let me show you how to get around Elements‘ penchant for doing its own thing.

I’ve got the May Template Challenge template from Tinci Designs open on my workspace. I also have a daisy-like flower element from Cindy Ritter‘s Real Moments-Metamorphosis open and plan to put it where the large dark pink place holders are.

If I just drag-and-drop… um NO! That’s not where I want it. It seems random but it really isn’t, as you’ll see in a second.

By taking an extra nanosecond to be precise and intentional, I dragged the flower up and positioned the Move Tool cursor – looks like a pointing finger as shown (enlarged for visibility) – over the exact place holder I want to swap out, THEN drop it.

And there’s the flower… right on the layer where I want it! (Of course, it still drops in the centre of the canvas, but at least it only needs to be shifted into place, not moved up or down the stack.) Now, this isn’t 100% perfect. For example, if you’re working with a particularly small object on the template, it may be difficult to get the cursor on the exact layer. I’ve found that if I Zoom in on the template I have better success in those situations. Going just a smidge slower actually speeds up my workflow!

Give this a try if you’re working with Elements 14 or later and let me know how you like it.