A new version of Hidden Power Actions (the interface for running Photoshop actions in Elements) is available...this time through ThePowerXChange in conjunction with, um, me! This package adds:

50 pre-installed actions (87 total)

ability to install over 500 actions

Manage an infinite number of actions in sets of 12 or groups of 84.

Includes these Hidden Power tools:

NEW:
-------
Fade effect
Shadow Mask
Highlight Mask
Trim image
Reveal Image
1 slower Action playback speed control
custom Drop Shadow
custom Glow (inner & outer)
custom Bevel
custom Stroke

Plus:
-------
Layer Mask insert
Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
Selective Color Adjustment Layer
Quick Mask mode
Demos of several Hidden Power tools

Works with Mac and PC, Elements 1 and 2, in conjunction and as an addition to Hidden Power from the book The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2 (http://hiddenelements.com). Apply actions from text description or preview modes.

Get it here:

https://www.thepowerxchange.com/thepowerxchange/TPX_Partners/DesignStore_HPA3/

Thanks to Susan Stewart for help and beta testing (I didn't get all of her suggestions in for the deadline for this package -- so don't blame her!).

Please feel free to discuss tools, use and other improvements on the forum!

Richard:

Has/will the original package at http://www.hiddenelements.com/addedtools.html been/be updated, too?

Looks like some great additions. Congrats on this upgrade.

~Danny~

It has not been, but should be before the end of the week.

Has anyone heard from The Power Exchange? I signed up on Sunday but have not yet gotten a response.:depressed

I signed up last Friday night and have not received anything from
Power Exchange. Thought maybe it was just me. Maybe a little premature advertisement. Guess we will just have to wait on Richard to post on hidden powers site.

PC users can download here:

http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=7516

Mac users have to wait a few hours more...my mac is behind some wet concrete that needs to set.

Excellent! I especially like the shadow mask and highlight mask, don't know how I did without them before. Fade effect looks promising but I haven't really got the hang of it yet. Can someone please explain exactly how the fade works and the purpose? Richard thanks for all your effort. CaseyJ

Fade should work like this:

Apply a filter (or really a change to the image of any kind)
click FADE
the image will be set up so you can use opacity on the Fade Control layer to fade the effect you just added.

SO, say you apply a blur filter and you say to yourself: "Self, that is too much. I'd like something between that and what I had before. " You can use Fade at 50% instead of redoing the filter. But, instead of giving you a result that is just a 50% gaussian Blur, the fade blends the new with the old at 50% -- which is a different effect than applying 50% of the blur radius.

I should have added more instruction for that one. Feel free to discuss here.

Richard,
Thanks for the Fade explanation. Now it makes sense.

You can also do some fun stuff with fade, like fade to a different blending mode - you'll see this step sometimes in tutorials for the full version of Photoshop. For example you can use unsharp mask and then fade, and change the blending mode of the fade layer to darken and fiddle with the percentage- on some images this looks better than the plain USM - you still get some sharpening but you don't get the white halos around objects. (trees silhoutted against a sky and eyelashes seem to respond well to this for example).

Susan S

Susan,
Thanks for the suggestions. Sounds easier than the work around I have been using. I always apply unsharp mask to a duplicate layer then change the blend mode to darken, duplicate this layer and change the second layer mode to lighten and play with the opacity of both layers to remove halos. Usually requires the lighten layer to be reduced to 50% to 60% or so. This sounds like fade effect may accomplish the same thing on one layer. CaseyJ

I thought I understood this until I tried it! E.g.
1. create a new layer
2. fill with a pattern (e.g. bubbles)
3. apply difference clouds filter
4. apply gaussian blur
5. do 'fade'
What I got was the fade control layer above the "bubbles" layer (i.e. the result of 2 above). Not what I expected -- I was expecting the difference clouds layer.

Playing around, it seems that fade is undoing one too many changes. Surely that's not right?

Paul.

PSE2 on WinMe. HPA III dowloaded from hiddenelements.com

Paul - yes I can replicate that - you can get around it by just doing something simple like selecting and deselecting between the two filters - it then just uses the last filter. For some reason when you run two filters in a row like that it looks back to before both of them - with three filters it just takes the last two. I missed that one when I was testing it........ sorry!

Susan S.

well, if this is a problem, I am sure it can be fixed. I'll check it out and issue a patch if so -- there shouldn't be need for a work-around.

Please try this replacement file for the fade fix.

Instructions:

1. Unzip the file
2. copy the file into the Elements/Presets/Photoshop Actions folder and over-write the existing file.

If this fixes, and I think it does, I'll re-create the installers.

Thanks for letting me know.

Richard - the new one works fine now - only the latest filter is affected. My apologies - I should have picked this up in beta testing. (mind you once I knew about it I actually quite liked having the choice of being able to fade two fiters at once...a feature or a bug?!!)

Susan S

Well, Susan, if there are bugs you want as features, we can always do that too!

Glad it seems to work. I don't know that it was something you let slip necessarily. There could be another problem which I am not at liberty to explain at this time.

Thanks Richard, for fixing this so quickly.

Susan, if you apply the 2nd filter to the Fade Control layer you'll get the old "broken" behaviour!

Paul.

Bought the book The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 3 - got the CD with it. Can I get it to install the Hidden Power Tools - no. Asked for help with direct email to the author. but so far no reply. So can anyone help me who has got it to work PLEASE? Where do all the bits and pieces you get with the Installer that, without asking, shoves it all on your C Drive go?. This is where most programs try to put things, whereas Elements really needs its own hard drive, a big one at that too, and so mine is on a largish drive M. All kind help appreciated as the author seems to have a very good book, but frustrating when you cannot access his ideas!

This post is in the wrong forum...you might want to use the forum for Elements 3: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=163

You might also want to look at the installation instructions I posted there:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9876

I'll post them one more time here, just to take care of this. Note that the instructions are for tools from the book and CD. If you are trying to install the free hidden power tools into Elements 3...it won't work.

I can assure you that I have caught up to my email, and never received any from you if you have not gotten an answer. It could be that the email was addressed incorrectly, or that for whatever reason it was rejected. I am sorry, but I also can't answer what i don't get. Can I ask what email address I should have gotten it from?

Th author is not hiding...you'll find I have replied to every post here in the forums, I think...


<<I have tried to install the Hidden Power 3 tools several times, and I can't seem to. Do you have some definitive trouble-shooting information?>>

This is actually quite a large order. While probably 99% of people trying to install have no trouble at all: they just click on the installer and the tools end up in Elements...no problem. Some people, on the other hand, can go through trouble for several frustrating hours hoping only to install the tools. This part of the newsletter is dedicated to avoiding those problems. I'll be posting this separately to the website as well.

There are a bunch of little things that can be going wrong...I have had experience with everything from people trying to install the tools without installing Elements, people installing to a second installation of Elements and opening the wrong program, people having trouble because of various system-unique problems (one person had a CD-ROM player that did not function, another no CD-ROM player), to more standard problems, like virus protection getting in the way, or the tools getting installed and the user not knowing (failing to look in the program or failing to restart Elements after the install). There are a plethora of simple problems you can have during installation of even simple software. I'll try to go through what I know here.

First, here is how you should install:

INSTALLATION
1. Turn on your computer.
2. Disable virus protection.
3. Insert the Hidden Power CD from the book into your computer's CD-ROM drive.
4. Locate the Hidden Power tool installer on the CD (if the CD autostarts, you will use the Power Tools link; if the CD does not autostart, the installer will be in the Power Tools folder).
5. Close out of Elements if the program is open or opens on startup.
6. Double-click the installer that you located in step 2.
7. Read and address any installation screens that appear on your monitor.
8. Restart your computer.
9. Enable virus protection.
10. Start Photoshop Elements 3.
11. Check in the program for Hidden Power tools. You will find them in the Styles and Effects palette. Open the Styles and Effects palette by choosing Styles and Effects from the windows menu. Choose Effects from the drop list on the left and the Hidden Power tool categories should become available in the drop list at right (it may take a few minutes for Elements to rebuild the cache...).

If you called me on the phone, the first thing that we would likely do is run through the installation as per the steps above. They are a little conservative (meaning all those steps are rarely necessary), but effective in most cases.

If the installation is complete and you still cannot access the tools, please follow the tips in the trouble-shooting section just below. Take the steps in order, one at a time.

TROUBLESHOOTING
A. Be sure you have followed all the instructions in the installation instructions above, including disabling virus protection and restarting your computer before bothering with troubleshooting. Some of the following trouble-shooting steps may seem redundant. Please humor me...

B. Reboot your computer, then restart Elements. Check for the tools.

C. Be sure the tools you are installing are in the Elements Effects folder. The Effects folder is in the previews folder (Photoshop Elements 3.0/Previews/Effects). You can find this folder in the Elements program folder, as follows:

PC installer will install to:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\

Mac installer will install to:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3: Previews: Effects:

If the tools are not installed, try the installation again.

After you try the installation again, look for the tools. If they aren't there, you need to locate them. Search for 'PowerTools'. If they have installed, see C. If not, be sure you have not changed the folder name for the tools (for PC it should be Photoshop Elements 3.0; for mac, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3). A PC-only problem can be that Elements is installed on something other than the C drive. [See If Elements is Installed on something Other than the C Drive below.]

D. Be sure you have Elements installed only once and that you are starting the Elements application from the folder where you installed the tools.

E. Delete the Elements Rebuild the Adobe Photoshop Elements Settings file. This will restore default palette placement and tool settings, and will delete your color settings -- so it should be used as a last resort. [See instructions for Rebuilding the Settings file below.]

F. If you have completed A through D, and you see the files in the right place but the tools still do not appear in Elements, open and save the PSD files associated with the tools, saving each without making any changes. use Save As... [See Resaving the Image Files below.]

G. Reinstall Elements, and then reinstall the Hidden power tools from the CD.

H. While it is highly unlikely that you will get this far without a solution, you aren't done yet. Contact Richard by sending an email to: thebookdoc@aol.com. Please use the Subject: Installation Trouble HPPE3

IF ELEMENTS IS INSTALLED TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE C DRIVE
This is a PC-only issue. You have two choices for fixing this:

1) Install Elements to the C drive and
reinstall the tools from the CD.

2) Install the tools from the CD to the
C drive temporarily and move the tools
to where you have Elements installed.

If you chose the second option, in addition to installing and moving the tool folders (tool folders are named: PowerBonus, PowerSeparations, PowerTools1, and PowerTools2), you will want to delete the Effects Cache folder. You can find the Cache folder in the "Photoshop Elements 3.0/Previews/" folder. You may want to rebuild the settings file as well.

REBUILDING THE SETTINGS FILE
To rebuild the Settings, hold down the Command+Option+Shift/Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys (Mac/PC) on the keyboard when starting up Elements -- immediately after choosing Edit and Enhance Photos on the Welcome screen, if you are on a PC. Hold the keys down until the prompt to delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements settings file appears, and click [YES]. The deleted file will be re-created automatically.

RESAVING IMAGE FILES
If you can see the installed tools in the right folder in Elements, and you still don't see the tools in the program, you might try resaving the image files used to store display information for the tools. There are 4 image files, one for each Hidden Power tool: PowerBonus.psd, PowerSeparations.psd, powertools1.psd, and powertools2.psd. Just open Elements, open the image files (one at a time), make no changes to the file, and save using Save As...

Once done saving the files, restart Elements.