[Michel B]

Originally Posted by Egelie

I have read this to day about the xml files.
Perhaps i do it also on a later time.
But what is the dynamic duo ?

Frits

It is a tool for PSE5, 'Hidden Power Dynamic Images'.
http://www.hiddenelements.com/elements5_tools.html

[Egelie]

Michel,

i think this sort of things are also discussed on the forum of Curvemeister.
HD fotography.

Frits
p.s. trie this one.
http://www.curvemeister.com/forum/in...;topicseen#new

[Michel B]

As a matter of fact, the purpose of the hidden tools is different. The first tool builds a layers setup based on masks to correct color selectively in highlights, midtones and shadows. The other one builds another layers setup to enhance selectively contrast and color to get more 'pop' (hence 'dynamic'). As mentioned in their description, they are not one-click actions. You are guided through the process of building the setup, then you have to play with layers opacity to obtain what you want.

[Egelie]

I have no understanding of HD photography. I have read it a little.
but speaking of Hidden tools 4.0.
I have read the book carefully. Not entirely, but the most things and special those thing i use.
I use Curvemeister more then a year now. My experience is that the most things i do, can be done with curvemeister.
Each thing in the book i have compared with Curvemeister and the conclusion is the most things works nice perhaps better in Curvemeister.
their are some things Hidden Power do better.
for instance i use the most, Snapshot, Colormasking, ( but curvemeister new version has also masking, so I can now compare which works better)
Blend mask Tool, RGB separation, Hidden power lab en Hidden power effects.
So i have now a english version of elements , and there are parts of Hidden power which did not work in the dutch elements 4.0.
now they work well, i hope.

I go again comparing the possibilities. I choose from each part the best.
One time it is hidden powers and the most time it is Curvemesiter.

frits

[Michel B]

Frits,

I have not tested curvemeister, I'll probably try the demo. It seems very close to the free smartcurves at easyfilter. I use this plug-in as well as the hidden tools, depending on my needs. I can tell you that the hidden tools which did not work properly in my French PSE4 version now work normally in my US PSE6 version.

Best wishes with PSE6 and the tools!

[Richard_Lynch]

Curvmeister is an expensive plugin that does only a few things. It can make masks and apply curves. Hidden Power does many -- there are 100 tools in the tool set for Elements 4 and 10 tools or more in the free sets. Curvemeister can't do MOST of these things.

Frankly, I work in Photoshop/Elements all the time, and have no use at all for that plugin. Curves are over-rated, over-hyped, and generally unnecessary if you use good processing skills (which I explain in the book -- worth the read if you actually already have it...if you have it and don't read it, why not?).

As far as masking, the combination of tools you have for masking in the free tool set alone is more powerful than what you have in curvmeister.

Granted i have fallen behind on tool production as Adobe chose to not support Elements for versions 5 and 6 (or 6 not till recently), and that is my primary working place. Early 2008 has been very busy for me, but I believe I'll have some tool release for Elements 5 and 6 shortly. I would certainly be spurred by some interest...instead of what amounts to ads for other products.

[bjarmstr]

While XML files may not contain a language most are familiar with, they are really pretty simple. You need to create one with the same name as the other two files and it should have the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<PSEContent xmlns="http://adobe.com/PSEContent/1.0/">
<global>
<name id="Name" value="[your action name]" localize="true"/>
<type value="effect" />
<typecategory id="TypeCat" value="[the group you want it in]" localize="true" />
</global>
</PSEContent>

Just copy and paste this, change the [your action name] and [the group you want it in] items, and save as a text document with the .XML extension.

Can I ask for a little clarification on the xml files? I was wondering how the name of the xml file vs the name of the action (or in my case I was trying to figure out a layer style .asl) affect things? Should the .asl have the exact same name as the xml and the exact same name in the value field? I have a few .asl files that I can't seem to make xml's that work. All these .asl files have interesting characteristics like spaces, dashes, single quote etc in the name.

For xml files being simple there doesn't seem to be much information about on what they mean.

Thanks for your help
Jean

[Michel B]

Jean,
I am not sure I can help you there. Maybe posting in the Hiddenelements sub-forum will not be the best place to ask your question about asl files (layer styles). It is a more general topic with installing add-ons in Elements.
Since I have not experience with installing asl files, what I can tell you is that the xml files should be located in different folders depending on their purpose. Photoshop Elements looks there to find customized settings.