photoshop 7.0 vs Elements

[bigkidjr]

Hi all. I'm new here -- stumbled on this site a few weeks ago and am really enjoying going through all these posts, tutorials, etc. Really great website!!! Hopefully I'll be joining in on a mini challenge or two one of these days, but first I have a couple of questions...

I've been working with Photoshop elements for the last few months and have gotten comfortable using the program, etc. But, ever since discovering this site and all the "presets" and "actions" that you all have been sharing, I've been wanting to download and use them (the presets and actions). My sense is that I can't use them with Elements, but would need the full photoshop program. Is this true? I especially would like to try out some of Trimoon's tutorials, all of which seem to require the actions and presets.

Please let me know if there's some way I can get it all to work in Elements. I'll be a very happy lady!

Thanks!!

J

[DannyRaphael]

Hey, BigKid:

Welcome and thanks for the kind words. In a nutshell Photoshop Actions can be played in Elements, but Elements cannot be used to create or modify them.

(The following is excepted from a Photoshop Actions tutorial I'm writing.)

"Elements has functionality that Adobe does not promote, which was revealed in a very well written book by Richard Lynch, The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2, ISBN: 0782141781. See www.hiddenelements.com/ for more information.

As of this writing, two methods have been developed and published for this purpose.

1) As a supplement to the book noted above, Richard put together an impressive (and FREE) package that contains a tutorial and all the files necessary to enable versions 1.0 and 2.0 of Photoshop Elements to play actions. It works with simple installers on Mac and PC.

While it is not difficult to enable this functionality and add pre-packaged action sets, you need to carefully follow the detailed instructions to customize the interface.

The interface also comes with several add-ons, including Quick Mask, true Layer Masks, Selective Color, Channel Mixer and an Actions Playback speed control. These tools are not available elsewhere, and are not included in the Hidden Power book.

https://www.hiddenelements.com/freetools.html

2) snapActions was developed by Ling Nero in collaboration with Bud Guinn. It is also free and can be downloaded here: www.geocities.com/rnlnero/PE2stuff2.html

If you’re uncertain which method would work best for you, consider downloading and installing both. They can cohabitate in an existing Elements environment because there is no functionality conflict. Doing a dual installation would enable you to perform a side-by-side evaluation.

- - - - - - - - -

You're in luck, too. Richard Lynch moderates one of the forums here at RetouchPRO and can answer about any Elements' question, especially those related to playing actions on Elements using his method in particular. Here's a LINK to that forum.

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=142

I don't have Elements so I can't help you out on the presets questions, but Richard surely could. Hope this gives you a glimmer of hope.

Look forward to seeing you tackle those mini-challenges.

~DannyR~