Have you encountered : "Photoshop.com Services require an update to Photoshop Elements...."

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As mentioned in last post, Adobe has released a new patch for PSE7 to improve overall performance of Photoshop.com Services and some Security Fixes. Now onwards if you don't apply the latest patch, Photoshop.com services will not be available and you will see a message following message on launching Welcome Screen:

"Photoshop.com Services require an update to Photoshop Elements. Please update Elements using the Adobe Update Menager () or by checking the Adobe website at  http://www.adobe.com"

There is an "Update" button in this message dialog which takes you to a web-page having a downloadable zip file with 7.0.3 patch. Just go on with this and your PSE should be back with all Photoshop.com Services.

NOTE: When you apply the patch through Patcher.exe make sure that Welcome Screen OR Organizer OR Editor is not launched at that point of time...

Write back in case you have some other information about this update...

A useful link : http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/841/cpsid_84110.html

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UPDATE 7.0.3 FOR Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0/7.0.2: How to improve overall performance of Backup/Sync in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0

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Recently Adobe has released a Patch for Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, which is more about improving performance of Photoshop.com services like Backup/Sync, Online Sharing, Contact-books etc.

Today I found a good source of information about patch 7.0.3 on Adobe site and wanted to share that. Check out http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/841/cpsid_84110.html to know more about applying this patch.

One important thing which I came to know after reading this article : PSE 7.0 and PSE 7.0.2 will not have Photoshop.com controls until you apply this patch...

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Check out this Video for more understanding of Layers

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Few days back we discussed some basics of Layers in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Here is an interesting video on youtube about Layers... Check it out..

DO YOU HAVE THIS PROBLEM : Unable to open camera raw file in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements

Today I was checking Adobe Forums for Photoshop Elements and came across a post where lot of users were having problem related to Camera Raw Files.

Most of these are resolved through a KB article on Adobe.com

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/407/kb407110.html

Check this article if you are also facing this and hope for best !!!

How can we sort our Photographs in Organizer?

Different Types of sorting in Adobe Photoshop Elements Organizer: 

Here are few parameters used for sorting your files in Photoshop Elements Organizer:

1. Oldest First

2. Newest First

3. File-Names

4. Custom Order

Now you might have doubt that I have not seen options for sorting in Custom Order or File-name. But Yes, you can sort your files according to File-Names as well as in custom order you want.

How can we sort files according to File-Names?

1. Launch Organizer
2. Go to Folder View from Display options in top bar of Organizer. (PSE8)
3. Select a particular folder where your files are are.
4. You will see all files sorted according to file-names. (This is applicable for one folder only)

How can we sort files in Custom Order?

For sorting some files in custom order , we need to create an Album. As we click on that album to see its content, sorting dropdown will be Album-Order selected by default. In this state, you drag and drop album files anywhere. Try and comment back in case it doesn't work for you...

How files are sorted which are shot on single day and sorting order selected in 'Newest First' ???

There is a preference in Organizer where we can specify sorting of such files in Imagewell:

1. Go to Edit>Preferences>General
2. Opt appropriate option for Display Options > Date(Newest First) 

        - Show oldest First in each day
        - Show Newest First in each day
 

 Write back in case you know any other good way of sorting files within Organizer...

Backup/Sync Performance in PSE7 and PSE8

  


Few days back I read following statement somewhere and want to share few things in this regard.


Backup/sync agent starting slowly without any indication that it is running and will start synching soon. Is there any definite time for  Sync Operations?

-         Sync is comparatively slow in PSE7 and one should ensure that 7.0.3 update is applied, which can improve overall performance of Backup/Sync.

-          There is minimal feedback about Sync activities in PSE7 and this has been improved in PSE8 by adding Sync-Status dialog, which gives live feedback about Synchronization progress.

-          It will be difficult to set expectations in terms of definite time for Synchronization because there are different things involved here. I would like to share some information about synchronization process:

§         When you activate Sync in your catalog, it starts working with your local catalog database and www.photoshop.com to calculate what all needs to be synced. So here come different variables which may lead to longer time for this calculation. Now lets see what all variables are involved in this:

·         How big is your www.photoshop.com account? More files/albums/tags you have in your www.photoshop.com account, it will take more time but not every time. It takes maximum time when you start Sync or you restart SyncAgent.

·         Internet connection

·         Availability of Catalog Database (Is catalog free or in-use by other processes like Face Recognition, Auto-Analysis etc.

·         Few other exceptions when Server is busy etc...

-          Backup/Sync in PSE8:

o       When Sync-Engine does initial calculations for identifying changes to be synchronized, it shows the state as "Initializing..." in Sync Status Dialog.

o       “Initializing…” state takes more time as we start Sync first time on a machine or after machine-restart.

o       File-Size and Server-Health are important factors for Upload performance. 

I hope above information will give some sense of Sync-processing in PSE7 and PSE8 w.r.t. performance and feedback.

Few days back I read following statement somewhere and want to share few things in this regard.

How to locate Catalog Files in Adobe Photoshop Elements when Customer Care Folks ask for it?

Whenever you face any problem related to Organizer and try to contact Adobe Customer Care, they may ask for sharing Catalog files. Here are few simple steps to locate Catalog Files which is currently in use:

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop Elements
2. Click on "Organize" to launch Organizer
3. Go to Help > System Info
4. Copy Catalog Location and open this location in Windows-Explorer
5. Zip all the files in this folder and share.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Tutorial - Creating HDR Images - Part 1 : By Mark Galer

Few days back I was discussing with my friend about Exposure Merge in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 and we started discussing about few things like: 

- Can we create HDR images in Adobe Photoshop Elements?

- How can we create HDR in Adobe Photoshop Elements?

- Etc..

See this video by Mark Galer and you will appreciate how people exploit different features in Adobe Photoshop Elements for achieving specific goals.

Mark Galer has written many Books on Digital Imaging and specially Adobe Photoshop Elements. CLICK HERE to know more about the books written by Mark.

Welcome Screen in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0

Christmas Template Greeting CardIf you install Photoshop Elements and try to launch it from shortcut on desktop or Start menu, following window is launched. We call it Welcome screen which helps you selecting appropriate workspace you are looking for.

In PSE7, lot many things are changed in Welcome screen. Let me describe what all new is there in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0. 7th release is very well integrated with http://www.photoshop.com/ and it has a pod on right side which shows you valuable information dynamically. You will notice information like avaialability of creative Christmas Template during december month and other seasonal things time to time.

On left side, there are different buttons for:

1. Photoshop.com Membership

This section shows some basic details about your http://www.photoshop.com/ account.

2. My Account

On clicking this, all account details are shown in a separate dialog. For accessing your account details, it asks for your password for security purpose.

3. Backup Settings

In PSE7, there is a new feature for backing up or synchronizing your catalog with http://www.photoshop.com/. Clicking on this will launch Organizer with Backup/Sync preferences dialog where you can set different setting for activating Sync activities.

4. My Shared Gallery

This will land you to http://www.photoshop.com/ account with all publically shared albums.

5. Tutorials:

If you have http://www.photopshop.com/ memebership, Adobe gives some extra tutorials time to time. Just click on this section to launch Adobe Inspiration Browser where you can browse through many good tutorials for Photoshop Elements or Premiere Elements.

Many people have shared there reviews about PSE7 Welcome screen as performance problem.

CLICK HERE to know more....

What is Catalog in Elements Organizer?

Most of Photoshop Elements Users know what Catalog is, but this post is more about details related to catalogs.

Catalog is a logical storage of your photographs, audio and video which helps in organizing media files in better way. In Organizer, we can create different catalogs. If I define it technically, its a database which keeps information about all your files, albums, tags  and their metadata etc. It keep all relationships and doesn't alter your media files unless they are explicitly changed through Editor, Photoshop or quick-fixes in Organizer.

We can have multiple Catalogs for different purposes. Many times people prefer to have single catalog and organize different genres of photographs using Albums/Tags.

I will be sharing more about Catalog Operations like creation, repairing, deletion, merging soon..

Why SyncAgent remains in "Initializing..." state and what should be done?

 Hi All,

Many times I have seen people talking about "Initializing..." state of Sync. Here I am trying to share some information which may be helpful for you to understand this better.

 When you activate Sync in your catalog, it starts working with your local catalog database and www.photoshop.com to calculate what all needs to be synced. So here comes different variables which may lead to longer time for this calculation. When Sync-Engine does all this work, it shows the state as "Initializing...". Now lets see what all variables are involved in this:

1. Internet connection
2.  Availability of Catalog Database (Is catalog free or in-use by other processes like Face Recognition, Auto-Analysis etc)
3. How big is your www.photoshop.com account? More files/albums/tags you have in your www.photoshop.com account, it will take more time but not every time. It takes maximum time when you start Sync or you restart SyncAgent.

4. Few other exceptions when Server is busy etc...

Hope all this will give a sense how it works and why it takes time. I will be happy to share more for your specific queries.

*** NOTE : Overall Sync is fast in PSE8 as compared to PSE7. There are two patches for 7th release of Photoshop Elements : 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 . Adobe has tried to improve overall performance of Sync in 7.0.3.