One question that comes up in every class I teach is “What is an easy way to re-size my images?” . It seems that we always need our images to be a size that they are not. If we are emailing a couple of images to friends or sending off a folder to a lab everyone wants something different than what we have. Now there are special programs and techquies to upsize but what it all we want to reduce the overall file size to fit what someone else wants. Does Photoshop have an easy button for this? Well yes but as with most of the neat tricks it is not easy to find.
The sub program is a Script found under File>Scripts>Image Processor. When you click on this the follow menu pops up.
Image Processor
What makes a great Easy Button way of resizing is that it can works on just one or a whole folder of images. At the top you tell it if you want the open image or direct it to the folder you want to take all the images to change. But wait there is more. It will go and take all the images and copy them to a new folder so your orginals are not touched. The Jpegs are not only compressed to the size you want but if you check the box Resize to Fit you enter the long side you want in both boxes for W and H and Photoshop will change the image to this without affecting the original’s ratio or orentation. So if you folder with both landscape and portrait images they just converted and not cropped.
Pretty cool but wait there is more. You can save folders of copy images in Tiff and PSD too but even more you can run an Action at the time of conversion for things like sharpening or placing a watermark on these images. So you could take a folder of images, place your copyright sysmble on all them and send them to a client. The images would look fine on their computer but not be too small to be printable.
Bonus Tip…. The Image Processor is also available from Bridge and there it has the added feature of working from just the images you select in Bridge or a folder and when you run it all work is done in the background so you can keep working on other things. A great time saver.
One of the questions I get from photographers who have used film is “Can Photoshop Elements make a good Black and White Image?” Well the answer is YES, you just have to know where to look.
Unlike Photoshop with the great adjustment layer of Black and White, PSE hides it’s Black and White converter under Enhance. Go to the top menu bar and click on Enhance there you will find it (along with the great skin tone repair tool of Color>Adjust Skin tones but that is another blog.)
Just bring up any image and go to this power house and you will find that you not only have some pretty good pre sets but you can move the sliders for a custom look.
One last tip is the dupucate the image in layers (Ctrl J or drag the background image to the new layer icon. That is the square with the corner turned up) Do the adjustments on the new layer just in case you may want to go back to the color image.
Ok, I find it hard not to post some kind of a tip so here is a quick one for both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Black and white is a great look but for most new users the only they are told is to change the image to a grayscale and back to RGB to print. This is not going to give you a great tone black and white. The result will look muddy and well blah. Here is a quick and better way.
Have the image active and go the Layer Pallet. For both PS and PSE find that little circle that is half black and white. Click on it for the menu of adjustment layers. With the foreground color set for Black and the background White you will get a much better black and white image. You can even reduce the opacity of the layer for a faded Black and White look.
Bonus Tip….If you change the mode of t he adjustment layer from normal to Soft Light, Overlay, Hard Light the effect changes to a motted color. Play with the different modes for different looks.
I am getting closer for all of you who just happen to stumble on this website. I will be adding more content and even Photoshop tips and tricks as the days pass.