Edit - the new Handy Actions Lite is now available in the Graffishop!

I got the new Elements 6 the other day. There’s not a whole lot of new stuff right up front, but there are a lot of improvements and changes “behind the scenes”, making it a bit tricky to add stuff to the program like layer styles, graphics, shapes and - yes - actions.

Tricky - but not impossible. One of the things I wanted to do with Elements5 was create a Handy Actions Lite set, with just 5 or 6 or so of the most-used handy tools not in Elements. Now that Elements6 is here, I figured this would be a good set to start with, to figure out the new directory structure and coding quirks that came with this version.

So here’s the first look at Handy Actions Lite sitting pretty in the Elements 6 Effects palette. I wound up with 8 actions in it, because you can’t really have Create Guides without having Clear Guides, and the 110% Blast action from way back was my first action compatible with Elements, so of course, it HAD to be included here, just for sentimental reasons.

The standard for actions - the Layer Mask action - is of course here, as is Merge to a New Layer and Trim Canvas.  These were pretty much no-brainers, as were the final two:

Curves is here, and it has a much different look in Elements6. Now there are three color curves to manipulate, and a histogram shows in the background. You can change this display to see pigment outputs instead of the default light, you can increase or decrease the grid size for easier manipulation, eyedroppers help find the black, medium and white points (and you can toggle on and off clipping, to see just those values), there are options for changing the preferences for how Curves works by choosing what it looks for (contrast, light & darkness) and you can change the clipping. If you want even more control, there’s a pencil tool to draw the curve you want, and you can save & load any settings you create or find on the web or share with others. This is a photographer’s dream tool.

The other tool available with this pack is the Channel Mixer, and it also has had a facelift from ver5. You can save and load presets, adjust individual channels, choose color or monochrome output, and create excellent B&W output.

I had posted some preset settings earlier, so grab those and you’ll be really in control of the tone balance of your images. These two tools alone - combined with the Layer Mask - are simply a can’t-go-wrong addition to Elements.

I’m finishing up the code for it this evening or tomorrow, and I’ll need a few folks with Elements 6 to test it for me - any takers? I’m really interested in Vista (and XP,too)  Elements 6-only.  Drop me a note -

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