:: graffi’s rants & raves ::

The newest editions of the Graffi Action Effects Installers are nearly ready for release. 

The new installer package has been completely reprogrammed from the ground up, and offers support for Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7. It also features functionality to add the effects to all of your versions of Elements with a single click instead of running an installer multiple times.

The latest releases will also eliminate false-positive virus reports, which has become more and more common as the previous authoring software gets older and older. The installers are now wrapped in a much more familiar-looking package, but still feature the ever-vigilant Graffidude watching over things to make sure they work for you!

The Add-O-Matic in its current state works well in a Windows7 environment, but I still want to reprogram it using a different compression method to get away from – you guessed it – false-positives and compatibility issues with other drivers.

A final decision to be made is whether to include the Bundle as separate installers (as it is now) or as a single installer that adds all of the effects (240+) in a single installer.  There are pros & cons to both methods: 

• Separate installers allow the user to install packages as they need them, and it results in a speedier database update when Elements is next launched.
• Adding all of the effects at once is very efficient, but the database rebuild time is quite lengthy, and many users will think that nothing has been installed.

I’m open to suggestions and opinions on this – if you’d like to give the bundle pack a try, let me know & I’ll get a Beta to you…

Below is the newest edition of the Sampler pack – no new effects, so if you already have it installed on your computer, you won’t see anything different inside Elements if you download and install it.  If you don’t have the sampler yet and want to try it out, it works in all versions of Windows since XP, and versions 6, 7 & 8 of Photoshop Elements.

See what ‘cha think, and thanks for all feedback!

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If

you’ve installed Handy Actions for Photoshop Elements, you’ve probably seen the Smart Objects actions (“Open a New Image as a Smart Object”, and “Convert a Layer to a Smart Object”). Ever wondered what they are, and how they can work for you?

Check the video below (made for Photoshop, but mostly applicable to Elements users, too):

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Thelatest version of Photoshop Elements is simply incomplete without your Swiss Army Knife for Elements: Handy Actions! Handy Actions includes all the tools and extras only found in Photoshop – a total of 74 extra actions, tools, processes and timesavers!

Now: You can bundle Handy Actions with the popular Add-O-Matic and save a few coins!

The standard for all action packs - the Layer Mask action - is here, with 4 additional variants: Hide All (the default Layer Mask action is Show All, meaning that it shows what’s beneath its layer, whereas the Hide All action hides everything beneath it), Show Selection (works with a selection, showing what’s beneath), Hide Selection (opposite of Show Selection), and Invert Layer Mask, which simply inverts your mask, showing what was hidden or partially hidden, and vice-versa) .

Curves is here, and it has a much different look in Elements. 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, median and white points (and you can toggle on and off clipping, to see just those values), and there are options for changing the preferences for how Curves works by choosing what it looks for (contrast, light and darkness). If you want even more control, there’s a pencil tool to draw the curve you want, and you can save and load any settings you create or find on the web or share with others. The Handy Actions pack comes with the standard Curves tool, plus two commonly-used presets: an “S”-curve, and an Inverted “S”-curve for quick adjustments.

New: Add-O-Matic 8 will load any presets for Curves (*.acv files) that you download with just a drag and a drop. This is a photographer’s dream tool!

Another tool available with this pack is the Channel Mixer, and it also has had a facelift from ver5. You can save and load presets (a set of Channel Mixer presets is included in the download), adjust individual channels, choose color or monochrome output, and create excellent Black and White output.

I’ve posted some preset settings for the Channel Mixer in my blog, so grab those and you’ll be really in control of the tone balance of your images. New: Add-O-Matic 8 will load any presets for the Channel Mixer (*.cha files) that you download with just a drag and a drop. This is a photographer’s dream tool.

These three tools alone - combined with the Layer Mask - are simply a can’t-go-wrong addition to Elements. But with the full Handy Actions self-installing booster pack for Photoshop Elements, there are an additional 65 actions that can help boost your creativity, production, expertise and enjoyment of Photoshop Elements 6, 7 & 8.

Click the screenshot of the Handy Actions palette below for a full view of what’s included in this self-installing booster action pack – only from Graficalicus.com

Handy Actions for Photoshop Elements gives you a lot of horsepower for an affordable price!

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A big thanks to everyone who asked about upgrades to Photoshop Elements 8 over the past week or so.  I have uploaded all the new 6-7-8 versions of the action packs (including Add-O-Matic 8 ) so they are all available now.

The upgrade policy is the same as it has been before. If you’ve purchased any installers since August 1 of this year, your upgraded version has been added to your My Account link. Just log in, click “My Account” at the top of the page, and the newest version will be linked there.

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One of the new features in Add-O-Matic v8 is the ability to add preset files for the Channel Mixer, Curves and Black and White adjustment layers (*B&W is available in Elements 6 & 7 using the B&W Lab action pack, but sadly not in Elements 8). 

Presets for these “big three” adjustments can be saved and loaded directly from their interface screens, but luckily numerous places on the web have done the heavy lifting for you (try Google for .cha, .acv and/or .blw), and all you have to do is load them and use them!

Loading them has become easier than ever, thanks to the  new Add-O-Matic. Elements 6 & 7 users can load all three types of presets, and Elements 8 users can load Channel Mixer (*.cha) & Curves (*.acv) presets. The process is the same as always – simply drag the files into the AOM-8 gray box, click “GO!”, and it does the rest.

To use them, simply run one of the adjustment actions that uses presets, and when the dialog opens use the drop menu to select the preset of your choice. I want to make a Channel Mixer adjustment on my image, so I used the Channel Mixer action from Handy Actions / Handy Actions Lite and loaded one of the presets I loaded previously – it’s really just that simple!

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The Sampler pack for Elements 8 (it also works with Elements 6 & 7) is below. Feedback is invited!  Please let me know if you have any troubles installing and using any of the effects!

This sampler includes a single action from each of the Graffi Action Effect packs: Handy Actions, Glam Photo, B&W, Fun Foto FX & Sketchy Paint. They install to your Special Effects section of the Effects palette. See the screenshot for how to find them.

A note about getting the effects to show in the palette (i.e., the database rebuild)

After running the installer and starting Elements 8, the effects (possibly) will not appear in the drop menu. The easiest & fastest solution is to click away from the Special Effects section into the Layer Styles section.  Have a look at the Bevels & Drop Shadow layer Styles there.  Then click back into the Special Effects section of the palette, and the added effects will be there in their own drop menu section.

Feedback appreciated in the comments section below  - enjoy!

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Photoshop Elements 8 has been released to surprisingly little fanfare.  Usually, Adobe builds it up for a month or more, but this time it seemed to sneak in out of the September rain. Personally, the guides is a weird addition, but the new “floating collapsible” palettes are similar to Photoshop, and a welcome addition, especially if you need a lot of real estate onscreen and don’t want to fill it up with palettes.

Other than that, there’s not a whole lot else that’s really new. Oh yeah, there’s an Adjustments palette now, that allows you to make adjustments to your Adjustment layers in a palette (WTF..?!?), and now you can directly upload your images to Flickr and your iPhone (again, ?!?).

All of the Graffi action packs are ready to go (including the Add-O-Matic), and the usual upgrade policy will apply.  If you’ve purchased an effect pack or the Add-O-Matic in the past three months, it will be a free upgrade.  Other folks who want to upgrade will receive coupon codes via the graffishop newsletter. 

For the downside:  I probably won’t be supporting Elements 5 anymore.  Policy has been to support the three most recent versions (for Windows). I’ll also probably not upgrade the Sketchy Paint pack, since there hasn’t been much interest in that one.

On the bright side, I have several other packs & mini packs ready to go, too, including a complete revamp of the old Photo Filter set (which is a digital recreation of all of the original Kodak Wratten lens filters), and a few other odds & ends that will probably be packaged as a potential Fun Foto FX II. 

I’ve tagged October 1 for release for the new action packs, but a few might slip out early. Faithful reader of this blog thing here will be the first to know….!

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