PSE5 and Digiscrapping

[Wags374]

I was hoping to hear Linda Sattgast's opinion on PSE5 as it relates to digiscrapping... but since I haven't seen anything from her yet, I thought I'd ask for your opinons.

Will it make lazy scrapbookers out of us with all those premade templates - or will it entice people that haven't tried digiscrapping yet to give it a whirl? And will they (us) eventually venture into more complex pages?

I've been waiting for this release for awhile, but will have to wait a few more months since I just bought a wacom for myself as an early birthday present. Wonder if there will be any rocking deals on it on Black Friday. (For those that don't know black friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the USA - and the biggest shopping day of the year! Lots of good deals to be had if you are willing to be in line at 5am when the doors open.)

So back to topic - anyone spot any great features for digiscrappers in the previews?

[kayser]

Jane- I was wondering the same thing too. In a perverse sort of way, I don't want a bunch of premade things- I like the challenge of creating from scratch. However, I'm sure I will use them.:o I really look forward to the first reviews from users, (although I'll probably end up ordering it before they come out.)

[kayser]

here's a link that says it has good scrapbooking stuff:

http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/
author: I’m a contributing editor to Creating Keepsakes magazine. I’m a hybrid scrapbooker. I post weekly digital scrapbooking tips. I love telling the stories of my life with paper and Photoshop and pictures and words. And most importantly, I’m a wife and mama. Man, I love my life.Elements 5

A couple more things. I’ve been taking an advance look at Photoshop Elements 5. And some of the features I’ve lamented as I’ve prepared my online digital scrapbooking classes are there. Yeah! They’ve added in some really cool stuff. They aren’t giving a public release date that I know of, but I will say that if you are using Elements 2 or 3, you definitely need to upgrade. And if you’re using Elements 4, you should seriously consider it.

[kayser]

Jane- I just watched one of the videos, have you watched them? The one I watched showed how useuful PSE5 would be for scrapbooking- they have themes and coordinated backgrounds and then custom shapes/embellishments to go with the theme- it would definitely be good for the times when you want to create a quick page. And you're probably right, it would be particularly appealing to those just starting out.

[Dorrie H.]

I believe Linda Sattgast mentioned in her newsletter that something new is going to happen for her next issue (which should be October), so I would suspect that it has something to do with the new PSE ver.5.

In looking at all the videos and previews on v5, I would have to say that it is definitely geared toward scrapbookers. Maybe that's why they had the "Scrappy" contest. (A prelude to v5 for scrapbooking interest).

[Mary]

Linda has a quote and a clip at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/
a little way down the page.:)

[Wags374]

I've viewed or read everything I can find on PSE5. The quotes on the abobe website are generic ones about elements in general.

Linda said on the 5th that she was going to be making a big announcement "this week". That was last week and no other announcement has come. I'm pretty sure she is a tester/contributor (she was on previous versions) so I'm hoping for some good info.

Just trying to figure out the logistics of switching all my brushes, custom shapes, patterns etc over to the new version. Might have to lock myself in my office and make a day of it. :)

[Wendy]

Jane ..

I would think that it is certainly going to encourage a lot more people to try out scrapbooking as the new creation are going to be easy to use but I suspect that once people get the taste for it then they are probably going to want to create their own layouts.

... or indeed add on more premade templates :)

Wendy

[Robyn]

I'm not really a scrapbooker, but with the few things that I have done and am likely to do, I would prefer to create most of my own stuff..........that way I can feel that I 'own' the page that I've made.

[Wendy]

Hi Robyn ...

I suspect that a lot of the more experience people will want to do that too ... the templates look nice but creating your own image does have a lot more scope to it :)

Wndy

[huntress]

I see it as a way to get people started or to throw together a quick page. I just started working with Elements 3 this summer and just upgraded to 4 for three reasons:

- new cropping tools. One works but is slow not a huge advanatage over the wand. The extractor doesn't work 90% of the time (crashes my machine or doesn't give me the intermediate display it is suppose to most of the time. I never use it anymore.)
- fonts samples shown. This isn't helpful as I thought because the fonts never look the same to me when I pick them to small and don't show many letters so I find I'm still doing the trial and error method of picking.
layer improvements - this is the only thing I upgraded for that I'm happy with and it is very helpful in digi scrapping.


Although I didn't upgrade for it, I'm also happy with the skin tone color correction in 4.

I didn't see anything in 5 that would entice me to spend that much on another upgrade at this point. Altough I'm realatively new to Elements and even newer to digital scrapbooking I prefer to create my own pages. If you save things in .psd format you really have your own premade templates if you want to do another layout based on the same page. It takes me way to long to put together a page. I thought it would be faster than the traditional method but it isn't because it is way to much fun to play around with things :rolleyes: The only feature that I saw in 5 that was appealing is that they offer more frame shapes but so far I don't use many frames so that isn't enough to get me to spend more. At this point more memory in hopes of avoiding E4 hangs and crashes, even though I'm well over recommendations for the software, is a far better investment and my top priority. After that I'd like a bigger monitor for editing and a printer. Elements was cheap in camparison to all the upgrades needed and wanted after purchasing it :eek: Since the budget cannot handle all that right now, I think they will be on E6 or E7 before I can upgade again if they offer features I'd use.

[kevq]

Hi,
just checked Adobe UK, they say PSE 5 will be shipping by the end of this month. Price - upgrade £49, full version £59.
Will be waiting to see what Amazon or QVC offer it for before I make my mind up.
I think the best thing in 5 is the colour curves.
Kev.:)

[LoriG]

This may sound like a really dumb questions but what happens to all of your brushes, filters, etc. that I have downloaded? I am still learning PSE3 and thanks to this forum have downloaded some great brushes and other stuff from different sites that had been recommended. Do you loose that stuff and have to download everything again?

Lori G

[huntress]

All of the brushes that you've saved should be backed up in some way. They should be copied to another computer, CD or something. This is no matter what version you have because any problem on your machine that requires you to reinstall will cause you to loose them. That having been said, once backed up, you now have means of restoring them to version 5.

Go to the drive you program is installed and locate them at:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 3.0\Presets
I backup all my presets. I'm assuming when you install 5, it will build a new directory: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 5.0\Presets. If you copy the brushes from 4 to 5 you will still be able to use them. I wouldn't replace any of the default Elements brushes in case 5 added more to their sets. If you've created swatches, patterns, textures etc you may want to do the same with them.

Color curves would be nice I agree, but I just upgraded to after I joined this board, maybe I should have waited.

[troush]

I just watched the video on the PET site about making layouts. Very cool. I hope they made it so you can add more templates or something. I think that is one of the down falls of the Photo Gallery Creator (for the web pages), is you can't add anymore layouts or modify they ones they gave you.

-Trish

[LoriG]

Thanks Lynn for your advice. I will definitely go home tonight and back up everything that I have added to photoshop elements. I'm not real good about backing up and need to do a better job of it.

Lori

[Wendy]

Hi Trish ...

It says on Elements Radio that you can add more templates :)

Wendy

[Wags374]

For those of you that subscribe to Linda's newsletter - I finally emailed her this morning as her promised announcement was long overdue. (I was starting to think she might have had another heart attack). I asked if the announcement was about 5.0 and said that many were looking forward to her take on the new version.

This is the reply I got from her assistant:

Thanks for your note...and no, it wasn't about Elements 5.0. We got that one the same time you did. We're putting some finishing touches on a really exciting surprise, and will send out the email very soon... so stand by!

We promise it will be worth the wait!

By the way, Linda will soon share her impressions of Photoshop Elements 5.0 as well!

[kayser]

Thanks for the info, Jane! I'm looking forward to seeing what Linda has coming!

[NRiceDesigns]

Welcome to the forum Lori

[Matt K]

Here's my take:
I think it will entice people that didn't know how to scrapbook digitally to give it a try and come up with some nice results quickly. That's great and can only help the community as more people get into it.
That said, its not a replacement for the basics of good scrapbooking (layout, color, flow, and having an overall "eye" to make it look good). So, will you see more people start doing this stuff? I bet you will. However, the veterans will be able to spot a templated design right away so if you want to really grab people's attention you're going to have to take the tools and go further with them.

My two cents anyway :)

[Wags374]

Some good observations Matt.

Now I'm thinking - "boy am I going to have to step it up a notch or two if I'm going to get the same "wow" response!". :D Of course my usual home audience is easily wowed - at least until they get the program and start doing it themselves. LOL